Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.
A short ode to a woman i admire in technology who has inspired me.
Cafe owner, Heejoo, Me (with bad hair), Haruna, William
I studied with Heejoo Yoon whilst on exchange from Napier in Edinburgh at Ryerson University in Toronto in 2002/03.
We became mutual fans whilst working together on multiple shoots. Heejoo was an excellent Director of Photography. I worked through every department while studying film there, starting out on sound then worked through Producer, Production Manager, Assistant Director and finally became her 1st Assistant Camera.
We worked hard. On one film i remember having to save Heejoo and the film crew from working more than 17 hours one day. We were fast approaching 3am and due back on set at 8am and the director was pushing and pushing to keep shooting. As 1st AD i should have stepped in sooner but it was a student production and we had this to learn. I saved the crew that night but what i learnt was limitations and how to gently but firmly set boundaries.
Heejoo, like most at Ryerson, was learning but was consistently professional, with poise, quality, dedication and attention to detail. Working with her i learned how to sculpt with light and developed a true passion for lighting and shooting on film.
Heejoo is above all one of the nicest people i know. She always said filmmaking was about the people, and is one of the only people who truly means it.
I thought and thought about who i find an inspiration. All the women in my life inspire me hugely. It was a good few years ago now, yet Heejoo Yoon was a pivotal and humbling inspiration to me and my work.
I cannot write a post about inspirational women and not mention my wonderful Mum who never had a need to use anything more than the tv remote, telephone and a calculator so she didn’t work or use technology very much at all. What she did do was encourage me to choose Computer Studies at G.C.S.E when i had no idea what to choose. She knew they were going to be very important. Little did we know the impact they would have on my life, I haven’t looked back since. Thanks Mum.
