Esperanza "Candy" Martinez is this year's recipient of the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, given to an associate director or stage manager in recognition of service to the industry and to the DGA.
Martinez started her career in 1969 as a secretary for the public affairs program Like It Is at WABC in New York City. She soon moved up to PA and then was promoted to assistant producer. "I got to attend edit sessions," she recalled, "and that's when I realized I liked that end better than the producing end. I was in the right place at the right time — the station was looking to make an in-house promotion to the associate director staff."
She got the job and has been with WABC ever since, working on Eyewitness News, Live With Regis and Kathie Lee, and many other, mostly news-related, programs. In fact, she said, "I've worked on just about every show that we do. I've gone from the really dreadful shifts to the kind-of-good shifts — there really are no good hours in television!"
Martinez said that one requirement of a good associate director is "a very thick skin. If you're doing your job really well, most people don't even know you're there. It's only when things go wrong," she said with a laugh, "that people suddenly remember there's an AD in the room. You work around other people's needs, especially the director's. I am strictly a person who stays in the background. My happiness comes from seeing the reaction of someone else that I was able to do something for — to help them realize or accomplish something important to them. That to me is priceless."
Such a sentiment shows not just in Martinez's job but in her service to the Guild. Over the past 20 years, she has been tirelessly involved in many aspects of Guild affairs. A longtime member of the AD/SM/PA East Coast Council, she served as its chair for three years and is currently on the Orientation Committee. Past committee service includes the Special Projects Committee and Outreach Committee, among others. She is also an Associate Member of the National Board and Co-chair of the DGA Ethnic Diversity Steering Committee.
Serving on several Network Negotiating Committees, however, has dealt Martinez some of her more challenging Guild hands.
"It's always a balancing act," she said. "You are in a sense trying to look into the future. All your experience comes into play in how you make those decisions: where to give, where to hold the line, where to be flexible, how flexible, and so on." A big part of the challenge, she added, is in trying to determine precisely how DGA members' jobs will be impacted by new and constantly evolving technology.
The most important issue facing the Guild right now she feels is job security, specifically in terms of the problems caused by the size of the DGA signatory pool.
"We need to be constantly on the lookout for new signatories. If the pool is shrinking, that obviously puts a lot of stress on members." Furthermore, she said, increased signatories would relieve strain on the Guild health plan, on which unemployed Guild members rely. "It's a huge challenge, especially on the television broadcasting side, because our contract is with the networks and not the basic cable entities."
Martinez finds working in live news to be challenging and exciting for the same reasons. "You're often at the mercy of events as they're unfolding. One day to the next, it's never the same." She actually jumps between directing and associate directing, and she finds that one makes her better at the other. "What I do right away is learn how my director likes to work — how they process their information. It doesn't take long. Maybe they like to be one story ahead, or two. Because I also direct a lot, I know how to facilitate, as well as anticipate, things. I like a variety in my life. I thrive on things not being the same all the time."
Several years ago, Martinez signed the DGA's Experimental Agreement in order to direct some low-budget video documentaries. Fascinated by the rich cultural tradition of African-American quilt making, she set out to make more people aware of this legacy as well as give the artists themselves the opportunity to present their work. Her first project, The Cloth Sings to Me, won the 1995 Paul Robeson Award for documentary short; she has since completed two more and is working on another. "They've gotten some festival play," she said modestly, "which I find very gratifying. It really is a chance to combine my love of the arts with what I do professionally."
But how does Martinez find the time to do it all? She laughed, "I don't cook!"
