Douglas Bowker
Animation, Video, Motion-Graphics
I'm a freelance animation, video and motion graphics professional. Whatever the media, my love is of great cinematography, film and the beauty of moving images.
From what's been released so far, the armorer bears 90% of the responsibility for the simple and obvious reason it was her JOB. No doubt, others should have been paying more attention, and if it's true that the producers ignored warnings then they bear the rest. Alec Baldwin is not an "action" movie actor. He's not experienced the way other actors might be, ones who have handled numerous guns in dozens of movies. Which again comes back to the armorer and overall production safety protocols. Who hands an actor calling out "cold gun" without actually checking the cylinder on the revolver you're holding? Sure, a more experienced actor would check on their own, and they wouldn't point it directly at a person, not even during the filming. It's tragic Baldwin didn't know to check, but that's not his fault.
Wouldn't the other lesson be: know who you're doing business with, and don't accept money with the Devil (in whatever form he takes)? Weinstein was known to be an awful human being on multiple levels, and for decades. When directors all claim they didn't "know" that really smacks of "didn't want to know."
A percentage point drop does not equal Failure. Does the focus REALLY have to be all about the top grossing films? How about we discuss the percentage of top grossing movies that that had hackneyed stories, the same old stars and were overladen with effects?
Numbers count for something, sure. But there is a lot to be excited about in terms of women occupying key roles in film making. I see so many more women cinematographers credited, so many more women as directors. The movie She Said (and no, it's probably not a top 100 earner) had my count something like a 90% female crew, from Director, Cinematographer, camera operators, set dec., grips, lighting, electrical... That's astounding from even a decade ago.
I'd rather see an entire article focus on those productions thar are unsung victories towards women's inclusion first, with the caveat that there's still more to be done after.
Picking it apart the plot like this just reminds me of how terrible this movie was. Every scientist not only ignores the most basic protocols of safety and exploration, but then act like emotionally fragile children, tearfully asking absurd questions like "Why did you want to destroy your creation? What did we do wrong?!" Why in the world would Weyland ever think an advanced race of beings would care even an iota about his individual life? It would be like having a lab-rat plead with a scientist to give him a longer lifespan.
Everything about the story (and the next) just seemed like Ridley Scott decided that the Star Wars prequals were in fact "great" ideas, and to then apply the same formula to Alien. It just wasn't.
But... It's $3500! Yeah, I get the color space, blah, blah blah... Maybe for the dedicated digital scene painter... Maybe. But still: You could buy the MS Surface Studio for the SAME price, which has much of this and more, and is an ENTIRE computer system with phenomenal ergonomics as well! Wacom might make the "very" best and I've owned several, but the last tablet I bought was a wireless XP Pen tablet for 1/5 the price and it performs perfectly for day-to-day (professional) Photoshop tablet usage. They aren't the only alternative company either. It still often feels like Wacom acts if it's making the only tablets on the market...
Only in America: The country that invented the internet and proceeded to fill it with porn yet is the same country that's still as uptight about sex as the Puritans that landed on Plymouth rock were. Yet, everyone is OK that "You" features a sociopathic stalker who leaves a trail of bodies, often just people that simply "annoy" him as the women he obsessively follows.
And BTW: If you're uncomfortable watching sex scenes in the presence of your romantic partner? You have some things to "work out" and they aren't everyone else's problem.