Her next big break came when she was recommended to Raffaella
De Laurentiis to serve as unit publicist on Trading Mom, where she
worked with Academy Award winning actress Sissy Spacek. Swank con-
tinued going from project to project. Through her connection with Steve
Rubin, she landed a job with Showtime in the summer of 1993 to work on
The Birds II: Land's End. She continued to work various projects for
Showtime, at one point accepting a three-month contract to work four
different movies.
Swank's ability to maneuver the set, her understanding of industry
politics, and the fact that she was a good writer, earned her respect within
the film industry. Raffaella De Laurentiis recommended her to director
Dino De Laurentiis and daughter Martha, who hired Swank to come to
Morocco to work on two Bible stories they were filming there. Impressed
with her work, the De Laurentiises promised to hire her for their next
feature. Over the next few years she worked on several made for televi-
sion movies, and features such as Breakdown and Stir of Echoes.
After Stir of Echoes, the De Laurentiises hired Swank for U-571. "That
was a huge movie--a $95 million budget--that was shot in Rome and
Malta." Even though Matthew McConaughey was well known in the
United States, he was an unknown commodity overseas, an important
market for the film. It fell to Swank to educate the international press,
proving she could handle big stars and an expensive movie.
Over the next two years she worked on several projects, including fea-
tures Warden of Red Rock, Blast, Proof of Life, Serving Sara, and Beyond
Borders. Swank has successfully combined her love of movies and travel
into a career, while building a reputation for handling difficult shoots in
exotic locations with ease.
Job Overview
Unit photographers photograph the making of the movie. They are
responsible for capturing dramatic moments in scenes, photographing the
cast, director, producers, and crew members while working and in candid
moments off camera, and shooting portraits of actors and key personnel. "I
tell the story of the making of a movie by shooting behind-the-scenes
photos," says photographer Brian Hamill. "Sometimes motion pictures are
tense, because there is a lot of money riding on it. Others, like Woody
[Allen]'s are a more relaxed atmosphere. Either way, you have to make
JOB TITLE: UNIT PHOTOGRAPHER,
STILL PHOTOGRAPHER, OR SPECIAL
ASSIGNMENT PHOTOGRAPHER
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