Fun With Film by LASA Ezine

FUN with Ezine Spring 2022

film

Fun With Film | 1

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“ Life is like a box of

chocolates,

you never know what you’re going to get. ” -Forrest Gump

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Table of Contents Every film maker starts somewhere

Page 8 EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BE ON TV

Page 12 The Popularity of film festivals in austin

Page 14 Popularity map of film festivals

Page 18 Fun With Film | 4

The Sounds of Horror

Page 20 The NUMBERS OF Horror

Page 24 East Coast, WEst coast, austin in the middle

Page 26 History of pay and representation

Page 30 FAVORITE FILMS

Page 32 Fun With Film | 5

Meet the editors Hello fellow film enthusiasts, Thanks for choosing to read our magazine! After a long, hard semester working to finish this magazine for your entertainment, we are proud to talk about the film presence in Austin. Film is important to all of us, and we are eager to educate you about it. After you finish reading this, we hope you’ll be masters, or at least more knowledgeable than before, on our four fields of interest. Our interests range from horror comedies to film festivals in Austin to how film is taught to even cinematography and the Austin film community. We ensure that our magazines will give you a more in-depth understanding of the film industry and what goes on behind the screens. Each of us wrote one feature story, where we met with professionals in their respective fields, and one ASF, or Alternate Story Feature, that present a multitude of intriguing facts and eye-catching visuals. For our feature stories, we each interviewed at least three professionals, but because of COVID, they were all done over zoom. This was a long process that definitely had its obstacles for us to overcome. After many late nights and an inordinate amount of caffeine, we are proud to present Fun With Film.

DASH

lemens Fun With Film | 6

HELENA

donovan

PATRICK walsh

VINCE

williams

Dash Lemens Dash is currently a student at LASA high school where he is writing about the horror comedy genre for this magazine. He enjoys skiing, reading, watching movies, and ultimate frisbee. Dash is hoping to become a lawyer or architect someday. An interesting fact everyone should know about Dash is that he’s been skiing since he was two years old.

helena Donovan Helena is currently a student at LASA high school and is writing about cinematography for this magazine. Her ASF is about how much filmmakers are paid. Some of her other interests include basketball and tennis. Helena isn’t entirely sure what she wants to do after college. An interesting fact everyone should know about Helena is that she has never broken a bone.

Vince williams Vince is a high school student writing his article and ASF about the film festivals in Austin TX. He loves playing basketball and video games, as an escape from school work, and wants to go to college when he graduates. He said one weird or interesting thing about him was that he liked the Ezine class.

patrick walsh Patrick Walsh is a student at LASA high school and is writing about teaching film in this magazine. His favorite hobbies are playing sports, basketball in particular, because a lot of his friends play basketball. Patrick doesn’t know what he wants to do after high school and doesn’t really like to talk about that part of his life yet. Patrick wants everyone to know that the weirdest and most interesting thing about him is that his middle name is John.

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Every Film Starts

SOMEWHERE The skills you need to be able to teach at a high level By Patrick Walsh

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When you step into the classroom, you can feel the world around you change. You have to succeed in your job or else the students can’t. When the school bell rings you know that it’s your time to shine. You’re prepared for this moment because of everything you have gone through. It starts now. Now is your moment to shine and to teach them everything you know.

Every year there are new students who want to learn about film in school. Out of all 170 courses they have chosen yours. It is your duty to help them learn and prepare them for what they have in store after graduation. The only way to do that is to teach. This means being ready to talk long after school hours if it means the best for the students. These teachers forge their own paths in order to make learning the best for their students. Many teachers have their own way of teaching whether that be lectures or This is a sillhouette of Ben Bays standing in front of a spreadsheet. Photo Credit Ben Bays February 2022

“The way I try and keep them engaged is I try and do a lot of things that are hands-on” - Miguel Alvarez

hands-on projects it is up to them. Miguel Alvarez has made three short films and a threeepisode web series called Photo 2020. He believes that keeping college students engaged in his classes is extremely important. “The way I try and keep them engaged is I try and do a lot of things that are handson. So we have labs that could get the cameras in their hands”, Alvarez said, “They go out and film during their lab time.” Alvarez also teaches his class in a different way than most teachers. He doesn’t think that lecturing students is the best way to teach them or the best way to keep them engaged. “The way I teach the class is more of a workshop than a lecture. Because it’s a workshop, it encourages a conversation between myself and the students.” Alvarez said, “So rather than me getting up there, and just talking, people taking notes, which

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A close up shot of Ben Bays during passing period. Photo courtesy Ben Bays February 2022

occasionally happens, I try and really generate a conversation in class so that students are always engaged and always speaking their mind, questioning things like that.” Deepak Chetty is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in cinematography and directing. He thinks that these are very important in the making of a film even though other aspects are gaining importance. “Every day CGI is becoming more and more important in order to make a film. But, the real heart of a film stems from cinematography,” Chetty said, “Without great camera angles and an artistic touch, they mean nothing.” Ben Bays, a teacher at UT Austin is the instructor of record which means that he is the Fun With Film | 10

main teacher and creator of his course. The thing about Bays is that he hasn’t only done it for one class he has done that for over 100 classes. He has worked through many tough times especially from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID outbreak. “I have taught faceto-face classes, and of course, through COVID, the normal sort of COVID modes of teaching in class,” Bays said, “I designed a large online course, this preCOVID. And that course is sort of an Introduction to Digital Media Production, animation, visual effects, CGI Interactive, a lot of those things. It has about 200-250 students per semester in it.” Bays is a adaptable teacher because he can teach kids of all ages and kids of all experience levels. He teaches many summer camps and workshops for kids and

experienced filmmakers who have an interest in the film industry. “I have done many workshops and summer camps for various sorts of levels of, you know, kids and young adults and professionals as well,” Bays said, “So really, the whole thing is to like, maximize sort of the experience.” Chetty also loves to help the youth because he thinks that they will be running the film industry in a couple of years. “The youth are our future and I think that it is best to start teaching them skills that they need now at a young age,” Chetty said, “If they don’t have any experience then it will be hard for them to get a job and be successful.” Bays cares a lot about talking to his students and giving them constructive criticism. He believes that giving direct comments to the students is the best way to have them get the most out of the class. “To communicate on some other level with the students, you know, where I’m talking to them individually, I downloaded your poster.” Bays said, “And I’m looking at it. and here are my comments about [the poster]. When you grade, it’s to the individual artists and sort of working in this area of filmmaking, like it really is sort of about the film that Patrick’s making.” The pandemic has affected many things in the world but teaching might have had one of the biggest challenges. Alvarez had a tough time keeping his students engaged and focused. “It’s been challenging,” Alvarez said, “It’s tough, you know, with when we were virtual. It’s harder to solicit, or it’s harder

to have that conversation going on. right, because you’re not in person you haven’t met officially, at the beginning of the semester, everyone’s just a face in a box. So then it’s harder to keep students engaged.” Some of the most important aspects of making a film aren’t the actual filming and lighting and acting but, the little things like knowing Adobe After Effects are things that are needed to know. “So

“I was able to come to understand how larger components come together” - Ben Bays

let’s say you want to make films but you don’t know how to work the software,” Bays said, “You come to my course, you will learn Adobe After Effects, that’s part of it. I’ll show you [what to do in order to make your best work]” A big part of film is making all of the parts come together so that they fit and make sense. Bays says that the film would be too bland without that. “I was able to come to understand at least how larger components come together,” Bays said, “so a word that I usually use is coherent, whatever you do if you can create some sort of coherence in that some flow like shot by shot. “[An example would be if] we’re going, we’re waking up, we’re having toasts, we’re going through the kitchen. It’s a little mundane, to

the whole film, like the whole thing is set in this world and it’s a coherent vision for this world.” Films aren’t their own type of art. There are many other pieces of art that are just like a film. In fact, comic books are what led Alvarez to filmmaking. “When I was a kid, all I ever really wanted to do was write comic books,” Alvarez said, “So I was a big comic book fan. But I didn’t think that because I grew up in San Antonio. I didn’t think a kid from San Antonio could make comic books.The thing about making films is it’s essentially like comic books. Both are visual storytelling. And you’re looking at a comic book, you’re just looking at each image, but it’s still a visual story. And so, film is the same way. If you think about each frame. Each frame is like a comic book frame. Oh, really making films is sort of like making comics for me.” Teaching doesn’t stop when class is

over. Many times teachers need to stay after school and work really hard and for a long time to prepare for lessons and talk to their students. “My office hours are late, they start at six and then they go till 11 p.m. because it is the [best available time],” Bays said. Although teaching may mean late hours and hard work many film teachers love to teach because they love to help their students. The teachers work so much in order to keep the students engaged, teach them useful things, and work on a different teaching style than others. They do this all to help their students be successful and thrive after graduation.

Miguel Alvarez is sitting in his class watching his students, Photo courtesy Miguel Alvarex March 2022

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Everything You Need

Be On TV

Many of the key aspects and necessities in order to have a successful film. All of the must does and must haves for a popular film. With a couple fun facts too! By Patrick Walsh

Sound is important because it helps the director relate with the viewer. Sound can create suspense and it can make the viewer feel a range of emotions.

LIGHTING

About Film

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SOUND

Fun facts

CGI

Photo courtesy of Den of Geek.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

SCRIPT WRITING

ACTING Finding good actors is very important if the director wants to portray their true vision and keep the audience entertained.

Script writing is important in order to tell a well thought out and meaningful story. If a story is very well scripted then the viewers will enjoy the film more.

Graphic courtesy of Mark de Tult.

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Top Left: Sundance Film Festival Wikipedia Bottom Left: ATX Television Fest Bottom Right: StudioBinder Middle Right: San Francisco Silent Film Festival Top Right: Screen Daily

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The Popularity of Film festivals in austin BIG events attract

BIG names

By Vince Williams In this story we will explore the exploding popularity of film festivals in Austin. These events have been gaining more mainstream relevance with carnivals like sundance gaining worldwide attention. We will look into the things that go into organizing and making a good film festival.

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The Popularity of film festivals

It brings people together who have a common interest. It helps showcase some of the amazing things that people have created while working with a team of many people. It creates a feeling of appreciation and belonging for people who feel like they don’t belong. Can you guess what I am describing? It’s a film festival. A film festival is a convention for people who love movies and can’t wait to get their eyes on the newest creations the film industry has to offer. There are many different types of film festivals. Whether you like big blockbuster films, or if you like small indie films, there is a film festival for you. Film festivals are a great way for people who are passionate about film and the film industry to meet people who feel the same way they do. In Austin there is a big film industry and with that comes lots of film festivals. These festivals attract a lot of big name celebrities wanting to showcase their films and their personalities. With celebrities going on panels and answering questions from the audience it creates a lot of fanfare. Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic who writes for the Austin Chronicle. She has written about film in Austin since the newspaper was founded in 1981. Fun With Film | 16

“It’s something that’s come about in the last 15-20 years or so, it’s gotten to a point where no respectable town of a certain size doesn’t have a local film festival, it seems to be something people want,” Baumgarten said. Film festivals weren’t always what they are today. For most people going and watching a movie was just for entertainment. It was a way for people to escape what was going on and just have a little bit of time to relax and enjoy something. Now, movies have become a lot more popular and with that popularity comes people who watching movies is

their passion and that’s where film festivals come in. Rakeda Ervin is the Director of Community Education at the

Austin Film Society. Her view is that film festivals have always been relevant. “I think [film festivals] have always been popular,” Ervin said. She feels that there have always been some very big film festivals and just recently the smaller ones more on one genre have started to pop up. “You’ve got all sorts of nifty niche festivals, like fantastic fest which is devoted to genre films and horror films and there’s Cine Las Americas, which looks at Latin, South American, Central American films, you’ve got Jewish film festivals,”Baumgarten said. “There’s just a festival for every interest.”

A panel of guests taking questions from audience members at the Austin Film Festival. (Photo Credit: Brandon Zech of glasstire.com)

With the popularity of the big film festivals erupting there

have been a lot of new smaller film festivals which are there to represent more people. After all that is what these events are about, representation of the creative people making these movies. Erica Shamaly is the Music and Entertainment Division Manager for the City of Austin. She agrees with Ervin’s opinion that film festivals have always been in demand. “Anything that brings people together who like the same things is always going to be popular, so I think they have been popular as long as movies have been popular and commonplace,” Shamaly said. Film festivals’ popularity piggyback of movies in general. However, there is something that separates the sought-after film festivals from the others, and that’s content. “You have to find out what movies you are going to show, find out where they are going to show, what time they are going to show and on top of all that figure what big name people are going to be there,” Shamaly said. The content that is showcased can make or break a film festival. Film festivals are a great place for filmmakers to premiere their movies. When deciding what film festival to go to, seeing what movies are premiering is pretty important. With The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum being a headliner of South by Southwest Film Festival this year, big blockbuster movies are starting to have their world wide premieres at film festivals and in this case a film festival in Austin. “[Austin is] a place with

innovation,” Ervin said. “There are a lot of creative and talented people here. And there are also people that are in tech and there are other creative industries. So I think Austin is special

and remarkable people and products,” Shamaly said. Austin gets a lot of its culture from different places and it shows in the creative works that Austin creates. One place you can see

A crowd of fans enjoying a new movie premiere at a film festival. (Photo Credit: Rev.com)

because it’s a creative city and the filmmakers here or the creators have a special talent. I’m interested to see all of the creative works that continue to come out of the city.” Austin’s population has grown tremendously in recent years and because of that so have the creative industries that you normally see in a popular city like Los Angeles or New York. With more population also creates more demand for entertainment like movies. The film festivals can act as entertainment for people who want to get an early look at what the newest movies are and connect with others who find films interesting as well. “Austin is special in general because it’s a place where different cultures collide and it breeds incredibly creative

this is in the indie films that Austin puts out. “As Austin becomes a bigger and bigger filmmaking locale, there’s a lot of independent work coming out,” Baumgarten said. These smaller, indie film festivals are a place where movie lovers can see this independent work. They can showcase new talents and get these talented filmmakers the recognition they deserve. If you are interested in films and the culture that surrounds them, you should attend one of these festivals. They are lots of fun and a great way to connect with people who enjoy films. This year has just begun and there are lots of film festivals coming up like the Austin Film Festival which is taking place October 27 through November 3 2022. Fun With Film | 17

Popularity Map of Film Festivals By: Vince Williams The graphic on the right shows the popularity and location of different film festivals in Austin, Texas. The popularity is represented by the scale of the yellow circles. The location of the film festivals are all inside Austin. The text inside the yellow circles shows the dates that these film festivals are occuring in 2022.

AUSTIN REVOlution

FILM FESTIVAL

While film festivals have always been somewhat popular, their popularity has exploded in the last 10 to 15 years with the South by Southwest Film Festivals attracting 417,000 people in 2019 with 2020 and 2021 being held virtually.

ATX teleVIsIoN festIVal

AUSTIN

ANIMALIS FABULA FILM FESTIVAL

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FILM FESTIVAL

ATX Television Festival: Stateside Paramount Theater June 2 and ends June 5. atxfestival.com

Austin Film Festival: Is being held at the State Theater on October 27 and ends on November 3. austinfilmfestival.com

I-35

Austin Revolution Film Festival: At Alamo Drafthouse Mueller February 15 and end February 19.

1 290 Fantastic Fest: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar September 23 through 30.

Animalis Fabula: At the Galaxy Theater on February 20.

South by Southwest Film Festival: This film festival held at the Paramount Theater already happened on March 11, and ended on March 20 with 83,480 people attending the sxsw.com

Austin, Texas

Fun FunWith WithFilm Film| |19 19

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The sounds of Horror By: Dashyl Lemens

The podcasts that reveal the horror within the movies. From laughs to scares, podcasts have something for everyone.

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create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative. Movies don’t create psychos. make psychos more creative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psymore creative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more ative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more ative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative. Movies don’t create psychos. Movmake psychos more creative. Movies

Photo courtesy of Oreskis on Wallpaper abyss.

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ies

Movies chos crecre-

As Casey tried to run away from the house a window shattered, a dark shape leaping out of the broken glass towards her. She turned to run but was grabbed by the hooded figure, a ghostly white mask peering from under the cloak. As they fell to the ground a knife slipped out of its robes into its hand, and it stabbed down. If you happened to walk into a movie theater in 1996, this is likely what you saw. The scene belongs to the popular horror comedy movie Scream. Horror movies have been around as long as movies have existed, and millions have watched in horror and amazement. One of these people is David Day, who co-founded and co-hosts the Horror Movie Talk podcast. He’s been watching horror movies for decades and making podcast episodes since 2018. “I like horror because it looks at the human condition,” Day said. “That’s the thing that I find realistic, that and existential terror, the potential for us to

Blood Soaked Tucker from tucker and Dale Vs. Evil. Photo courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.

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be wiped off the face of the earth, things that possibly could have been, and the human condition, these are the things that I like about horror, it’s the one it’s the one genre that most directly looks at those things. And then that’s what I like. So, you know, No Country for Old Men, I like these high stakes, the Hell or High Water kind of as well. Things that have a lot of emotional charge. Like a lot of emotion, to feel I like to be made to feel something. And whether that’s good or bad, or extremely uncomfortable or upset or sad, like whatever it is. I just want the movie to move me.” Movies are a powerful mode of media, directors and actors work for months together to put emotion and character into their characters. Watching movies where these characters get introduced just to die later can cause powerful emotions if they do everything right. If an actor gets you attached to a character just before they die it can be sad and terrifying as tension builds. “Ready or Not manages like a

different vibe,” Day said. “You know, there are parts of that that are really disturbing and really scary. There are parts of it that are really funny. And a lot of the funny is nervous laughter, which is great. I love the nervous laughter because it’s stuff you shouldn’t be laughing

at, but you don’t have any choice because the movie makes you feel so uncomfortable. And that discomfort is a big part of what I like about the horror genre.” Despite the serious nature of horror, some movies try to ride the line between horror and comedy. It can be difficult to pull off, as the tonal divide between watching people die and laughing can be jarring if not blended properly, but when it works, like in Ready or Not, it can be an incredible experience. The combination of genres doesn’t always work though. “I have this general feeling about blockbuster versions of comedy horror,” Day said. “So like the scary movies, I kind of write them off pretty quickly, even though they’re actually pretty funny. But I definitely feel like there it’s a lot less to do with horror. I mean, it’s a comedy about horror, it’s not scary stuff. It’s like a comedy genre about horror movies. To me the genre is kind of somehow accidentally ponied on to horror because it’s not horror, right. That’s scary.” Day points out that many horror comedies aren’t really scary. While horror movies can get their fear from real risk to developed characters, comedies can often miss out on the development and leave you with a character you don’t really care as much about. The lack of real fear can sometimes be good, as newer viewers may be able to get a smoother introduction without being scared away from the genre as a whole, but variety is what gives movies real emotions. “I think that’s kind of my problem with Scream five, is, it didn’t bring anything new to the table,” Day said. “It was just like, kind of more of the same after. After scream, like Scream two, three

and four, It’s all the same kind of dead horse that just keeps getting beaten. It’s like, oh, meta horror. So we know we’re gonna get killed, but how’s it gonna happen? And so it’s kind of like, it’s just a dumb kind of foregone conclusion. Like why watch Columbo, because you know, Colombo’s gonna solve the case every time it’s not interesting. There’s no real stakes. It’s just kind of a paint by numbers kind of thing.” This repetition doesn’t always affect horror movies, and sometimes new innovations and ideas can recreate the genre. After the first horror movie you watch you start to get used to the tropes and visual cues that are most common. “It’s like it breaks a part of your brain somehow.” Day said about the first horror movie he watched. “It’s just too much, too many weird horrible things happening all at once. That your head just kind of goes, Oh, no, I’m scared. But also what the heck was that? And ever this completely overwhelmed feeling, something about it, at that point you’re chasing a dragon. Like, I’m looking for the next thing to make me go, ‘Holy shit, what is that?’” Some people may wonder why horror movies are important, but they can be one of the most influential genres there are.

Nearly everyone can recognise Freddy Kruger and Ghost face, and any list of the most influential movies of all time is likely to include Psycho and Night of the living dead. Even classical monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula were made by there movies. As the genre evolves it may look

different than it did in the 1930s, but it will always be around to influence film. Image of Ghostface from a trailer for the 2022 movie Scream.

Image of Dale holding a cut off leg from the movie Tucker and Dale vs Evil. Photo courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.

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The Numbers of HORROR Created By Dashyl Lemens

Horror movies are one of the most popular movie genres, with thrillers and horror movies being the 5th and 6th most popular movie genres by box office income.

The top grossing horror movies of all time. It The Sixth Sense War of the Worlds I am Legend Kong: Skull Island King Kong World War Z The Meg Godzilla D emon Slayer: Mugen Train

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Horror movie covers photo courtesy of studiobinder. Fun With Film | 24

Most Popular GENRES Arranged by market share and the number of tickets sold the graph of the most popular genres shows that action and adventure movies are the two biggest movie genres and consist of almost 50 percent of the movie industry alone.

Adventure Action Drama Comedy Thriller Horror Romcom Musical Documentary Dark Comedy

Horror Movie Villains by kills Freddy Kreuger is the villain of the Nightmare on Elm Street series and has 43 total kills.

Michael Myers is the killer in the Halloween series, and has 111 kills in his movies.

Jason Voorhees is the main killer in the Friday the 13th series, and across the movies he gets 158 kills, the most of any of the popular series villains. Photos of horror movie killers courtesy of clickhole

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east west

coast

austin in the middle

How Austin is on a trajectory to become one of the most important and unique hubs for cinematography in the world By Helena Donovan

A cinematographer at Aduro Studios is framing the shot that is about to be recorded. Photo courtesy of Beca Rodriguez. To the right of the above photo is the ARRI ALEXA, the camera Roger Deakins uses in most of his films. Photo courtesy of CVP.

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magine going to the movie theater to watch the new action flick or film you’ve been dying to see for months. After all the ads and start credits, the movie finally begins. Then around twenty minutes in, the audio cuts out. None of the surrounding speakers are working, but the film is still rolling. Light is still pouring out of the projection room above and displayed on the gigantic, two-story screen. Everyone is just sitting there still trying to watch the film. You don’t get that music flooding into your ears that makes your heart race or that punchline that makes the audience all laugh at once, but you can still get the gist of what’s happening. There are plenty of silent films out in the world, but imagine if the video had cut off? What if you only could have heard the dialogue and the music? Would it even be considered a film anymore? This is why cinematography is crucial to a film. It provides the visual lens of a movie. To three local cinematographers, it is so crucial that they wanted to provide communities dedicated solely to cinematography for filmmakers inside the greater Austin film community. Over the past decade, these cinematographers have made it their goal to provide the support and advice for filmmakers that wasn’t offered to them. One of them, Peter Simonite, who has worked in the film industry for decades now as the DP, or Director of Photography, for

Fugitive Dreams and on the 2nd Unit team for The Tree of Life, wanted to explain why he believed cinematography was so important.

“What Quran said when he won the Oscar for Wilma was that without cinematography, there’s no film,” Simonite said. “‘You can have a film without music or dialogue, but you can’t really have a film without a picture.’ I don’t know if that’s totally true, but I thought it was a nice quote. It is basically the medium.” Cinematography has a special importance and a hidden power in a film. It is the creative outlet to a film and requires quite a lot of trouble-shooting. “A DP maybe is the most responsible person for manifesting the kind of vision of the project,” Simonite said. “By the time a project comes to me, it's usually been carefully considered creatively and imagined a certain way. It becomes kind of my role to make it happen in time with the locations and the resources that are given.” Simonite has experienced quite a lot of challenges on every film he has worked on. To him though, the hardest challenge is timing. He said it's most difficult to plan out the schedules accurately and

take advantage of the best lighting conditions. PJ Raval, a cinematographer who recently created the highlyacclaimed film Call Her Ganda, has encountered some of the same difficulties and more. One scene in particular that Raval remembered as especially hard to film was in an active, moving subway in New York. “That was a real challenge because you're on something that's constantly moving,” Raval said. “There's real people coming in and out of the subway car, and you're trying to compose, and you're trying to be very disciplined, but you're also having to react to the real environment.” Due to all these challenges, Simonite and Zach Morrison, another fellow cinematographer who has worked on a multitude of indie films, wanted to create a community for fellow DPs. “It just seemed like an opportunity was there to bring people together and to foster a community to promote photographic arts and to encourage people, offer advice and sort of pay it forward,” Simonite said. When Simonite and Morrison were initially thinking about creating Austin Cinematography Group, Morrison said that he thought Austin had the opportunity to create a similar community to the one he had in film school. The only difference was that the two of them had the opportunity to make one more accessible to people who may

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not have had those opportunities. Simonite said that Austin provided the perfect environment to form these communities. “That's honestly one of the things I love most about this city,” Simonite said. “I've done a little bit of work in L.A. I've done a little bit of work in New York, and I love the crews out there, but at the end of the day, you don't have the same environment you have in Austin where once you know one or two people, you slowly start to realize you know everybody here.”

specifically queer and trans creators, who are writing, who are directing, who are behind the camera, and I think there's a clear change that has happened, which is we see the rise of more stories and representation.” Although there has been all this progress in the world of film, Austin still has more to aspire to. According to Raval, representation is typically still subject to the approval of straight, white men. There is still room for improvement

Simonite has explained that while doing work in L.A., he has experienced crews that have the attitude of “I’m not going to see this person again,” whereas Austin is a community that prioritizes fostering healthy relationships and friendships amongst the crew. Raval has also experienced the same special qualities of the Austin community. In turn, Raval founded the organization OUTsider to increase inclusivity and representation in the Austin film world as well as internationally. That’s the other special thing about Austin. Austin is becoming a city ready to inspire more representation across film.

“We see a lot of diversity behind the camera now,” Raval said. “We see a lot of

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Above, is the official poster for PJ Raval’s highly-acclaimed film, Call Her Ganda. Graphic courtesy of Breaking Glass Pictures.

in who gets to talk and say what they want about films in regards to writing reviews or articles in the media. Raval says there’s still much room for improvement in the diversity and inclusion the world sees in this area as well. As Simonite said before, he aspires to make Austin’s film community as big and well-known as New York’s or L.A.’s.

Simonite wants Austin to be a place where there is the same reputation regardless of if a cinematographer comes from Iceland or Poland, everyone thinks, ‘Oh, they must be good at their job.’ That's what he envisions Austin to be in the United States. Simonite aspires for Austin to be better than the East Coast or the West Coast. He wants it to be a place where people think, ‘Oh, really great camera people come out of Austin.’

“Poland has always kind of been focused upon the cinematography aspect in a way that results in a lot of great talent coming from there,” Simonite said. “I'm sure it's ever changing, but I would love it if Austin was one of those cities that people thought of when they thought of cinematography.” Both organizations always have events going on. OUTsider had their annual Unplugged festival in mid-February where queer and minority filmmakers came from all over the world to share ideas and spend time together. Austin Cinematography Group is having educational and social workshops almost every weekend for people of all skill levels to attend.

DP Peter Simonite, a name that has been well-known in the cinematography world for decades, is working on the set of the film Fugitive Dreams. Photo courtesy of Y.M. Cinema.

A few filmmakers have gathered at Aduro Studios for an educational workshop that Austin Cinematography Group, led by Zach Morrison, hosted on January 30th, 2022. Photo provided by Beca Rodriguez.

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And

History pay represenation

A look into the fairness in the film industry from gender to job By Helena Donovan

Female

male

Actors Female actors earn on average $1M less than their male counterparts. This unexplained gender gap remains present even when considering various influential factors such as: previous financial success, popularity, genre, profitability, budget of the film, and more. This pay gap has been ever present since the start of the film industry, and although the gap has begun to decrease in recent years, it will still be a lot longer until equality will be reached.

25% difference in pay

12 of the Most Important

JOBS IN FILM

Although each of these twelve jobs have a substantially large salary, certain ones are paid far less than others. Some of these jobs are much less widely-known compared to other jobs. Most people can name hundreds of actors and plenty of directors or producers off the top of their head, whereas a typical person doesn’t even know one location manager or sound designer’s name. In regards to producers specifically, they receive an even larger pay depending on the movie’s success whereas most other job’s pays are set. For example, producers make roughly 12 times more per film than a DP, even though each of these jobs are arguably of similar importance. Fun With Film | 30

Location manager VFX SUPERVISOR

Director of photography

Producer

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

lead makeup artist

sound designer

COSTUME designer

screenwriter

Director

ACTOR *for lead roles

EDITOR

Sources Information provided by: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Hollywood Reporter University of Wisconsin-Milwaufee San Diego State University

*data is in regards to A-listers working on big-budget films

WOmen

men

in higher-paying jobs More women are in the film industry than ever; however, women only make up around 20% of key jobs in a film, according to the data from the 100 highest-grossing films of 2019. And in 2021, women only comprised 12% of directors in the top 100 films. A history of male figures in higher-paying jobs has caused a pay inequality in this industry.

Women make up 1 in 5 high-pay jobs Fun With Film | 31

avorite ilms

THE TOP OSCARNOMINATED FILMS FROM THE 21ST CENTURY 2000-2021

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Graphics courtesy of IMDB.

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“ I’m gonna

make him an offer he can’t

refuse. ” -The Godfather

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Fun With Film Spring 2022 Ezine Credits

Dashyl Lemens

Editor/Writer

Helena Donovan

Editor/Writer

Vince Williams

Editor/Writer

Patrick Walsh

Editor/Writer

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