Young filmmaker Lisa Robinson. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

She's so into movies she named her dog, Zeta, after the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.

That's the 'reel' world of Lisa Robinson, managing director and founder of Camilleon Films, a company that produces short films, documentaries and commercials. She is a scriptwriter, director and production manager. Flair sat down with this bubbly talent at her Red Hills home (and office). Naturally, we wondered how she got things done.

"I outsource everything (cameras etc). I am the walking, talking office; the only full-time staff," she jokes.

Robinson never intended to make films. Instead, she wanted to report the news. When she chose television as her technique area, that changed. She began doing production, which gave her a feeling of being in charge.

"I fell in love with production ... so I veered into that direction," she explained. She graduated with first class honours from the University of the West Indies with a bachelor's degree in media and communication, specialising in television broadcasting. She was awarded the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication Alumni Award for being the most outstanding final-year student and received the Dean's Award for Excellence for having the highest grade average in the faculty of Humanities.

Robinson also runs Keepsake Creations, a branch of Camilleon Films, in which individuals can have features done to be showed at a special event. "So, for instance, we can show how a couple met and show that at the wedding," she explained. Other career stops included Pulse Modelling Agency, Communications and Business Solutions Limited and Reggae Entertainment Television (where you might remember she used the name Ellai). She has produced music videos for some of Jamaica's top artistes and readers may also remember her globe-trotting stories in The Gleaner.

"They (the other jobs)taught me different aspects and sides of the industry; working with people ... and the variety of tasks involved and (of course) contacts I've made." Not afraid to venture into the unknown, Robinson applied to the London Metropolitan to do her master's degree. The institution only takes about 10 students each year, a testament to the level of her work. So the stage (or movie set as it were) was set.

Car accident

But like a good script, you can never anticipate what comes next. While returning from Runaway Bay last year, she was involved in a car accident. Her radiant smile belies the fact that she suffered facial injuries, including a fractured orbit (the bone that holds the eye), a fractured jaw and lacerations as well as breaking both her hands and right ankle. The Kingston Public Hospital was her place of abode for one week. The injuries left her unable to work and she remembers being in three casts at the same time.

But like the protagonist in one of her short features, she rebounded. Camilleon Films got going while she was finishing up her master's. She points out that she sent in her final assignment a month before the accident.

"That was God at work," she reasons. She cited other young filmmakers and companies around, just enough to make the arena competitive. Camilleon Films will stay ahead because of "a level of professionalism and organisation. I am highly organised. I'm a writer so in terms of the tightness of writing, that will give me an edge," she says.

"No two days are alike," she smiles. How can they be when today it may be photo shoots, the following day meetings or maybe just writing scripts? Throw in production work with Creative Cooking, being first assistant director on Me And Mi Kru, a Jamaican comedy series on CVM, plus a little event management and she's always doing something. But Robinson thrives on it.

"I don't think I can ever be busy enough," she chuckles.

Best friends

She brought out one of the short films she did in London, The Other Side of Green, a story about two former best friends, one who was envious of the other's alleged better life. While watching it, she tells Flair that she doesn't have a signature style (at least not yet) but when asked whether she considered that piece her best work to date (a hunch we got from the intensity with which she watched it), she admitted as much.

"Well yeah," she thinks aloud. "I did everything. I wrote it, produced it, directed it. It was so much work," she recalls with a smile.

Currently, she's doing a treatment (a concept for the movie that you show to potential investors) for a movie about the famed White Witch of Rose Hall. But don't go looking for it just yet; she admits it is a major project which may not be ready for a couple of years. So just how far can Camilleon Films go?

Cannes Film

"I see myself at the Cannes Film Festival accepting an award," she laughs in a not-totally-joking manner. "I want to make big budget films with a medium-size full-service company that satisfies all the clients' needs," she says more seriously.

That could even include leaving Jamaica because she doesn't want to limit herself. But all those decisions will come in time. Like any good movie, the script will keep you guessing.