I am Woman, Hear Me...

Coming off a project in which I wrote a script with three great, highly nuanced male roles and one so-so female supporting role, I read this article:

Gender inequality still has a starring role in Hollywood

Nothing new. The study didn't even address the fact that there are more female actors vying for fewer good female roles.

I am proud of the latest script I completed, but I do regret that it had worse than a 3:1 ratio of decent male roles to female roles. Reading this article, I'm reminded that as a female writer, I still can be part of the gender inequality problem.

Since I started out acting, part of my dream has always been to write scripts that will bring creative opportunities and employment to more female actors. It is always about the story first, and not the casting agenda; however, with half of the world population being female, it is utterly foolish to think that strong female characters somehow weaken a story! The male-dominated story mill is not a product of logic, but rather of habit. Given the fact that male screenwriters are less likely to go out of their way to create strong female roles*, I believe it is not only a noble dream for me to do what I can to fill the gap... it is also my responsibility.

It was such a joy to see all of those women up at the podium receiving the SAG Award for outstanding cast for The Help this year. While I must admit that it would be nice to someday receive recognition from the Academy for my writing, I think it would be equally enjoyable to be able to sit back and watch a group of talented actresses receive an award that they never would have been considered for if not for hours, weeks, months, even years I spent creating characters for them to inhabit.

This is not just another "I am woman, hear me roar" rant, but rather a "I am woman, hear me... Hey! Over here! I am woman, I exist... I am part of this world you are writing about. Please remember that at least occasionally. It could even add some authenticity and depth to your writing!"

There may have been a lot of changes in the world for women in the four decades since Helen Reddy wrote her #1Hit Song, "I am Woman," but looking at what comes out of (and what goes on in) Hollywood, I'd say we've still got a long way to go... Baby.

Emily Joy Craig (center, www.facebook.com/cast.emily) was the lead in "Grace Like Rain," my 2011 short script about a young woman struggling to be taken seriously in a production role in 1930's Hollywood. Seen here on set with fellow cast members, Gib Gerard, Jenn Gotzon, and Kristin McCoy

* Hats off to Tate Taylor, however, for writing the screenplay for The Help (based on a novel by a female writer, BTW)

Writing from the Heart AND for the Market

So much of life is a balancing act.  Not only do people like symmetry visually, but they find it practical functionally as well.  Too much weight on one side of the wheelbarrow might even tip it over, and then you'll be side-tracked by shoveling up all the s*** ("stuff") you were hauling all over again.

Artists grapple with balance all the time, and I'm not just talking about within their composition, arrangement of design elements, structure of literary flow, and so on and so forth... I'm talking about within their lives and their work practices.

In the imagination of on-lookers, the life of an artist is a carefree existence--one not ruled so much by the laws of logic as by the fancy of the heart.  We're right-brained, after all (which is a nice excuse for laziness, sloppiness, and erratic behavior.) The idea of a "Starving Artist" has been romanticized.  Some even look at an artiste who focuses too much on the business side of his profession as a sell-out, less of a true artist.

We declare with deep ardor that art must first of all be true to the heart of the artist.  Who cares what the people want?--I've gotta be me!  That's why novelists are admired for dark, probing prose, and Hollywood is mocked for whitewashing the intensity of truth when the novel is adapted to the screen and the ending is tweaked to satisfy an audience hungry for happy endings tied up in neatly trimmed packages.

I've been on a high horse like that plenty of times--from the times that I've mocked the "contrived" blockbuster to the times I've defended the cryptic ending of my own "art" film.  

One really must understand teeter-totter physics in order to fully appreciate the danger of mounting the proverbial "high horse."  

Looking at the incline of the board in the above illustration, a child who has never played on a teeter-totter might think that the best place for the horse to stand in order to be king of the hill would be on the end of the board that is higher in the air (the end to the right in the picture.)  It doesn't take long on the playground, however, for a child to learn the lesson of balance.  The horse will find his highest possible position on the board by distributing his weight in a manner that is balanced in relation to the fulcrum (or by throwing a REALLY fat kid on the other end--but that's an entirely different issue).  

Women in Hollywood: Speak Up!

Disclaimer: This is not a final treatise on the subject. Really, it’s more of a musing out loud, a conversation starter--meaning: I’d love for you to join in a process that I hope will bring greater clarity of purpose and direction for those of us who are “women in film.” I’d also love to hear from those who make up our audience and the men we have the pleasure to share our work with. This is in no way intended to bash male filmmakers or those who worked on either of the Twilight films.






Ever since the last Twilight installment came out and "shocked" the Hollywood prognosticators, I have been reading blogs and articles by sister filmmakers giddy about the glimmer of hope for women in film because the female audience is finally getting noticed and we think--this time--it might stick!

I, however, have been fairly guarded in my response, partially because I'm not convinced that the fare which females are flocking to the theaters for is truly, well, worthwhile--I mean, is it really to be considered "progress" for our gender when a bunch of drooling school girls pay to see a hunky guy take his shirt off? After all, most of the females I know in this industry are actually concerned with art and content (gasp) and I'm still not convinced that the studios are going to rush to fund *that* kind of thing when they can just put a pretty boy up on the screen, manipulate every girl who longs to find her meaning as a man's "personal brand of heroin," and rake in a fortune.

Another reason I'm not getting caught up in the girl-power rally yet is the fact that I'm not even convinced that there is such a thing as a homogeneous "female audience." If the studios take notice of the Twilight phenomenon, and try to use it as a template for the wooing of the elusive "female audience," we will not have progress. It will just be more of the same pandering and dumbing down, and large segments of the art-house hungry female population will continue to be unrepresented in the calibrating of the filmmaking machinery. (Note that while the first Twilight film was directed by a female, the second was not... I didn't follow the politics of the hiring, but I couldn't help but wonder: did they think they had figured out the formula & just revert back to the status quo?)

I'm just saying that I'm not in a hurry to trust the powers-that-be in Hollywood to make intelligent conclusions from the complicated connections between what female audiences choose to spend their money on (given what is offered to them at the box office), and what females who work in the industry know and have to offer. I think that in playing it safe with the status quo (which includes hiring male directors 90% of the time regardless of whether honest accounting supports the choice), studios--and even a lot of smaller production companies--are seriously limiting their own potential to reach broader audiences.

Yes, there is a vast audience of females out there, hungry for film with which we can identify. But, no, we are not to be grouped in a simple clump and satisfied by formulaic entertainment "product" designed by those who only *think* they understand the complexity of their newly targeted viewers. I wonder sometimes at the logic of some who are considered experts at "business." I think of myself as more of an artist than a business mind, and yet even I understand that hiring those who ARE members of a target audience just might help in the production of stuff that appeals to the target audience.

That is definitely not to say that just because one is a member of a particular group, that they are not able to appeal to those outside that group. Sometimes the infusion of an "outside" influence in the creation process can invigorate the entire team and bring about something that is fresh and interesting to everyone. I've worked with male co-creators who actually jump at the opportunity to work on female-led projects because they find the energy and atmosphere "different and refreshing" after years of working on male-dominated sets.

Last week, Manohla Dargis wrote an insightful analysis of the situation of women in film for the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/movies/13dargis.html

I'd love to hear your thoughts, too.