Brenda Chapman is an artist, writer and director. She was the very first American woman to direct an animated feature film ('
The Prince of Egypt') for a major studio (
Dreamworks SKG). She was also the first woman to serve as head of story on a Disney film ("
The Lion King"). So, needless to say she is a huge inspiration for me and probably many other women who are trying to make their mark in the animation industry.
So when I heard that
Pixar had replaced her half way through the creation of '
Brave' (with a man no less!!) it was not only a crushing blow for her, but for women aspiring within the animation industry.
Even though there has been a lot of progression for women within the film and animation industry in the past decade, it is still an uphill struggle for creative women to get their voices heard in this male-dominated industry. There are now many female producers out there with big names under their belt, but not very many directors. As Chapman puts it in this article,
"Sometimes women express an idea and are shot down, only to have a man
express essentially the same idea and have it broadly embraced. Until
there is a sufficient number of women executives in high places, this
will continue to happen."
- reading that line I had to refrain from standing up and cheering "Preach sister, preach!".
I have only been part of the film industry for 4-5 years, but already I feel her pain. My working environment is proof of all this; I am the only female on my team and only the 5th woman on the whole floor (of roughly 50+ artists). Where will you find most of the women in the company? In production, mostly as assistants and coordinators and the rest (who paid their dues and have been with the company for a long enough time) are actually producers! Whilst I have nothing against women wanting to be producers, or any other admin-type role, it still saddens me that the people in the most highest creative positions are still men in the majority. I don't believe this is an excersize of mass sexism, but simply because there hasn't been enough efforts made to broaden the horizons of women within the industry. For instance, my background is a 1yr deploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design (Media Pathway), which was basically a year of doing 2D animation, then a 3 year degree in Animation, and whilst I was a runner I was pushed towards a production position twice, as they thought I wouldn't get my artists position that I desired. I respectfully declined, prefering to work my way up instead, I went from running to wrangling to being a rotoAnimation artist and am now using my free time to animate in the hopes that I will be able to get a position in animation one day. All of this I did on my own, talked to anyone who would listen and gave up almost all of my free time before and after work. That either sounds impressive to you or acceptable. If it is acceptable, it's because you probably went through a similar process; if it's impressive it means that you expect help along the way. And there's nothing wrong with that, there should be help along the way, it shouldn't be as difficult as it is.
For me, it actually began long ago back when I was in secondary school. At 14 I knew what I wanted to do, I hadn't decided on a specialisation but I knew I loved designing characters and making comic books and I made a statement in class saying I wanted to work in the animation and film industry one day. 'You mean as an actress?', no, 'oh....a makeup artist?' NO! I was infuriated that my teacher's and peers couldn't get it into their head that a woman doesn't just dream of glits, glam and money. I was even more upset that when I asked my teacher's what they think was the best route to take to one day be an animator, storyboard artist or character designer they hadn't a clue. I forgot to mention that I went to an all girls' convent school, and to their knowledge, no other student had been interested in the same career path as I. So I forgave them.
If I skip ahead 5 years, I started an animation course at university. In the year there were 10 women and 50 men. Again, who's fault is this? The university didn't shun women who applied, the men weren't 'just that much better' than the women. Yet, down the corridor was a full class of women....for fashion. I've thought on this for a long time, and now I don't think I can blame anyone. I honestly believe that it's a career choice that is just not advertised enough for young women, maybe they are creative and talented but simply have no output, so conform to the conventional creative positions for women.
But hey, for those of you that honestly have always dreamed of being the next big clothes designer, PA to an impoartant VIP, or just wanted the simple joys of home and family life - - go nuts! Just be happy doing what you're doing. But hopefully, there are more little girls drawing in the sketchbooks nowadays, and harbouring ideas of belonging to the world of cartoons, film and entertainment.
The rest of the world will catch up, and men will start getting used to more strong women in the work place, hopefully making room for progress.
As "Kung Fu Panda 2" director Jennifer Yuh Nelson puts it,
"If you do good work and you provide a very good service, then it's just
bad business to assume that if she's a girl, she can't do it,".
Phew, I kind of went off on a tangent for this post :P but please remember that these are just my personal views based on my experiences. Below is the article by Brenda Chapman that I mentioned in the title of the post:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/08/14/how-can-women-gain-influence-in-hollywood/stand-up-for-yourself-and-mentor-others
