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Alyssa Gantz ‘03: Script for Success

As Anna and her family arrived at the airport in San Jose, California, the story of their dangerous journey from Iraq was ending. But for Alyssa Gantz ’03, a new chapter had begun.

Representative of the hundreds of refugees from Iraq who helped the American military as translators and liaisons amongst car bombings and kidnappings, Anna, now considered a traitor by fellow countrymen, is one of dozens of subjects interviewed for the film, “The Promise of Freedom,” a documentary feature produced by Principle Pictures. Alyssa began work there last year as an intern and quickly moved up the ranks to executive assistant and, most recently, a production assistant on location. The trip to California to film Anna’s landing in the United States was Alyssa’s first shoot.

As an intern, Alyssa primarily transcribed footage from shoots done around the world, to help the production staff prepare for editing and to look for sound bites. Now, coordination of the internship program is only one of Alyssa’s responsibilities.

“Sometimes it’s tricky to find tasks for the interns, but just being in that kind of office environment is reason enough for most people to be there,” she said. “The film industry is not all glamour and glitz. The administrative aspect is important too. We have five interns per semester and we try our best to offer all we can.”

Alyssa majored in film at Boston University. “Even then my favorite genre was documentaries. I wanted to travel the world, meet interesting people and make films about their stories. I always loved movies and traveling and it seemed inevitable to mesh the two together.”

She has definitely been able to combine those interests as well as her good organizational skills.  “In fact our producer has commented on how good my time management skills are. These skills I gained at Falmouth Academy help me with so many things.”

One of the many ways Alyssa has organized the work at Principle Pictures came when founder and director Beth Murphy said, “We have 45 hours of footage to transcribe in ten days. Can you make it happen?” Alyssa assessed her resources, figured out how many hours and how many people that would require and organized the project. In just under two weeks, she presented a binder with all of the finished transcripts.

“Every day there is something new, new connections, always something really exciting. It’s such a good feeling to work towards something bigger.”

Alyssa does double duty as a merchandise assistant every other weekend for Blue Man Group in Boston, a job she has held since college. At 11:00 p.m. on the first of a four-night shift, Alyssa received a text from Ms. Murphy. Figuring it was going to be a request for a ride to the airport, as the boss was leaving the next day for Washington DC, Alyssa said, “My jaw dropped when I saw she was asking me to go to California the next morning to help on a shoot. The Blue Man managers were really cool about it. I threw my bags together, scheduled a cab for 5:15 a.m. and suddenly I was in San Jose doing something I’d only dreamed about.”

Their task was to capture a couple of “money” shots, including Anna reuniting with her sister at the airport. Alyssa and her producer Sean Flynn ran to the terminal to catch Anna and her family as they arrived. Spying them at the baggage claim, “We were able to film the crazy reunion hug!”

In addition to facilitating some of the interviews for this segment and trying her hand at some camera work, Alyssa suggested shots to Sean, like going to the nearby beach where the family spontaneously ran to the water’s edge and wrote in the sand, “I love USA” in both English and Kurdish. “Sean said that could easily be the last shot of the film.”
She reflected, “It was wonderful to see the story end happily. To be part of something that powerful was amazing.  It was a great shoot.”

Alyssa has been able to mesh a lot of her skills and calls herself a jack-of-all-trades, although she does want to learn more about the camera and editing. “Working at Principle Pictures is like being in class every day. I’ve learned that the film business is really about who you know and involves a lot of networking. There’s a constant desire to keep in contact. If you can’t sell your product or yourself, then you won’t be able to get anywhere.”

Alyssa charges much of her success to Falmouth Academy. “I really learned how to talk to adults through acting and presenting. Making announcements at all-school meeting is a skill that comes in quite handy.”

Her biggest encomium to Falmouth Academy was learning how to write, especially since she now helps to edit and produce copy for outreach projects. “If a piece of writing is a first impression, it’s important that people write well. In addition to time management and organization, learning how to write was the biggest thing I learned at Falmouth Academy.”

Whether Alyssa finds herself in the studio or at a fundraiser to promote Principle Pictures’ latest documentary, she said, “It feels good to be a face for the company. I’m learning how to network, to find the resources and get the job done.  It’s always a challenge, but it’s a fun adventure along the way.”

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