Editors' Note: Electronic photos, stills, and a videotape of the film are available.

The Writers' Model at festivals.

OMPA The Callsheet, Salem, Oregon- May, 2002- Film festival audiences and juries across the continents have been enthralled with first-time Director Dianna Turner's The Writers' Model. Inspired by Pulitzer Prize nominee Molly Giles' story of the same name and filmed by gifted cinematographer Eric Edwards (To Die For, Kids), the twelve-minute short produced with Food Chain depicts the tug-of-war between artist and their subject. In the atmospheric and darkly humorous film, a young woman sits in a darkened room answering intimate questions from a guild of stereotyped male writers uniformed in tweed jackets and hornrimmed glasses who wish to enrich their writing and perhaps satisfy their prurient curiosity. Filmed in Portland in 2000, the film short has recently collected an award at this year's Festival Internazionale Cinema Delle Donne in Torino, Italy, for "the sarcasm in which the protagonist stands up to and disarms her weird male audience." In addition, The Writers' Model has taken top honors in the Experimental Short category at the 35th Annual WorldFest-Houston Film Festival this year, in which films from over 35 nations are represented. The short also received a Best Narrative Award at the 2001 Athens International Film and Video Festival and was selected from over 1,200 short film enteries from the United States and abroad to be one of the 60 screened at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Festival.

East Lansing Film Festival Review.

The Lansing State Journal, East Lansing, Michigan- March, 2002- "The Writers' Model" Director: Dianna Turner, USA. Quirky, funny and more than a little creepy, this film, based on a short story, looks at a male writers' group seeking to step inside the female mind. They place an ad for "adventurous girl" to be interviewed for fictional purposes," and pepper their naked subject with questions as strange as "how do you feel about your underpants?" to the personal "what does it feel like to have someone inside you?" Surreal and engaging, this is an interesting short. (Swartz)

Hi. Welcome to my Film Fest.

The Willamette Week, Portland, Oregon- August 2001-The Writers' Model, Dianna Turner's unsettling look at how a group of male writers get inside the female mind.


Garden Home filmmaker prepares to take the next step

The Multnomah Village Post, Portland, Oregon – July 2001 – Garden Home area resident Dianna Turner looks like someone who could get a film made. Her open smile and articulate answers seem to invite more questions, and she seems prepared for anything – and that’s just sipping lattes in the local coffee shop.

One can only imagine the mettle it took to make “The Writers’ Model,” a 12-minute short inspired by Molly Giles’ story of the same name. In fact, Turner is not unlike the film’s protagonist, who must make obscure personal sacrifices in order to make a contribution to the literary world.

Turner is candid about the colossal investment necessary to get “The Writers’ Model” from page to screen. “it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she said, dumping packets of sugar into her foamy brew.

For the first nine years of her career, Turner, who did her undergraduate work at Lewis & Clark College, paid her dues in advertising agencies, producing award-winning national and international television commercials.

However, she soon became less interested in critiquing others’ work and more interested in visualizing and creating something of her own. “I wanted to see what I could do,” she said “ I know what I like. I have a really strong opinion on film.”

So Turner began the painstaking process of finding material suitable for her project. Fortunately, Giles’ short story, a surreal exchange between nosy writers and their unflappable muse, was a natural fit.

Next on the agenda was finding the right people to turn a vision into a reality. Fortunately, Turner was able to tape resources in the form of connections made during her years in the advertising industry.

Food Chains Films was key in getting the production rolling, and favors were called in to fill out the cast and crew, who donated their time in exchange for the experience and the chance to build their resumes. “It’s hard to be involved in Portland film without having that kind of flexibility,” Turner said.

Perhaps the biggest boon came when cinematographer Eric Edwards joined the project. Edwards’ filmography includes “To Die For”, “Kids” and “Flirting with Disaster”, and he bathes “The Writers’ Model” in lush, other-worldly light, in keeping with the abstract feel of the story.

Turner, who lives near Garden Home with her husband, now divides her time between entering “The Writers’ Model” in film festivals and sifting through screenplays, searching for another project. This time she’s ready to sink her teeth into a feature. “I want something rare and off the beaten track,” she said.

First-time Portland director, Dianna Turner, will screen film at the Los Angeles Film Festival
The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon -- April 19, 2001 -- Portland's Dianna Turner, a first-time independent director, will screen her short film, "The Writer's Model," at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

The festival jury viewed 1,200 short film entries from the United States and abroad and selected 60 to screen at this year’s festival, which begins Friday and runs through Saturday, April 28. More than 35,000 filmgoers are expected to attend. A QuickTime movie of the film’s trailer can be viewed online at http://www.ridestudio.com/ride/dianna.htm

The 12-minute film, which depicts an encounter between a group of male writers and their female muse, was filmed in Portland last summer and premiered Feb. 25 at the Hollywood Theatre.

"As a first-time director, it’s an honor to be asked to exhibit at this festival," Turner said.

The Writers' Model reveals humor, insight

The Hollywood Star, Portland, Oregon -- March 2001 -- The premier screening of The Writers' Model, a 12-minute short directed by Portland's Dianna Turner, took place February 25 at the Hollywood Theater. A good crowd turned out to see the film in which a guild of professional male writers places a classified ad for adventurous women willing to be interviewed by the writers.

The movie is a thought-provoking piece about how men are interested in women only when the women are relating to men. This point is driven home in a scene in which one of the models actually starts to reveal what interests her. When those thoughts turn out to have nothing to do with men, the writers get up and walk out. This is done with considerable humor, however. The writers are purposely stereotyped. They wear rumpled jackets and smoke pipes. One even has a dog.

Based on a short story by Molly Giles, the movie was filmed last summer in Portland. For Turner, the most difficult aspect of the project was "coordinating all the people who were working for free. It's a labor of love." The main role of one of the models is played by Seattle actor Debra Pralle. Most of her experience has been in the theater, with more recent forays into film and TV, including an appearance on "The Fugitive." For Pralle, The Writers' Model did present some challenges. It was her first experience being the main character in a film, and the role did involve nudity. What made it all possible, she said, were the contributions of the rest of the cast and crew and the fact that Turner "was extra patient and very professional, very organized. She just took very good care of me."