Behind the Screen: Diversity in Film & TV

In order to gauge an audience's perception of diversity in film and television, I set up a survey which asked questions about their thoughts on racial, gender, and sexuality diversity. Split into two sections, the survey comprised of 10 questions. The first three questions were used to gauge the demographic of the audience through age, gender, and race, followed by two questions each on the subject of race, gender, and sexuality representation. The final question asked whether or not the individuals taking the survey felt as though they themselves were properly represented on the screen. The survey used a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques through yes or no questions and open text boxes. I did toy with the idea of presenting this information in three parts (with one blog post on each of the three main subjects of the survey), however I thought it would be more practical for readers to find all of the information in one place. Question 1 of my survey on Diversity i...

Marvel's Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018) has undoubtedly changed the landscape for superhero films. Since its release in February, the film has amassed a worldwide box-office gross of over $1.2 Billion , proving that people will pay to see a film with a majority black cast, despite negative speculation. Not only does Black Panther positively and strongly represent black people on the screen, but does so behind it too. The film was written and directed by African-American men, as well as shot by Rachel Morrison, the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for her work on Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017). Black Panther has been praised for its proud portrayal of a vast number of African cultures, dark-skinned women, and its inspirational narrative. In his review for Variety , Peter Debruge said : "C o-written and directed by Ryan Coogler, "Black Panther"  is a radically different kind of comic-book movie, one with a proud Afrocentric tw...

Despite the growing awareness on the topic of representation in the media, it's still apparent that disabled people are largely underrepresented, not only onscreen, but also in the film and TV workforce. The Creative Diversity Network's 2017 report,  Diamond: The First Cut , has looked extensively into employment statistics from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky in order to see where minorities lie in the film and TV industry. The CDN states that "Diamond (Diversity Analysis Monitoring Data) is an end-to-end process for collecting and reporting diversity data. Diamond creates, for the first time, a common standard for monitoring diversity across all the main broadcasters." ( 2016 ). The data found will be important in revealing the strengths and weaknesses of UK Broadcasters when it comes to representing the underrepresented both on and behind the screen. In recent years, Channel 4's coverage of the Paralympics and Winter Paralympics has become transfor...

Women directing successful, big-budget feature films seems to be a rarity, but why is this? Even rarer is a woman picking up an award for directing. Do women not have an interest in directing, or is it a sexism problem within the industry? Since the first Oscar statues were handed out in 1929, only five women have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, and even worse, only one woman (Kathryn Bigelow) has won. Following suit, the Golden Globe for Best Director has only been won by one woman (Barbra Streisand), with only five women being nominated. Despite the current conversations surrounding the gender pay gap, #MeToo, and #TimesUp, Hollywood is still choosing to disregard the accomplishments of women by snubbing them during awards season. Kathryn Bigelow with her Oscar for Best Director for  The Hurt Locker  (2008). ( source ) While it looks like things may be changing, with the likes of Greta Gerwig, Ava DuVernay, Patty Jenkins, and Dee Rees al...

It may seem as though Hollywood is coming to terms with the fact that stories don't just have to revolve around straight white men to sell tickets, but when looking into how certain films are marketed, it's clear to see this is still the audience that's being targeted, even with films surrounding LGBT+ issues. Luca Guadagnino's 2017 film, Call Me By Your Name , was lauded for its positive portrayal of a same-sex relationship between two men, as well as the onscreen visibility of bisexuality. However, during the twitter marketing campaign for the film - which won awards for Best Adapted Screenplay at this year's Academy Awards and BAFTAs - the @SonyPicturesUK account chose to focus on one of the protagonist's relationships with one of the female characters, alluding to the idea that the film may have centred around a straight romance. A @SonyPicturesUK tweet (since deleted) that aims to sell  Call Me By Your Name  to a straight audience. ( source ) Th...

With movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp taking the film industry by storm in the hope to bring light to the struggles of women in the work place in regard to sexual harassment, assault, abuse, and general inequality, screen stars are taking action; demanding the exposure and expulsion of abusers, help for survivors, and equal pay. Hollywood is becoming more vocal and political than ever in the current climate, and diversity is one of the issues on the cards. In her powerful speech at this year's Academy Awards, actor Frances McDormand - winner of the Best Actress award for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh, 2017) - addressed the crowd and an audience of over 26 million  watching at home. After the formalities of thanking the cast and crew, McDormand placed her Oscar on the floor and asked that all of the female nominees of the night take a stand. Aside from the 10 acting nominees each year (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress both have 5 nomine...

The #OscarsSoWhite trend on Twitter in early 2016 was a turning point in the discussion on diversity within the film industry, questioning why - for the second year running - there was a lack of non-white actors, despite the 20 acting nominations each year ( Cox, 2016 ). The Academy is noted for having a large amount of white male voters, and a mostly white committee overall. Alongside the obvious lack of people of colour in every category, many have also noted a distinct absence of women in the technical categories. The 2018 awards - which took place this last weekend - saw Rachel Morrison becoming the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography for her work on Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017), and Jordan Peele becoming the first African-American to win Best Original Screenplay for Get Out (Peele, 2017). While there was a notable shift in the tone of this year's ceremony, with many speaking in support of current movements such as #MeToo , #TimesUp , and the campaign for greater  Gu...

While the people at the top of the food chain - the ones that get the awards, big deals with studios, and recognition - are mostly straight white men, many Drama, Screenwriting, and Filmmaking students are from minority backgrounds ( Green, 2017 ). This leaves me to question where the point comes that leaves us with the majority of films being made by white people, for white people? Looking at my own university (The University of York, UK), it's clear to see there is a diverse range of students . There is an almost 50% male to female split in my cohort on the Film and Television Production course, suggesting that there is definitely interest from an equal amount of men and women to enter the industry. So where does the p oint come that makes it so that only 3.3% of big budget (£30+ million) feature films are directed by women? ( Directors UK, 2016 ) This mini-doc from The Guardian looks at the amount of students there are at prestigious creative arts schools in the UK, the amo...

As we are all well aware, diversity on cinema and tv screens has been a talking point in recent years. With increased media scrutiny regarding inclusivity and representation, it's becoming increasingly important that film and TV producers are making Female, LGBT+, BAME, and Disabled characters part of mainstream stories. As someone who ticks a couple of these boxes, and believes greatly in the importance of media representation, I hope to see that these changes are made and implemented not only now, but in the long run. Recent blockbuster releases such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Johnson, 2017) have been hailed by critics for their progressive casting choices ( Van Der Werff, 2017 ) . Whether it be minority leads (John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars ) or strong female characters (Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman  (Jenkins, 2017) and Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast (Condon, 2017)), Hollywood has seemingly turned in favour of creating a more inclusive land...