Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Film Industry Blog 5, Question 3 (March 3rd)
Hollywood has started to take steps to address critiques over its lack
of diversity, particularly in the areas of race and gender. What else, if
anything, needs to be done to make the film industry (behind the scenes) and
its products (movies) more representative of its audience? Limit: 7 responses
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In 2015, when the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag started, the Oscars nominees were 92 percent white and 75 percent male. Now, the Oscars is about 46 percent female and 32 percent people of color. While this is certainly admirable to include more people of previously disenfranchised groups, it is still not representative of the U.S. population, which is 50.5 percent women and 39.6 percent people of color. Even if the Oscars continues to add women of people of color at their current percentages, the organization will neve surpass the proportions of the U.S. population (Keegan). Thus, thought the Oscars may be trying to include more people, it is very implausible that they will be able to be totally representative of the U.S. population.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the Academy did see a shift in documentary filmmaking which was largely male dominated and then switched to being female dominated. Director Roger Ross Williams said, “I didn't understand how the doc branch could not have as many women as men. And so, every time I would reach out to the membership, I'd be like, 'Nominate a woman this year. Nominate a woman this year.' And this year we finally [achieved parity]” (Keegan). The categories that have gained the greatest amount of new female members are costume design, casting directors, marketing, makeup and hair, and producers (Keegan). Although this again is admirable for the Academy, it is certainly only one area in which the Academy has achieved its goal of welcoming more women Overall, there is still much work to do. April Reign, who created the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag in 2015 after a year of all-white nominees, said, "If the Academy membership is still 84 percent white and 68 percent male, and the average age of the Academy member is still late 50s, early 60s, this still boils down to a popularity contest among older white men in the film industry” (Keegan).
While the Academy has tried to nominate more women for prestigious awards and include more women as members for the voting process, overall, there is a need for more women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and other members of other minority groups to be involved in every aspect of the filmmaking process. There is especially a need for there to be more representation of women of color is prestigious positions in the film industry as “historically less than 1 percent of all directors in the last 13 years were women of color” (Schaffstall). While there has been an increae in female directors, a “study found that the percentage of female directors from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups has dropped from last year's 21.4 percent to 16.8 percent” (Schaffstall).
Some of the diversity problem in Hollywood starts with nominating more women and minorities for the more prestigious awards such as Best Director and Best Screenplay. When people see others that look like them that are represented in film, they are more likely to want to be involved in the industry. Eva Longoria said, “When a girl sees herself as a scientist, or a boy sees someone with his skin color as a law student, it plants a seed that this is possible” (Baston). Longoria herself was inspired “by a young, Mexican American singer named Selena Quintanilla, whose skin looked like mine, whose hair texture resembled mine, who sounded like me” (Baston). Thus, some of the problem may lie with writing screenplays with diverse characters and diverse stories and studios wanting to make those films. After all, as Alan Horn, chief creative officer and co-chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said, “As they say, if it's not on the page it's not on the stage” (Belloni).
DeleteWorks Cited:
Baston, Eva Longoria. “Eva Longoria: Representation Matters. It’s Also Just Good Business.” Time, 01 Mar. 2018, https://time.com/5179369/eva-longoria-representation-in-hollywood/
Belloni, Matthew. “Studio Chief Summit: All 7 Top Film Executives, One Room, Nothing Off-Limits (and No Easy Answers).” The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Oct. 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hollywood-reporter-executive-roundtable-7-major-studio-chiefs-1250718?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_source=Direct
Keegan, Rebecca and Ben Zauzmer. “Is the Oscars' Inclusion Push Working? Breaking Down the Surprising Academy Numbers.” The Hollywood Reporter, 04 Feb. 2020, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/is-oscars-inclusion-push-working-surprising-academy-numbers-1275305.
Schaffstall, Katherine. “Female Directors of Top-Grossing Films Reached 13-Year High in 2019: Annenberg Study.” The Hollywood Reporter, 02 Jan. 2020, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/female-directors-top-films-reached-13-year-high-2019-annenberg-1265541
The lack of equality in diversity has been a struggle in the film industry. Race and gender are huge categories that create controversial issues. Also, gender lacks a lot of equality especially in how much our society has changed. As opportunities and empowerment portrays to a lot of women in other career goals, it should be carried over to film. As new content and creativity is developing, it is only fair that everyone gets the same chance to participate in it. Hollywood has really tried to address these issues. The article states, “The percentage of white characters has decreased significantly in 2018 (63.7%) in comparison to 2017 (70.7%) and 2007 (77.6%). Black characters were at a 12-year high in 2018, though the percentage was just shy of a 5 percentage point difference (+4.8) between 2018 and 2017. A 3.9 percentage point difference was observed from 2007 to 2018 in the percentage of Black characters” (18 Smith). This shows how the film industry is trying to make a difference. As this was 2 years ago, in 2020 this should increase even higher. Also, women empowerment also stands out. "2020 will be an extraordinary year for female directors," said Smith. "That's important, because we're seeing women being given opportunities to direct action movies and not just smaller, independent films." She continued, "Progress will come when females are given the opportunity to carry movies behind the camera across genres and budget ranges." (Schaffstall). This is a great step that has impacted many. This also connects to how diversity boosts box offices. For instance, “According to a February UCLA report, films with casts that include at least 20 percent actors of color tend to perform better at the global box office than predominantly white movies. This finding has been consistent throughout the seven years of UCLA’s study, which also found that the more racially diverse a movie is, the greater its return on investment tends to be” (UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report 2019) This embodies that including a variety of characteristic within the industry creates a better film but it also is fair to many.
ReplyDeleteEven though this is a huge aspect to this industry there is also a variety of other aspects of improvement that need to represent more of its audience. Hollywood has the responsibility to involve all types of people. For the movie aspect they need to represent the lGBTQ+ community.” Most depictions of LGB characters are by white males, which fails to show the diverse nature of this community. While celebrating small increases its important, there are key ways in which the LGBTQ community is still left out of popular movies. “(24 Smith). This shows how Hollywood needs to incorporate a bigger variety of people into the movies. It is important to highlight everyone as an equal and continue to give opportunities in leading roles. Behind the scene work is just as important as well. It is important to not restrict employment opportunities. It states, “While expanding inclusion on screen and behind the camera is crucial, ensuring that directors from all backgrounds have access to all jobs is paramount.” (31 Smith) Behind the screen work is also just as competitive. “Only one woman has ever won an Oscar for best director, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2009” (Quick). That is extremely unfair and films should always be gender-equal. Female representation in the film industry is increasing and people are starting to put more effort into recognizing it. “Cultural change is needed at all levels, says critic Anna Smith: “We need big awards ceremonies like the Oscars to acknowledge more female directors and cinematographers to encourage young women entering the industry” Anna Smith shows how significant it is in our culture to be welcoming. The film industry needs to help make these changes a bigger impact. It will be interesting to see how it expands in the future.
DeleteWorks Cited
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: In Hollywood, a Decade of Racial Progress But at a Glacial Pace.” The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-hollywood-s-favorite-films-decade-1263590?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_now_2019-12-23 07:02:56_ehayden&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie.
Inequality in 1,200 Popular Films - Assets.uscannenberg.org. assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-inequality-report-2019-09-03.pdf.
Quick, Miriam. “Culture - The Data That Reveals the Film Industry's 'Woman Problem'.” BBC, BBC, 9 May 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180508-the-data-that-reveals-the-film-industrys-woman-problem.
Schaffstall, Katherine. “Female Directors of Top-Grossing Films Reached 13-Year High in 2019: Annenberg Study.” The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/female-directors-top-films-reached-13-year-high-2019-annenberg-1265541.
Kyra Birnbaum works cited ^^
DeleteThe issue of diversity and inclusion in the film (and television) industry is something I’ve always been invested in. The majority of my friends are film majors, and I know from even their early experiences that being a woman, a person of color, or someone not straight or gender-conforming can immediately create barriers to opportunities. On the flip side of that, I know many of them have been excited and encouraged by recent success in the field by diverse creators. And on the other side again, it seems like none of those even matter when it comes to mainstream awards and commendations.
ReplyDeleteLet’s look just at the past couple of years. A report by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative started with the phrase, “New year, no progress in the number of females on screen” (Smith et.al.). An analysis of 1,200 films revealed some disappointing numbers. 12.3% of those films had “balanced” casts in terms of gender. The ratio of male characters to females was 2.2:1. Out of 100 top films from 2018, only 39 featured a female lead or co-lead. And out of those leads and co-leads, only 11 were from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups; and only 11 were actors that were 45 years of age or older (Smith et.al.). And all of that is on the report’s first page. If we’re looking at race, things get even worse. According to a peice by the Hollywood Reporter, “minorities make up 40 percent of the U.S. population. But… Only 2.2 out of 10 lead actors in a broadcast scripted series are people of color… [and] Whites comprised 77 percent of all film roles in 2017” (Abdul-Jabbar).
Behind the scenes, there are similar trends. Racial minorities make up only 12.6% of writers and 7.8% of directors. Women “comprised 20% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 100 grossing films in 2019,” but that number drops to 12% when you look only at the directors for those films (Lauzen). Another statistic in that same report found that out of the top 250 films of 2019, “85% had no women directors, 73% had no women writers, 72% had no women editors” and a whopping “95% had no women cinematographers” (Lauzen). A study titled “‘Behind the Scenes:
The State of Inclusion and Equity in TV Writing’ found that diverse writers that manage to get their foot in the door are often isolated, relegated to lower levels where they have little power to contribute, and have little say in casting in order to improve on-screen representation.” (Ramos).
DeleteAnd yet, in the past few years we’ve seen definitive proof that content created by women, people of color, and LGBTQ people not only succeeds, but thrives. Black Panther “proved that a black superhero movie, set in a black culture, directed and written by black filmmakers, could earn more than $1 billion.”; “Get Out proved that a horror film that includes subtle but searing social commentary, made by black filmmakers, could be critically and financially successful” (Abdul-Jabbar). In 2019, a USC Annenberg study “found that 10.6 percent of the directors of 2019's top-grossing movies were women, which is the highest percentage in more than a decade”—films like “Greta Gerwig's Little Women, Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers, Olivia Wilde's Booksmart, Lulu Wang's The Farewell and Melina Matsoukas' Queen and Slim” (Shaffstall).
So why the persistent exclusion? Why the continued stigma that films created by women are only for women, that films by black people are only for black people, that films by gay people are only for the LGBTQ community? When a white guy makes a movie, it’s expected that anyone might want to see it, regardless of their identity.
A lot of things need to change if we want to see these numbers grow. Those currently in power within Hollywood can use their influence for good, by choosing to hire diverse writers, producers, actors, cinematographers, etc. They can sponsor or fund projects by minority or female creators and encourage support for films that tell underrepresented stories. But at the end of the day, cash is king, and us as consumers hold power in what we choose to pay for. Seeing movies by diverse creators is the best way individuals can promote inclusion in Hollywood—besides breaking into the industry ourselves.
Works Cited:
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: In Hollywood, a Decade of Racial Progress But at a Glacial Pace.” The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-hollywood-s-favorite-films-decade-1263590?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%27s%2BToday%2Bin%2BEntertainment_now_2019-12-23%2B07%3A02%3A56_ehayden&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie.
Choueiti, Marc, et al. Inequality in 1,200 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBTQ & Disability from 2007 to 2018. USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Sept. 2019.
Lauzen, Martha. “The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 100, 250, and 500 Films of...” Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, 7 Jan. 2020, womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/the-celluloid-ceiling-behind-the-scenes-employment-of-women-on-the-top-100-250-and-500-films-of-2019/.
Ramos, Dino-Ray. “Film & TV Diversity: What Changed In 2019 And What's Next In 2020.” Deadline, 4 Jan. 2020, deadline.com/2020/01/hollywood-diversity-2009-strides-film-tv-representation-inclusion-1202817299/.
Schaffstall, Katherine. “Female Directors of Top-Grossing Films Reached 13-Year High in 2019: Annenberg Study.” The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/female-directors-top-films-reached-13-year-high-2019-annenberg-1265541.
Brent Costantino
ReplyDeleteStreaming services seemed to have taken over the entertainment market in recent years, and the number of streaming platforms seem to be growing on a daily basis. Netflix is the largest streaming service with over 125 million subscribers in over 190 countries, Hulu trails in second place at approximately 30 million subscribers. Individual production companies and networks on television have begun to enter the world of streaming content. Disney has recently come out with their own streaming network, Disney+. Amazon owns the rights to Amazon Prime Video, and networks such as HBO have monthly-based subscription apps for viewers to watch all of the content produced for that specific channel. The high amount of streaming services has caused a content overload for viewers watching from home because there are so many different options to choose from. Movie theaters can be very costly and inconvenient for the average entertainment consumer, which makes paying the $9 a month for a Netflix subscription and binge-watching your favorite movies or TV shows from home more appealing than a night out at the theater. The competition from streaming services such as Netflix has caused production companies to be more selective with what they produce for theatrical releases. Streaming services have not seemed to hurt box office numbers too badly. George Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter writes, “While Hollywood has been debating if or how much the rise of streaming services and franchise fatigue is hurting the film business at home, studios’ profits for 2019 showed little evidence of pain, rising across the board, in some cases to record levels.” Studio executives would like to ensure that their films are going to make a profit at the box office, ultimately forcing them to not take risks on original scripts and instead producing spinoffs of previous box office hits. It has become too risky to take a chance on investing money into an original script, and producing the story for a theatrical release. Imagine if Paramount Pictures did not want to take a risk in making the original “Godfather” film. Sequels have become the trend of Hollywood, Derek Thompson of the Atlantic writes, “Sequels have been the lifeblood of the movie business for more than a decade.” Streaming services also allow a new space for filmmakers to share their work on. For example, ‘The Irishman’ received its 200-million-dollar budget and creative freedom from Netflix after no studio wanted to take the chance. While referring to ‘The Irishman,’ Steven Zeitchik of the Washington Post writes, “It either signals a fresh mode of collaboration between Hollywood’s old and new guards – or shows how incompatible, and commercially unwise, such a partnership would be.” Company’s such as Netflix have become an alternate distributor to movie theaters and production companies who don’t want to take a risk on certain films. Independent films are included in this as well.
Works Cited
ReplyDeleteSzalai, Georg. “Studio Profit Report 2019: Disney Reigns, Netflix Gains.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Feb. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/studio-profit-report-2019-disney-reigns-netflix-gains-1281114.
Thompson, Derek. “Hollywood Has a Big Millennial Problem.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 June 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/hollywood-has-a-huge-millennial-problem/486209/.
Zeitchik, Steven. “How Netflix Could Disrupt the World of High-End Film with 'The Irishman'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Sept. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/09/27/netflix-seeks-disrupt-world-high-end-film-with-irishman/.