How do you reign in the character’s eccentricity ? Well, I had to be prepared to let people dislike her at times because she’s a bit of a bitch, but at the same time, she’s gorgeous and she’s funny and she’s silly and you sort of feel for her. You kind of sense her confusion about who she is and her life. She’s very, very vulnerable, I think, underneath all of that stuff. I just had to work very, very hard. Sometimes I would say to Michel, “Let me know if I’m not going enough. Let me know if I’m going too far.” And more often than not, he would be pushing me further. I was so terrified of being over the top and he would just say, “No, no, no. More, more, more.” And I’d be like, “Really ?” He’d go, “Yeah, it doesn’t matter. Just do it, just try it.” That was fantastically liberating. When you do classical period films, you don’t get the opportunity to do that. It’s a more subtle approach.
For Your Consideration: Women Directors Missing From the Oscars
The first post I’ve promoted on my first day as Tumblr tag editor for Film. Thanks for posting this, landlessness!
Amy Heckerling, director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless in These Amazing Shadows (via kimbrulee
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Phenomenal Woman: Ava Duvernay just made HISTORY! AFFRM founder, Ava DuVernay won Best Director at Sundance last night for Middle of Nowhere. She’s the first African-American woman to receive that honor.
According to a study done by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film, In 2010, women comprised just 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films (In the United States of America). The study analyzed behind-the-scenes employment of 2,649 individuals working on the top 250 domestic grossing films (foreign films omitted) of 2010 with combined domestic box office grosses of approximately $10.5 billion.
Here is a summary of their findings:
- Women accounted for 10% of writers working on the top 250 films of 2010. 83% of the films had no female writers.
- Women comprised 15% of all executive producers working on the top 250 films of 2010. 65% of the films had no female executive producers.
- Women accounted for 24% of all producers working on the top 250 films of 2010. 33% of the films had no female producers.
- Women comprised 7% of all directors working on the top 250 films of 2010. 93% of the films had no female directors.
- Women accounted for 18% of all editors working on the top 250 films of 2010. 77% of the films had no female editor
- Women comprised 2% of all cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2010. 98% of the films had no female cinematographers
01:17
“There was something transgressive about having the woman being the one who is attacked first, that there’s a sort of, in movie terms, a popular conception that women are weaker than men and that the only way that they can triumph in a hand-to-hand situation is if they somehow have an advantage from the beginning,” Soderbergh said. “They trick the guy and they get the upper hand because they’re being somewhat nefarious. Very consciously, in two circumstances, she’s attacked in an unprovoked manner and has to work her way back into winning the fight. With someone like Gina, you can pull that off and have it be believable. She can really break you in half.” (via)
From In Tribute to Marcia Lucas, by Michael Kaminski, from a greater work called The Secret History of Star Wars - the book’s website is here.
It took me several days, but I quite enjoyed this long, not-new, but fascinating look into Marcia Lucas, George’s first wife whose legacy as one of Hollywood’s first female editors has faded largely into obscurity because of the power of the Lucasfilm PR machine that has all but removed Marcia from the grand story of the pre-and-post-Star-Wars years. Film fans may think of Marcia as little more than “the woman who left George, leading to the darker Indiana Jones tone of Temple of Doom”, but this article includes a lot of research and interview material in which Marcia’s role as George’s editor and storytelling muse shines through. To hear her and others tell it, George was always great with technical and visual details, but Marcia’s editing skills went far to give heart to American Graffiti, Star Wars, Empire, Jedi and (to a lesser extent, the quote above notwithstanding) Raiders.
George Lucas is weak on storytelling and character? I know, hard to believe.
Of note: George Lucas has never won an Oscar for any Star Wars movie. But Marcia did, for editing A New Hope.
If you don’t know much about Marcia Lucas, block out some time and read that article. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.
(via burbanked)
Today, when Schoonmaker and Scorsese are editing, she still arrives at the office before him and leaves after he’s gone. She works in a cheap-looking office chair at a low wooden desk with worn edges, flanked by large speakers. Scorsese sits behind her in a tan-colored armchair, literally looking over her shoulder, watching her work roll on a giant, MTV Cribs–size monitor. He keeps a nearby TV permanently tuned to Turner Classic Movies, running silently in the background. Occasionally he’ll catch a glimpse of something inspiring, perhaps in an old Fellini movie, and he and Schoonmaker will pause to admire and discuss it. Directly in front of the director’s seat is what looks like the rearview mirror from a large truck, duct-taped to a speaker. “That’s so he can see who’s behind him,” Schoonmaker explains. “When his assistants come in, he can see from the look on their faces how serious it is.” (He keeps a bigger one on set, above his monitor.)
Asked how it feels to be the right hand—even a universally admired one—throughout a lifelong career, Schoonmaker shrugs. “I don’t see it that way,” she says. “I don’t think of it as him being in the front and me being behind—it’s just a wonderful collaboration. I love being around great artists, and I’ve been around a few of them.” Here she lets loose a particularly throaty chuckle. “There’s nothing like it, I tell you. It’s an addiction.”
From left: Scorsese and Schoonmaker on 1970’s Woodstock; Schoonmaker’s second Oscar win, for The Aviator; the duo in 3-D glasses on the set of Hugo.
“It’s really Marty’s vision,” she says, using a jog wheel to move the film forward and back like a DJ cueing a record. “Scorsese has very defined ideas about how to shoot a scene, and he’s an editor himself—we cut together. It means he’s constantly thinking about my problems while he’s filming. It’s wonderful to work on footage by someone who understands how to get it to cut right, which a lot of directors don’t.” Schoonmaker feels so strongly about this that she has repeatedly tried to give Scorsese the Oscar she won for Raging Bull, “but he won’t take it,” she says in a resigned tone. (via Thelma Schoonmaker, The Woman Behind Martin Scorsese - Read More on ELLE.com)
![Drive costume designer Erin Benach on Driver’s sunglasses: “I almost cried my eyes out the day he put those on. I absolutely hate them. [laughs] I think he showed up on the day wearing them - I wanted him to wear these other sunglasses and I nearly cried.” (via GQ Film)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lux0r1mNX81qztqsao1_1280.jpg)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach on Driver’s sunglasses: “I almost cried my eyes out the day he put those on. I absolutely hate them. [laughs] I think he showed up on the day wearing them - I wanted him to wear these other sunglasses and I nearly cried.” (via GQ Film)
