Red Carpet Ticket

Here I am on the Red Carpet at the Cannes 2012 Festival. It's a bad picture I agree taken on my mobile phone by another Cinema attendee who didn't know how to use the camera and he received lessons there and then. I was attending the Lumiere theatre to see a 'Taste of Money' and I had a ticket for the 'Balcon'. Unknown to me those allocated Balcon tickets are not allowed to walk across the entire carpet, and only get access from the side near the stairs. To my disappointment I did not get the photograph I wanted by my paparazi friend who was working on the centre stage of the Carpet. To get the photo I would have had to make the embarrassing walk through others coming towards me, so I lost my nerve and delicately ascended the stairs with my mobile phone and Cinefil friend. It is quite an acheivement to get centre stage with Red carpet photos. It should not have been that difficult. As a member of the Marche Du Film the commercial part of the Independent screenings I'm supposed to be able to attend any screening except the Lumiere Cinema Competion Films, for which I'm allocated the choice to receive them on a daily basis from the Festival website. However the website is on a timer and many tickets get timed out before the cinema allocations are finished. To get a guarenteed ticket for the Lumiere you have to go on line at 8am and even then depending on your allowance of points given for the whole ten days you might not have enough for your choosen film. So it is a lottery. Many March Du Film professionals complain that they are not even allocated Lumiere tickets on the allocations. One such film producer was Lien Chau Zhang, photographed with me below who decided to see if we could join the local French people of Cannes, with their signs requesting a ticket for the Lumiere screening of the film 'Mud'. I was amused as you can see by the irony of trying this, but we didn't get anyone to give up their pre-arranged tickets. I was not surprised.

Somehow the tickets on a first come first served basis didn't seem to reach the throng of film makers but were dispensed to the Local French glitterati. My paparazi friend used to laugh because he would see the same people walk across the Red Carpet on every screening and he would struggle to find the Movie Stars of the films. As a professional he worked the carpet every day and was guarded about the photos he took. We smiled and laughed together and I told him I promised to get the right tickets for the 'Assenture' part of the Lumiere Theatre for next years Festival. That was it - my one Red Carpet photo. Again Janet Price Ward mentioned in my last blog was irate about how she could never get tickets for the Lumiere despite living locally and also being a member of the Marche Du Film commercial market while holding a registration badge. Her opinion was that they are sold long before the Festival began. I sound like Im moaning but well I had more to moan about like many others it was very noticable that almost all the Competition Films were distributed by the same distributor called Le Pacte. Had they accidentally got lucky and just happened to have choosen almost all the films in Competition. Maybe they had 'good taste' and they knew what they were doing? Either way the film industry doyens saw the Logo film after film and begun to mutter under there breaths again. Eventually Indiewire spoke up by making the observation that Le Pacte had more than an usual number of films in the Awards Line Up if not all. How could this be? Whatever is the case free speach requires diversity in commerce. Nor can commerce applaud such monoplies of product in the hands of only a few because ultimately that one voice will eventually determine the creative voice of the talent while it grows in the market. Democracy also requires a less demanding totalitarian approach by the Captains of Industry because this works both ways. Films that are bought by investors purely to grace an at risk portfolio may not survive the cynical use of of them purely as assets to float Hedge Funds. Producers must beware of such deals because they are only workable if the hedge funders are afloat and the distributors honour their outlays. The case in point is ICAP a commodies brokers who went into film sales without understanding the 15 year turn around of a picture. They went out of business because they did not value the product in the long term, but only as a quick turn around for their investment. A short sighted policy, which only valued the films as if they were like bricks in a one off sale. Not so a film has multiple capacity for sales in different countries over a long time scale. Below Cannes 2012 in celebration at night during a firework display caught in the lamp light of a back street. (Photo by Mairi Sutherland)

Celebrations aside one statistic that none of us can be proud of is that this year saw the percentage of Female Film Directors go down to 5% in worldwide numbers within the film industry. Indiewire listed the following statistics for the overall work force in the film industry where it seems Women are far from being equal citizens. This study analyzed behind-the-scenes employment of 2,636 individuals working on the top 250 domestic grossing films (foreign films omitted) of 2011. • 38% of films employed 0 or 1 woman in the roles considered, 23% employed 2 women, 30% employed 3 to 5 women, and 7% employed 6 to 9 women. • A historical comparison of women’s employment on the top 250 films in 2011 and 1998 reveals that the percentage of women directors has declined. The percentages of women writers and producers have increased slightly. The percentages of women executive producers, editors, and cinematographers have remained the same. • Women comprised 5% of all directors working on the top 250 films of 2011. Ninety four percent (94%) of the films had no female directors. • Women accounted for 14% of writers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Seventy seven percent (77%) of the films had no female writers. • Women comprised 18% of all executive producers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Fifty nine percent (59%) of the films had no female executive producers. • Women accounted for 25% of all producers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Thirty six percent (36%) of the films had no female producers. • Women accounted for 20% of all editors working on the top 250 films of 2011. Seventy six percent (76%) of the films had no female editors. • Women comprised 4% of all cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Ninety six percent (96%) of the films had no female cinematographers. • Women were most likely to work in the documentary, drama, and comedy genres. They were least likely to work in the horror, action, and animated genres. Report compiled by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, School of Theatre, Television and Film, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, 92182, 619.594.6301. If you are a women, please join the film industry, it needs you!