films. When the course ended, she signed up for an intermediate class,
the only other filmmaking course the college offered. "I was in love."
Separating from her husband, Raimondi moved into a small studio
apartment, quit her job, and began looking for work in the film industry.
She telephoned every motion picture production company in the tele-
phone book and offered to work for free to gain experience. "I had squir-
reled away enough money to live on for six months, which at that time
was $5,000. I was not going
to be living extravagantly!"
She began to pick up pro-
duction assistant work. "I
was 33 and I was schlepping
coffee for 22-year-old direc-
tors. I didn't care. I would
have done anything." Over a
short period of time Raimondi
worked up to jobs that paid,
filling a wide range of posi-
tions, from props and
wardrobe, to assistant camera-
man. "Washington [D.C.] is not compartmentalized like it is in L.A. . . .
which was great, because you got a much better overall view of the
industry. People are amazed that I can step in and run a Nagra, for
instance, or load a 16mm magazine in a very short amount of time.
"There is not a big filmmaking community in Washington [D.C.]. A lot
of the work is documentaries, but I was amazed at how many companies
were out there and how many people were actually making a living in
the film business."
She continued to build a résumé working on various documentaries
and commercials. While attending a seminar hosted by Eastman Kodak
in 1980, she met director Paul Raimondi, who later became her husband
and partner in Raimondi Films.
Initially, the pair produced industrial films and documentaries, travel-
ing all over the world to shoot, but later changed their emphasis to com-
mercials. "Doing documentaries got too physically exhausting to
continue. You're in a foreign country with sixteen cases of equipment, no
bellman, no skycap, just two of you [hauling] stuff around."
To expand their client base, they began sending Paul's director's reel
to Los Angeles production companies, eventually signing with one for
representation on the West Coast. After two years, the pair had built up
enough contacts to open an office of Raimondi Films in Los Angeles,
closing down their Washington, D.C., operations a year later.
Have enough
money saved up that
you can afford to work
for free as an intern or
production assistant
until you can gain enough experience and
contacts to land paying jobs.
"Don't give up."--Jane Raimondi
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