Mystery Woman:

Vision of a Murder

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KELLIE MARTIN DELIGHTED TO DIRECT

‘MYSTERY WOMAN’

At the risk of making a Hollywood cliché of herself, one thing Kellie Martin has always wanted is to direct.

“I’ve never been content to be just the actress,” says Martin, the leading lady of “Mystery Woman,” one of three new mystery movie franchises on the Hallmark Channel.  “As a 10-year-old, I told Michael Landon how to set up a scene.  And he said, ‘When you’re the director, you can block the scene the way you want.’  Ever since then, I’ve had this desire to be more a part of the process.”

Now her wish is coming true.  Martin, who recently cut her teeth as a director in the American Film Institute’s directing workshop for women, is directing the fourth installment of “Mystery Woman.”

“So, basically, I’m going to be going from a 13-minute short to a two-hour movie,” she says.  “Luckily I’ll have the support of the crew that I’ve been working with.  And the Hallmark shows have a kind of set way that they’re shot, so I can’t come in and Quentin Tarantino it.  But I’m very excited.  I think this is where my talent lies.

“Don’t get me wrong.  I love being an actor.  It’s a great gig.  But I just would like to use a little more of my mind and creativity – and this seemed like the natural way to do it.  And Hallmark was cool enough to let me have this opportunity.”

Martin believes her interest in directing is a natural extension of her longtime passion for photography.  “I love the camera,” she says.  “I love all the things that go along with all the technical aspects.  I love editing.  So I feel like this is the natural progression.”

In fact, one of the aspects that initially attracted Martin to the part of Samantha Kinsey, a mystery bookstore owner-turned-amateur sleuth, is that the character is also a photographer.  “So one thing that’s definitely been fun is that, even though I’m not an expert on mystery fiction in real life, when we do scenes in the dark room, people on the crew are asking me what to do.”

Martin originated the role in a Hallmark Channel movie in 2003.  Now “Mystery Woman” is a series of movies that will air in rotation with “McBride” (starring John Larroquette) and “Jane Doe” (starring Lea Thompson).

The film short that Martin directed for AFI was sent to Sundance and will be going the festival route.  “It’s a whole new world for me, but I had such a good time directing this short,” she says.  “I had to work with the editor all the time that he was working on it and I had to do all the post stuff to it.  I got to see a lot of stuff that I’ve never really had the chance to be privy to.  It was an awesome process.”

The biggest hurdle to clear while directing “Mystery Woman?”  “It should be an interesting challenge to direct myself.”

And what if there’s a young cast member who tries to tell Martin what to do?

“You mean what if there’s a little me?,” Martin asks.  “I sometimes think back and marvel at how precocious I was.  It was a Christmas episode of “Highway to Heaven.”  There were three kids coming in from another room in this scene.  And Michael had the little boy coming in first.  And I said, ‘Well, Michael.’  And, of course, I called him Michael.  I said, ‘Michael, I really should be coming in first because I have the first line and it’s important that I get to my mark first.’  I totally gave him attitude.  I was a little 10-year-old brat.  It was pretty funny.

“But if somebody does that to me, I would know exactly what to say.  I would say, ‘When you’re the director …’ the same way that Michael Landon told me.  Because that was a perfectly acceptable answer.”

-- HALLMARK CHANNEL --