Los Angeles — Cinematographer Alice Brooks still has the feather she found on Will Rogers State Beach the day she told her mother that she would rather work behind the camera than in front of it.

It was a big moment. Though only 15, Brooks had been working as a child actor for a decade. By the time she was 10, she had done almost 40 national commercials, a tribute to Mary Martin on Broadway and an ongoing skit for "Late Night With David Letterman." Brooks' sister was having even more success; the family had moved to Los Angeles from New York to further the girls' careers.

On the day Brooks found her feather in 1994, she had just had her seventh and final audition for a small part in the rom-com "While You Were Sleeping." It was down to her and another girl and Brooks knew she hadn't got

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