I know, I know..it's a tired conversation. But let me give an different perspective..
As a black director who’s at the bottom floor of Film production (meaning the budget of my productions is whatever I can come with after the income of 2 jobs minus rent, the cost of a daily meal and child support payments) I tend to wear the hat of marketing and advertising along with that as the writer when involved in a project. So I’m always mapping everything out even before I even type in Fade in:-I am widely aware of the low numbers of representation and(misrepresentation) of blacks in films in front of the Camera-with that being said should character development be influenced by getting more blacks in front of the screen or what makes sense for the overall success of the film? For example-I purposely wrote the woman lead in my current production as white for a reason as it makes sense with the story but my previous production-I was flip flopping between making the Romantic Interest White or Black because 70% of the cast were already Black and I was fearing the label of it being classified as a Black Film. I wanted to do a crowdsourcing campaign for it, and researching the success of other films done through kickstarter (By Non famous people with little to no following) and Indiegogo, etc. I didn’t find that many were of that nature. So I cast the character as a white woman, and the actress was great-so much that if I ever find the funds to finish up the film I would ask her back. I feel guilty because I do have the power to give that screen time to a woman of color that may only get asked to play certain parts-But if your aspirations are to reach that 25 mil to 50 mil budget (Antoine Fuqua status) and you’re trying to push what you’re doing to the eyes of the financiers it’s difficult to not feel anxiety about what “they” will classify your film as and who is your real “market”. have lived the so call “Black Experience”..But I will always choose Chris Nolan’s films over Malcolm Lees’. I have not seen any of Lee Daniels films (Well I did peep Shadowboxer something I like to forget), because that’s not the films I’m into..nor I want to produce. And As I peep the trailer for the “Perfect guy” where Sanaa Lathan (that’s “Bae”) is playing the same role she been typecast in-when she has the potential to match screen time with A list white actresses and her co star Michael Ealey got a round of applause from me each Monday as he played that Intelligent Serial Killer on the Following I wonder is it just these are really the Roles they are being offered, or is the only type of films they believe the black audience wants to see? Maybe it’s a little bit of truth-cause everyone is talking about Straight Outta Compton..But none of my black film peers uttered a peep about Southpaw when it came out-which was a pretty dope movie with a white lead...But directed by the same guy who directed Training Day..A black man..=)
https://vimeo.com/136134783
As a black director who’s at the bottom floor of Film production (meaning the budget of my productions is whatever I can come with after the income of 2 jobs minus rent, the cost of a daily meal and child support payments) I tend to wear the hat of marketing and advertising along with that as the writer when involved in a project. So I’m always mapping everything out even before I even type in Fade in:-I am widely aware of the low numbers of representation and(misrepresentation) of blacks in films in front of the Camera-with that being said should character development be influenced by getting more blacks in front of the screen or what makes sense for the overall success of the film? For example-I purposely wrote the woman lead in my current production as white for a reason as it makes sense with the story but my previous production-I was flip flopping between making the Romantic Interest White or Black because 70% of the cast were already Black and I was fearing the label of it being classified as a Black Film. I wanted to do a crowdsourcing campaign for it, and researching the success of other films done through kickstarter (By Non famous people with little to no following) and Indiegogo, etc. I didn’t find that many were of that nature. So I cast the character as a white woman, and the actress was great-so much that if I ever find the funds to finish up the film I would ask her back. I feel guilty because I do have the power to give that screen time to a woman of color that may only get asked to play certain parts-But if your aspirations are to reach that 25 mil to 50 mil budget (Antoine Fuqua status) and you’re trying to push what you’re doing to the eyes of the financiers it’s difficult to not feel anxiety about what “they” will classify your film as and who is your real “market”. have lived the so call “Black Experience”..But I will always choose Chris Nolan’s films over Malcolm Lees’. I have not seen any of Lee Daniels films (Well I did peep Shadowboxer something I like to forget), because that’s not the films I’m into..nor I want to produce. And As I peep the trailer for the “Perfect guy” where Sanaa Lathan (that’s “Bae”) is playing the same role she been typecast in-when she has the potential to match screen time with A list white actresses and her co star Michael Ealey got a round of applause from me each Monday as he played that Intelligent Serial Killer on the Following I wonder is it just these are really the Roles they are being offered, or is the only type of films they believe the black audience wants to see? Maybe it’s a little bit of truth-cause everyone is talking about Straight Outta Compton..But none of my black film peers uttered a peep about Southpaw when it came out-which was a pretty dope movie with a white lead...But directed by the same guy who directed Training Day..A black man..=)
https://vimeo.com/136134783
