The Sole Defining Feature

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting:

If you haven’t been watching channel four’s new show Gogglebox, it basically follows a cross section of people sitting and watching television. That’s right, it’s you sitting and watching people watching TV.

It is fairly funny but I have noticed something that has been bugging me, particularly in the most recent episode. It showed the people featured watching two shows, one with Dr Margaret Mountford (formerly of the apprentice)exploring the ruins of Pompeii and the other with Dr Joann Fletcher showing us how everyday people lived in Ancient Egypt. Both were shows presented by highly intelligent, passionate presenters that aimed to make the information accessible and interesting for the audience.

So why was it that all the people featured in Gogglebox could focus on was their physical appearance? Not only that but most of their comments were negative, rude and of no direct intelligence to what they were watching.

While I suspect that one of the primary motivations behind Gogglebox is for us to be able to laugh at the viewers featured (the posh alcoholic couple, the woman with the obnoxious children etc.) it does highlight a problem for women who work on that side of the media.

A while back I wrote a post on Anita Sarkessian, a media commentator and presenter of her own web-based show, Feminist Frequency. Sarkessian is all kinds of awesome but was the target of vile, sexist abuse when she tried to crowd fund her latest project.

Similarly, last year when Mary Beard was subjected to similar abuse (and threats of violence) after appearing on Question Time, she remarked that it was enough to put any women off of appearing on TV.

I’m sure I don’t need to go into why that’s bad.

By virtue of making up more than half the population of the earth, we are entitled to have smart, passionate women on television communicating their ideas but when they are reduced to the sole function of being a thing to look at, devoid of any personality or worth beyond the aesthetic, why on earth would anyone want to subject themselves to that?

It’s not clear whether most of these detractors are men or women in fairness (before I’m being accused of being a man hater) and plenty of the viewers onGogglebox were women, so as a general audience we need to readjust our viewing habits and expectations for the media and perhaps we can take these programmes for what they are: entertaining, informative and presented by smart, charismatic women to make us want to learn more.

Tips from Raindance on writing shorts

Loving Stéphanie Joalland's article over at the Raindance website where she lays out the 7 rules for witing a good short film:

"A short film script can be a great calling card for a writer. Short films aren’t a lesser form of cinematic storytelling. In fact writing them requires the exact same skills as writing a feature length script – though on a smaller scale. Although TV broadcast opportunities may be limited, there are more and more outlets for these opportunities."

It's an ace read, check it out!

Why the Veronica Mars Kickstarter may just change the film industry and the universe, as we know it

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting.

That may be a slight exaggeration but hear me out.

I wanted to be Veronica Mars. I wanted to be the cool, sassy outcast who everyone secretly wants to be, who solves crimes that the incompetent police cannot, who wears improbably expensive clothes for someone from the poor side of town, who has a high number of guys chat her up and smoulder at her, who has witty remark for every occasion and a cool Phillip Marlowe-esque internal monologue describing her every action. I really loved that show. 

Amanda Palmer at TED

Amanda Palmer's talk at TED about crowd funding and asking fans for help. While she talks mostly about music, in light of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter it seems relevant for all areas of the arts.

Review: The Sapphires

Much, much more of a feel good film than Oranges and Sunshine (Jim Loach, 2010), which deals with similar themes, The Sapphires nonetheless delivers grit with its glitter.

Poster from here

"Premier Automne"

Wish You Were Here?

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting

Sometimes, living in England makes me feel like a minor character in Game of Thrones, minus the horrific violence, gratuitous sex and dangerous inter-family politics. Less “Winter is Coming” and more “Winter’s the default season” it nonetheless feels like the cold will last forever with no hope of even the slightest ray of sunshine.

With that in mind and acknowledging that not everyone can afford to leave the country, I have provided a cinematic alternative:

The Adventure Holiday

For those who enjoy getting their heart rate up, settle down with the Indian Jones Trilogy as it takes you to far flung, exotic places and provides totally accurate, 100% researched and certified History™ for those who like that kind of thing and lots of Nazi-fighting, pesky cult-bashing and artefacts that will make your face melt with excitement. You might even be tempted set out to find the mystical fourth movie but rest assured, such a nightmare relic cannot possible exist…

See also: Most cheap films late on the SyFy channel that try to emulate Indiana Jones but don’t, The Mummy trilogy