Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Behring.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born in Burbank in 1988 and raised in Los Angeles. I went to Sacramento State on a Track and Field scholarship where I set the school record in the indoor shot put, was captain of our team, an NSCA All-American and finished college with a double major in Digital Media and Film Production. Two weeks after graduating in June of 2011, I moved to Atlanta to pursue my career in film. My goal in film and television has always been to become a director and producer!
For the next six years, I worked my way up through the locations department on The Vampire Diaries to head location manager and in that span of time I worked on 132 episodes of prime time network television. It was on TVD where I learned my way around a movie set. Starting as a PA whose sole job was to pick up trash and put up tents, I worked my way up into location scouting which I absolutely loved. It felt like treasure hunting in the real world! I took every job I could get, working on feature films every year over our two months hiatus on TVD. I’m now in my third year as Location Manager for the CW’s + CBS Studios television series Dynasty. I have been a sponge on every director’s scout and studied every note and nuance of the directorial process.
I started my own production company “&D Productions” and have written, produced and directed several short films that have received much critical success. My first was a documentary short about women’s professional contact football called “The Sirens Call”. This film was featured in The Honolulu Film Awards (Silver Lei Award), The Atlanta Film Festival (Pink Peach Selection), All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival (Third Place Winner), Atlanta Underground Film Festival, Senior Seminar Showcase (Headliner), and an Official Selection of the NextGen Film Awards in Sacramento.
From there I made three more short films including “The Beginning”, “Baggage” and “Treatment”. “The Beginning” was a music video style short, made on a shoestring budget and shot at my house. The Beginning managed to garner over 160,000 view on Vimeo and was also featured in the South Dakota Film Festival, Milledgeville Film Fest, and the Y’allywood Film Festival.
It took more than two years to generate sufficient funding for my next comedy short “Baggage” and in the process, my script was featured in the Nashville Film Festival, Las Vegas Screenplay Competition, Canada Independent Film Festival (second place), APM Short Screenplay Competition, the London Film Awards (first place) and the 2016 Artists Alliance Short Screenplay Competition. Since the film’s completion, it has won awards in the California Film Awards (Gold Award), the Southern Shorts Awards (Best Cinematography) and the London Film Awards (Golden Lion Award for “Best Actress” to lead actress Allie Ficken) and the 2018 Sioux City International Film Festival (Best Comedy – Audience Choice Award). It has also been featured and in the Cinema on the Bayou Festival in Louisiana, the USA Film Festival in Texas, Madrid International Film Festival, Breckenridge Film Festival, Anchorage Alaska Film Festival, Los Angeles Cinefest, Knoxville Film Festival, New York Shorts Fest, Charlotte Film Festival, Comedy Feedback Festival in L.A., Moondance Int. Film Festival, Orlando Film Festival, Birmingham Film Festival in England, The Valley Film Festival, The Big Apple Film Festival, Austin Indie Fest, BLOW UP Film Fest Chicago, East Lansing Film Festival in Michigan, Peachtree Village International Film Festival in Atlanta, the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, the Sacramento Film and Music Fest, and the Broad Humor Festival in Los Angeles.
“Treatment” is my most recent project is a visual poem very close to my heart. This short film is a stunt heavy drama written by my good friend and creative partner Tyler Buckingham and was a huge challenge to shoot at the top of Arabia Mountain. It metaphorically showcases one woman’s battle for her very survival. So far this year, “Treatment” has been featured in the Los Angeles Ind. Film Festival (Award for best Female Director), Paris Art and Movie Awards (Best International Short Film), the Macon Film Festival (Audience Choice – Narrative Short Film), Utah Film Festival (Nominated for Best Stunt Choreography) Worldfest-Houston Film Festival, Flicks Film Festival, Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, Breckenridge Film Festival, Artemis Women in Action Film Festival, Burbank International Film Festival, Speechless Film Festival, and coming up in mid October – the Glendale Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Sioux City Int. Film Festival in Iowa.
Looking forward, I am set to direct an upcoming episode of “Dynasty” for the CW network and Netflix. It will be my first episode of network television. I’m over the moon excited to dive into my directing career full time!
I have also recently gotten engaged to the love of my life, Hayley Tutt. We are planning to get married sometime in 2020.
Has it been a smooth road?
I wouldn’t consider the television industry smooth in really anyway. Schedules change daily, weather wreaks havoc on our locations, you name it. The hours are also very demanding! I have spent a lot of long nights filming outside in the elements. I think all of those challenges really made me have thicker skin and I had to learn to adapt on my feet and become more flexible.
Personally outside of work, I have also dealt with a lot of health challenges. Autoimmune issues have lead to over seventeen surgeries in the span my lifetime. Recently I have really tried to give myself my best shot at a long and healthy life and lost a fair amount of weight in attempt to get in much better shape. Being on set is demanding on the body (standing for 12-15 hours at a minimum), so I wanted to really give myself the best shot at trying to live a pain free life. So far it has been mildly successful, but I think it has also taught me to have perseverance under the most demanding of circumstances.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the &D (And D) Productions story. Tell us more about the business.
&D Productions specializes in storytelling! So far I have self-produced four short films and am in the process of finalizing post-production on “Salt Water Taffy” written by Mike Benedetti, and in pre-production for a new Sci-fi project called “Chronology”, written by Ricky Tyree. I have produced and directed several safety commercials for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and have also been prepping to shoot a pilot for a new series entitled “Picture’s Up”. I wrote the pilot with my writing partner of several years, Andrew Nicolson.
The pilot script for “Picture’s Up” won “Best TV Half Hour Original Pilot” in The Hollywood Hills Screenplay Competition, as well as being featured as an award winner in the Southern Storytellers Screenwriters’ Theatre, The Southern California Screenplay Competition, Las Vegas Screenplay Contest, Finish Line Script Competition, and Atlanta Comedy Film Festival.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I work all over Georgia as a Location Manager, and I have seen first hand how much money our production teams spend in these local communities at hotels, restaurants, locations – you name it. The industry has simply exploded since I moved here over eight years ago. Back then there was 15-20 productions filming in town. Now there are 70+ at any given time of the year. It’s been incredible to watch the studios continue to open, crew work their way up through the ranks, and towns flourish in response to filming and the tourism that comes with it. I hope the film industry stays here for a long time and continues to boom over the next decade, because the crews here are absolute top-notch, and certainly don’t deserve to be caught and penalized in the political crosshairs. The future looks bright for all local filmmakers.
The recent move by a federal judge to block the heart bill from passing in Georgia is certainly the first step in the right direction!
Contact Info:
- Website: vimeo.com/andibehring
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andibehring
- Other: baggagetheshortfilm.com
Image Credit:
Chris Harding and Jonathan Owens
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