Girls make movies too

Two things I'd rather not hear EVER AGAIN:

-Anybody talking about how Kathryn Bigelow was married to James Cameron and thus she's going to be all "Haha James Cameron!" and "Yeah, I'm better than you, nananana."

First, as I said on Facebook, more women have been married to James Cameron than have been nominated for Best Director. So her being nominated and winning? A hell of a lot more important an achievement.

Second, they were married for like, thirty seconds, and from all accounts they remain good friends, they work together well, and have been nothing but supportive of each other. So she's likely not at all saying "In your face" but instead saying, "I'm so happy, isn't it exciting?"

Third, please stop taking away from her achievement by making it still in some way about James Effin' Cameron, okay? It's devaluing her achievement and I'm a bit tired of it. That these comments are largely coming from women isn't helping my brain.

-How smoking hot Kathryn Bigelow is. "OMG, she's a HOT CHICK who can direct! And action movies no less! WOW! She's so hot, and then she's also talented!"

Again with the devaluing.

From everything I've heard she did an amazing job directing an amazing film. Let's concentrate on that, could we please?

And no, I haven't read any blogs or posts at all tonight so if you posted one of these comments this is NOT directed at you, it's directed at a general sentiment I've seen over the last few months in nearly every media article and comment about Bigelow. It's not like I'm sitting here thinking "OMG, anybody who says this is an evil person and I hate them." I'm just tired of every other comment I see, including a twitter from Roger Ebert, being about one of these two topics instead of honoring how fabulous, talented, and wonderful she might be, and how historic and fabulous this moment is.

I mean, I know not a lot of people care about The Oscars, and I know not a lot of people think they mean anything. But the thing is, this moment? This moment is huge for ME. Me personally. Me, as a woman who wants to direct films, who wants to make action pictures or dramas, not just frippery and bland rom coms like people think women are supposed to make. This is a moment where everything I want to be was validated in a huge, huge way.

I'm not saying I'll ever win an Oscar or even be as good as Kathryn Bigelow, or that I'll ever even manage to direct a feature. But this is like a big neon light in the sky saying that I _can_. That I should just keep trying, just keep moving forward, because people are finally opening up and listening, they're believing in the same dream I'm dreaming. They are starting to think that women can do this job too.

That's a really, really big deal.

So I don't want it colored and shaded by a bunch of crap about looks and who slept with who because that doesn't matter.

In twenty years, when there are more women directors, when more women are able to tell their stories and make their movies, when they really get out there and say what they want to say and people are not just letting them say it but encouraging them and celebrating them, this moment will be the start of it.

It won't matter who was married to who, it won't matter if she was pretty or not. It will matter that both genders are getting to tell stories.

Wardrobe Controversy on Project Runway

Okay, so for once I can weigh in with at least a very finite amount of first-hand experience on the DRAMA that is going on with the Models of the Runway.

To sum up, one model accused another of using double-sided tape with her garment, and that's against the show's rules.

Earlier this summer, I was the set costumer on a feature film. One of my jobs was to do "last looks" which means checking everybody over seconds before the camera rolls to make sure they look good (or at the least, look the way they're supposed to). Which means that I was the girl on set with the handful of double-sided tape.

And let me tell you, we used a lot of it sometimes. These actresses would look absolutely gorgeous in these costumes, but you had to be certain that it wasn't going to slip or shift and that it was going to look gorgeous every second you were recording. But it doesn't really change the look or feel of the garment, it just ensures that it stays put if you're going to be moving around a lot.

Which is why I'm completely surprised that the PR staff doesn't allow it on the runways. I'm sure if you went to Fashion Week you'd find quite a lot of it floating around. Heck, I'm sure a lot of women use it just for going out. It was pretty darn handy for a million reasons.

But, in the end, the rules are the rules. So they told Kalyn that she can't use the double-sided tape. Okay, to be honest, I believe that she knew when she put it on the first time that she wasn't allowed to use it and she was going to try to get away with it. There's no way they've made it that far into the show without this becoming a topic of discussion. So I do think there was a little bit of scheming there.

HOWEVER, Katie's insistence that she saw the tape was still on just before the runway show bothered me. She said that it was because she saw a red strip on what should have been flesh toned (at least, that's what I heard) and that proves it.

It doesn't, and Katie should know that. I don't know what's going on in her mind, I don't know why she's upset. I forgive her for bringing it up in front of everyone the way she did because she was being egged on to discuss what was bothering her even after saying she didn't want to. She caved and said how she felt, I don't fault her for that.

I fault her for the completely wrong logic it took to get to that conclusion. If there is one thing you learn about double-stick tape after using it repeatedly, it's that the stuff is REALLY sticky. Sometimes we used stuff that was actually wig tape, so it was designed to keep people's hair on. That's some powerful adhesive.

Irina's dress in this challenge was made out of a particular type of brocade. A type of brocade that quite frankly, sheds easily. It is completely conceivable that the residue from the tape that was left on Kalyn's skin and the fabric worked together to leave a line of fuzz where it had previously been.

Not to mention the fact that if Kalyn was actually using the tape, then how would Katie have witnessed it? Unless she was doing it wrong, it would be hidden by the fabric, or if it stopped working and the dress slipped anyway, in which case it didn't actually do any good or change any results, so why be so upset about it?

I know there are going to be people out there defending Katie's point of view and saying "She saw it there! What did she see if it wasn't the tape?" Well, I can tell you it's entirely possible, indeed plausible, that she saw the remains of the residue and adhesive that the stuff leaves behind.

I think Kalyn handled the whole situation with a lot of class, also. Good for her. Though to be completely honest, my favorite model got eliminated this week so I'm not entirely happy anyway. I'll continue rooting for Matar I guess, since I like her as well.

I know that I've stopped recapping the episodes like I used to. That's a mix of two things. First, that this semester has killed me and I haven't had time to think or sleep in months. Second, that I'm still upset about Ra'mon being auf'ed and Nicolas winning in that challenge and I still can't write about it.

DVD rentals vs. sales

Remember, way back in the day, back in the 80's, when a movie was only available for rental for the first few weeks or months of it's release?

Rental stores had to pay hundreds of dollars for each copy of the movie that they purchased, and if you wanted to see that movie the day it came out you had to get it from your local video store.

That changed around the time I was in high school I think, maybe a little earlier, when they basically made movies available to rent and buy retail at the same time.

Now, with the popularity of Redbox and Netflix rising every day, studios are apparently thinking of reversing the old system. Basically a DVD would be available only for retail purchase for the first few weeks and then to rent after that.

So here's my response to that:

Are they thick?

Did somebody smack them upside the head when they were supposed to be studying economics and business and it rattled their brain into perennial opposite mode?

This will not bolster or help the DVD sales market. The DVD sales market is dying for a few reasons, none of which are entirely the rental markets fault.

Reason #1? THE ECONOMY. It's bad. People aren't buying luxuries and one of the first luxuries to go is often entertainment like movies and books. I know it's the first thing that gets cut out of my budget and I'm a filmmaker.

Reason #2? Pricing and special editions. This is the same problem studio execs found with CDs and they still haven't woken up to the truth. If a DVD is too expensive people won't buy it. Think about this: say you make $10 profit off of a DVD sale at a $20 pricepoint.

If you lowered the price to $15, you would only make $5 profit, seeming to cut your profit margin in half. But if that price drop made twice as many people buy the DVD, then your profits would stay the same. I know that this is all fuzzy and conjecture, but with all the people talking about sales and the economy, can't somebody do the studies and show that lower priced DVDs would equal higher sales and higher profits for the company?

And while they're at it, could they show that releasing a movie twelve times with different sets of special features is irritating the consumer? Not to mention when you have exclusive content depending on what store you buy your disc at? That's just uncalled for.

There's even more stuff involved than that, but in the end, even if the studios do go and make films delayed on the rental market, all it will do is serve to cause me to purchase LESS films.

I have a very specific set of questions I ask myself before I buy a movie. Have I seen it? Did I like it? Will I want to watch it over and over again? Unless all THREE questions get a yes answer, I will not buy the movie.

I know, that isn't the typical thing you'll hear from a film major or filmmaker. Most of the people I know have overflowing stacks and shelves of DVDs. And that's great. But the thing is, those people are buying the DVDs instead of renting them anyway.

Basically all this plan is doing is setting out a sign from the film studios that says, "Hey, all you people who are budget conscious and like to live uncluttered lifestyles, who prefer to think about their purchases and give their money to only the best artists and people they truly love: we don't like you and we think you deserve to be punished."

I can't think of a single person I know who would say "I can't see this movie for two weeks unless I shell out $20??? I MUST HAVE IT!"

Heck, I don't watch new releases sometimes for months or years because my Netflix queue is so full of classics and television shows I want to catch up on from the years when I didn't have cable (I'm still eight seasons behind on CSI). The only reason I rented Transformers 2 this week was because my husband wanted to see it and asked me to. Otherwise my next disc is an anime from the 1980's that I haven't managed to see before, and after that is the Dawn of the Dead remake just in time for Halloween.

What I'm saying here is that this plan will not make an impact on DVD sales, probably not even a dent. But it WILL serve to make the studios look bad, and insult a subset of their audience. So why do something that won't help and might harm? If I can't rent the DVD in the first few weeks, I'll just throw it to the bottom of my queue and forget about it, not renting it for YEARS, which certainly helps nobody's bottom line.

Movie studios are starting to sound as stupid and out of touch with modern times as record executives.