We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Claudine Marrotte. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Claudine below.
Claudine , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My mother. She immigrated to the United States with her family in the 1950s and told me that you can achieve anything you want as long as you follow your passion and put the work in. From that I always believed I could learn how to be successful. I followed a traditional path at first working in finance and sales while my love filmmaking seem to simmer on the back burner. After the tragic events of September 11th, I did what most people did, I started to evaluate my life and wanted to be more fulfilled. I found a “How to Break Into Film” Workshop and after the session I asked the producer running the class what are the best steps for me to move forward. I asked him if I could work on a job with him and he hired me for a commercial he was producing. Once I arrived on set I knew I was with my people and decided to learn every aspect of the business so I could be a great producer and director. My work ethic empowered me to rise quickly in my career and I continue to be amazed and grateful of how far I have come.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My father introduced me to films as a child and I feel in love instantly. I remember asking him when I was very young, “Who is the person that makes movies?” and he said “A cinematographer.” And then I followed up with, “Where do you go to school to make movies?” and he replied “UCLA”. Even though I would watch my favorite movies over and over memorizing all the actors lines and then directing my friends to reenact the scenes I ended up going to business school instead because I didn’t know anyone that made a living making movies.
I graduated college and went into sales and consulting starting with finance and moving into technology. I was successful in my field but always felt something was missing. After the attacks on September 11th, I did an evaluation of my life and decided to make a change. I announced to family and friends that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I found a course in the local paper “How to Break Into Film” and signed up. I went up to the Producer at the end of the seminar and told him my story. He told me to work on other filmmaker’s projects for free to get experience, so I asked him to “hire” me for his next project and he did. The first time I stepped on set as a Production Assistant I was fulfilled. I finally knew what I was suppose to do with my life! I committed to myself that I would learn every aspect of the craft. I have performed the duties of every job on set so I could better understand what the crew needs to be successful while still maintaining a budget. My experience of sales and managing teams easily translated to running a set. I have had the pleasure of working on all types of projects from Feature Films, Television Series, Webseries, Commercials, Industrials and Documentaries and what I know is that the most important thing on every project is to lead by example to empower your team to be successful.
My passion for making movies and television has intersected with my love of this planet. Balancing the intensity of physical production with Sustainable practices that respect the cast, crew, vendors and the environment is something I am committed to doing. To respect the members of your team is providing healthy food and work life. With that in mind I budget and prep the project to respect the 12 hour day, chose caterers that use compostable plates, cups and utensils and vendors that utilize sustainable practices in their own businesses. I am committed to reduce the tremendous amount of waste that gets sent to landfill by providing the team with reusable water bottles, composting, donating left over food to the hungry and repurposing and or selling props and wardrobe at the end of the production.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My advice for individuals on the early part of their journey is to not take anyone’s advice including mine. Instead trust your instincts and know that if you can visualize your success you can have it. I believe that my journey consists of dedication to learning my craft, sharing knowledge with my peers and visualizing my success daily.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
The book that has played an important part of my development is Sacred Commerce by Matthew &Terces Engelhart. The most important concept in the book is the idea of “Celebrating Mistakes”. As a recovering perfectionist I couldn’t fathom it when I first read it. However I started to implement it on my sets with crew and found that when they knew it was ok to make mistakes they were more open to share them so we could work as a team to fix problems instead of hide them. It has helped me on each project build strong teams that work together in harmony in the fast paced environment of film production.
Contact Info:
- Website: claudinefilms.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinemarrotte/
Image Credits
Claudine Marrotte (selfie) photo credit.
