Pro Hello: Karen Silver
Karen Silver is the managing director and owner of Canadian production service company, Sterling Content. She is on the board of directors of a US company called Image Ten that made the 1968 film 'Night of the Living Dead', as well as being a photo artist that believes there is much more in the present than meets the eye.
Growing up in Toronto and then moving to London, Karen started in the entertainment industry as a production assistant, and went on to work on concerts with David Bowie, Supertramp and The Police, to name a few. Feeling like (at that point) girls in the music business could only be in PR or merchandising, she moved into TV commercial production where she began line producing at the age of 25, and then moved to the role of second unit UPM on a film that same year for Columbia pictures with Kevin Bacon. Productions on the road were her specialty, though for some reason they always gave her the most difficult directors.
Karen came back to Toronto to get married, and simultaneously opened two production companies in her basement. She was an owner of Treehouse North, one of the first production service companies in Canada. She was also an owner in the Artists Company Canada, then a partner in Sequoia Content until recently when she opened her own production service company (again) called Sterling. Karen's glass is at least 3/4 full, and never empty. She is logistically creative, a self-proclaimed personality chemist, and she loves people.
Today, Karen tells us all about her eclectic journey through the industry so far.
LBB> What do you do, and where are you based?
Karen> I am managing director and executive producer at Sterling Content in Canada. I live mostly in Toronto, but spend a great deal of time in Vancouver and a few other cities in Canada when shooting there.
LBB> How did you first get into the industry, and how did you realise what you wanted to do?
Karen> I started as a PA on a Kraft peanut butter commercial holding Cue Cards. There was much film talk around the family dinner table, and I had always been fascinated that someone could take an idea and make it into a film. Plus, I've always been a huge music fan, and music videos were starting to happen, so I thought that would be something I could do - and then I had some opportunities that landed me in the commercial side of film.
LBB> Tell us about your journey so far.
Karen> Interesting question... my journey has been extraordinary, entertaining, funny as, challenging, tricky, full of joy (with a bit of pain). I've met incredible people, and found out that anything is possible, and miracles just cost a little more.
LBB> What projects / campaigns that you’ve been involved in have been the most personally satisfying to work on, and why?
Karen> Putting a polar bear on a glacier for a German clothing catalogue was probably one of the most challenging ads, but super satisfying as nobody got hurt - even though the polar bear got free from the hot lines and ran for craft service tent with crew jumping out of the way... and the bear trainer had tried to fully convince me in prep that we didn’t need a sharp shooter with tranquilizers with us, even though a good hour helicopter flight from a hospital! We had one anyway, we just didn’t tell him. Fortunately, we didn’t need to use it.
The most satisfying thing really was working with Sam Brown and his then producer, Kate Hitchings, and EP, Charlie Crompton from Rogue UK, on a spot called 'Swarm' for Lexus that we made with drones, before they became popular. It was just the beginning, and we had to fly the operators and machines in from the USA as nothing existed in Canada at that time. Sam truly turned the filming of those machines into characters that came alive and took on a fully magical little vibe. He is a master at that.
LBB> What’s been your proudest achievement?
Karen> Still loving what I do.
LBB> What do people (clients, agencies etc) come to you for specifically?
Karen> Humour? Kidding... I seem to mostly get challenging projects, tricky and difficult ones. I believe it's what I excel at, so perhaps that is why, but I'm also brutally honest about what can be achieved and how to get it done for the schedule and the budget. There is always a way if the efforts are fully collaborative.
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LBB> What are your strongest opinions relating to your specific field?
Karen> That all personnel get treated equally and with respect. No spelling mistakes on any published documents, and admitting when you fuck up - and not hiding it!
LBB> What sort of projects really get you excited at the moment?
Karen> Ones with really good creative, and ideas that have not done before with challenging elements to them. Our job is solving problems, so the bigger the better in an idea that hasn’t been done before.
LBB> Who are your creative heroes, and why?
Karen> The intriguing wizard of a man, Norman Seeff. He has the ability to make his subjects feel fully at ease and bring out their inner light and magic in his photographs and film. Truly inspiring. Sam Brown, a master at incredible execution and elaborating on an idea on paper to the end result. Also a highly humorous human I have suggested should be shooting comedy but doesn’t. Daniel Kleinman's process is also something to watch... on set, his lips seem to never move as he has an amazing team around him that know him so very well. He loves to garden, and how he works is almost like watching a gardener plant a seed and tend to it. He is like that with a project.
LBB> Outside of the day job, what fuels your creativity?
Karen> I've been a photo artist for many years with a few shows under my belt. I recently had an image up in Waterloo train station for 24 hours, which was pretty cool. I mostly shoot on my iPhone, but I recently finally bought a camera. I have been working on a TikTok channel I call Moonbow and the Shoe Show. It began a few months ago when I met a very cool man in the Caribbean who's a boat charter captain. He had no internet or computer at his house, and lives freely and fully as a present human being. That is so fascinating to me.
He wouldn’t let me use his face as he prefers to stay anonymous and private, so I said why not make you a shoe that can be your cover and make it about you and shoes, and let’s see where this goes. He is now represented on the channel as a Shoebill bird. I do interviews with him from time to time, and post silly random things with shoes. He is now married with a couple of mini bow kids, and I incorporate some of my art into it. It's pretty hilarious, or at least my friends and I seem to think so...
Helping execute creative peoples’ ideas day in and day out is a lot of fun. So, also having my own creative outlet is a must, and has kept me smiling from the inside out for a very long time.
