2014 - A Wrap Up of Abject Neglect

Hi There, Readers,

It's clear to any of you who have tuned in in the past months that I've been quite busy.

To start, I'm now Co-Chair of the Producer's Guild of America's Women's Impact Network which is part of the guild's ongoing efforts to promote diversity and equality of opportunity in the entertainment industry. You can follow PGA WIN on Facebook and Twitter.

That has been keeping me busy with quite a few things, including a panel I moderated at the New York Film Festival: Convergence "Women's Impact: Producing in a convergent world" Criticwire wrote up a lovely summary of the panel with "Five Tips for Female Filmmakers..."

Another big event this year, I left Starlight Runner Entertainment after nearly 10 years and started Caitlin Burns & Associates in April.  There's also a blog there where I'm discussing elements of business, transmedia and upcoming events. 

I'm still giving workshops, lecturing and speaking all over the place. This year I worked on a few high-profile projects that will hit the screens in 2015 (all the screens, so many screens) and pay attention to CB&A's website for updates. 

In addition to working for franchises, brands, social issue campaigns and more, I'm developing a few original properties as well. My big goal for the coming year involves this blog, yes, this very neglected blog. This year I will finally put all this stuff I've been discussing into it's originally intended format - a book. 

So! stay tuned here and to the Facebook Page (which I have posted to way more often than here) as I get down to business of finally putting this thing together, and if you have any tips, questions or challenges feel free to send them my way. 

Why Original Content for Women Thrives Online

Check out my Op-Ed for Stream Daily

Why truly unique women’s programming now thrives online

"On TV, it’s increasingly difficult to find a “hidden gem” that breaks the mold and finds a devoted, niche fanbase — the kind of programming that now exists and thrives online."

The Producer's Guild of America launches its Women's Impact Network

The Producer's Guild of America now has it's own portal to connect to initiatives for Women in the Entertainment Industry: The Producer's Guild of America Women's Impact Network!

Check out the profile in this month's Produced By Magazine or Like the Page on Facebook, or Follow the Network on Twitter to hear more about news and initiatives to do with women in media.

I'm one of the East Coast Co-Chairs, so let me know if you know of intertesting information, programs or initiatives for women in the industry.

Transmedia 101 at the Made in NY Media Center

I'm teaching a course, IN NEW YORK! for those of you who have always dreamed of me revealing all of the secrets of the media business to you, your dream is closer than ever! Let me know if you want to attend, and use the code: STARLIGHT75 for a special discount. Spots are limited, sign up now!

Our Dolls, Ourselves? The History of the American Girl Company

"In July, American Girl announced that it would “archive” Molly, one of the original three characters, as well as Emily, her “best friend,” introduced in 2006. There’s no specific retirement date set, but they’ll likely be gone by the end of this year, Julie Parks, a spokesperson, told me. Molly’s journey to the big doll box in the sky means that none of the earliest three dolls introduced by the manufacturer that launched the American Girl brand, Pleasant Company, will be available. (Samantha was retired in 2009, Kirsten in 2010.) Felicity Merriman, introduced in 1991, has also been archived. Addy Walker is the only character from Pleasant Company’s first ten years of existence that remains in active circulation."

Our Dolls, Ourselves? at The New Yorker

LINKSTORM: Reign and the Female Masturbation Controversey

 Reign courted controversy during it's pilot with a scene where one of Mary Queen of Scots, or as I will now and forever refer to her on this show, Mary Teen of Scots.  This contraversey is not about the show's historicity (which is almost nil, though it is watchable despite, or possibly because of it's extremely loose relationship with facts and period)

The controversy centered on the decision to cut a scene where a fully clothed teenage lady-in-waiting masturbates in a hallway. This is despite some pretty violent poisonings and beheadings, and a fairly racy sex scene with nudity (network tv nudity) that did make the final cut. 

The internet has thoughts, What are Yours? 

 Why female pleasure — not sex — is the real taboo on primetime television

The CW's racy new period drama Reign received criticism last week after the network edited out a female masturbation scene but allowed several other equally explicit scenes to air. In the original, the teen in question and her peers get all hot and bothered after witnessing a bedding ceremony. She finds an empty stairwell and decides to quite literally take matters into her own hands... Singling out female masturbation for censorship gets even more absurd when you consider the graphic stuff on television that is streamed every day without controversy. Consensual, stylized sex scenes between two attractive, heterosexual characters are so abundant they're hardly worth mentioning. And sexual violence is incredibly prevalent in primetime; it is the central premise of shows like Law and Order SVU and CSI, which week after week churn out episodes focused on rape, abduction, and violence against children. [The Week]

"Voyeuristic sex, prolific infidelity, a teenage girl seduced by a grown man — Reign. So too are scenes of extreme violence, including one featuring a decapitated head spewing blood these things are tame enough for the CW's period drama.  But a young woman masturbating? Good heavens, no." [Salon]

"This is not about slamming TV-decency advocates as prudes. If you're against the depiction of sex on TV altogether — particularly on a network aimed largely at teens — fine; I may not agree with you but that's a consistent position and your prerogative. But the idea that masturbation is somehow dirtier and more outrageous than full-on sex is absurd." [TIME]

 

 

I can't promise to review every episode, but I will be watching, anyone who wants to join me should hit me up at @Caitlin_Burns on twitter and we can snark together. 

Slutoween 2013: Take Back Halloween

So, I usually do a roundup of inappropriate Halloween Costumes, or a roundup of roundups of such costumes, but this year I simply cannot be bothered. Also, SPOILER they're all Sexy Walter White (unless you're a Marvel GIRL!)

Instead, be inspired by:

 Take Back Halloween

Girls Toys are Raising Toy Company's Profits By Leaps and Bounds

"Boys' products sales, the biggest category by revenue, fell 17% in the latest quarter to $392 million. The games category's sales improved 5.9% to $387.5 million, while sales in the girls' category climbed 29% to $388.7 million."

Hasbro's Earnings Rise on Improved Sales of Girls Toys 

Sexualized avatars affect the real world, Stanford researchers find

"A Stanford study shows that after women wear sexualized avatars in a virtual reality world, they feel objectified and are more likely to accept rape myths in the real world. The research could have implications for the role of female characters in video games."

 -Read more at Stanford News

Is This the Grossest Advertising Strategy of All Time? -The Atlantic

A new study claims to identify the times of the week that women are feeling the most insecure about their bodies, and recommends that brands "concentrate media during prime vulnerability moments."

                             Read more at The Atlantic

Ode: Everything I know I learned from Pepper Ann

"...while it’s true that the Network-television animators who decorated my childhood probably weren’t conspiring to subliminally raise an army of (one?) young feminists, the shifting narrative trends point to a greater societal transformation. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?"

                  - Read more at Jezebel

The History of the Romance Novel -PBS

Check out the full size image from PBS

Barbie's "Career of the Year": Mars Explorer

Mattel and NASA Team up to create Mars Explorer Barbie, FINALLY a second doll to play with my daughter's Sally Ride Barbie. Pink or no pink, I could still sleep at night if I bought it for my daughter.

I want to be excited for The White Queen, so I've decided I will be.

Starz's new series The White Queen, premieres this weekend, and takes on a major historical time period from the perspective of the women involved.



While some might say, isn't this a derivitive game of thrones? just like Da Vinci's Demons was a derivative Borgias (or Assassin's Creed?). That's a fair critique I suppose, but for me personally, I'm a fan of getting multiple perspectives on a story. It's what I've based entire career on the appeal of being able to provide a grander narrartive context in different stories. So, it's compelling to see these historical periods explored from different artistic visions. Especially when they're done well.

The fact that the series follows three women negotiating halls of power is quite compelling, and if they only reason you tune in is because Game of Thrones is in the off season and you're mildly inspired to see something about The War of the Roses, hopefully it'll keep you inspired long enough to stay tuned. The fact that there is material that is determining the throughline of miniseries from Philippa Gregory’s War of the Roses trilogy may bode well for the conhearance of its story-arcs.

I have enjoyed Starz forays into long-form drama thus far, and hold a lot of hope for their ability to bring this female-led drama to life. Hopefully inspiring more creators in its wake.

What it takes to make it as a modern female pop star

"At first glance, I didn't realize the most notable thing about the video, as I was totally distracted by McKee's very bright candy-colored hair: it's that she actually wrote every song she was performing. "Hold It Against Me." "Teenage Dream." "Dynamite." "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)." "Part Of Me." "C'Mon." "California Girls." "Wide Awake.""
                                                - Jezebel

It's a Man's Man's Man's World- METRO

Nikki Baughan, editor of MovieScope magazine, said Pacific Rim was in bad company at the box office this summer, with films such as Man Of Steel, The Great Gatsby and World War Z all incapable of meeting the three Bechdel criteria.
‘Yes, they have female characters in them – indeed, striking characters like Daisy Buchanan, Mako Mori and Lois Lane – but they all fail the test for one reason or another,’ she told Metro.
‘Unfortunately, these women are not independent characters in their own right, but designed to interact with and support the males around them...’

‘If girls grow up without seeing strong female characters on screen – leaders, engineers, scientists – it has a very real impact on how they see their place in the world,’ she said. ‘It’s a vicious circle and the Bechdel test is an important tool for highlighting this problem. The Bechdel test acts as a magnifying glass; by breaking down a film in these simple terms, it draws attention to the shocking gender disparity that exists in the majority of cinematic narratives. The Bechdel test isn’t intended as a mark of quality, rather of gender diversity within a narrative.’

The problem lies on the other side of the camera. According to research carried out by the University of Southern California, just one in six of the directors, writers and producers behind the 100 top-grossing movies at the US box office last year were female.

‘Women are under-represented in English language films, but it’s not surprising when you look at the dominance of men behind the camera,’ said film writer Stuart Barr, a contributor for movie websites Screenjabber and Chris And Phil Present.

Baughan added: ‘Male screenwriters write from their own perspective and experiences and that usually – though not always – results in female characters that are either absent or entirely unsatisfactory. It’s a sad fact that, for various reasons historical and financial, the mainstream film industry remains the enclave of the straight, white, middle-class male.’

Read the rest of the Metro article at The Bechdel Test and why Hollywood is a Man's, Man's, Man's World

"I Was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl" - New Statesman

"I’m fascinated by this character and what she means to people, because the experience of being her - of playing her - is so wildly different than it seems to appear from the outside. In recent weeks I’ve filled in the gaps of classic Manic Pixie Dream Girl films I hadn’t already sat through, and I’m struck by how many of them claim to be ironic re-imaginings of a character trope that they fail to actually interrogate in any way. Irony is, of course, the last vestige of modern crypto-misogyny: all those lazy stereotypes and hurtful put-downs are definitely a joke, right up until they aren’t, and clearly you need a man to tell you when and if you’re supposed to take sexism seriously. "

Read this article, and if you REALLY want to be disturbed watch Ruby Sparks.

Tiger Eyes Premieres this Weekend

The first Judy Blume book to ever see the silver screen opens this weekend, are you going to see Tiger Eyes?

Tiger Eyes - Trailer

from Tashmoo Productions on Vimeo.

Women didn't Abandon Rom-Coms, Rom-Coms abandoned Women

The Jezebel takes on the question of "What happened to the Rom-Com?

"1986 to 1988, the dawn of a Golden Age for Rom-Coms. Moonstruck and Working Girl were both major hits, and the genre sold $1.6 billion in tickets over three years (adjusted to 2012 dollars, as are all figures in this article). This was followed by When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), all of which topped $170 million. In two of these films, the sole protagonist is a woman. Two more were written and directed by Nora Ephron. That leaves Pretty Woman, where Julia Roberts stole the fucking show. Plenty of men saw these movies–you can't win the box office by excluding an entire gender–but these films were undeniably aimed at a female audience."

 -Jezebel

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and the Power of Transmedia

"The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a modernized transmedia adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, told in the form of a video blog kept by 24 year-old grad student Lizzie Bennet. Lizzie’s vlog sets out to document the ups and downs of a young woman struggling to figure out where she fits in the world, along with her best friend Charlotte Lu and her two sisters, excessively nice Jane and wild child Lydia. And shortly after the videos begin, a young handsome medical student named Bing Lee moves to town. The show began in April of 2012 with two videos a week posted at Lizzie’s YouTube channel. The characters also had their own Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr accounts where they would talk to each other, and the fans."