Tiffany White
"Everyone in the world thought it was impossible but me," Oklahoman Sharron Miller says as she slouches casually in her chair.
She's trying to explain the yearning she felt as a teenager to become a director, but it seems even she is having trouble forming the words. Back when little girls from small, Oklahoma towns didn't pack up and join the cutthroat business of moviemaking, friends and family were skeptical of her decisions. But Miller knew there was a calling she needed to fulfill, even if she "didn't know why."
Her desire to be a filmmaker took her all the way to Hollywood where she worked for more than 30 years. Within those 30 years she collected an Emmy, a Women in Film award, and a Director's Guild award, one of the first women directors to win one.
Miller, who is now teaching a screenplay analysis class at the University of Central Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma, says the collaborative connection she gets with her students are reminiscent of her Hollywood experiences.
"My favorite thing about teaching is when I see or sense a connection between students and what they are learning," she says. "When they get excited about something and want to share their enthusiasm, or when they challenge me with questions and want more answers than I've given. It helps me grow and understand what I know; sometimes it even helps me understand what I know, but don't want to know. That's the greatest gift."
Miller spent most of her career struggling against a male-dominated business. She was one of the only groundbreaking women directors working regularly and found the struggle challenging, yet gratifying.
"It was different when I started," she says. "Things are a little easier today, but it's still hard." She leans back in her chair as she explains, focusing on an invisible spot on the wall. "I had to fight against it, but it's not impossible."
Miller started educating herself early about films. Although there was only one movie theater in her tiny hometown of Perry, she saw every movie she could afford. She had to become her own teacher. In high school, she finally revealed her directing skills in a series of 8mm and 16mm films she wrote, directed and produced. After graduating from Perry High School, Oklahoma State University and eventually graduate school, she entered a short film into OSU's film festival. She won.
"One of the judges was from Hollywood and was making a film in Oklahoma," she says. "He asked me to be an intern."
From her internship she learned how to be a script supervisor. Once production on the film wrapped, she decided to follow the crew back to Hollywood. After taking several jobs as a script supervisor and an assistant editor for television series and TV movies, she finally got her first professional job in 1976.
"They were looking for cheap directors," she says with a shrug.
But although Miller was in her dream city doing the things she always aspired, she wasn't always pleased with the hurdles in the film industry. Many times she found herself in a tug-o-war between business and art. With studios and network executives constantly stepping on her toes, it was hard to find outlets to express herself artistically.
"It's very cutthroat, very business oriented," she says. "I wanted to be an artist, not a director for hire, although that's what I did."
A few years later Miller finally got the "chance of a lifetime." "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle" was her first critically successful film that later spawned her an Emmy and a Director's Guild award. The film, about a woman who takes care of a physically handicapped, gifted boy, was one of Miller's first films where she got to make a profound contribution, which Miller says was a "transcendent experience."
"It was like...mine," she says. "It wasn't anyone else's."
Other series such as "Cagney and Lacey" and "Homefront" were other projects Miller says was like making a contribution to society.
"Art is by definition life-affirming," she says. "You take a little bit of humanity from one person and it touches someone you don't even know."
Miller sees her role in society and film as a nurturer or "shock absorber." With Miller, it's not about technicalities, but about the magical collaboration of creative minds.
"My job is to create an atmosphere where people are their most creative," she says. "My job is to make everyone feel good. If we all do our best, we'll all do something. "There's nothing more extraordinary than to give a scene and see the crew totally absorbed by what happened. Then you know you made a home run."
Which is why Miller has a problem with contemporary television and films. While Miller believes in a collaborative approach to directing, the trend has shifted in the world of TV dramas where some writers and producers run their sets under a totalitarian rule.
"Television writers have taken control and become producers. Years ago there used to be an executive producer who ran the show and took care of all the problems. Today, writers are the producers. They don't understand producing and they treat a lot of creative people like they are extensions of themselves instead of individuals. Everything is dictated more than ever before."
Miller shifts in her seat constantly as she tries to drive her point across. Knowledge of the arts and humanity is what's important, she explains, not the tools or mechanics; the same way a screenplay isn't just a "text," but a "living thing."
She cites actress Shirley MacClaine as an example. She says MacClaine once told her that directors "know a lot about other directors, but not life." Miller pauses after she says this to let the message set in.
"If people are interested in being filmmakers, I recommend they study drama, art, literature, and all the arts because, well, everything really. It's not just about film school. To be a filmmaker you have to know a lot; the more you know the better you'll be. It's not about where you put the camera, but why. You can't learn that in a book."