LOS ANGELES — For seven months, Imperial Valley native Miranda Montenegro was behind the scenes among the rarified space of the “Star Wars” entertainment franchise, working on a production that is part of arguably the most iconic brand in filmdom.
Crossing generations over nine feature films and numerous series like “The Mandalorian,” Montenegro, now 26, worked as a director’s production assistant on the eight-episode run of Disney+’s newest series, “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” which premiered on the streaming service on Dec. 3.
With the release of the series, starring Jude Law as the guide to a group of four children lost in space on an old pirate ship, Montenegro is no longer bound by Lucasfilm’s non-disclosure agreement.
“Just like so many stories that you hear about how people kind of get their first big gigs in Hollywood, it was just a series of connections so that somebody knows somebody who knows somebody who was working as a production supervisor on the show, and at that time, when I heard that there was an opportunity to work on ‘Star Wars,’ I said I would take anything,” she said during a recent phone interview.
Miranda Montenegro | DANIEL POPLAWSKY PHOTO“It’s a huge deal. ‘Star Wars’ is such an entry point for so many filmmakers, so many film enthusiasts. And I knew that it was going to be a special opportunity. And so the fact that this opportunity came about towards the end of my first year at USC, when I just got off of directing a short film there, to then hear that there was an opening for a director’s assistant role was massive,” Montenegro explained.
At the time of filming — June 2022 to January 2023 — Montenegro was still a student in the master’s in film and TV production program at University of Southern California’s famed School of Cinematic Arts (“Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ alma mater). She graduated in May and now works as a producer for Maestra Productions, which creates documentaries centered on art, education and social justice movements.
The student filmaker was already making some early waves as a writer and director, creating a one-minute movie for the mitú and Walmart Filmmaker Mentorship Program called “Queso Bueno,” and she was also the director on some episodes of “Sketch,” a USC School of Cinematic Arts television series. But working on “Skeleton Crew” put Montenegro through what she called a “filmmaker’s boot camp” and introduced her to the eventual goal of becoming a “showrunner.” The showrunner is the person who oversees the writing and production of each episode of a television series and has ultimate managerial and creative control.
“When I worked during my time at on the show, it was made abundantly clear to me that running shows, becoming a showrunner, is something that really feels like it’s in my wheelhouse, and it’s something super exciting to me, the thought of kind of spearheading the creative vision of a show, and working with different department heads,” Montenegro said. “And even just assisting all these directors, I got to learn about the most efficient, effective communication between all departments and directors, and be able to have that experience and knowing, ‘Aha, like this is how I can take this experience into my own work.’ That was fantastic.”
Montenegro said she came to the realization that what she was doing as a director’s assistant was filling that bill and allowing her to become “a better crew member and better collaborator.”
Director Bryce Dallas Howard (left) speaks with actor Jude Law on the set of Disney+’s “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.” El Centro native Miranda Montenegro served as Howard’s assistant during production. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DISNEY+
As a director’s assistant for seven different directors over the course of the series, she was juggling a number of balls at once: “My responsibilities were really fascinating … even though a director was in production, and filming, I also had to think about the other directors who were in pre-production and were in meetings, and, you know, had to coordinate with different departments.”
Ultimately, “Skeleton Crew” and work on a Lucasfilm production is a big opening in the film industry, she said. It’s also a chance to further something really important to her — representation of Latinos and Latinas in film and television, not just in front of the camera, but behind it in any number of ways.
Her goal is to be “running shows that are authentic Latino stories, Latinx in order to be inclusive; authentic Latinx stories that are commercially viable that speak to and represent people from all walks of life, that is something that is really exciting to me, and I absolutely feel that I that is my job, is my duty, to continue ensuring that the film industry is inclusive, and I will always work to do so in any capacity I’m in.”
Staying true to her word, her current gig with Maestra Productions is allowing that goal to be realized.
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“I’m very fortunate that right now I’m producing two feature-length documentaries … and both of these films cover topics that are very important to the Latinx community, and I’m so excited that we’re that I’m working on stories that are furthering our narrative and providing more context and more exploration to not only people of the Latinx community,” she said. One film is about activist Paulo Freire called “Reading the World” and the second “explores a significant chapter in the Latino Civil Rights movement” that she can’t yet say more about.
Miranda Montenegro (seated), producer of the film, “Dr. Supernova’s Evil Plan,” applys facial tracking markers on the actors to record their movements for a robot fight sequence. | SYDNEY SHEREN PHOTO
The 2016 graduate of Southwest High School in El Centro, who also earned her B.A. in English from University of California, Los Angeles, is still sticking close to USC as well. She is currently serving as producer of a virtual superhero film, “Dr. Supernova’s Evil Plan,” which she calls an adventure comedy focusing on the supervillain.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DISNEY+“All three films are super exciting, and I’m proud of all three of those films that I have going right now,” Montenegro said of “Dr. Supernova” and her two documentaries.
Although “Skeleton Crew” spent nearly two years in post-production before making its debut last week, the entire time has served as a learning experience and professional growth experience for Montenegro.
“I feel like I can look at my career in the sense of like before ‘Star Wars’ and after ‘Star Wars,’ because after ‘Star Wars,’ I felt like I was such a better filmmaker,” she said. “I just felt my growth significantly increased on the show, simply because of the people I was surrounded by.”
And one thing she can’t forget is the joy and wonder that came with such a project. “I will never forget the first time I experienced walking on set and seeing the creatures, the volume … just every crew member staring at what we’re going to be working off of today, and being like, ‘oh my God, like we made it.’”