Women in Film - Still Challenging

Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinoff has made a new decree that "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead". This is based off of two under-performing female-lead driven movies in the past year (with Jodi Foster & Nicole Kidman).

I've got to go and pull some statistics but there are very few female driven movies (even Pixar has yet to do a movie with a female lead) but there are a whole bunch of male-lead movies that tank every week and no one seems to find this alarming.

When I first got into movie making I was 19 and very naive - I just did anything and everything for fun. I love movies and the movie making process. Background bits and stories are my passion. I never really took it all serious because it was just so much fun (yes, 20 hours on set was fun). But I was working in Canada, Europe and New Zealand - a much different beast than working in Hollywood itself. It wasn't until 4 years ago that I actually made my way to Los Angeles and began working in "Hollywood."

For the first time I found everything - the people, the attitude, getting things off the ground, getting taken seriously - a challenge. Because I look like I'm in my early twenties, I wear dresses and I have a quick wit that makes people and myself laugh a lot I wouldn't get taken as serious despite the fact I had years of experience, great perception and was completely capable of putting together the right people, coordinating sets or working in post production to get stuff out.

Hollywood is still run by an Old Boys club and these men would think me "cute" but not "capable " until I started proving myself with successfully completed projects (either in development or production). Once people saw the results, the dresses, the laughter and the look didn't seem to matter - as much. However, being female always has and people in Hollywood are very open about this. And the only women who seem to care about this are those who work in the background (producers, directors, script writers, designers, coordinators etc). It's been my experience that a lot of the young actresses just don't care - and they should. They're going to suffer for this with crappy roles that are disappearing.

There have been a lot of women in film that I've been working with on getting projects up and running and they are almost always small and independent - even with big A-List actresses. These projects don't get as much promotion so finding an audience can often be hard but the upswing is that when they do find an audience, they're almost always well received.

I'm not one to do "women only" projects but I do believe in supporting women in areas where we lack credibility and accessibility solely because of gender. I work to help us do what we want and not necessarily to prove anything. But it's comments from people like Robinoff that make me just want to flip the bird and say, "Alright, game on."

October 5, 2007 | Link to this | Filed in Hollywood |

Sincerity in Work

My favourite movie of all time is Lawrence of Arabia and when, a few months back, I was able to see it fully restored on 70mm film in an actual theatre (complete with intermission), I was in absolute heaven. It is what a movie is all about from how it began, to how it was filmed, the how it was completed and then the bonus of how it well it was received.

The footage of how the movie was created, to me, is part of what Lawrence of Arabia is. What was supposed to be a 6week project turned into three years. As Peter O'Toole has said of the movie he went in a young, inexperienced boy and came out a very changed man. And he was changed not by how the movie was received but the process of making the movie itself.

So much of the movie is amazing to me; the cinematography blows me away every time I see it and was especially mesmerizing when, in the theatre, I saw for the first time little bits of sand drifting across the desert. The acting, the script, the costumes, the direction, the music - it is everything and more. It is why I fell in love with movies and why I love working on sets. It is the process of creation - the hard work, the long hours, the creativity, the messes, the camaraderie - that is what suits me best, keeps me content, and gets me up in the morning. Everyone on the set hopes the outcome will be worth it but for most people who work on it (set designers, costumer's, craft services, cinematographers, actors etc) are doing what they love and loving the process. Each day, each set, they are worried only about that moment - and not the outcome. That's what I was always about, too - the moment. Enjoying each moment and feeling good at the end of each day that I'd done just that. This left me with wonderful stories to tell, a sense of pride, feeling full or tired from a hard days work. The outcome {money, success, rewards, brownie points} never, ever were a part of my living process. I never cared if I came out with a bazillion dollars - I only cared if I enjoyed the day.

However, last night I realised that this philosophy had gone the way side when, sitting in a gown with the hair done and lipgloss on, I was debating whether or not to go to an after Oscar Party. At the party I'd mingle with the whose who of Hollywood, I'd wear a smile and be annoyed when talking to people seeing how their eyes are always moving, looking to see who better to talk to. I'd have to make the trek into Hollywood and rub shoulders with starlets who are in the business for the end product - the parties, the fame, the attention, the money. I wouldn't relate, I'd feel dirty and I'd come home early. Because for me, the celebration would have been at the Oscars themselves, when people who did the real work would be doing the real celebrating and talking about what they did and "do you remember when...?" stories and not at the after parties where everyone shows up to try to get some coverage and show that they're cool.

I'm not cool.

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March 6, 2006 | Link to this | Filed in Hollywood |

What is fame?

I've worked on Hollywood movie sets for over ten years and the last year, since living in the Los Angeles area, been more heavily involved. I started with the top people, met more along the way, work with a-listers, chat them up at the local cafe, wave hi to them in Brentwood and generally have seen pretty much everyone. The only time I've ever been tongue tied was meeting the Gilmore Girls Grandpa but I think it had very little to do with actually Hollywood and celebrity. I kid you not, with everyone else it's literally been just everyone else.

I remember when the television show The Insider was first going live and I was brought down by their media department to interview. Seems my ability to write, work with people and who I knew was reason I was sought out. And whilst there on set, I remember an actor coming over to me and just demanding a crap load of stuff. I looked at him and said, "Are you kidding me with this?" And he replied, "Don't you know who I am?" To which I responded, "No, actually, I don't" and walked off. I ended up turning down the job because I didn't understand the fascination with celebrities and I didn't want to perpetuate it.

I'm all for giving respect but not giving out adoration or jumping just because someone's been on some series. I do not read gossip mags, watch television shows about celebrities and I'm not on the up and up of who's dating who. I love, adore, swoon over being on a film set. I adore great, wonderful movies and working with a cast and crew. But I am so unbelievably over and annoyed with the whole Hollywood Obsession.

This comes about because today I was driving through the back streets of Beverly Hills to get home and the streets were cornered off and police were everywhere. I was told I could get out through a barricade just down the road and while I was stopped, I saw what all the fuss was for.

There was a pre-Golden Globe even at the Beverly HIlton and in another back street beside me was all the limo's coming to pull into the hotel. Limos and town cars with black rolled up windows and on the other side was a horde of people. Screaming. Waving. Crying. Pleading. Not for a specific car, but for any car that looked like someone. They just wanted to be seen by someone, recognised by someone, be acknowledged by someone. And not someone who seriously means anything, but by someone who lives in a make believe world that they fantatsise about joining.

And that scene made my heart break. Literally.

Months ago there was a woman visiting my neighbour. She sat outside to talk on her cell phone to her friends back home. "Guess what!" she cried with so much excitement, "You'll never believe who we saw today! URKEL!". I didn't know who Urkel was but when I found out, I found it sad that that character and the person who played him, made this poor woman feel special. It made her whole trip out to Los Angeles worth it.

A few years ago, when I was receiving between 500-800 emails a day I did my best to reply to as many as possible. And 90% of the time when I'd reply, I'd get weird fan mails back saying, "I never thought you'd reply!" People had me on some kind of pedestal and some how received validation from me writing them back. It bothered me greatly to have fans or "minions" (the die hard people who live vicariously through my site, follow my every word and want to be me in ways that are flattering but scary. And they do this to a lot of people). I don't want anyone to measure their life against mine. I don't want anyone to think I can make things better by saying hi or that they are "cool kids" because they know me. That's just absolutely retarded.

I've learned to keep my mouth shut about who I'm friends with and who I work with outside of the industry (inside the industry it totally works by who you know). If I say I am working on a movie set people always want to know who it's with. When I worked in a corporate office no one ever asked me who my boss was or who sat next to me. Why does some celebrity make it cooler? Why does it make me special?

There's a fascination with Hollywood that I just can't accept - I understand it but I just can't accept it. People reading Star Magazine and gossiping about people they don't know - not taking two seconds to think about how they'd feel to have their life under a microscope or having to answer how they feel about politics when they know shit. I don't understand looking up to Hollywood People. Trust me people, they don't have the answers. They have scripts. And managers. And stylists.

Within Hollywood, I accept how it works. I accept the layers and the protocols and I go along with it because I really love the movie making process. I'm not out to change that, it's an institution good and back, but I'd love more than anything to change people obsess and celebrate Celebrities. I'd rather people's sense of worth come from within themselves and things they do - rather than against some imaginary or vicarious life of someone else.

January 16, 2006 | Link to this | Filed in Hollywood |