Sunday, October 12, 2014

Mobilizing "Twilight" Fans to Address Hollywood's Gender Gap

Crowdsourcing website Tongal has teamed up with Lions Gate Films, Women in Film, and Facebook to launch the next installment of the "Twilight" movie series -- and are looking for its next directors amongst the over 150 million Twilight Facebook fans.

On September 30, Lions Gate and Twilight author Stephanie Meyer announced plans to run a contest to chose five female directors to make short films based on "Twilight" characters. The films will be financed by Lions Gate and will be distributed exclusively on Facebook in 2015. 

The series will be called “The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga." Famous female panelists, including “Twilight” actress Kristen Stewart and Meyer, will select the winning shorts and mentor participants. Other contest details (such as length of the films) are still being finalized.

 
When asked to comment about the project, it is of note that Meyer only remarks were made on its significance in addressing a larger gender issue in the industry, saying "The female voice is something that has become more and more important to me as I've worked in the film industry. I’m honored to be working with Women In Film, Lionsgate, and Facebook on a project dedicated to giving more women a chance to be heard creatively.”
 
In addition to its efforts to promote upcoming female directors specifically, the project also begs the question of if Facebook (and potentially other social media outlets) will become more serious movie distribution centers down the line. With Facebook's audience of over 1.3 billion monthly users it is a compelling story, if not an entirely believable one just yet.





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