Category: Human Behavior and Cognitive Science

WHY AREN’T THERE MORE FEMALE DIRECTORS?

Top 100 films (directed by women) – a list by minalex

The problem is that there is only one money making director on that list that can compete with men as a rule rather than as an outlier, and that’s KB.

It’s not about whether you like the movie. It’s about whether people will drive, fill up the gas, get a date, drive more, park, walk, buy tickets, grab something at the snack bar, watch a movie, go for a drink or food after the movie, drive the date home, drive home. If you cant get someone to do that it’s not a movie. It’s a daydream. It’s not business its recreation.

If you want to make it as a woman director, follow the advice we got in film school: shoot a trailer, shoot a sex scene (yeah, that’s what we were taught – it’s hard to do), shoot a car chase, shoot a horror movie that doesn’t make people laugh at you, and blow people away with how much emotion you created with how little resources. A drama doesnt take skill in managing the audience experience. Then make the case you will make money. After all. That’s the business.

Men are more likely to trust men. Men are more likely to take risks. Men are more likely to lose health, life, family and home for their work. Men are more likely the high performing outliers. We invest in who we trust. So there is a bias toward men by men for completely logical reasons: evidence.

What I remember hearing from women all the time was “I want to make a movie at my pace with my aesthetics, on the budget I need to do that”. Made me cringe.

There are thousands of guys out there willing to make a movie that makes money at whatever pace the money requires. You gotta get people out onto the street and into the theatre, you’re competing with video games, and the internet, not other movies. The test is not whether one movie is better than another. Its whether people will choose to go to your movie during it’s first weekend over video games, netflix, the internet and whatever else they can choose to do.

Enough complaining from me. Just tired of dealing with bias claims in all walks of life when the problem is trust and evidence. If women need to make movies becasue they’re women then raise money and build a studio to do it. If you can’t get into business raising your own money, than that’s just empirical. If you can’t stay in business, then that’s just empirical. Its just what it is.

Movie making is an extreme right of the curve high risk business. It’s gambling. Some people do it for love at great personal cost, often, if not most often, experiencing tragic failure. Other people do it because they know how to make money at it. And others are willing to burn life, health, family, friends, and every cent they have to make it happen. And that inspires trust. The kind of trust you give budget to.