Women In Animation: “The Quagmire Of The Female Character” June 2nd

Women In Animation: “The Quagmire Of The Female Character” June 2nd

May 23rd, 2016

Jerry Beck

The June meeting of Women In Animation is a panel discussion presented by movie executive and producer Lindsay Doran. The Quagmire Of The Female Character will be discussed at Sony Studios in Culver City on June 2nd.

Once upon a time, almost all of the protagonists in animated movies were male (with various professions) or princesses (with no apparent profession at all). Then everyone woke up and decided it wasn’t a good idea for our female characters to be so passive, so the princesses turned into warrior princesses or sometimes into just warriors. Whatever the boys were doing in an animated movie, the girls had to do it too. Only better.

But – What if girls really like princesses? And love stories? Is that so wrong? Is it OK for our female characters to cry once in a while, or is that sending the wrong message? And is it a better message if the girl characters are just as good at fighting as the boys?

Let’s try to figure it out. This is not a talk, it’s a conversation, because I’m just as confused as everyone else.

Lindsay Doran has worked in the movie business for more than 30 years as a studio executive and as a producer. She has served as the President and COO of United Artists Pictures and as the President of Sydney Pollack’s Mirage Productions. She currently divides her time between her producing duties and her work as “The Script Whisperer®” – story consultation for studios on high priority script development.

Lindsay’s first film credit was as Executive in Charge of Production on the mock-documentary This is Spinal Tap. As a producer, her credits include Dead Again, Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee, and Stranger Than Fiction. She is currently developing a live action movie about a shepherd who’s murdered and the sheep who solve the crime, written by Craig Mazin and to be directed by Scott Frank.

As an executive, Lindsay worked on dozens of films including The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains and Automobiles, The Naked Gun, Pet Sematary, Ghost, The Thomas Crown Affair, and two James Bond films – The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies.

She is an Oscar nominee and the winner of numerous awards including the Golden Globe Best Picture award and the British Academy Award for Best Film, both for Sense and Sensibility. More recently she received the Pioneer Award from the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center for “igniting a movement toward Positive Film.”

Lindsay tries to be guided by the Three Rules of Drama, found in an ancient text, as the basis for what motion picture entertainment ought to be:

#1 It must be arresting and amusing to the drunk.

#2 It must address the question, “How should we live?”

#3 It must address the question, “How does the universe work?”

When: Thursday June 2, 2016
Doors open at 7:00 PM | Presentation starts at 7:30

RSVP Here
***We advise you to arrive early as seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. An RSVP does not guarantee seating.

Where: Sony Pictures Animation
Harryhausen Theater
9050 West Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232.
Directions to Sony Pictures Animation

Cost: Free for WIA Members +1 guest | $15 for Non Members

***Members must provide guest’s full name when registering as it will be required at Sony’s entrance. Also note that we can not make guest substitutions.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.