Living the screen dream in la-la land
IT was a decade ago that Jodi Ferguson swapped life in Warwickshire for the States.
But the move has seen the former Stratford College student carve out a career in television and movies, leading to the completion of her first short film and hopes of getting it included at some of this year’s film festivals.
The 28-year-old, from Northend, has just finished production on her western, The Bountress, but she originally moved to New York to study acting and has worked in various roles in television before finally getting behind the camera for her short film about female bounty hunters.
Even before the bright lights of the Big Apple came calling, Jodi was creating films and collaborating with her fellow students in Stratford, something that gave her a good grounding before her move across the Atlantic.
“They had a great programme called performance and media,” Jodi explained, “We got to make a short film, basically with our friends or family as the actors, and we used the equipment from the college. It gave you a really good overview of all the different elements that go into making a film.
“I always knew I wanted to study in the States, so applied to lots of schools and got a place at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Then, when I moved out to California, I made the switch into the production side of things. I started out as an assistant to Mary McDonnell on Major Crimes, and then I went on to be an assistant for runners, producers and directors and it just grew from there.”
Production roles followed on the likes of Magnum PI and the hugely-popular The Masked Singer, with Jodi now a dialogue tracker on the multiple Emmy-winning The Marvellous Mrs Maisel.
“It really is amazing,” she said, “I’m running lines with the actors and get to spend the whole day with these incredible creative people at the monitor, watching how they direct and learning how they use their minds. It’s basically like getting paid to go to school, so I feel very, very lucky. It’s a really great team of kind, talented, wonderful people.
“They’re known for doing these incredible shots called ‘one-ers’, when the Steadicam follows the whole scene from person to person in one continuous shot, so that inspired me to do one in my film, when the main character Lila is entering the camp on horseback.”
Jodi’s lifelong love of horse-riding proved to be the basis for The Bountress, a modern day western about Lila, who is recruited by the mysterious Mama into an academy training young girls to be assassins on horseback.
As well as inspiring the script, Jodi’s desire to get back on the saddle brought about the ideal location for filming.
“Growing up I was part of Pony Club and have been riding my whole life, so when I first moved to New York I was really missing it,” she said. “I reached out to this organisation who put me in touch with a family upstate. They invited me for the weekend, let me ride their horses and they threw a barbecue afterwards and really welcomed me.
“Now they’re like my adopted American family, and when it came to looking for locations they offered the ranch. I don’t think they were quite expecting it to be what it was, trucks full of equipment coming in and 40 cast and crew, but I have to say I could not have done the movie without this family.
“The whole thing was shot there and even the neighbours across the street had a basement that was perfect for Mama’s office. I’m very grateful to them for letting me use the location.”
With The Bountress now submitted to film festivals, Jodi is focusing on her next project about the competitive and political world of horse racing, something that could see her return to her hometown.
“I would love to create and shoot my next project in England,” she said. “Obviously Stratford has the racecourse so I might have to scout that for a location, we’ll see how that develops.
“If the right opportunity came about for a TV show shooting in England, I would jump at it just to spend some time around my family and get back to my roots.”
