Posts Marked Star Wars

  • Cannes we agree to disagree?

    May 12th, 2010

    On Women’s Wednesday I talk about women in media.

    Last week I gave you details on how to sign a petition so that women could get a fair shot for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which started today.  Well, the petition is now up to 550 and growing. Please show your support of female filmmakers like me and put your name on that petition.

    Now,  you might be thinking: “Shouldn’t be all be judged equally? Why should a woman get preferential treatment just because of her gender?”  If so, I’d like to point you in the direction of a recent debate over at the filmmaking community Shooting People. It started with a post from filmmaker Dennis Goldberg, regarding the request to sign the petition:

    WOW! I am stunned! Now, the choice of a director’s award is to be made based upon gender equality, not ability. Or, should we, even more appropriately, have it based upon gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, political, racial or other ethnicities as opposed to just plain good old fashioned in front of or behind the camera abilities?

    Has society degenerated to such a level that the best is judged not on merit but on socially acceptable profiling?

    Enough teary eyed whining! Get back to the art and improve so as to win next year on talent not on some false premise of “I’m as good as you because I am different”.

    “L’art pour l’art” PERIOD!

    The very next day he received several replies. These are my two (unedited) favorites:

    > Enough teary eyed whining!

    REALLY????

    Ok, first wrap your head around the fact that it took almost a century for a woman to win an Oscar as a director. suck on that for a while.

    Then, hotshot, strap on some boobs, shave, and live as a woman professional for a while. Try it out. Start sending your work out as Daniella and see what happens. Show up on set in the normal Gap style uniform but learn to politely ignore hooting, comments and requests to get someone a coffee, hun.

    Next, hack off 30% (at least) of your paycheck, and pass it to a guy on the crew with at least half your experience. Then, as you get passed over for key positions, accept a job in “typical” female production roles – production manager/coordinator, producer’s assistant, craft service, etc.

    Oh, don’t forget to make sure not to look too butch, so you don’t start getting called a “dyke” or something if you actually do physical work like moving sets, etc. And of course, when you present your work, expect it to be considered second tier, and not all that bankable, even though women make up 51% of the population and movie goers. Women’s stories just aren’t that interesting. Expect a budget a fraction of the size you’d really want to work with. Expect super low expectations from the studio and limited marketing, centering around “women’s holidays”.

    Please, try all the above, at a minimum, before stating crap like your knee jerk email that you shared with us all. Cause until you walk a block, not even a mile, in my shoes, shut the hell up. You have no idea what its like to be a woman creative struggling against a boys club where until recently you had to put up with bullshit to get along. Those days are over, Dennis, so nut up, and deal.

    We are no long asking, we are DEMANDING inclusion. If that’s “unfair” and “whiny”, to damn bad. Lead, follow or get out of the way, women are not having it any more. This isn’t whining, Dennis, this is HOWLING, so you’d better move aside, lest you get blasted for stupidity and naivety.

    Regards,
    Melissa Ulto

    AND…

    I agree that all films should be judged on their merit as films. However, the struggle that minorities have faced in this industry should not be taken lightly. Minorities have more opportunity now than they ever have, but it has been an extremely difficult road, and the industry still displays a great deal of hegemony in what kinds of films are considered “good”, and who gets the opportunity to make those films in the first place. I’m not only speaking about the traditional studio system, it’s in the independent world as well.

    I have been in the industry for 20 years, and have taught production, writing and theory at the college level for 10. I have seen enormous changes from the times when I was the only female in my film classes at NYU, to seeing women outnumber men in some of the classes I teach. But, it’s easy to recall having conversations with male filmmakers who asked, “How come women don’t make good films?”, and actually having to explain that because they liked “guy films”, that didn’t automatically mean that “guy films” were better than “chick films”. I’m using the quotes quite intentionally, as I feel that women should not be expected to only make “chick films”. I certainly don’t but I also don’t want anyone to make a judgement against me because my films are not testosterone-filled or even in more traditional male-dominated genres.

    It was nice that a woman finally won Best Director (although I had always planned on doing that first!), but it did not go unnoticed that it was for The Hurt Locker, and it was a woman known for directing more traditional “guy films” – Point Break, K19: The Widowmaker, etc. This is also fine – fun films, and power to her for playing the game wisely, particularly if she really enjoys these kinds of films. Lord knows, I’m a typical Star Wars baby who thinks she knows more about the original trilogy than anyone, has greatly enjoyed besting others (usually guys) in trivia, and would rather watch them than The Devil Wears Prada, any day.

    My overall point is that one has to be cautious about assuming that a woman having concern about not seeing women represented at the largest festival in the world, is “teary eyed whining”. I’d bet most male filmmakers can’t fathom going on a job interview to be a Director’s Assistant and being asked if they were single, how well they could cook (even though that was not in the job description), how close they live and if they live alone, and if they plan on losing a few pounds. Or how about a job interview at Yankee Stadium to do the Diamond Vision, a job requiring video skills that have nothing to do with genitals, and watching the interviewer’s face deflate immediately at seeing the next candidate was a woman, before any questions were asked, or even before “hello” was said? These two experiences (among others) were in my past, although not all that long ago, and I hope that my female students will never have to experience things like this. We’ve come a long way, and I doubt they will, but I’ll never forget what I experienced in this biz, in my younger years.

    All minority filmmakers have had to be pioneers, and while I certainly agree that films should be judged on the merits of the film, the quality of the storytelling and the art, please understand if those of us who have been shunned, passed over, endured sexism, racism, etc., get a little concerned when we see continued homogeneity in the industry. If you truly are “stunned”, as you say, to see this kind of concern, than it means that our sacrifices were not in vain, and the crap that we endured while trying to make the industry fairer to all minorities, was worth it. Because, then, you exist in a world of filmmaking where there is no sexism or marginalization of any kind. I hope we’re there – I’d really like it to be so, but I won’t fault my fellow female filmmaker for wanting some guarantees, or at the very least, checking a little more closely.

    I’d be very interested to find out what films were submitted that didn’t make it in, compared to the ones that did.

    Heidi C. Bordogna
    Producer/Director/Writer
    Asst. Professor of Communication
    University of Louisiana, Lafayette

    And to answer Heidi’s qustion, this post from Macine Pugh gave a few examples of probable contenders for Cannes:

    I copied this from the film festival website a couple of minutes ago:

    “And it’s a good year for British women directors, with documentaries by Sophie
    Fiennes and Lucy Walker, and a fiction debut, All Good Children, by hotly tipped
    newcomer Alicia Duffy. “

    I hope to have news of the Cannes protest for next week.  Until then, what are your thoughts? Do you think Cannes is a boy’s club? Or are there simply far less female filmmakers that submitted? What do you think the protesters at the Cannes Film Festival should do?

    May 12th,2010 Blogging, Women's Wednesdays | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

  • Clash of the Titans review by Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    April 8th, 2010

    It’s Thursday, which means it’s…

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to     Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Clash of the Titans (2010) dir. Louis Leterrier

    Release Date: April 1, 2010
    Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
    Director: Louis Leterrier
    Screenwriter: Travis Beacham, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
    Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Jason Flemyng, Alexa Davalos, Izabella Miko, Nicholas Hoult, Pete Postlethwaite
    Genre: Action, Fantasy
    MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief sensuality)
    Official Website: Clash-of-the-Titans.com


    Films with gods and monsters are cool. They just are. Even the original “Clash of the Titans”, despite being adrift in the backwash from “Star Wars” and turning Mount Olympus into a discotheque, is a decent romp through the mythology with a couple of superb Ray Harryhausen monsters. So here’s the inevitable re-do.


    The plot is still about getting Perseus (Sam Worthington), Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) and the monstrous Kraken into one place for the show-down, but the details have been adjusted. The focus stays on Perseus and his multi-national gang of assistants rather than the gods, which raises questions: Why is Perseus the only man in the known world to shave? Since Sam Worthington keeps his accent, when did the ancient Greeks reach Western Australia? Why does sexy nymph Gemma Arterton deliver her entire role in dialogue pasted on via ADR, and so is never seen with her mouth open? Only the gods know.

    The big addition is Hades, wheeled into position as the bad guy in order to give Ralph Fiennes some mighty smiting to do. Fiennes treats the role as a big lark and does just fine, but the other gods are disposable bits of stunt casting. Someone in a big beard opens his mouth and turns out to be Danny Huston as Poseidon, but he never says anything else. Those of us who obsess just a little know that the casting of Aphrodite is a key issue, and apparently it was Agyness Deyn but she must have been hiding behind a cloud. As for Liam Neeson, playing Zeus with bored resignation and unleashing the Kraken as if choosing from the wine list, the man is already a god in my house and can do no wrong.


    Aimed squarely at 12-year olds, the new “Clash” is loud and unromantic and total nonsense. And if you’re in a forgiving mood, decent campy fun. It misses every chance to engage with the true impact of gods and mythology on screen, and runs a mile at the uncomfortable fact that those myths involved an awful lot of rape, but then it was made by people who worship nothing but money. The gods are still big, it’s just the pictures that got small.


    April 8th,2010 Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Uncategorized, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

  • Avatar review by Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    January 14th, 2010

    It’s Thursday, which means it’s…

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to     Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Avatar  dir. James Cameron 2009

    Release Date: December  18, 2009 (USA)
    Studio: 20th Century Fox
    Director: James Cameron
    Screenwriter: James Cameron
    Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald
    Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
    MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking)
    Official Website:     Avatarmovie.com

    If you haven’t seen “Avatar” yet, you really should. And see it in 3D – because I’ve only seen the 2D version and I want to hear what it’s like.

    This much I can tell anyway: “Avatar” is a gorgeous spectacle. $300 million or so in the hands of James Cameron, who knows at least as much about electrical engineering as he does about films, buys a ton of pin-sharp deep focus CGI, a whole zoo of fantastic creatures and plenty of stuff exploding.

    And it buys a big step up in the way animated figures move. Apart from the old problem of fast gymnastics and hand to hand combat, which still looks jerky, the critters are animated beautifully with every sweat bead and hair braid rendered to perfection.


    One figure is particularly fantastic: Zoe Saldana makes Neytiri’s growls and snarls come across perfectly, not hindered one bit by the engineering rig that Cameron strapped the actress into. She makes all the other Na’vi seem half asleep.

    Shame that she’s stuck playing Pocahontas in the FernGully fighting the Battle of Endor, thanks to a plot that comes straight from Cameron’s teenage notebook. More bad news on the soundtrack too, with a drippy final song calculated to make people remember “Titanic”. Thanks, I’d rather not.

    “Avatar” looks awesome, sounds terrible, and might change the face of theatrical movie presentation by cracking the floodgates for 3D. Not a bad $300 million’s worth, maybe. But it also proves that nothing yet beats flesh and blood performers. I wouldn’t want to lose the real Michelle Rodriguez, an actress born to just rock up and hit people in the face. I definitely want to see Stephen Lang, terrific as bad guy Colonel Quaritch, bringing stuff to the screen that no computer will ever be able to process. I don’t want “Avatar” to just wake George Lucas up so he can fiddle with “Star Wars” again – ah. Too late.

    January 14th,2010 Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

  • I wish It was Sunday…’cause that’s my Funday

    January 3rd, 2010

    Yes, in the words of The Bangles (actiually, Prince… who knew?) from now on Sunday will be my Funday, where anything goes. I might catch up on all the Facebook messages I compiled from Social Saturdays, perhaps I’ll take the Twitter suggestion that it should be Sleep Sunday, or maybe it’ll be a day like today.

    Sunday is the perfect day for sorting through those all-important emails and newsletters that I’ve been putting off all week, only to get caught in a web of web-links and websites. And that’s basically what my morning looked liked.

    Shortly upon waking I checked for new Twitter messages.  I found this:

    Does this ever happen to you? Where you have no idea what the person is referring to? Especially first thing on a Sunday morning?

    Wiping the sleep from my eyes, the previous night’s twittering activities suddenly dawned on me…
    I befriended one of Raindance’s 10 Filmmakers on Twitter, David Bruckner (dir. of  The Signal) and in response to his:

    I responded (referring to Fan Fridays):

    Always encouraged by Twitter participation, I thought I would check out his website, where I found a wealth of production stills from his latest projects. His site has some great collaborators and the rest of the late morning/early afternoon I’ve been caught in the web.  Below are some of the fantastic sites I’ve fallen pray to:

    Workbook Project (earlier introduced to me by my editor) where I saw an interesting article about…
    Christine Vachon and Killer Films’ new online collaborative project, which lead me to…
    Killer Films’ page on Massify, a cool website for filmmakers where I found…
    Massify on Twitter, full of great resources for filmmakers, which led me back to…
    Massify and the first part of Jon Reiss’ self-distribution blog (Parts 2, 3, 4 make for fast, insightful reading)

    I got a refill of my new fancy ineeka organic Ma-Chai tea acquired over the holidays (I love the Brew-Tache‘, but wish they used less packaging) to prepare for another round of web slinging…

    Deeply interested in all things self-distribution, I checked out Jon Reiss’ Twitter, where somehow I found myself full circle and back on…
    David Bruckner’s Twitter and found this hilarious review of A Phantom Menace:

    There are seven parts to this review and many more videos to fill up your Sunday over at Red Letter Media. As for me, I’m off to play with my recent Christmas pressie, Band Hero.

    Happy Funday Sunday everyone!

    January 3rd,2010 Blogging, Funday Sundays, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments