More women behind the camera means more money at the box office

By now, all of us know the Bechdel test inside and out. The Bechdel test asks if a fiction film features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Using this test, FiveThirtyEight analyzed thousands of films to determine whether the presence (and importance) of women had an effect on a film's box office. Here is part of their analysis:

We did a statistical analysis of films to test two claims: first, that films that pass the Bechdel test — featuring women in stronger roles — see a lower return on investment, and second, that they see lower gross profits. We found no evidence to support either claim.

On the first test, we ran a regression to find out if passing the Bechdel test corresponded to lower return on investment. Controlling for the movie’s budget, which has a negative and significant relationship to a film’s return on investment, passing the Bechdel test had no effect on the film’s return on investment. In other words, adding women to a film’s cast didn’t hurt its investors’ returns, contrary to what Hollywood investors seem to believe.

The total median gross return on investment for a film that passed the Bechdel test was $2.68 for each dollar spent. The total median gross return on investment for films that failed was only $2.45 for each dollar spent.

So why is it that movies that pass the Bechdel test have a better return-on-investment, but filmmakers of these films are given less money? FiveThirtyEight also discovered that when more women were involved in the production of a film, it was more likely to have female cast members. In other words, when one gender dominates the creative process for a picture, that shows on the screen. Under-representation behind the camera results in under-representation in front of the camera.

So here's an equation for you:

More women behind the camera = more women on screen = more money made at the box office

It's a win-win situation.

So You Think You Can Dance Huh?

One of the summer's hottest competition shows has one more episode left for until the season finale. This Tuesday they will be crowning America's favorite male dancer and female dancer. This show showcases the dancer's raw talent and their ability to win over America's votes. Before they can make it to the top 20 where they compete for America's votes they have auditions. Very similar to shows like American Idol they travel across the country auditioning dancers who poses the strength and talent to win the competition. There's a panel of expert judges who are there to critique the dancers and pick the top 20. If you have wowed the judges in auditions then you go straight on to vegas week. If you have failed to do so you either go straight home or have a chance to redeem yourself in choreography. Vegas week is the most stressful and dangerous week and shows what dancers are really cut out for the competition. As a dancer you must learn choreography for hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, and contemporary, as well as compete is a solo round, group number round, and explain why you deserve to be on the show.
This show celebrates dance and helps dancers and choreographers grow on the show. Many contestants    that make it to the top 20 have successfully grown their careers and have become greater dancers themselves. It's a true inspiration and every week I adore the creativity and beauty that comes from the performances. It's not just the choreographers and the dancers that make this show incredible its's the Emmy nominated and winning lighting team and videographers. They make the viewers experience at home real and they add to the performance. This show is easily a favorite and it opened my eyes to a new world of dance and gave me a greater appreciation for this art.

Extracurricular Projects

A lot of people may stop after they finish schoolwork or required materials but I often find myself wanting to create and do more. Sometimes class work can get tiresome and boring so finding something you actually enjoy creating and doing is very important. Recently I have created a few different side projects not associated with school that I have been really proud of and would like to share.

My first project I created last week after watching a few parody videos online. After the announced hiatus of a great sitcom called Community there has been an outpouring of fan made videos showcasing how special this show really is. My friend and I stumbled on a video where a user created the opening credits for Community yet in the style of another great show called Parks and Recreation. We then realized that it would be interesting to see Community’s credits in the style of Arrested Development, a show that like Community had cult fans and network scheduling problems in its third and final season.

A few minutes after this discussion I went right to work seeing if this was doable. After playing around in Photoshop about if I could do it, all of the sudden it was all I could think about. For the next two days every free minute I had I would work on this credit sequence. I first created all the images in Photoshop by using pictures of the cast from online. Then I put them all into Final Cut and animated the slides to move and change at the exact same time the original credits changed. Next came adding the videos included on the slides. Finally I had to figure out how to make moving arrows, circles, and the hanging pictures. I then just sat down and tried different things and used trial and error to problem solve these things for myself. Two days later I was done and posted it online. In 48 hours I nearly had 2000 views and now as I write it has over 4000. I am very proud of the outcome and how I may finding people I don’t even know post it themselves on sites like Twitter and Tumblr! To view my video click here and to see the original I based it on click here.

Another side project I have been involved in is called Dual Redundancy. Dual Redundancy is an entertainment and television podcast my friend Mike and I created and host every week. On the show we have different segments where we discuss the week in entertainment. These include “In and Out Points” where we jump in and out of the week’s big headlines and “The Flashback” where we highlight a great new episode of a show from the last week. We also give movie reviews and have done a variety of theme episodes. These have included an Emmy prediction episode and another where we revealed the list of the top ten TV characters from the last ten years. For the latter podcast we created a survey and asked our listeners for their votes. We received over 100 votes before we closed voting! We are still going strong and have created ten episodes so far.

If interested in learning more about Dual Redundancy you can find us all over the Internet. We have a Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube page where you can find out about the latest episodes, contribute content for the show, and even participate in contests. Most importantly you can subscribe and listen to our show on iTunes or download it to your MP3 player.