Progressivism and Commentary in Visual Media - movies, TV shows, etc

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Question; what would you guys do if you could control all casting decisions in all film? How would you hire?

[Bomby]

[QUOTE="Kil'jaeden, post: 1467216, member: 26719"]Have you seen the movie Hara Kiri? Either the old one or the remake or both. There is a lot of social commentary in it, and it never has to go "look how progressive this is." It is debatable if it even counts as progressive.[/QUOTE]
Actually, I would totally count Hara-Kiri as progressive. I haven't seen the remake, but the original was wildly **** revisionist for its time.

[Deepfake]

[QUOTE="I REALLY HATE POKEMON!, post: 1467340, member: 18119"]Question; what would you guys do if you could control all casting decisions in all film? How would you hire?[/QUOTE]
I'd audition people and not make casting decisions based on actor reputation, for starters. What you should really be asking is what we'd do to change the roles in scripts, because the changes should be happening there and not just in casting. IE, killing racial stereotypes as necessary would be a nice approach. If you want to show somebody who's a black criminal, for instance, and you're concerned about fair representation, just make sure there's a decent black guy in your film somewhere else. Considering you might have thousands of people on screen in Spiderman 2 but Electro's a weird recluse with no backstory and basically everyone else relevant is white, even if he's a troubled scientist/engineer, they're still messing up. I mean, even messed up recluses have parents and siblings they neglect, etc. It's not really just a matter of shoving a colored character in (Electro) where you had some white guy in the original source, but actually writing the characters well enough that you're thinking about stuff like where they went to school, what their family is like, etc. But to me, that's just a personal advantage when it comes to my own work. Everyone else can fail miserably at it if they like, it just makes me look better.

Another key point is not making a big thing out of it unless racial segregation is one of your bylines, and to remember that fiction is always fiction and you choose what facets of reality to keep. The book I illustrated and edited, which SD wrote, The Damning Moths, has plenty of familiar themes in it. They are more to do with social groups and power and do not have to be exclusively restricted to something like skin color as that is just one facet of status which we choose not to dwell on. Those elements just make a more convincing story, overall, they didn't have to be crammed in to fit some kind of agenda.

[Bomby]

[QUOTE="I REALLY HATE POKEMON!, post: 1467340, member: 18119"]Question; what would you guys do if you could control all casting decisions in all film? How would you hire?[/QUOTE]
The same way I cast my last attempt at making a movie: casting the actors who best fit the role.

But if it's a biopic about myself it must star Idris Elba as me no alternatives.

[Calamity Panfan]

^ I think the actor for my biopic would be Terry Crews, personally.

[Apollo the Just]

[QUOTE="I REALLY HATE POKEMON!, post: 1467340, member: 18119"]Question; what would you guys do if you could control all casting decisions in all film? How would you hire?[/QUOTE]

The best actors, of course.

I'm with AI in that what you should really be scrutinizing is the development, because I think that is where any issues of race, gender, what the **** ever should be integrated into the story and world in any meaningful way whatsoever rather than slapped on top and called progressive.

Now, there's also the matter of whether or not race, gender, what the **** ever is going to be a central theme in your work. If that is the case, then yeah, profiled casting should be a thing because if you're making a movie about black people then you should probably cast a black person.

If there are only certain roles you've written to involve commentary on specific social groups (like, one character's arc has something to do with, like, their parents' immigrant story or w/e) then yeah that person should be cast based on a profile. But considering I'm pretty sure there are just as many not white talented people as there are white talented people, I don't think finding a good actor for the role should really be all that hard.

But, if your film doesn't touch on these issues at all or if certain characters' arcs are written such that they do not involve them at all, then it should not default to white man being cast there, and should be open to anyone, with the best fit being chosen.

Basically, write your story with whatever parameters and issues you want to consider. Say you have a role written that needs to be a black child between 8-10. Cast a black child between 8-10. If you need to cast a 30-year-old white woman because you wrote a part for a 30-year-old white woman, do so. But if you wrote a part for some 25-year-old guy, let any 25-ish-year-old guys audition and hire the best one.

[Sir Bolt the Dragoon]

I was reading an article on the Bechdel Test yesterday. I feel like it often gets looked at as feminazi thing but there's merit in that sort of analysis (for those who don't know, a work of fiction passes the test if it contains at least two women who converse with each other about something other than a man). I feel like there should be a similar lens for movies featuring minorities, e.g. does the movie contain minority characters who interact with white characters without invoking race/cultural issues?

[Apollo the Just]

^ that's a really solid point. I feel like something equivalent should exist.

Especially because if you want to talk about race in a productive way, having your token racial characters talk about nothing except race reduces them to figureheads of **** representation rather than actual good characters. Who have personalities and stories involving more than just that. At this point it's a matter of not being a terrible writer lmfao

Maybe it would be interesting to have something tackling movies or shows that exclusively portray minorities as stereotypes, too.

[Kil'jaeden]

[QUOTE="King Bomby, post: 1467341, member: 17840"]Actually, I would totally count Hara-Kiri as progressive. I haven't seen the remake, but the original was wildly ****ing revisionist for its time.[/QUOTE]

And yet no one listens or even cares at the end. A very accurate ending.