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“Rhimes, at 43, is often described as the most powerful African-American female show runner in television — which is too many adjectives. She is one of the most powerful show runners in the business, full stop.” — NYT’s Shonda Rhimes profile
“When we did Ocean’s Thirteen the casino set used $60,000 of electricity every week. How do you justify that? Do you justify that by saying, the people who could’ve had that electricity are going to watch the movie for two hours and be entertained – except they probably can’t, because they don’t have any electricity, because we used it.” — Steven Soderbergh’s State Of Cinema Talk
Have you seen Blancanieves yet? Don’t miss it. Snow White as a female bullfighter in 1920s Spain. Playing in these cities.
JLaw = Best Choice for Young Han Solo (how awesome would that be?!)
“It’s changed in Hollywood, but only so much. You can’t get Asians cast in leads yet. Maybe as a second lead, but the lead is still going to be Caucasian or African-American. But Hollywood is fickle, it follows trends. If a show or a film did well with an Asian lead, then it would take off.” — actor Masi Oka from Heroes (read more here)
“at the current rate of growth it would take women 42 years to catch up with men in terms of TV writing staff jobs” — “2013 WGA TV Staff Diversity Report Finds Little Progress,” Deadline
'Downton Abbey' Adds Black Character
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From NYTimes: “Black Characters are Still Too Good, Too Bad or Invisible”
Sundance Institute and Women In Film Los Angeles Study Examines Gender Disparity in Independent Film -
Findings include:
- Of U.S. films selected for the Sundance Film Festival from 2002-2012, 29.8% of filmmakers (directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and editors) were female.
- Across all behind-the-camera positions, females were most likely to be producers. As the prestige of the producing post increased, the percentage of female participation decreased. This trend was observed in both narrative and documentary filmmaking. Fewer than one third of all narrative producers but just over 40% of associate producers were female. In documentaries, 42.5% of producers and 59.5% of associate producers were female.
- When compared to films directed by males, those directed by females feature more women filmmakers behind the camera (writers, producers, cinematographers, editors). This is true in both narratives (21% increase) and documentaries (24% increase).
- Females were half as likely to be directors of narrative films than documentaries (16.9% vs. 34.5%).
- Female directors of Sundance Film Festival films exceed those of the top 100 box office films. 23.9% of directors at the Sundance Film Festival from 2002-2012 were female, compared to 4.4% of directors across the top 100 box office films each year from 2002 to 2012 that were female.
- 41.5% of the female directors across 1,100 top-grossing movies of the past ten years had been supported by Sundance Institute.
- Five major areas were identified as hampering women’s career development in film:
- Gendered financial barriers (43.1%)
- Male-dominated industry networking (39.2%)
- Stereotyping on set (15.7%)
- Work and family balance (19.6%)
- Exclusionary hiring decisions (13.7%)
- Opportunities exist to improve the situation for women in independent film. Individuals mentioned three key ways to change the status quo:
- Mentoring and encouragement for early career women (36.7%)
- Improving access to finance (26.5%)
- Raising awareness of the problem (20.4%)
what up inauguration day
“AWARDSLINE: Callie Khouri has been involved in many projects, but I think many women associate her with writing Thelma & Louise, about two women literally on the road to self-empowerment. Are there any parallels here?
BRITTON: I am, and was, and always will be an enormous fan of Thelma & Louise. I really grew up with that being a seminal movie for me. So I’ve always known who Callie Khouri was; that’s why I was so excited when I got this script. Hers is an interesting kind of feminism. It’s not in your face. (In Nashville), it’s dealing with the complexities of being a woman in a society that really isn’t built for feminism. That’s what I’ve always liked about playing Southern women; some of the most fierce women I’ve known were women from the South, yet they are coming from a world that is not very welcoming to their fierceness. I think Callie really confronts those aspects of feminism in a really unique way. It’s a little subversive, actually.”
— an interview with Connie Britton (aka Coach’s wife on Friday Night Lights) about her new show (ABC’s Nashville) and its writer (Callie Khouri)
NY Times: ‘Scandal’ on ABC Is Breaking Barriers
“There’s too much cheesecake out there that is sold, or at least marketed, as a ‘strong female’ character or book when it’s anything but, it just reinforces the worst opinions of the most sexist fans, and we gain no new ground. We probably lose ground. I’m not approaching this new X-Men as a ‘female book,’ but I’m writing it as a high action X-Men comic, and with some luck that will nullify some of these poisonous critics who go looking for something to feel angry/uncomfortable/threatened by.” — Brian Wood, writer of the new all-female X-Men comic (more on that here)