The future of filmmaking for women, despite the statistics and scholars, remains in the hands of women like Frances Mars.

Mars (senior-film) said her personal confidence will help her overcome barriers to success in the industry -- her gender will not make a difference.

"I don't really contemplate failure," Mars said. "Should it not work out, I'll deal with it . . . I would not let (being a woman) stop me.

"If you're good, you're going to make it," she said.

Mars said she will have to work harder than her male counterparts will, but she sees that changing.

However, women contemplating a future in filmmaking might encounter unspoken blockades created by the industry.

Jeanne Hall, an Ohio University film professor, said the first hurdle must be for women to become comfortable in the film community and especially with the multitude of equipment employed in the field.

"Women are conditioned not to be very comfortable with technology," she said. Women are also not taught how to assert themselves on the set.

Hall said some of her women students find working with a largly male crew subconsciously intimidating.

This intimidation leads to her students to leaning toward more experimental projects, she said, since animation and experiemental work often involve smaller crews.

And when women do mainstream, the public sometimes overshadows their accomplishments, like with the contribution of black men, despite quality work by women.

A difficult decision for women breaking into the business remains whether to take the independent route or try to survive in Hollywood.

Jen Miller (senior-film) said this conundrum goes beyond mere difficulty in deciding the best artistic alternative, since independent films do not generate as much revenue as studio productions.

"Independent filmmakers are usually in filmmaking for the art of it -- it's not a moneymaking thing," she said. "I don't think I want to go the independent route, because it is very hard to to make any money and survive."

Women like Penny Marshall and Nora Ephron moved up through Hollywood's ranks by working in the system in other capacitites -- an option perpetutated by history.

By working as a screenwriter, an editor or an actress, a woman can go on to direct -- the case with both Ephron and Marshall.

What will hurt women in film in the future, Miller said, is if women continue to aim for traditionally "female" roles on a film set.

"Some of the other women in the major -- the things that they want to do are 'women' roles," Miller said. "Production managers, assistant directors -- that's not all of them, though."

But some women remain undaunted by Hollywood attitudes and believe they can gain strength in the field without making sacrifices.

"No one has ever told me I can't do this because I'm a woman," said Jean-Marie Pierson, a freshman who hopes to enter the film major. "It's a time when women are getting into all kinds of fields -- (film is) just like accounting or engineering."