Stepping up

When Wandering Dragon Productions set out to make a horror movie in 2019, founder Amanda Rae Jones, ’01, knew the horror genre and community was ready for something different.

After two years of production and pandemic delays, “The Stairs” premiered this summer in select theatres and on digital streaming platforms.

“This is not a typical horror film,” Jones said. “Everybody’s got their ideas of what a horror film is, and this doesn’t fit into any specific categories. It’s suspenseful and visceral because you feel like you’re in it. There’s this really beautiful throughline that centers around relationships and which relationships are important.”

She called it dramatic horror.

Jones’ day-to-day in her Seattle office is pretty far from Hollywood drama—horrifying or otherwise. She left the world of finance to start Wandering Dragon Productions, and her role in the company focuses on the logistical, budgetary and business-minded aspects of filmmaking.

“Making a movie is much like starting a business,” she said. “But you have 5 to 7 months to get set up and make it happen, rather than 5 to 7 years.”

She put together a pitch to raise money and reviewed the script to ensure the company could afford to cinematize the story they’d written. They cast well-known actors and shot the movie. Post-production jobs like editing, coloring, sound and scoring happened during the pandemic.

“Making a movie is much like starting a business, but you have 5 to 7 months to get set up and make it happen, rather than 5 to 7 years.”

– Amanda Rae Jones

“Then we held it for six months because of COVID, and then we held it longer so we could release it in summer.”

In January 2021 they decided to enter the festival market rather than keep waiting for theaters to open. “The Stairs” was shown in 20 festivals, and to date has won 25 awards.

The path to success, though, is paved with patience.

“What you see on the screen in those 94 minutes took us 20 days of filming, six months of writing and pre-production, then a year of post-production,” Jones said. “It’s a long process for an hour and a half.”

She’s seen a wide range of motivations that keep filmmakers committed to these long-term projects, but Jones does it out of a drive to inspire others to realize their dreams.

“Everybody has their personal reason for getting into movies,” she said. “For some it’s the proximity to glitz and glamor, for some it’s the opportunities to advance and for some it’s the creative process to make something you had imagined.”

The real magic happens when all of those individual reasons come together. It took more than 200 people and businesses to make “The Stairs.” From volunteers handing out coffee, to IT specialists, lawyers and bus drivers, Jones is adamant that it takes all types of people to make a movie.

“Film sets are the only working environment I’ve seen where everybody comes from a different walk of life and they’re working toward a common goal,” she said. “You need music, wardrobe, makeup, people making food or making travel arrangements—there’s room for everyone.”

Jones goes a step further to ensure inclusion and equality in every Wandering Dragon Production project. Every movie they make guarantees 50-50 men and women in the crew, with a portion of the proceeds committed to a profit share. Specifically for The Stairs, 30% of the cast and crew were over 65 years old and 60% of employees were self-identified people of color. Additionally, everyone was paid the same day rate.

Jones is acutely aware of the powerful role she plays in owning a media production company, and she wants her movies and film projects to be a beacon of equality and reflect the diversity of the real world.

“You don’t always see that in the film industry, and rarely do you see a woman in charge,” she said. “Of course you can sit outside of any industry and want change, but you can’t make systemic change from the outside. You have to go in there and change things if you want it to be different.”

Wandering Dragon Productions has a slate of upcoming movies that will keep Jones busy for another 10 to 15 years. Before she dives into those, they’re figuring out how to safely navigate the landscape while committing to safety on set during a pandemic and into the future.