Inclusive Filmmaking
Make inclusion your habit, not a checklist.
Many of us in the industry are guilty of a “diversity quota” when hiring or casting. We need to adjust our way of thinking when creating a work environment and platform for diverse and inclusive voices. This starts at the script.
Where we stand in 2021
In the Hollywood Diversity Report for 2020, 30.9% of roles were given to a person of color, with that only 26.6% of lead roles were given to minorities. The top box office movies only had 14.4% of directing and 10.4% of writing credits for minorities. Not looking so great. What can you do about it?
Script and Casting
What happens too often during writing and casting is a person of color being casted to fill a space that was written as a white character. At first glance, you may not see an issue with this. But how many white narratives are told in a single year? Does casting someone non-white in this role make it a non-white narrative? Being inclusive storytellers means starting at the roots with the script. Scripts are stronger with more diverse perspectives. As we spoke about in our earlier blog “write what you know”. Well, if all you know or have experienced is within your white privilege, this is going to reflect in your writing. Collaborate with other writers. For example, I am a white cis female. If I want to write a story about a black female protagonist, I would co-write with a black female writer. The experience I know as a white woman is very different to a black woman, and it’s important to realize that this will affect how I write my characters. Collaborating with writers outside of my identity will create better scripts, stronger characters and open new narratives that may not have been told before. It’s also good to be aware of possible stereotypes in your script. Hiring BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers will make your script stronger and offer invaluable insight.
Hiring Crew
We often hire the same people over and over again, or hire recommendations from those groups. This has always been a norm for the industry, but it adds to this issue. If you see a similarity of people rising through the ranks, it’s up to you to make the change and hire outside of your circle. A diverse crew will positively impact your film and offer levels of creativity you otherwise would have missed.
Take the time to create a diverse crew. Below are some resources to help you get started.
https://inclusion-resource-map.sundance.org/
https://www.inclusionfilms.com/
https://www.filmindependent.org/about/
https://www.castandcrewofcolor.org/
An article from The Los Angeles Film School included a couple of questions that I believe are important to ask yourself at the beginning of any project:
Do your creative contributions expand the larger narrative?
What expectations will you have for yourself in making films and art that represent inclusivity?
Hold yourself accountable and do the work. No one is going to fix your project to make it more inclusive, you have to put the work in yourself and be proactive. Let’s change Hollywood together!