Author Archives: CJ Powers

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January 31, 2020

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Filmmaking

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Intimacy Coordinators Join Film Crews

man and woman lying on bed

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The #MeToo movement drove film sets to take extra precautions including the development of a new position titled Intimacy Coordinator. An intimacy coordinator oversees the filming of nudity, intimacy and sex scenes. Their primary goal is to protect the actors from any form or issues of harassment.

The protocols or guidelines are still being developed, but seem to focus around the following:

  • Meet with showrunners, executive producers, producers, directors, assistant directors, and actors to determine the degree of nudity, intimacy, and simulated sex
  • Meet with actors prior to the filming of intimate scenes
  • Maintain the continuation of consent in all stages of rehearsal and filming
  • Review contracts, nudity riders, story content, modesty garments, and wearable barriers
  • Review final edit in keeping with contractual obligations

There was rarely a need for a position of this type prior to 1964 when the Hayes Motion Picture Code was enforced. Even during the latter part of the 20th century, the small number of scenes shot that could make use of the position rarely occurred. However, in the past ten years, the number of R-rated films has dramatically increased.

In the past, most American films that received an R-rating was due to violence. That trend is rapidly shifting to increased nudity. The rating issues overseas, until streaming came into vogue, was the opposite. Many countries stopped the release of American films because of its excess violence, while nudity was rarely an issue.

While the intimacy coordinator is being attached as a production role, the real reported #MeToo issues have mostly happened during meetings in hotel rooms during location shoots. SAG-AFTRA members have made recommendations that actors do not take meetings in hotel rooms to avoid potential harassment issues from arising.

There is no telling this early in the process of intimacy coordinators will become common players or watchdogs on film sets regardless of intimacy scenes. Nor can one person oversee the behaviors of a 300-400 person cast and crew with any certainty. However, the concept of the position does seem good for those involved in uncomfortable scenes that may require the tact and diplomacy previously lacking on set.

From an insurance standpoint, the creation of the position may soon impact the production company’s liability and force compliance to keep insurance rates down. This new position may end up being a must-have position regardless of the need for it, but time will tell.

Copyright © 2020 by CJ Powers

 

 

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January 28, 2020

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Leadership

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Changing Careers

businesswomen businesswoman interview meeting

Photo by Tim Gouw on Pexels.com

I’ve been pulled into a few conversations on career changes and have learned that the average person changes careers 5-7 times in their working life. This number didn’t shock me as much as our new national average of people changing jobs every 12 months.

Since the average person takes 3-6 months to come up to speed on their newest job, you’d think that companies would want to keep them in that position longer than a year. After all, training costs and mistakes due to the learning curve are substantial.

One person suggested that our culture of self-care is driving the latest turnover. He suggested that people who stay at one job too long lose track of reality. They tend to only see life from the corporate perspective and rarely get a glimpse of what is happening in the real world—outside of what TV tells them. To stay alert and keep their job interesting, people are jumping more often with the hopes that they can grow in value.

There is also the fun associated with something new. I love to learn, and being in a new position would activate me to learn all that I can. The longer a person stays in one position, the more mechanical their job becomes. Not too many people want to be in a job that they can do in their sleep. If they do, they have probably dropped to a lifestyle of going through the motions and not being present in the moment—boring.

I’m all for a person strategically shifting their career a few times to broaden their knowledge and improve their skill levels. However, if they want their future company to see them as a benefit, they have to stay at each job long enough to develop their craft to the level of mastery.

I met one woman who worked for Dreamworks, Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Columbia. I met a man who worked for Pixar. It turns out that the woman had a great understanding of the industry and each company’s approach to market changes. The man, on the other hand, had developed his craft beyond that of most people in the industry.

I tried to determine which route would benefit their next job most. I concluded that the next position’s requirements would dictate which of the two would be best for the position—depending on the new company’s needs at the time. In other words, neither choice would consistently be a good choice.

Back when Walt Disney had to deal with the new rising animation union, he felt shredded by members of his staff who went on strike. It was a personal issue that changed his creative family business into a manufacturing machine. The wages and employee benefits went up, while loyalty to Disney hit an all-time low.

It took years of flops to rebuild loyalty and have employees take pride in their work. Today, Disney is a company that most people long to work for regardless of its wages and benefits.

Maybe that’s why there is a new movement among midsized companies to be slow to hire and quick to fire.

These companies don’t want their culture to be negatively affected by anyone, so being thorough in the hiring process makes perfect sense. Along those same lines, these companies don’t want to keep a bad egg one day too long for fear that they will spread their negativity throughout the ranks.

The next time I’m in a position to hire someone, I’ll follow the following three steps:

  1. Only hire those who fit your corporate culture and daily attitude.
  2. Immediately fire anyone who bucks the company culture or vision.
  3. Find ways to keep quality employees well beyond 12 months.

Whether you’re a hiring manager or looking for your next beneficial position, consider what added value you’ve gained from your current job. Then consider what company can improve by taking advantage of picking you up. Next, decide how to position yourself for a raise or a job change.

Copyright © 2020 by CJ Powers

 

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January 26, 2020

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Thoughts and Ideas

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Intelligent Snowflakes and Tears

Photo by Wilson Bentley

Photo by Wilson Bentley

Man has failed to make snowflakes. His poor attempts at developing an ice process to replicate snowflakes continue to fail. The theory of evolution has also failed to make a new snowflake structure through “descent with modification” or “natural selection.” Snowflakes are still hexagon in nature and it will never change. Why? Could it be intelligently made?

I was fascinated by reading Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley’s work and looking at pages displaying his lifetime of snowflake photography. After viewing several hundred snowflakes, all of which were incredibly beautiful, I couldn’t help but conclude that none of the snowflakes were a mistake or randomly tossed together.

The closer you look at a snowflake, the more detail and beauty rises from its precisely crafted form, making it clear that it could not have been arbitrarily made. This coupled with the fact that the closer you look at something manmade, the uglier it gets with the imperfections showing through, makes my perspective easy to support.

Regardless of your beliefs, the theory of evolution can’t be proven using scientific guidelines:

  1. Testing the theory and the adequacy of alternative theories using questions that can be investigated empirically (experientially) through carefully designed and implemented observation.
  2. Link Research to Relevant Theory
  3. Use methods that permit direct investigation of the question.
  4. Provide a coherent, explicit chain of reasoning.
  5. Replicate (repeat the experiment) and generalize (repeatable by others) across studies.
  6. Disclose Research to Encourage Professional Scrutiny and Critique.

Since it can’t be scientifically verified, evolution is classified, not as fact, but as an unproven theory.

Intelligent Tears

Tears of Redemption

Photo by Rose-Lynn Fisher

The body does some pretty incredible things that we fail to appreciate. One of those things is the production of tears. We produce tears for various reasons including fear, joy, remorse, gladness, grief, and hope. Most of us understand the difference between those emotions, but we don’t typically know that the design of our tears varies based on the emotion behind them.

In The Topography of Tears by Rose-Lynn Fisher, the series of duotone photographs of captured tears is eye-opening. The photos were shot using a glass slide. Teardrops of various emotions were captured, placed on slides, dried, and then photographed through a high-powered microscope to see the differences.

The images shot of joy-based tears were beautiful. The once shot of anger produced tears were dark and haunting. The actual makeup of the tears correlated to the emotional reason the tears were generated.

The complexity of our lives during a major change was reflected in the tears of someone experiencing a life-altering change. The image was just as blocky and complex as the person’s life. The person experiencing hope produced tears that reached outward. The most beautiful tear structure was that of redemption. The second most beautiful came from compassionate tears.

Our tears are not accidental or random. Thanks to the photographs I saw, I can say that our tears reflect exactly what we are going through. Even the tears produced by a person peeling an onion showed a significantly different pattern than those produced from an emotional experience.

Ordered Lives

After reflecting on the unwavering order in snowflakes and our tears, I’ve concluded that our lives should also have order. However, while intelligence beyond our ability was involved in the creation of snowflake and tear order, we are the intelligence that determines the order of our lives. Our daily order is determined by our choices.

To develop a healthy life order, we must first know ourselves. We must learn what makes us happy and what disciplines we need to alter our chaotic path and turn it into a straight, narrow path that leads to our success.

I’m a creative person who draws in all kinds of disparate information, then uses it to produce some form of entertainment that causes others to reflect or emote. Over time, I’ve realized that I’m most creative in the morning and an order of life that can facilitate creative expression would be best scheduled early in the day.

I have a friend who is very analytical. In fact, he gets more detailed oriented as the day progresses. He sets all of his meetings early in the day when he is less critical, for the sake of his team members, and schedules all of his analytical work in the afternoon when he is at the top of his game.

How we order things is not limited to schedules. Sometimes our order of importance plays a big role in relationships. How we organize our closets or make our bed every morning also plays a role in the order we give our life. Whatever the order is that we face, the discipline it takes to fulfill our order drives our success. Without order and the discipline to enforce our order, we fall short of our goals.

I’d like to encourage you to take time this week to review the order in your life. Whether it’s how a room is organized or to make sure your personal priorities aren’t being trampled on by others, establish an order that you’d like to try for the next 90-days to see if you become more successful. I’m doing it—join me this quarter and let me know how it goes.

Copyright © 2020 by CJ Powers