"I began my career as a stage manager in live theatre. I realized early on the importance of hiring the most skilled creative talent available to me, and placed tremendous value in my work with the playwrights, directors, and actors. Now, as a feature film and television producer, the creative talent that I bring to productions is key, especially the cinematographer. Cinematographers decode and articulate the vision of the director and capture the artistic nuance inherent in the screenplay. As a producer, I am honest with cinematographers about our budget demands and work with them collaboratively to get the greatest value possible on-screen. In the end, it is the creative vision on-screen that matters, and my job is to enable that creative vision to its fullest potential."

Since entering the film and television industry in 1992, Shawn Williamson has produced more than 72 productions including television movies, feature films and episodic series. In 2001, he co-founded Brightlight Pictures, a Vancouver-based production company with international scope. His credits include White Noise, The Guard, The Wicker Man, Going the Distance, The Long Weekend, Edison, Slither, About a Girl, Addicted, Passengers, and the forthcoming Far Cry and Fifty Dead Men Walking.

A Conversation with Shawn Williamson

Q: How did you get started in filmmaking?

WILLIAMSON: I began my career as a stage manager in live theater. This was about 1983. Bill Millard, who is an icon in the Vancouver theater world, was a mentor to me. That led to the opportunity to work on live events and eventually to television, including live TV, television movies and series, and feature films.

Q: What lessons did you learn in the theater world that applies in your work today as a producer?

WILLIAMSON: The most important lesson, and the philosophy that guides our work today, is to find and work with talented and skilled creative people, and to support them fully in every way. In the theater, if those creative roles were solid, then the show would likely succeed. In filmmaking, it’s equally crucial. Ultimately, any skills that I bring to the project are people and management oriented. I’m not at all skilled with regards to crafting a film. You find the right people – director, cinematographer, production designer, actors – and support them. That’s the biggest lesson I learned in theater … support the creative.

Q: How did you make the transition from theater to television production?

WILLIAMSON: After working on some live television, I was hired to work in production on a children’s show called Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. Shari Lewis was a puppeteer and ventriloquist, and Lamb Chop was her puppet. Bernie Rothman hired me and he nurtured me into the world of dramatic television and filmmaking.

Q: What do you remember about that first television job?

WILLIAMSON: I was about 23 years old, and when I walked into that first production meeting I was blown away. It was at Shari Lewis’s house in Beverly Hills. Suddenly, I’m a production manager working in Hollywood. That was amazing. At the meeting, the director of photography asked me where the power was in the Vancouver studio where we planned to shoot. There was a long silence while I stood up and searched the floor plan. Shari very slowly raised her hand and pointed down at herself. That was an important lesson: the star of the show is where the power is. Without Shari, there was no show. At the meeting, she asked me a couple questions about how things would work in Vancouver and I didn’t have a clue. But I knew enough to say, ‘I’m not sure, let me find out.’ I learned quickly that it’s OK to say ‘I don’t know,’ as long as you find the answer and get back to them. And I learned to not lie, bluff or pretend … you get caught.

Q: Your production company, Brightlight Pictures, was founded seven years ago. Tell us how and why you took that step.

WILLIAMSON: We launched the company at the Toronto Film Festival in 2001. Since then we’ve produced or co-produced 37 narrative projects, both feature and television content. At the time, my partner Stephen Hegyes, had produced a number of films and had financed them himself. I had produced over 20 films, but I had financed only one. We put our complementary skills together to parlay our service experience into creative relationships, with the goal of gaining the ability to facilitate co-financing with other partners. And that’s what has happened. We now finance about half of what we shoot. We shoot internationally but the bulk of our work is done in Vancouver.

Q: Are there any projects that have marked a turning point for you and the company?

WILLIAMSON: One of the biggest milestones for us was White Noise, an independent feature film we made that Universal Studios picked up and bought. It starred Michael Keaton and Deborah Kara Unger. It was the first time that we were noticed on a big stage in Hollywood. We knew we had a good movie while we were making it; we had an amazing script and an amazing creative team working on it. We shot in the 35 mm anamorphic format on Kodak film stocks. It really put us on the map in Hollywood.

Q: The director of photography on that project was Chris Seager, BSC. How do you choose a cinematographer?

WILLIAMSON: That’s a very collaborative thing, primarily with the director. You’re looking for someone who can understand and articulate the vision of the director because ultimately, it’s not the producer’s vision. Also, it’s finding somebody who has the right artistic taste for the material. Geoff Sax, who directed the film, suggested that we use Chris. From the first conversation it was clear that Chris understood exactly what we were shooting. Quite a bit of the story takes place in a dark room with a guy in front of a computer screen. Chris could see how scary that can be, and the spooky and otherworldly mood that he set was crucial to the film. Chris also made good use of what Vancouver has to offer. The architecture here is often concrete and glass and he bounced light off of everything. We had rain in many scenes, and Chris used all these textures throughout the film to bounce, filter and otherwise control and affect light.

Q: As a producer, the budget is one of your main concerns. How do you make sure it ends up on the screen?

WILLIAMSON: A lot of it is putting that into the hands of the creatives. The money we have is very often fixed. Everything is very tight and to the bone. But it’s a matter of being honest with the artists. Let them know what we have to play with, and let them utilize that and help guide them. If they need particular tools, work with them to find a way to facilitate that. On one recent shoot, we needed a Technocrane to achieve a specific shot, so we found compromises in other areas to make it possible. For me it’s about not limiting them by saying ‘No, we can’t afford it.’ It’s better to say ‘OK, let’s find a way to make it work.’ You’re working with them instead of in an adversarial way. It all comes back to supporting the creative side and allowing them to achieve their vision.

Q: Did you consider shooting White Noise on a video format?

WILLIAMSON: Never. Coming out of tape originally, I understand the medium well. I’ve yet to see the depth in the digital medium that you get out of film. So I think there’s going to be an ongoing controversy about how the look changes when your initial take is digital versus analog film.

Q: What about the claims that shooting video is faster or easier?

WILLIAMSON: I’ve never seen any truth to that. I’ve yet to see any change in crewing on any of the digital work that I’ve done. In fact, there is an increase in the camera crew size because you’ve got an engineer that you otherwise wouldn’t have. But you have the same number of assistant cameramen, grips and lighting crew. I have also seen no difference in speed, other than perhaps in reloading the camera. I’ve never seen anybody shave days off a shoot because of a decision to shoot digital over film.

Q: Do you find that film is an international language?

WILLIAMSON: Absolutely. Some of the most successful films are those that cross cultural boundaries and entertain regardless of where they play. But our new initiative to shoot internationally is driven less by the cultural and entertainment vision, and more by pure financing considerations. There are pieces of money available around the world, but often each piece is not enough to make a picture on its own. Hollywood can self-greenlight, but anywhere else is very hard to greenlight a picture that isn’t an art house picture. So we are looking to piece together money from different jurisdictions in order to facilitate shooting the film. We go internationally to build the financing structure. We recently shot a film in Belfast that was done with money out of Northern Ireland, England and Canada. We also try to utilize the best that each territory has to offer in order to make a better film. Our film is a period story that takes place in Ireland, so we shot in Belfast. I think financing films from multiple jurisdictions is going to become more and more common. The proliferation of outlets is helping, but as a result, film financing is going to continue to become more complex.