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SUPPORT FEMALE DRIVEN FILMMAKING - Love is Vein (Short Film)
The Problem
Filmmaking has a big problem when it comes to gender and racial diversity. Women and people of colour are largely underrepresented. If they are depicted, they're more likely to be stereotyped or sexualised. Don’t believe me? Here are some stats:
- Behind the scenes, in 2012, women account for only 9% of directors, 15% of writers, 17% of executive producers, 25% producers, 20% of editors and 2% of cinematographers. Women account for roughly 50% of the world.
- On screen, only 30.8% of speaking roles are female.
- On screen, a third of female speaking roles involve them in sexually revealing clothing or naked.
- Only 10.7% of the top 500 movies have a gender balanced cast.
And what about diversity in filmmaking? Oh boy… According to Screen Australia’s Seeing Ourselves report focusing on diversity in Australian TV Drama, 32% of Australians come from non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds. Only 18% of characters on Australian scripted TV drama represented different ethnicities. LGBTQI characters and those with a disability were also poorly underrepresented.
What we see on the screen matters.
What we put on the screen has the potential to change hearts and minds, challenge stereotypes, and build tolerance, empathy, and understanding of people who do not look like or sound like ourselves.
Not only is there a current lack of representation of minority groups on screen, many of the representations that do exist are inauthentic, offensive and reinforce negative and harmful stereotypes.
What is seen on screen teaches these minority groups that they:
a) Don’t matter enough to have a story of their own that humanises them and gives a voice to their experiences
b) Aren’t “hero” or “leading character” material
c) Can only be “the guy that works in 7/11," or “a taxi driver,” or “the sex worker,” or “receptionist.” While all of these aren’t bad jobs or careers in and of themselves, women, POCs, LGBTQI and disabled people CAN and SHOULD be CEOs, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, police officers, superheroes, decision-makers and leaders. Marginalised groups don’t deserve to be limited to “gang member,” or “mother,” or “love interest.”
“If you don't see yourself in the culture, please put yourself there, because we need you. We need to see the world from your eyes.” - Justin Simien, Writer/Director
The Solution
Does this upset you as much as it upsets us? Good! We have a solution. We are a team of female key creatives who are passionate about great stories, representation, and diversity in film and television.
We're putting together a funny little film called LOVE IS VEIN for Tropfest 2017, and potentially other festivals.
The Short Film
A rom com about a lonely female vampire who tries to use a dating app… but can’t take selfies.
This is a world where traditional monsters like vampires, zombies, and mummies. exist. They share apartments. They have love lives (or lack of love lives). They even have their own dating app called MONSTR. But just like real life, there’s a social hierarchy. And vampires? Well. They’re the weirdos of the monster group. They don’t sparkle. They’re allergic to garlic, and their reflection doesn’t show in mirrors and pictures - something that isolates them from the rest of the monster community.
This story has a strong, contemporary social message about not seeing yourself reflected, and finding a way to overcome this regardless. It also involves themes of intercultural dating, and loving someone for who they are - not their exterior.
We are also committed to casting a woman of colour for the lead role.
Does this sound like the kind of short film you want to see? Funny, relatable, and uplifting? Great! Because we need your help to get it made.
Statistically, this film would not be made if we approached traditional funding.
The writer-director is a woman of color. The lead role is going to a woman of color. The producing team are both women. The cinematographer is a woman.
If you want to support female filmmaking, and this is the kind of project that you want to see made and shown in Tropfest 2017, then please donate and share our crowdfunding campaign.
ARE YOU A PARENT WITH AN AMBITIOUS DAUGHTER? Donate! Supporting us means that we can create more opportunities for your daughter to work in the screen industry in Australia.
ARE YOU A FILM FAN SICK OF POORLY REPRESENTED MINORITY CHARACTERS, OR ERASURE OF DIVERSITY ON SCREEN? Donate! By supporting us you’re creating opportunities for more representation of diversity on screen.
ARE YOU JUST AN ALLY WHO JUST WANTS TO SUPPORT A TEAM OF GREAT WOMEN? Donate!
The Crew
Nicole Reddy
Writer / Director / Creative Producer
Nicole was born in Fiji, and migrated to Australia with her parents when she was 11 months old. The only significant part of this, she says, is that proof of identity paperwork is a right pain in the ass. She graduated the Australian Film, Television & Radio School with a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting in 2014. A short film she wrote while studying, A BOY CALLED SU (2014, dir. Vedrana Music), has been included in the official selection of film festivals both internationally and locally, including: Encounters UK, Uppsala International Film Festival, Flickerfest, St Kilda Film Festival, Guanajuato International Film Festival and more. She’s worked as a notetaker for both Screen NSW and Screen Australia-funded projects, and she spent the last 6 months of 2015 at Icon Film Distribution as a Script Analyst where she developed a stronger understanding of the development and acquisition process in film. Her day job is working as a content marketing specialist for small businesses, and she has a background in both communications and events management - so managing big projects are kind of her thing. This will be her first time as a director.
Bronte Waters
Producer
Bronte watches far too much television and movies for “research” and had studied producing at the New York Film Academy in New York, where she was selected to attend the Produced By: New York conference. This will be her first opportunity to put everything she learned into practice.
What are we doing with the money?
All the money will go to covering filming costs and paying the team of talented people it takes to put a film together - from our female Director of Photography and female Assistant Director to our person of colour lead.
Just because we are creating roles for people who are statistically overlooked in the film industry does not mean they should have to do it for free. Pay inequality between genders in the movie industry is a whole other issue we haven’t even begun to cover here.
What happens if we get more than what we need?
We’re ambitious people, and we think you are too. If we get more than what we need to cover the costs of making LOVE IS VEIN, we will first pay all the wonderful people who have put in their time and expertise to these project for free. Any remaining money will go into developing future projects, proof-of-concept videos for pitching purposes, and/or a potential web-series spin-off based on the world of this short film.
As a team, we remain committed to our vision of gender parity and better representation of diverse voices and characters. Hence, regardless of the project, we will continue to involve talented female key creatives both in front and behind the camera.
What do I get out of it?
By donating, you’re participating in changing the landscape in media and creating opportunities for yourself or women that you care about.
We’re not just a one-trick-pony team. We are bursting at the seams with great ideas. Supporting LOVE IS VEIN will help prove that we’re a team worth supporting, and that will make it easier for traditional production companies and broadcasters to take a chance on us in the future. With your support, we can bring better, more engaging stories with imaginative, fun worlds to the screen for you to enjoy.
Our vision is to tell great stories with social value, featuring diverse characters that are relatable to YOU.
For more updates, like our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/loveisveinmovie/
The Problem
Filmmaking has a big problem when it comes to gender and racial diversity. Women and people of colour are largely underrepresented. If they are depicted, they're more likely to be stereotyped or sexualised. Don’t believe me? Here are some stats:
- Behind the scenes, in 2012, women account for only 9% of directors, 15% of writers, 17% of executive producers, 25% producers, 20% of editors and 2% of cinematographers. Women account for roughly 50% of the world.
- On screen, only 30.8% of speaking roles are female.
- On screen, a third of female speaking roles involve them in sexually revealing clothing or naked.
- Only 10.7% of the top 500 movies have a gender balanced cast.
And what about diversity in filmmaking? Oh boy… According to Screen Australia’s Seeing Ourselves report focusing on diversity in Australian TV Drama, 32% of Australians come from non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds. Only 18% of characters on Australian scripted TV drama represented different ethnicities. LGBTQI characters and those with a disability were also poorly underrepresented.
What we see on the screen matters.
What we put on the screen has the potential to change hearts and minds, challenge stereotypes, and build tolerance, empathy, and understanding of people who do not look like or sound like ourselves.
Not only is there a current lack of representation of minority groups on screen, many of the representations that do exist are inauthentic, offensive and reinforce negative and harmful stereotypes.
What is seen on screen teaches these minority groups that they:
a) Don’t matter enough to have a story of their own that humanises them and gives a voice to their experiences
b) Aren’t “hero” or “leading character” material
c) Can only be “the guy that works in 7/11," or “a taxi driver,” or “the sex worker,” or “receptionist.” While all of these aren’t bad jobs or careers in and of themselves, women, POCs, LGBTQI and disabled people CAN and SHOULD be CEOs, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, police officers, superheroes, decision-makers and leaders. Marginalised groups don’t deserve to be limited to “gang member,” or “mother,” or “love interest.”
“If you don't see yourself in the culture, please put yourself there, because we need you. We need to see the world from your eyes.” - Justin Simien, Writer/Director
The Solution
Does this upset you as much as it upsets us? Good! We have a solution. We are a team of female key creatives who are passionate about great stories, representation, and diversity in film and television.
We're putting together a funny little film called LOVE IS VEIN for Tropfest 2017, and potentially other festivals.
The Short Film
A rom com about a lonely female vampire who tries to use a dating app… but can’t take selfies.
This is a world where traditional monsters like vampires, zombies, and mummies. exist. They share apartments. They have love lives (or lack of love lives). They even have their own dating app called MONSTR. But just like real life, there’s a social hierarchy. And vampires? Well. They’re the weirdos of the monster group. They don’t sparkle. They’re allergic to garlic, and their reflection doesn’t show in mirrors and pictures - something that isolates them from the rest of the monster community.
This story has a strong, contemporary social message about not seeing yourself reflected, and finding a way to overcome this regardless. It also involves themes of intercultural dating, and loving someone for who they are - not their exterior.
We are also committed to casting a woman of colour for the lead role.
Does this sound like the kind of short film you want to see? Funny, relatable, and uplifting? Great! Because we need your help to get it made.
Statistically, this film would not be made if we approached traditional funding.
The writer-director is a woman of color. The lead role is going to a woman of color. The producing team are both women. The cinematographer is a woman.
If you want to support female filmmaking, and this is the kind of project that you want to see made and shown in Tropfest 2017, then please donate and share our crowdfunding campaign.
ARE YOU A PARENT WITH AN AMBITIOUS DAUGHTER? Donate! Supporting us means that we can create more opportunities for your daughter to work in the screen industry in Australia.
ARE YOU A FILM FAN SICK OF POORLY REPRESENTED MINORITY CHARACTERS, OR ERASURE OF DIVERSITY ON SCREEN? Donate! By supporting us you’re creating opportunities for more representation of diversity on screen.
ARE YOU JUST AN ALLY WHO JUST WANTS TO SUPPORT A TEAM OF GREAT WOMEN? Donate!
The Crew
Nicole Reddy
Writer / Director / Creative Producer
Nicole was born in Fiji, and migrated to Australia with her parents when she was 11 months old. The only significant part of this, she says, is that proof of identity paperwork is a right pain in the ass. She graduated the Australian Film, Television & Radio School with a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting in 2014. A short film she wrote while studying, A BOY CALLED SU (2014, dir. Vedrana Music), has been included in the official selection of film festivals both internationally and locally, including: Encounters UK, Uppsala International Film Festival, Flickerfest, St Kilda Film Festival, Guanajuato International Film Festival and more. She’s worked as a notetaker for both Screen NSW and Screen Australia-funded projects, and she spent the last 6 months of 2015 at Icon Film Distribution as a Script Analyst where she developed a stronger understanding of the development and acquisition process in film. Her day job is working as a content marketing specialist for small businesses, and she has a background in both communications and events management - so managing big projects are kind of her thing. This will be her first time as a director.
Bronte Waters
Producer
Bronte watches far too much television and movies for “research” and had studied producing at the New York Film Academy in New York, where she was selected to attend the Produced By: New York conference. This will be her first opportunity to put everything she learned into practice.
What are we doing with the money?
All the money will go to covering filming costs and paying the team of talented people it takes to put a film together - from our female Director of Photography and female Assistant Director to our person of colour lead.
Just because we are creating roles for people who are statistically overlooked in the film industry does not mean they should have to do it for free. Pay inequality between genders in the movie industry is a whole other issue we haven’t even begun to cover here.
What happens if we get more than what we need?
We’re ambitious people, and we think you are too. If we get more than what we need to cover the costs of making LOVE IS VEIN, we will first pay all the wonderful people who have put in their time and expertise to these project for free. Any remaining money will go into developing future projects, proof-of-concept videos for pitching purposes, and/or a potential web-series spin-off based on the world of this short film.
As a team, we remain committed to our vision of gender parity and better representation of diverse voices and characters. Hence, regardless of the project, we will continue to involve talented female key creatives both in front and behind the camera.
What do I get out of it?
By donating, you’re participating in changing the landscape in media and creating opportunities for yourself or women that you care about.
We’re not just a one-trick-pony team. We are bursting at the seams with great ideas. Supporting LOVE IS VEIN will help prove that we’re a team worth supporting, and that will make it easier for traditional production companies and broadcasters to take a chance on us in the future. With your support, we can bring better, more engaging stories with imaginative, fun worlds to the screen for you to enjoy.
Our vision is to tell great stories with social value, featuring diverse characters that are relatable to YOU.
For more updates, like our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/loveisveinmovie/