Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

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  • Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

    Click here to check out The New York Times' article on how some in the industry view the business to be underserving the women's market/demographic. What do you think?

  • #2
    Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

    I think the "dumbing down" statement by Lansing is pretty accurate. Minus a few exceptions, if you combine the post Oscar films of the last four of five winners for Best Actress, it's plain to see. Plus the tentpole films that studios care about and market the most tend not to be women driven films. No wonder why competent actresses are doing so many thrillers and horrors. It's the only box office niche left for women.

    The part about those three women losing their gigs is especially discouraging. Didn't realize Gail got canned. Damn.

    But to every closing of a door is the opening of another.
    "I ask every producer I meet if they need TV specs they say yeah. They all want a 40 inch display that's 1080p and 120Hz. So, I quit my job at the West Hollywood Best Buy."
    - Screenwriting Friend

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    • #3
      Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

      sigh ...
      The problem is what 'the guys' think a 'women's film' has to be like.

      Hey, I'll quote me, I agree with me.

      If you put a female in charge of every studio, she'd still have to bring in Box Office $$$ to her corporate masters, who serve the stockholders. We're not talking some enlightened/female/nurturing/humanist heart over the male calculating/greedy/violence-lusting scrotum here.

      If a male exec could make huge $$$ by making movies about --whatever 'women's film' topics-- then he'd make them until his man-breasts produced milk.

      My point is: guys will make movies that make money, and it's self-defeating to classify things as 'women's films' and 16 year old boy audience films ... as if either of those were the entire audience.

      People like what people like. 'Women give sex to get love and men give love to get sex' ... add in some characters, humour, action or suspense, a great story, and make it fun ... and that's the cure, everyone will want to see and pay to see that movie.

      Women can figure that out. Men can figure that out. Why cannot Hollywood figure that out?
      Last edited by tabula rasa; 04-30-2007, 04:04 PM.
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      "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -
      that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."
      -Mahatma Gandhi.

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      • #4
        Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

        But Tab, "women" don't see those films. Not women over 30 anyway, which is the vast majority of women demographically. Break it down by age, and the reality is "women" (the majority of women) don't want to see the big studio pics.

        If they'd broken down those figures in that particular statistic, it would comfortably support the point of the article. Let's not delude ourselves about that.

        (Yes, yes. There'll be women here who will cry out loud that they loved those movies and hate character-driven films, blah, blah, blah. But it's not the majority of women - the majority being over 30 - and it would be absurd to argue otherwise.)
        Last edited by nic.h; 04-30-2007, 02:40 PM.
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        • #5
          Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

          This bit jumped out at me:
          Even “300,” the abs-and-sandals fanboy’s favorite, enhanced the role of the Spartan queen, Gorgo, to boost the movie’s appeal to women.
          What that says to me is that the female audience is being tacked onto essentially male-focused scripts in an attempt to broaden the appeal. But the fact of the matter is, I think, that most movies are still made for 16-year-old boys.

          Funny thing - a (female) friend of mine who worked in Development for Paramount has expressed the very same feeling many times of late. She spent 80 hours a week wrangling deals for stories that she felt passiontely about, only to watch them drop off the radar as soon as the deal memo went out. No wonder there are fewer women in Hollywood these days. Who can deal with having all your hard work go for nothing for that long?

          But in every problem is an opportunity. And I'd say this is a screaming huge one, myself.
          "The only reason most scripts are bad is because most people can't write." Leslie Dixon

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          • #6
            Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

            Originally posted by j over View Post
            Click here to check out The New York Times' article on how some in the industry view the business to be underserving the women's market/demographic. What do you think?
            Always an issue that worries me. I think there should be more women in the film industry--absolutely. On every level. Shutting the door on women is an error in limiting creative perspective, I think. Unlike many of us dudes, who will point out falicies in the things we like before calling a spade a spade: Chicks seem to gage the BS device in their brain better than men.

            I'd like more chicks involved for sure.
            Last edited by Adam Isaac; 04-30-2007, 04:17 PM.
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            • #7
              Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

              Originally posted by pconsidine View Post
              This bit jumped out at me:
              What that says to me is that the female audience is being tacked onto essentially male-focused scripts in an attempt to broaden the appeal. But the fact of the matter is, I think, that most movies are still made for 16-year-old boys.

              Funny thing - a (female) friend of mine who worked in Development for Paramount has expressed the very same feeling many times of late. She spent 80 hours a week wrangling deals for stories that she felt passiontely about, only to watch them drop off the radar as soon as the deal memo went out. No wonder there are fewer women in Hollywood these days. Who can deal with having all your hard work go for nothing for that long?

              But in every problem is an opportunity. And I'd say this is a screaming huge one, myself.
              I agree. I think, given that there's been a downward trend in the HW BO the past few years, and given the prevalence of big budget action flicks targeting the 16 y o boy, I'd say it's definitely an opportunity waiting to be taken.

              My guess, though, is that the success of women's films will come from outside HW, probably outside America, and will barely cause a ripple at the studios even if it changes the filmgoing demographic (and decision making process) in the rest of the world. In fact, I'd argue that in many ways this transition is already taking place. (Certainly in government funding bodies.)
              Last edited by nic.h; 04-30-2007, 05:01 PM.
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              • #8
                Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                Shortage of Women in Hollywood?
                I'm over here, I'm over here!!!!

                Wait, let me stand on a chair and jump up and down so you can see me .
                "The two hardest words to write are FADE IN. The two most gratifying are FADE OUT."

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                • #9
                  Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                  I reckon what your talking about is that despite 50 percent of an audience being women or girls the suits in Hollywood still don't know what they're doing..

                  Or maybe they do and simply want to force feed you the same safe material because of tried and tested commercial marketing techniques. Why change if it makes money, right?

                  There has been examples where woman have challenged the male dominated view of what constitutes cinema art and commerce and these projects have been equally as successful both commercially and culturally. On a more limited scale maybe but there examples out there.

                  No more does the male dominate as a protagonist in Horror movies, girls do it too you know.. You've only got to look to the 1980's to see the slow transitions made where a female was inserted as a protagonist and funnily enough it worked too..

                  Horror:
                  HALLOWEEN (John Carpenter)
                  THE FOG (John Carpenter)
                  NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (Wes Craven)
                  HELLRAISER (Clive Barker)

                  Sci Fi:
                  ALIEN (Ridley Scott)
                  STAR MAN (John Carpenter)
                  ALIENS (James Cameron)

                  Thriller
                  SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME! (John Carpenter)
                  THE HOUSE ON CAROL STREET (Peter Yates)
                  BLACK WIDOW (Bob Rafelson)

                  Drama:
                  TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (James L. Brooks)
                  BROADCAST NEWS (James L. Brooks)

                  Comedy
                  PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (Francis Coppola)
                  PRETTY WOMAN (Gary Marshall)

                  Only one of the above had an established old type Hollywood star in Shirley MacLaine all the others broke through in genres which were traditionally considered male protagonist roles. And it is interesting to see which film makers decided to follow the emerging trend and plummet for story lines which exploited a female protagonist.

                  I know HALLOWEEN and THE FOG were both co-written by Debra Hill and she went on to make a difference as a producer too.

                  So there are exceptions to the rule. I was thinking of female directors who may have directed stories with a strong female protagonist, particularly within a specific genre and I can't think of that many. Kathryn Bigelow springs to mind with BLUE STEEL starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

                  A lot of other movies which followed tended to return the female protagonist rooted firmly in what is generally regarded as a female story-line. Forgive me, but I'm not stating any particular story type merely a demographic as seen by those who target films to a specific audience. There are always exceptions to the rule.

                  Women have a lot to offer and I value their contribution. Women think differently to me for many reasons and I like to hear and be shown what it is they see differently, this brings a new perspective on a thing. Sometimes the way a women sees things is far more important than the way I see it for sure. To ignore this, well, it's cultural suicide is what it is. It's like making a cake without the icing on the top.. It's all body and no soul.

                  Don't get me wrong, I like any film genre and in any language. I love film so I try not to compartmentalize myself but I do think the film industry is missing a valuable 50 percent input and it could be a lot more successful if it took notice and there were women working in the industry in all the key jobs not only the creative ones but at the business end too.. Definitely like to see that...

                  Kevan

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                  • #10
                    Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                    I thought that felt odd! I edited the comment above, instead of adding a new comment! I forgot what I'd said above, so it mustah been forgettable ... but I must've liked this one quote!

                    sigh ...
                    The problem is what 'the guys' think a 'women's film' has to be like.


                    Hey, I'll quote me, I agree with me.

                    If you put a female in charge of every studio, she'd still have to bring in Box Office $$$ to her corporate masters, who serve the stockholders. We're not talking some enlightened/female/nurturing/humanist heart over the male calculating/greedy/violence-lusting scrotum here.

                    If a male exec could make huge $$$ by making movies about --whatever 'women's film' topics-- then he'd make them until his man-breasts produced milk.

                    My point is: guys will make movies that make money, and it's self-defeating to classify things as 'women's films' and 16 year old boy audience films ... as if either of those were the entire audience.

                    People like what people like. 'Women give sex to get love and men give love to get sex' ... add in some characters, humour, action or suspense, a great story, and make it fun ... and that's the cure, everyone will want to see and pay to see that movie.

                    Women can figure that out. Men can figure that out. Why cannot Hollywood figure that out?
                    sigpic
                    "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -
                    that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."
                    -Mahatma Gandhi.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                      I know HALLOWEEN and THE FOG were both co-written by Debra Hill and she went on to make a difference as a producer too.
                      Debra Hill was awesome.
                      sigpic

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                      • #12
                        Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                        Originally posted by tabula rasa View Post
                        Women can figure that out. Men can figure that out. Why cannot Hollywood figure that out?

                        Good post, you got that right... On the money I'd say

                        The trick is apppeal to the wider audience and not the specifics.. Yeah, this is the way of it... I agree..

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                        • #13
                          Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                          Originally posted by Adam Isaac View Post
                          Debra Hill was awesome.
                          Yeah she was. I must admit to having a tear in my eye when I discovered she'd passed. A very sad loss... Very talented person.. They broke the mold when they made her, for sure..

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                          • #14
                            Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                            I suspect that the lack of women throughout the rest of the process makes a huge difference in what actually gets made. After all, there are tons of women in lower level development positions, out there acquiring all kinds of material to produce. It's just that there aren't enough people back at the home office to back them up and their stuff gets washed down the river of sewage.

                            The worst part is that I suspect some of those lower level execs would be perfect for the next wave of female senior execs, if they could just hang in there. But damn it's got to be tough as hell.
                            "The only reason most scripts are bad is because most people can't write." Leslie Dixon

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                            • #15
                              Re: Shortage of Women in Hollywood?

                              Man, woman...I don't give a damn just as long as you can do a good job...something which is rare in today's mainstream cinema.

                              Women can figure that out. Men can figure that out. Why cannot Hollywood figure that out?
                              Because Hollywood is a business and doesn't care what type of product they put out because they're making money regardless. They don't care about good movies, they care only about money. Nothing else. Not one thing. Money money money money money.

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