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Women and Hollywood: After Hardwicke directed Twilight, which was a huge deal for a woman director, she admitted that she felt her career would get much easier. Directing the first film of a hugely successful YA franchise, which grossed over $400 million worldwide, broke records especially for a woman director.
Just to put some things into perspective, Twilight wasn't a brilliant movie to all who saw it. I'd say that at least a third of those movie goers went to bash the movie, as I did. It wasn't all that great of a movie even if it did bring in a lot of revenue, so I can see why Hardwicke hasn't gotten any big job offers. All people have seen her do is this movie. The popularity wasn't because of the movies; half of the following was because the books were halfway decent for middle schoolers. Then again, you have the really bad directors getting jobs too, like M. Night. It is all about chance and opportunity in this world of theatre.
I do agree with Kristen -- Twilight in particular might have been a blockbuster, but a large portion of its audience considered it a terrible movie, and went to see it for that reason alone. For all its fanatics, a lot of people consider the entire Twilight franchise to be in bad taste. All the same, it's extremely frustrating to me that directors get opportunities based on connections or gender instead of by talent or some kind of proven worth. A lot of industries work this way -- maybe it's just more obvious in the directing world -- but unfortunately I don't see a radical change coming anytime soon, though I wish it would. It seems to be too much of a tradition, ingrained into the culture of the work.
2 comments:
Just to put some things into perspective, Twilight wasn't a brilliant movie to all who saw it. I'd say that at least a third of those movie goers went to bash the movie, as I did. It wasn't all that great of a movie even if it did bring in a lot of revenue, so I can see why Hardwicke hasn't gotten any big job offers. All people have seen her do is this movie. The popularity wasn't because of the movies; half of the following was because the books were halfway decent for middle schoolers. Then again, you have the really bad directors getting jobs too, like M. Night. It is all about chance and opportunity in this world of theatre.
I do agree with Kristen -- Twilight in particular might have been a blockbuster, but a large portion of its audience considered it a terrible movie, and went to see it for that reason alone. For all its fanatics, a lot of people consider the entire Twilight franchise to be in bad taste. All the same, it's extremely frustrating to me that directors get opportunities based on connections or gender instead of by talent or some kind of proven worth. A lot of industries work this way -- maybe it's just more obvious in the directing world -- but unfortunately I don't see a radical change coming anytime soon, though I wish it would. It seems to be too much of a tradition, ingrained into the culture of the work.
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