For all of its creative fronts, production is a very technical, tough profession. You need to put in your time in the field, schlepping gear, and working long days for nothing. You put in your hours and if you are lucky enough, someone takes you under their wing and nurtures your career. Having a mentor in your corner is crucial. Here’s the rub, women directors and executives in the film industry are few and far between. Which makes female role models for aspiring filmmakers almost non-existent. Even when there is someone bright, lucky and determined enough to break through that glass ceiling – they are often met with backlash. It’s happening right now to Kathryn Bigelow, the director of The Hurt Locker. Bigelow is the only female director to win an academy award.
http://jezebel.com/5480175/the-transvestite-of-directors-a-backlash-against-kathryn-bigelow
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/the_hurt_locker
If you had a chance to glance over those two articles, they bring up a major question. If a woman in this industry takes on traditionally masculine subject matter in her work and is successful, does that make her a feminine role model or is she playing to the Hollywood boys’ club?
The only way I can answer this is to look at my own experience. Recently, my concept was chosen for a campaign for Community Hospital of Grand Junction. The spots are very human centric and focus on intimate stories from patients. Late last year, I concepted and storyboarded a series of spots for “Midnight Lounge” (aka, the adult channels on Dish Network). Two concepts that are on completely different sides of the spectrum.
Funny thing is, even though one concept could be viewed as feminine and the other masculine, my gender never had anything to do with my ideas or the images I presented. I recently saw a documentary with a great visual style. I used that as the basis for my Community Hospital concept. In the case of Midnight Lounge, it was easy. Sexy female images are used to sell to men and women. I know what’s sexy and I know what men think is sexy. Ultimately the reason they were chosen was because they were most inline with what the client wanted. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I’m a woman.
So I guess my answer to the question is – Kathryn not a feminist or acting masculine to fit into the male dominated Hollywood industry. She’s just good at her job, that’s why she won the Oscar. And maybe if more of us just realized that she was good at her job, not a symbol or playing a role or whatever – there would be more opportunities for all of us gals.
Megan Cranston