Salutations!

This trip has been really flying by! Tomorrow is fourth Monday. Can you believe it? Anyways, enough about the mind blowing passage of time. Throughout our trip, we’ve watched a fair amount of dramas. Ranging from Sunrise to L.A. Confidential, majority of our films have been quite serious. This week we saw Preston Sturgess’ Sullivan’s Travels— a screwball comedy. The film focuses on the popular comedy director, John Sullivan, as he aims to make a serious film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?  In order to do this, he decides he needs to know what it is like to struggle. The concept of just removing oneself from a comfortable life and essentially moving into a Hooverville for research is inherently privileged.  The film does, however,  directly acknowledge this fact. Yes, the film had a few flaws yet it presented an entertaining story while acknowledging social issues. Considering the time (1941), this is quite impressive. The screwball comedies that predated this film tended to focus on the affairs of the upper class. Ultimately, John Sullivan decides that the greatest gift he can give to society is laughter. I whole heartedly agree with this. Life is scary enough.

Today after I successfully convinced my Uber driver I was not 15 years old, he asked me what I did. I told him I was a comedy writer. He looked at me with an incredibly curious look and asked, “How do you know what’s funny?” I honestly could not think of an answer. After a few moments, I responded, “I think its funny when normal situations are skewed  somehow.” He agreed but added that the twist should have a purpose. I think he’s completely right and this idea is exemplified in Sullivan’s Travels. Throughout the film, Sullivan repeatedly ends up back in Hollywood no matter how hard he tries to leave. This twist seems to suggest that no matter how hard Sullivan tries to understand the experience of the lower class, he will always be privileged. Additionally once Sullivan finds himself in labor camp, he realizes that he actually wants to write comedy. He realizes that during that time (The Great Depression) people went to the movies to escape. They had no desire to see their experiences on screen because they were living them. Similarly, they didn’t want people with extreme amounts of privilege to write their experience. Comedy seems to have the ability to comment. Dramas seem to try make a point. This film was not necessarily about those disenfranchised by the Depression. Rather, it utilized the social and political climate of the time and commented on it by means of comedy. It’s a comedy film about a director trying to make the next great drama. I feel like that’s quite absurd. I should’ve suggested it to Savi. He was my Uber driver. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.

-Olivia

Greetings Everyone!

Our time in L.A. has been flying by. From getting a tour of the Young Sheldon set from the one and only young Sheldon to sitting in on an American Dad table read, this past week we got some incredible opportunities. Most of our agenda last week was very television centric. Now, a show’s production environment varies but there is one general sentiment that these industry members shared– film is a directors’ medium and television is a writers’ medium.

One thing that seems to dominate television writing is the writers’ room. Whether the script is collaborative or members take turns on each episode, the writers’ room seems to be king. When we were visiting the Young Sheldon set,  we ran into the director as he was planning his shots for the day. If this were a film, I feel as though the director would spend much more time on this step of production. Now, I know this varies from filmmaker to filmmaker but in terms of television, the framing and look of the picture seems to be less important considering the focus is placed on the writing.

Let’s back track a bit. Did you notice how I said writers were king? Believe it or not, I did that on purpose. One thing that really stood on these visits was the lack of female voices in the writer’s room. To make sure I wasn’t jumping to conclusions, I did some research.

So after perusing IMDB, I noticed that I was indeed on to something. In 2016, the Writers Guild reported that 29% of employed writers identified as female. Now, I’m not saying I’m presenting any ground breaking news here. The fact of the matter is that writer’s rooms are overwhelmingly male. Some may argue that this is because of certain shows’ content. I, however, call bullshit on that (sorry if I can’t say that). The content argument pigeonholes women in not only their writing abilities but also their identities. Take me for example, I’m disgusting and forget that the f word is taboo. Many would say this isn’t feminine. Bridesmaids is an amazing example of women being gross and doing things that would typically be considered masculine–female fight club and soiling one’s self in the street.  This film also explores female friendship and it was written by women! It seems silly to expect well rounded, unique femme characters if they’re written by men.

Okay men who are reading this, calm down. I know some of you can write good femme characters but too many of you don’t. Just take a little break, and let some femmes write their own stories. Also, this notion doesn’t just apply to gender. People of color, LBTQIA, disabled people, among others who’s voices aren’t typically heard deserve to control their own narratives.

And with that, I bid you adieu!

-Olivia

Hello whoever reads this besides Clay and Dylan!

Yesterday was our first day in Los Angeles! We had a pretty packed day but it was very doable. We started our morning exploring Union Station and the Los Angeles Plaza. We got some dank food and then met with Krista Smith from Vanity Fair. Krista was incredible! She’s so funny and has a good head on her shoulders. It was really interesting to hear about what goes into an entertainment magazine and how it’s changed with the digital era.

We ended our night at the Oscars screening of Sunrise. Going into it, I knew I didn’t like the movie. The glitz and glamour of the Academy didn’t change anything. I will say it was pretty cool to see the giant Oscar statues but throughout the entire movie I was hoping they’d come to life and put an end to my misery. I mean seriously, the film was filled with violence against women as a source of humor. That’s just not funny. Now, I understand that Sunrise is a huge deal in American film history (dream sequences, tracking shots, expressionism and realism, etc). However in a time where the Academy claims to be championing the voices of women, I found it peculiar that the president didn’t at least recognize the problematic nature of the subject matter. Rather than saying times up, this kind of felt like time’s running out but let me just get one more word in. Can we just bring up the music and play these men off the stage? I’m tired of people presenting violent images without recognizing their impact.

Okay, I didn’t mean for that to turn into a mini-rant. Sorry!

Welp, have a good day I guess!

-Olivia