film | ZETEO | Page 3

The wonderful world of social media

July 25, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

I am in Los Angeles this week working on pre-production for a short film I am directing and producing for my MFA. I have been meeting with producer friends who have put me in touch with potential cast and crew and helped me in the location scouting process – while at the same time I have been preparing my crowdfunding campaign so I can launch when I return to NYC. My least favorite part of creating work. Fundraising. Although I […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, social media, women

Leave a comment

Multiple perspectives

July 18, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

Director Rachel Feldman wrote An Open Letter to TV Showrunners this week. It was more than just a plea to television showrunners to hire more women – it was an article chock full of statistics on the lack of women in the industry and full of quotes of why hiring more women matters. She writes: The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media has published studies finding that, when woman create media, stereotyping is radically reduced and more female characters appear onscreen. Women […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, women

Leave a comment

“Actually”

July 4, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

In trying to prepare another grant for my female filmmakers documentary this week I am once again steeped in reading about the lack of women directors in Hollywood. It’s kind of depressing – and often redundant. I did get a great quote though from a New York Times article announcing that Kristin Wiig will be making her directorial debut. The first half of the quote reiterates the dismal statistics. The second half is a comment made by TriStar chairman Thomas E. […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

Suicide and Fame

June 13, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

Read an article this morning in the Hollywood Reporter on the suicide of director Malik Bendjelloul (Oscar winner for the documentary Searching for Sugarman). I found Searching for Sugarman inspiring as a film (simple footage incredibly edited and animated to create a compelling story that explored art and commerce and popular culture through the story of musician Sixto Rodriguez) and was shocked to learn of the death of it’s young director. The article, written by Scott Johnson, opens with a […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

Gender in Greek Tragedy

June 7, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

I am rereading some of the great Greek plays and playwrights in order to give myself food for thought for my thesis film which is a modern retelling of a famous Greek myth. What struck me when reading Euripides was how gender politics represents itself similarly in a play from around 400 B.C.E. as might be discussed today. In Andromache, the Chorus Leader warns Hermione: You speak too freely against your fellow women – forgivable in you, perhaps, but still, women […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, gender, women, writing

Leave a comment

Auteur or not

May 30, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

This week I am reading On Filmmaking: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director, a book of collected essays and lectures by Alexander Mackendrick. In the introduction Paul Cronin writes: For Mackendrick, the very word ‘director’ implied being in control of other people’s skills just as much, if not more, than the exercise of one’s own craftsmanship. As he explained, ‘The true role of a director involves more than having practical experience in various technical skills – it means functioning […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

Leave a comment

Financial benefits of feminism

May 23, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

I read an article by Colin Brown in Slate which focused on the financing of film – Fighting Gender Bias with Data. Opening with a reference to Cannes and Jane Campion (the only woman director to get the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the first woman director to serve as the festival’s Jury President) – the picture is quickly painted that women do not get to play the game the same way that men do: “You’d have to say there’s […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, gender, women

Leave a comment

Content is King?

May 16, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

I have had several discussions this week about the elements of filmmaking and what makes a film work. Of course it is subjective and each person I spoke with had a different point of view – but Gil Bettman in the opening chapter of his book basically nailed it for me. The first time director must understand and take to heart the fundamental truth that if the audience is transported into the drama of the film, they will sit there […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

Leave a comment

Self-loathing, Self-loving & Creativity

May 9, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

Some colleagues and I were having a discussion this morning about the idea that many people in the arts and entertainment have tendencies towards the extremes of self-loathing and arrogance. It got me thinking and thanks to the wonders of the internet and some free time waiting for a meeting with my smartphone I started to do some searching and reading on the subject. I came across a salon.com article which explores many issues surrounding the subject, Literary self-loathing: […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, gender, women, writing

Leave a comment

ZETEO

Zeteo (ζητέω): to challenge, question, dispute, explore the forgotten and ignored

Tag: film

Multiple perspectives

“Actually”

Suicide and Fame

Gender in Greek Tragedy

Auteur or not

Financial benefits of feminism

Content is King?

Self-loathing, Self-loving & Creativity