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Marvel stays winning: ‘Jessica Jones’ Hires All Women Directors for Season 2

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Korey

Member
Hmm no, I think that's different. Museums are about specific topics all the time. Like most history museums will feature a lot of men, since they were mostly the ones calling the shots about all the wars and stuff. So having a history museum that specifically focuses on women makes sense. Just like it makes sense to have a female-focused superhero series like Jessica Jones.

A more direct parallel to what I'm saying would be if that museum only hired women.

More like "museum hires all-women curator team to curate the 2017 Women's History Exhibition"
 

Vagabundo

Member
As long as JJ S2 is as awesome as S1 then I don't really care how they do it. Still I hope it works out.

Also, o_O @ the JJ haters. I like Jessica better than Matt in DD, she's a much more interesting character.
 
I love how any deviation from the "norm" (i.e. overrepresentation of straight white males) is considered problematic and somehow needs justification.

No, it does NOT. The current situation, the current status quo has no justification as well. Yet many just accept it as the norm. Red or blue pill indeed.
It's very interesting watching people struggle with a world that's actually attempting to be equal. To look at 90%+ of directors in popular movies and TV being white men and saying "this is fine" is insane to me. There isn't a genuine attempt at empathizing with whoever exists that doesn't fit into that set mold and how it could kill all their dreams of their future without even a conversation about it.
 
Seems like a vicious circle to get out of.

All big star directors (Spielberg, Kubrick, Nolan etc) are male --> Young girls don't see it as a career choice --> Film schools are filled with men --> Big budget entertainment continues to be directed by mostly men

I was going to cover this, but Duckroll got it. Essentially, you can quite clearly see a number of white male directors getting their first shot at directing multi-million dollar films, but minority and women directors don't get the same shot.

I don't know. He's hardly the exception. A number of young white male directors have been getting big breaks going from smaller stuff to franchise blockbusters. Josh Trank and Gareth Edwards are just like Trevorrow for example. We also see VFX guys like Tim Miller and Robert Stromberg getting to helm films. A huge Disney blockbuster in Stromberg's case. So many opportunities for talented white men in Hollywood.

Seth Grahame-Smith was slated to direct the Flash, despite having never directed a film. Ever. We was later replaced by Rick Famuyiwa (black), who at least had five films under his belt. This is the kind of unequal playing ground that this hiring is attempting to correct.
 

Henkka

Banned
More like "museum hires all-women curator team to curate the 2017 Women's History Exhibition"

Right, and I think that job could be done equally well by men and women.

But then we get to the argument about needing to increase the number of female curators of museums, male curators are overrepresented, unique perspectives, we live in an unequal world so we shouldn't treat curators as individuals regardless of sex, and so on and so forth until the thread looks like a "Diversity debate" bingo card. I'm guilty of this too, what with saying to pick the best person and such. It's often the same types of arguments going round and round.

I think we'll have to just agree to disagree on this.
 

satriales

Member
Surely it's be better to go for the best person for the job regardless of gender.

Over here it's actually illegal to discriminate in that way.
 
Right, and I think that job could be done equally well by men and women.

But then we get to the argument about needing to increase the number of female curators of museums, male curators are overrepresented, unique perspectives, we live in an unequal world so we shouldn't treat curators as individuals regardless of sex, and so on and so forth until the thread looks like a "Diversity debate" bingo card. I'm guilty of this too, what with saying to pick the best person and such. It's often the same types of arguments going round and round.

I think we'll have to just agree to disagree on this.

Or you could come to terms with why you're making a bad argument.

Surely it's be better to go for the best person for the job regardless of gender.

Over here it's actually illegal to discriminate in that way.

This guy. It never fails. LOL
 

Platy

Member
More like "museum hires all-women curator team to curate the 2017 Women's History Exhibition"

Actually considering how most art and art history classes/courses/universities have RIDICULOUSLY more women than men and this proportion is nowhere to be seen in art jobs, an all women team would fit ANY museum
 
Surely it's be better to go for the best person for the job regardless of gender.

Over here it's actually illegal to discriminate in that way.
I'm glad you understand how it feels for a group to be left out.

Now think about the past 100 years vs this one single example for women. What do you see? How do you think women feel? Does your feeling here compare in any way vs the quantity of counter-examples?
 

Henkka

Banned
I was going to cover this, but Duckroll got it. Essentially, you can quite clearly see a number of white male directors getting their first shot at directing multi-million dollar films, but minority and women directors don't get the same shot.



Seth Grahame-Smith was slated to direct the Flash, despite having never directed a film. Ever. We was later replaced by Rick Famuyiwa (black), who at least had five films under his belt. This is the kind of unequal playing ground that this hiring is attempting to correct.

Maybe I didn't make it very clear before, but I don't really have a problem with this argument. I recognize that Hollywood and Netflix have massive global cultural power, and if 90% of that is produced by solely white men, yeah, I agree that's not a good situation. And it's hard to correct for that without deliberately hiring more women and minorities, or at least I can't think of a solution.

My issue is more with saying, you know, that a female-lead show would be better with female directors. That's why I brought up the examples of GRRM and JK Rowling.
 

styl3s

Member
Fine by me. As long as they make high quality episodes everyone on the production staff can be female as far as I'm concerned.
This is how i feel about it.

I don't care if a show is written, directed and produced by a male, female, white person, black person, asian etc. if that person is doing their job and doing it well fantastic that's all i care about.
 

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
I don't understand how you're making this argument about women now but not about the men in nearly all of Hollywood's directing roles previous. You just aren't framing the situation in a way that matches reality.

I think it's a kind of understandable position to have if you don't at all look at the bigger picture. Yes, it technically is discriminating. But it's with the purpose of balancing out decades of immense discrimination against women in the industry.
 

Slayven

Member
This exact conversation came up during the Black Panther director hiring phase.

These "just hire the best person for the job" bullshit arguments always come up when it is a woman or another minority getting to eat.

How come they never come up when Max Landis gets bomb after bomb?
 

jurgen

Member
Seth Grahame-Smith was slated to direct the Flash, despite having never directed a film. Ever. We was later replaced by Rick Famuyiwa (black), who at least had five films under his belt. This is the kind of unequal playing ground that this hiring is attempting to correct.

I think there was a little bit more at play in the Gahame-Smith scenario than him being more likely to get an opportunity because he's a white male. WB was using the director's role as a carrot on a stick because they wanted him to do more writing/producing for their movies and television.

Grahame-Smith got the opportunity to direct the same reason Madonna, Johnny Depp, Kevin Spacey, Eddie Murphy, Angelina Jolie, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Anniston, etc have gotten to direct films. The studios wanted something else out of them in return down the road.
 
I think it's a kind of understandable position to have if you don't at all look at the bigger picture. Yes, it technically is discriminating. But it's with the purpose of balancing out decades of immense discrimination against women in the industry.

But that's always the issue, they always make their arguments in vacuums and worse yet will make a horrible analogy or false equivalency because of it.

I think there was a little bit more at play in the Gahame-Smith scenario than him being more likely to get an opportunity because he's a white male. WB was using the director's role as a carrot on a stick because they wanted him to do more writing/producing for their movies and television.

Grahame-Smith got the opportunity to direct the same reason Madonna, Johnny Depp, Kevin Spacey, Eddie Murphy, Angelina Jolie, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Anniston, etc have gotten to direct films. The studios wanted something else out of them in return down the road.

I think the issue is the systems overwhelmingly favor White male directors in general, regardless of experience.
 

jurgen

Member
I think the issue is the systems overwhelmingly favor White male directors in general, regardless of experience.

I doubt anyone truly believes otherwise but I just thought I would clarify the reasons other than "white and has a penis" because it's easy to go down the rabbit hole of misogyny/misandry/rabblerabblerabble when there's more at play in Hollywood than gender.

These "just hire the best person for the job" bullshit arguments always come up when it is a woman or another minority getting to eat.

How come they never come up when Max Landis gets bomb after bomb?

I don't remember much of a similar commotion when Patty Jenkins landed the Wonder Woman role. I just glanced back at the GAF thread when it was announced. People seemed to be discussing her abilities just like any other director announcement for these comic book films. I think you're just going to have this stink of "best person for the job bullshit" when discussion is about gender identity of the director right out of the gate. That and a bunch of strawmen being burned...
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
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Kinyou

Member
I feel like directors rarely get to really flex their muscles when working only on a few episodes of a show, so I don't think this will influence the quality either way, but good if it helps them to get a foot in the door.
 

Alandrus

Banned
Maybe this will have a Ghostbusters effect and people will defend it for it's bold stance to have an all Females aspect. It that will have internet people fight over the empowerment of woman in the cinema industry and distract us from the fact that the show just isn't very good and isn't worth our time.
 

Madness

Member
Okay. Let's bite.

How do you determine the best person for the job of directing an episode of television?

I agree. No one really remembers about who directed episodes of Breaking Bad of Game of Thrones. The overall season is only remembered for the story. In fact, being given a chance to direct episodes gives new and unheard directors a chance to make their name.

Example: Miguel Sapochnik a directory who made things like Repo Men and did other shows on tv like Housr and Fringe. He directed the stellar Hardhome episode of Game of Thrones last year and it was so good that he was brought back this year to direct the also stellar Battle of the Bastards etc.

It isn't like these directors are given a $300 million dollar movie starring Leonard Dicaprio. It is one episode of a show that will probably have 50 or 6 episodes when done. But the experience and name recognition will help going forward and help with increasing equity amongst directors. Another example, Michelle MacLaren directing Breaking Bad helped her secure Wonder Woman.
 

jurgen

Member
It isn't like these directors are given a $300 million dollar movie starring Leonard Dicaprio. It is one episode of a show that will probably have 50 or 6 episodes when done. But the experience and name recognition will help going forward and help with increasing equity amongst directors. Another example, Michelle MacLaren directing Breaking Bad helped her secure Wonder Woman.

MacLaren isn't directing Wonder Woman. Patty Jenkins is.
 

black_13

Banned
As long as it's better than season 1 then I'm fine with that.

They should just get Lexi Alexander. She did great with Punisher War zone, Arrow and Supergirl.
 

Madness

Member
MacLaren isn't directing Wonder Woman. Patty Jenkins is.

Ah, I thought she was given it. But I see she left the film over creative differences. Haven't followed much about the DCU with how lacklustre BvS and Suicide Squad were. But the point still stands. These directing opportunities are used as a stepping stone for greater things. Most people watching Jessica Jones won't even notice a director change from episode to episode. But the directors will use the opportunity to learn and grow and get more credits under their belt and get other projects.
 
Lol at the concern trolling in here. Those women are just as qualified as anyone else. I know I'm in for some BS when the "hire the best person for the job" line comes up.

Anyways, here's hoping the writing is better than season 1. JJ is the weakest Marvel show so far. More procedural stuff, more content, less of Jessica moping around please.
 
I think there was a little bit more at play in the Gahame-Smith scenario than him being more likely to get an opportunity because he's a white male. WB was using the director's role as a carrot on a stick because they wanted him to do more writing/producing for their movies and television.

Grahame-Smith got the opportunity to direct the same reason Madonna, Johnny Depp, Kevin Spacey, Eddie Murphy, Angelina Jolie, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Anniston, etc have gotten to direct films. The studios wanted something else out of them in return down the road.

Do you honestly put Grahame-Smith up against those names and their Hollywood portfolios before they were offered directorial debuts?

Come on now.
 
I agree. No one really remembers about who directed episodes of Breaking Bad of Game of Thrones.

No one? Plenty of people remember who's directed certain great episodes or attribute a style to them, and expect great things from them. When those directors win awards for certain episodes, people recognise their names. Here's just one example: Cary Fukunaga, his latest film Beasts Of No Nation was advertised as it being from the "award winning director of True Detective".
 

jurgen

Member
Do you honestly put Grahame-Smith up against those names and their Hollywood portfolios before they were offered directorial debuts?

Come on now.

I was speaking more towards Grahame-Smith's history of directing compared to those names, which was equal before they received their gigs.

Fine. Put Grahame-Smith in the same category as Max Landis, Diablo Cody, Brad Ingelsby, Mark Heyman, Kimberly Barrante, April Prosser, Hernany Perla, Christina Hodson, and plenty of other writers and producers of various genders and ethnicities that end up being offered directing and producing gigs by Hollywood as a carrot on a stick to work on other things.
 
No one? Plenty of people remember who's directed certain great episodes or attribute a style to them, and expect great things from them. When those directors win awards for certain episodes, people recognise their names. Here's just one example: Cary Fukunaga, his latest film Beasts Of No Nation was advertised as it being from the "award winning director of True Detective".

You know that's a very different situation from other tv shows. True Detective was basically one long movie, directed and written by the same people throughout

other flicks aren't putting "from one of the directors of breaking bad and game of thrones" haha.
 
These "just hire the best person for the job" bullshit arguments always come up when it is a woman or another minority getting to eat.

How come they never come up when Max Landis gets bomb after bomb?

It should. Every movie should hire the best for their vision, even if the vision is having an all female or black cast. It's all cool when done right, and cynical when done to make a point, like Yahoo firing male staff for no reason to make room for female staff.
 
You know that's a very different situation from other tv shows. True Detective was basically one long movie, directed and written by the same people throughout

other flicks aren't putting "from one of the directors of breaking bad and game of thrones" haha.

Loads of shows are along the format of True Detective now. Mr Robot, The Knick, Utopia, Black Mirror, House Of Cards, and a dozen more where the direction is evident or award-worthy and the team is usually the same. My point isn't that it'll be used as a sell point but that people do care about directors of tv show episodes.
 
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