Days We Will Remember

With increasing frequency, I see Tweets requesting referrals and recommendations for social media coaches and consultants. Daily, I'm asked by colleagues, friends and family about social networking – what is it, how do you do it, what’s the point . . .

Until recently, many of my own colleagues were late adopters of any form of social media and while a few have begrudgingly joined Facebook, most continue to refuse to join Twitter and only lamely at best use professional services such as LinkedIn or Namyez with anything resembling seriousness, let alone organized, purposeful approaches.

The advent of recent events in Iran have fueled the fire of curiosity about social networking as the supreme leader’s crack down on the traditional media forced the world to rely on CNN's iReports, YouTube videos, and Tweets as our main source of information on news about Iran's civil unrest. It has been inspiring to witness the Iranians boldly defy their government, deftly using social media to communicate their message and actions to the world

This is social media as news delivery system, as an organizing tool, as a way to move and inspire mass groups of people.

As the Iranians have courageously taken to the streets defiantly chanting the name of the young martyred woman, Neda, how many of us will they inspire to pick up the tools of social media and give voice to our own self expression? What a strange twist of fate it is, that the example of a nation defined by oppression should be the catalyst that awakens us to the power of social media. If there were any doubt as to the importance of social media and to the powerful role it could play in communications the Iranian’s have put it to rest.

These will be days to be remembered.

Friends will let you starve. Strangers will give you work.

Check out this great blog by director Brian Belefant, DGA - 60 Second Director.

One of my favorite blog entries of Brian's is titled "Friends will let you starve. Strangers will give you work." Painfully true and a great read. Don't forget to add him to your Twitter followers.

http://60secdirector.blogspot.com/2009/06/friends-will-let-you-starve-strangers.html

Twolia Lauches Women's Online Talent Community

Check out https://www.twolia.com

Female Directors, Still a Scarce Movie Commodity

Female Directors, Still a Scarce Movie Commodity (NPR)

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Queen Latifah

Posted: 20 Jul 2009 06:06 AM PDT

Multi-talented recording artist, producer and actor, Queen Latifah is releasing her ninth album later this summer Persona. She had the courage earlier this summer to talk about her child sexual abuse and she has always been a role model for women who are not skinny yet powerful and comfortable with their bodies.

She has a built in following and is able to get her audience out to see her flicks. Her production and management company Flavor Unit Entertainment is successful and she wants to be able to emulate the Tyler Perry model of having her own studio. I also think her acting ability is underrated. She was very good in The Secret Life of Bees and was nominated for an Oscar for Chicago.

Here are some of the quotes from a recent LA Times piece:

Can you tell me a little more about your production company, Flavor Unit Entertainment? It seems like you have your fingers in a lot of pies.

We’ve had a production company for quite a while now. We’ve produced “Beauty Shop” to “The Cookout” to “The Perfect Holiday,” and now “Just Wright.” We’re developing film and television production. We’ll be having a big announcement soon — it’s not ready yet. I shouldn’t tease you like that! We were a big music management company. As my career started to gain more strength on the film side than the music side, we started to swing our resources over to the film side.

And these movies have made money?

They’ve all made money.

Where does this all end up?

I don’t know that it ends up. If anything it continues up. I would love to eventually have our own studio. A real studio to produce films, television, whatever it is we like to do. To be a self-contained company, like a Tyler Perry, I suppose. You write it, you shoot it, you market it, you license it.

I’m excited that she is thinking this way. We need more women to dream this big.

The Sunday Conversation: Queen Latifah (LA Times)

Women and Hollywood

Good article about Kathryn Bigelow and women directed films.

Women & Hollywood - Women Directors Working Outside the Studio System

(Re-posted from the Association of Women Directors (AWD) Yahoo Groups newsletter)

Kathryn Bigelow

This is a story that I have written numerous times but it just seems that nothing changes. I will keep on keeping on until we get more women directors. NPR did an interesting piece on women directors and their films this summer and how in order for them to get their movies made they need to work outside the studio systems.

YUP. Since only Nancy Meyers, Nora Ephron and now Anne Fletcher can get studio jobs.

It’s great that Kathryn Bigelow and Lynn Shelton are being noticed for their work this summer. I think both their movies are great and I enjoyed them both. I do think it’s interesting that both these films keep getting talked about in the context of the fact that they are women directing movies about men making it seem that this is such a freaky occurrence. It’s shouldn’t b
e that big a deal. I’ll say it again: nobody makes a big deal about guys directing movies about women yet we continue to be shocked that women can make movies about men. Even NPR.

But NPR basically answers its own question with the following quote:

When women direct, they’re in control. And major Hollywood studios cannot exactly bask in their legacies of female empowerment: Historically, female directors tend to work outside the traditional studio system.

Lynn Shelton

Control. What is the fear of women being in control of a film? Women can be producers, but control and, of course, vision seems to make everyone go nuts. The issue regarding women directors is so hard to document as blatant discrimination because the hiring process is not like hiring a receptionist or a manager. A producer or a studio head has to hire someone they trust with their money, someone they trust to get the job done on time, someone they trust to be able to command a crew. Women can be trusted to do many jobs in our society yet getting studio chiefs to trust that a female director is right for the job seems to be too far a leap. Yet everyone knows it is discrimination but they also know it is near impossible to prove.

From the piece:

Bigelow says she has no idea why even now so few women are trusted to direct major films.

“You’d have to sit somebody down here and ask them,” she says, with the slightest
edge to her voice.

By “somebody,” Bigelow means a studio head, a Hollywood mogul. Ask Lynn Shelton the same question — Why aren’t there more go-to female directors? — and she likewise points to the studio bosses.

I wish one of those somebodys would sit down and give someone a real answer. The problem is there is no real answer and they all know it.