Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
You guys. I get to tell you about Good. Freaking. News. Things that are good. Things that are positive. This feels amazing. Amazon’s new lineup of shows coming out this fall have achieved something that Hollywood and the media machine have failed to do… ever. They have announced their new programming and an incredible 50% of it is lead by female creators.
I am going to repeat that again because it makes me want to cry. That’s how grateful I am. 50% of the shows in the upcoming class on Amazon Prime are being created by WOMEN.
My jaw is sort of on the floor about all this, so here’s more detail while I get myself together and put together articulate thoughts again. From Indiewire:
“Happily, half of Amazon’s next batch of pilots are created by women writers, and half directed or co-directed by women helmers. The female-created series with arguably the highest profile is “One Mississippi,” a serial vehicle for comedienne Tig Notaro, who wrote the pilot and will executive produce with Diablo Cody. Loosely based on Notaro’s life, the show will deal with Tig’s return – with her girlfriend Brooke – to her Southern hometown after the death of her mother. The first episode will be directed by Nicole Holofcener.”
I don’t need to tell you why this is important. It’s a huge milestone for the media. Clearly, the traditional models have failed to create equity, so seeing some kind of parity emerging in the non-traditional content distribution worlds generated by the web feels not only like the future, but a necessary force for change an industry that needs to evolve. Just changing the delivery method and tools isn’t enough. Streaming forced traditional media to change. Brands like Netflix forced the old guard to catch up. YouTube completely shattered the concept of what content was worthy of being consumed. But, here’s the deal: Changing HOW the content comes about is even more critical. Amazon is proving that. And we have to support it.
My efforts to encourage people to go see women helmed movies on their opening weekend has its ethos in this idea: if we show up and pay and support this media, it will continue to be created because it creates a sense of demand. Demand proves there are customers. Customers attract more business to cater to us. Now, imagine if everyone who doesn’t have Prime signs up right now in a major wave of support for their move to create equality in media? Yeah, it would send the right kind of message.
So, do it. Go! Sign up. And then watch Transparent. And Catastrophe. Both are so good. Both are Amazon originals. And both have women at the fore.
This whole thing started with a mission: support female led films on opening weekend whenever possible.* If you want to read more about why, you can read that post here.
The fall is one of my favorite times to go to the theaters. I don’t know why but it seems so cozy to put on a sweater, grab your favorite date and hit up the theaters for a popcorn and a cozy, public snuggle in the dark. If you want to expose your date to some ladies opening this weekend… then here’s your picks. However, one thing to note: there are a few items on this list that are questionable in their nature. (The Final Girls and Jem and the Holograms are important call-outs… we shall see how friendly to women they really are when they open.)
OCTOBER 2ND:
Freeheld (Starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page)
Logline: Diagnosed with terminal cancer, decorated New Jersey detective Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) wishes to leave her pension benefits to domestic partner Stacie Andree (Ellen Page). Denied by local county officials, Laurel receives help from hard-nosed colleague Dane Wells (Michael Shannon) and activist Steven Goldstein (Steve Carell), who unite to rally fellow police officers and ordinary citizens to support the couple’s fight for equality.
He Named Me Malala (Starring Malala)
Logline: After the Taliban tries to kill her for speaking out on behalf of girls’ education, Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai emerges as a leading advocate for children’s rights and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Addicted to Fresno (Directed by Jamie Babbit - Written by Karey Dornetto - Starring Judy Greer and Natasha Lyonne)
Logline: Follows the lives two co-dependent sisters who work as hotel maids in Fresno.
OCTOBER 9TH:
Big Stone Gap (Written and directed by Adriana Trigiani and Starring Ashley Judd)
Logline: In a small town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, self-proclaimed spinster Ave Maria Mulligan finds her life shaken up and forever changed after learning a long-buried family secret.
The Final Girls (Starring Taissa Farmiga, Nina Dobrev and Malin Ackerman)
Logline: Max, recently orphaned, goes to see a screening of a B-horror movie her mother made twenty years earlier. When Max and her friends find themselves in the world of the film itself, they must apply their knowledge of horror tropes to survive.
Victoria (Written by Olivia Neergard-Holm and Starring Laia Costa)
Logline: While on holiday in Berlin, a young woman finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals its secret: the four men owe someone a dangerous favor that requires repaying that evening.
OCTOBER 16TH:
Room (Written by Emma Donoghue and Starring Brie Larson)
Logline: After 5-year old Jack and his Ma escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a thrilling discovery: the outside world.
OCTOBER 23RD:
Jem and the Holograms (Starring Stefanie Scott)
Logline: As a small-town girl catapults from underground video sensation to global superstar, she and her three sisters begin a journey of discovering that some talents are too special to keep hidden.
I Smile Back (Written by Paige Dylan and Starring Sarah Silverman)
Logline: Laney Brooks does bad things. Married with kids, she takes the drugs she wants, sleeps with the men she wants, disappears when she wants. Now, with the destruction of her family looming, and temptation everywhere, Laney makes one last desperate attempt at redemption.
Suffragette (Directed by Sarah Gavron - Written by Abi Morgan - Starring Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter and Carey Mulligan)
Logline: The foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.
Nasty Baby (Starring Alia Shawkat and Kristen Wiig)
Logline: A close-knit trio navigates the idea of creating life, while at the same time being confronted with a brutal scenario that causes them to take a life.
OCTOBER 30TH:
Our Brand is Crisis (Written by Rachel Boynton and Starring Sandra Bullock and Zoe Kazan)
Logline: A feature film based on the documentary “Our Brand Is Crisis”, which focuses on the use of American political campaign strategies in South America.
The Wonders (Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher)
Logline: Nothing will be the same at the end of this summer for Gelsomina and her three younger sisters.
The Armor of Light (Directed by Abigail Disney)
Logline: What price conscience? The Armor of Light follows the journey of an Evangelical minister trying to find the courage to preach about the growing toll of gun violence in America.
Bare (Written and Directed by Natalie Leite and starring Dianna Agron and Paz de la Huerta)
Logline: A young girl in Nevada becomes romantically involved with a female drifter who introduces her to a life of stripping, drugs, and metaphysical experiences that teach her what happens when real life catches up with dark fantasy.
I have a tradition that I don’t talk about enough: Whenever possible, I ALWAYS support female led films on opening weekend in cinemas if they are available in my city. This year alone, that means I saw the following films during their opening weekend: Still Alice, Insurgent, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, The Woman in Gold, Clouds of Sils Maria, Spy, Inside Out and Trainwreck.
There were definitely a few I didn’t see. Fifty Shades of Gray comes to mind as the most available that I skipped altogether. But I’ve also missed Ride, which was directed and written by Helen Hunt and Welcome to Me starring Kristen Wiig, which has failed to hit a screen anywhere near me.
This all started as a fun challenge. But each and every ticket I buy, I become more committed to this. And here’s why: Hundreds of movies will be released in 2015. Less than 20% of those will be directed by, written by or star a woman in the principal role. Those numbers haven’t changed in years and they aren’t going to change by us just talking about it.
They aren’t going to change if I write an angry blog post.
They aren’t going to change if talking heads go on TV and talk about it some more.
They aren’t going to change if we admit more women into film school.
I hate that this is true, but when it comes to how decisions get made, a lot of the time it’s about the consumer and the financial choices we make that show those with power that we aren’t complacently waiting. Hollywood believes that 17 year old boys go to movies. And that’s because they do.
Women watch movies. It’s true. We watch Netflix in higher numbers. We rent movies. We stream. We make it out to movie theaters too. We all know this. But opening weekend is this huge hurdle that we have yet to surmount. And why? Because there isn’t a precedent there. There isn’t the data.
The notion goes something like this: women don’t show up for opening weekend, which is the most important weekend for a film in terms of its ability to be considered a financial success. In order for a film to be considered not just viable, but successful, asses have to show up in seats on opening weekend and then spread the word that its a movie worth seeing so that it continues to do well at the box office and then again on streaming and home viewing.
I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m simply suggesting that this is the pervasive, fact-based truth that gets passed around in entertainment. And we can’t ignore it.
How do we change this? With our dollars. With movie tickets sold. With our asses in seats. Or vaginas, if you really want to get silly and specific about it.
And so a few months ago, I started as a challenge to myself to go see as many movies starring women on opening weekend as I could. In the passing weeks, it has continue to grow to seeing more movies written by women on opening weekend and hopefully, more movies directed by women too as this challenge continues. Each time I buy a ticket, I feel like I’m shaking the hand of the woman who beat the odds and got the damn movie made. Truly.
You might think I’m naive to believe that my one additional butt in one additional seat is going to change anything. And you know, you could convince me of that. But for me, it’s about the message it sends. It’s about the fact that I want people to watch my work and see my work and not discredit it in any way as a “woman’s work” and instead support it for the art itself. I truly believe there is value in women supporting other women, even women we don’t know personally or professionally.
This is about numbers AND perception. We need to change both. And I believe that if more of us take up the cause of trying our hardest to see more film directed by, written by or starting women, we will change the perception that women don’t come out for opening weekends.
I honestly believe that we can change this. In the industry, we talk about changing it constantly. We talk about getting more women into directing jobs. We talk about writing more stories for women. We talk about unconventional casting. We talk about creating associations and groups and clubs. We talk a lot. And that’s great. Please don’t misunderstand the value of talking.
But. And this is a huge one: WE HAVE TO SHOW UP.
So let’s keep talking. But let’s get to the movies, ladies.
Women are trained from a very young age to present themselves a certain way. Shall we say, an irrationally positive, put together, never upset sort of way. This isn’t just some weird rhetoric. Social science proves this theory time and time again. As media consumers, we see this play out in a variety of way. Two characters: the googly eyed love interest or the blanket bitch.
This singular dimension of emotional range means that as soon as we express anything beyond those feelings, we get cast as a psycho, freak, bitch or even worse things. That’s in real life and the movies, by the way.
Which brings me to a LEGO cat-unicorn hybrid. For months, I’ve been obsessed with Unikitty. I couldn’t really sort out why, though. For a while, I thought it was the cuteness factor multiplied by my undying love of LEGO. But upon further consideration, I think I’ve narrowed in on something rather more important.
Unikitty is the best comedic representation of the limited emotional range women are allowed to express in media and in their lives. Every time Unikitty feels something other than what is expected of her, she literally has to fight herself to repress her angry feelings by reinforcing the most silly stereotypes of the peppy female. Take 1:11 of this video as the perfect example of what I mean:
Some might say Unikitty is a stereotype, but I suggest she may be a subversive one. The LEGO Movie writers took the cliches of media about cloyingly happy women and literally just translated them into her actual lines. Just take a few common representations:
Representation: women must be happy and positive:
“Any idea is a good idea except the non-happy ones. Those we push down deep inside where you’ll never, ever, ever, EVER find them!”
Representation: women don’t know anything about business:
“Business, business, business. Numbers. Is this thing working?”
Representation: women must be peace keepers:
“You need to be more friendly!”
Representation: women are crazy:
Unikitty: “Here in Cloud Cuckoo Land, there are no rules: There’s no government, no baby sitters, no bedtimes, no frowny faces, no bushy mustaches, and no negativity of any kind.”
Lucy: “You just said the word "no” like a thousand times.“
Unikitty: "And there’s also no consistency.”
It’s completely unclear whether the writers were trying to be this deliberate in their use of Unikitty as a trope humor machine, but it works. And in her artistic form, she makes the reality of this “turn tropes into comedy” idea even further thanks to doe eyes when she’s giddy and a literal flaming body when she’s angry.
While I doubt a single child will pick up on any of this, as a grown women, I find it hilarious and necessary. If it takes an animated cat with a horn to point out just how stupid the representation of women has become, I’m all for it.
The internet is abuzz with the launch of The Verge today. A new tech site filled with news, product reviews, message boards and a podcast too.
The site has some interesting new features that other news sites have yet to implement, including a really incredible feature where products mentioned in articles get indexed at the bottom of it for easy access to reviews and information. There’s a lot of promise here.
The Good:
1. Innovative indexing. You know when you read a review or piece of news and you want to get more information on a product, company, etc. Then you realize that Googling around might be the only way. The Verge solves this problem with a new editorial indexing system that gives you a listing of products that were mentioned “In the Article.” I like this for two distinctively different reasons. First, it gives you a snapshot of what was covered as well as a quick look at what was recently reviewed and it’s score. Second, it makes navigating the site easy, easy, easy. They’re going to keep readers in for extended periods of time, which is great for the site and a huge boost in usability for the reader.
2. Zine/blog/news format marriage. I love websites that take on the magazine format, but sometimes that can make it difficult for the reader to prioritize content on the page according to your custom needs. The Verge essentially marries the structure of the magazine format (…think Flipboard), the image heavy, bold headline appeal of blogs and the ability to organize content based on interest from traditional news sites. One look at the photo at left and you can clearly see how these three ideas have married to create an easy to navigate site.
3. Competition. Quite simply, there isn’t enough competition in this market. Wired is great, but it’s the only site that I would describe as maintstream for this market.
The Bad:
1. It appears to be a boy’s club. In Joshua Topolksy’s letter to readers about The Verge, he mentions many great reasons why the site is such a triumph for him and his team. Unfortunately, I googled all the names listed as partners, managers and interns and not one appears to be a woman. In addition, I’ve gone through about 25 articles and haven’t identified one female writer. The perception that the tech industry is a boy’s club just keeps reinforcing itself in situations such as these and it’s really disappointing.
(EDIT: Dan points out in the comments that Joanna Stern is the features editor. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. If anyone else knows of another woman working with The Verge, we’d happily give them credit here.)
Overall, I’m excited to see what comes out of this project. Here’s some recommended reads:
Radar-like sensors bring touch sensitivity to everyday items
Did Bill Gates kill Courier?
