Gender within UK film crews by

Stephen Follows www.stephenfollows.com

Contents Introduction

1

1.

Gender split of UK film crews, 2009-2013

2

2.

Gender split by filmmaking department

4

3.

Gender split in key creative roles

5

4.

Comparison between UK films and US box office

6

5.

What has changed in the past five years?

9

6.

Does the gender of a crew matter for audiences?

12

About this survey

16

Introduction Thank you for reading my study of gender within UK film crews On my blog I explore data and statistics within the film industry. This started as sharing existing public statistics but quickly grew to include the gathering of new data. The film industry is heavily influenced by shifting opinions, so I find it useful to delve into the data to see what’s true and what is conjecture. Last month, I released a study into gender within film crews, based upon a dataset of the 100 highest grossing films at the US Box Office for each year between 1994 and 2013 (a total of 2,000 films). Additionally, in order to see how a film’s genre affects gender employment I created a second dataset of the 100 highest grossing films of each genre. As with all my research, my aim wasn’t to prove a particular point but to see what interesting results the data provides. One of the outcomes was a number of people asking me how the UK compares with Hollywood. Therefore, I have re-run my research, focusing on UK films. If you would like to know more, offer help/ advice on future research or to just drop me a line, I can be reached at www.stephenfollows.com/contact. It’s always nice to hear from people who enjoy or use my research. I am also open to new collaborations and commercial projects. Enjoy the results,

Stephen Follows August 2014

About The Author – Stephen Follows Stephen is a writer and producer who runs the production company Catsnake Film from Ealing Studios. He has produced two feature films and over 100 short films, and his writing has won Virgin Media Shorts, was nominated for a British Independent Film Award and long-listed for a BAFTA. In addition, Stephen also teaches producing at film schools (NFTS, The Met Film School, Nashville Film Institute), weekend courses (Practical Producer, 7 Step Producer, Guerrilla Filmmakers Masterclass) and bespoke events (BFI, British Council, London Screenwriters Festival). He blogs about film data every Monday at www.stephenfollows.com

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1

1. Gender split of UK film crews, 2009-2013 Key Findings  

26.2% of the crew members on the British films released between 2009 and 2013 were female. When split by budget, the figure is 27.5% for films costing over £500,000 and 25.3% for films under £500,000.

Headline Result Figure 1.1 Gender split of crew on British films, 2009-2013

Women 26.2%

Men 73.8%

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Figure 1.1 shows the gen der split of cre w members on the fe ature films shot in the UK and released betwe en 2009 an d 20 13.

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Figure 1.2 Gender split of crew on British films budgeted over £0.5 million, 2009-2013

Women 27.5%

Men 72.5% stephenfollows.com/blog

Figure 1.2 shows the gen der split of cre w members on the fe ature films budge ted ove r £50 0,000 shot in the UK an d r elea sed between 2009 an d 2013.

Figure 1.3 Gender split of crew on British films budgeted under £0.5 million, 2009-2013

Women 25.3%

Men 74.7% stephenfollows.com/blog

Figure 1.3 shows the gen der split of cre w members on the fe ature films budge ted under £5 00,000 shot in th e UK and rele ased between 2009 an d 2013.

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3

2. Gender split by filmmaking department Key Findings   

Of all the departments, the Transportation department is the most male, with only 7.7% women. The only departments to have a majority of women are Make-up, Casting, Costume and Production. Visual Effects is the largest department on most major movies and yet only has 16.5% women

Headline Result Figure 2.1 Gender split of departments on British films, 2009-2013 Makeup

17.6%

82.4%

Costume / Wardrobe

17.7%

82.3%

Casting

38.4%

Production

61.6%

47.5%

Other

52.5%

58.4%

Art

41.6%

66.1%

33.9%

Thanks

72.5%

27.5%

Assistant Directors

73.3%

26.7%

Music

79.1%

20.9%

Editorial

79.5%

20.5%

Visual Effects

83.5%

16.5%

Animation

83.7%

16.3%

Stunts

88.3%

11.7%

Camera / Electrical

88.8%

11.2%

Sound

90.5%

9.5%

Special Effects

91.1%

8.9%

Transportation

92.3%

7.7%

0%

10%

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20%

30%

40% Men

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Women

Figure 2.1 shows the gen der split of cre w members within the major depar tments on the f eatures films shot in the UK a nd released betwe en 2009 an d 20 13 . The Assistant Direc tors de partment includes additi onal directors such as 2 n d unit di re ctors. Heads of depar tment have not been included as th ey ar e cha rte d elsewhe re in this r eport

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3. Gender split in key creative roles Key Findings  

Casting Directors and Costume Directors are mostly female, whereas all other key creative roles are overwhelmingly male. Only 6.4% of composers on British films released between 2009 and 2013 were women.

Headline Result Figure 3.1 Gender of key creative roles on British films, 2009-2013

Costume Design

22.4%

Casting Directors

77.6%

34.4%

Art Director

65.6%

62.9%

Production Designer

37.1%

68.0%

Producers

32.0%

72.8%

27.2%

Writers

84.8%

15.2%

Editors

85.1%

14.9%

Directors

86.0%

14.0%

Cinematographers

92.2%

Composers

7.8%

93.6% 0%

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10%

20%

30%

40% Men

50%

6.4% 60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Women

Figure 3.1 shows gen der split of key c rea tives on the fea ture films shot in the UK an d r elea sed between 2009 an d 2013.

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4. Comparison between UK films and US box office Key Findings   

By almost every measure, film crews on British films have a higher percentage of women than films crews of the highest grossing films in America. British films are much more likely to hire a female director than Hollywood films. Editors are the only under-represented role which have a higher percentage of women in America, compared with Britain.

Headline Result Figure 4.1 Gender split of crew on British films and top grossing films in America, 2009-13 US box office (2009-13)

77.8%

UK films (2009-13)

22.2%

73.8%

0%

10%

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20%

30%

26.2%

40% Men

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Women

Figure 4.1 compa res th e gender split of crew members on th e feature films shot in the UK and released between 2009 an d 2013 with th at of c rew m embers on the 500 highes t grossing films at the US Box Office betwe en 2009 -2013 (top 100 films of e ach year) .

Figure 4.2 Percentage of women as directors, writers and producers of British films and top grossing films in America, 2009-13 30%

27.2%

25% 19.1%

20% 15%

15.2%

14.0%

10.7% 10% 5%

3.2%

0% Directors stephenfollows.com/blog

Writers UK films (2009-13)

Producers

US box office (2009-13)

Figure 4.2 compa res th e perce ntage of women as directors, write rs and producers on the f eature films shot in the U K an d r eleased between 2009 an d 2013 wi th that of key c rea tives on the 50 0 highest gr ossing films at the US Box Office between 2009 -2013 (top 100 films of each yea r)

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Figure 4.3 Percentage of women in key creative roles on British films and top grossing films in America, 2009-13

80.0%

Costume Designer

77.6%

79.2%

Casting Directors

65.6%

14.3%

Art Director

37.1%

18.1%

Production Designer

32.0%

19.1%

Producers

27.2%

10.7%

Writers

15.2%

16.6%

Editors

14.9%

3.2%

Directors

14.0%

1.9%

Cinematographers

7.8%

1.5%

Composers

6.4% 0%

10%

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20%

30%

US box office (2009-13)

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

UK films (2009-13)

Figure 4.3 compa res th e perce ntage of women in key crea tive rol es on the feature films shot in the UK an d release d between 2009 and 2013 wi th th at of c rew m e mbers on the 500 highes t gros sing films at the US Box Office between 2009 -2013 (top 100 films of each year ).

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Figure 4.4 Percentage of women in major of departments on British films and top grossing films in America, 2009-13 60.8%

Makeup Department

82.4% 69.7%

Costume and Wardrobe Department

82.3% 65.5% 61.6%

Casting 36.8%

Production

52.5% 36.2% 41.6%

Other 20.4%

Art

33.9% 26.2% 27.5%

Thanks

24.8% 26.7%

Assistant Directors

17.3% 20.9%

Music

21.9% 20.5%

Editorial

Visual Effects

16.9% 16.5%

Animation

16.2% 16.3% 14.7% 11.7%

Stunts 5.2%

Camera / Electrical

11.2% 13.0% 9.5%

Sound

10.3% 8.9%

Special Effects

9.2% 7.7%

Transportation 0% stephenfollows.com/blog

10%

20%

30%

US box office (2009-13)

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

UK films (2009-13)

Figure 4.4 compa res th e perce ntage of women in maj or dep artmen ts of the fe ature films shot in the U K an d release d between 2009 and 2013 with tha t of k e y creatives on th e 500 highes t grossing films a t the US Box O ffice between 2009 -2013 ( top 100 films of each ye ar

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5. What has changed in the past five years? Key Findings 

The percentage of women on British films has barely changed in the past five years.

Headline Result Figure 5.1 Gender split of crew on British films, 2009-2013 2013

72.1%

27.9%

2012

75.1%

24.9%

2011

74.2%

25.8%

2010

73.9%

26.1%

2009

73.6%

26.4%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50% Men

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

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Women

Figure 5.1 shows gen der split of crew members on the fea tu re films shot in the UK and rel eased be tween 2009 and 2013

Figure 5.2 Gender split of crew on British films budgeted over £1 million, 2003-2013 2013

71.4%

28.6%

2012

72.7%

27.3%

2011

72.5%

27.5%

2010

73.7%

26.3%

2009

72.2%

27.8%

2008

72.6%

27.4%

2007

74.0%

26.0%

2006

72.7%

27.3%

2005

72.9%

27.1%

2004

73.0%

27.0%

2003

72.7%

27.3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50% Men

Women

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

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Figure 5.2 shows gen der split of crew members on the fea tu re films budgeted over £1,000,000, shot in the U K an d r eleas ed between 2003 an d 2013. The budget level has n ot been a djusted f or infla tion.

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Figure 5.3 Gender split of key creative roles on British films, 2009-13 Directors

Writers

Producers

2013

14%

2013

16%

2013

29%

2012

13%

2012

17%

2012

28%

2011

14%

2011

16%

2011

26%

2010

15%

2010

14%

2010

27%

2009

14%

2009

15%

2009

28%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

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Composers

Cinematographers

Editors

2013

6%

2013

10%

2013

17%

2012

7%

2012

7%

2012

14%

2011

7%

2011

9%

2011

13%

2010

7%

2010

8%

2010

14%

2009

5%

2009

6%

2009

16%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

0%

Casting Directors

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

0%

Production Designers

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

Costume Designers

2013

65%

2013

36%

2013

78%

2012

69%

2012

31%

2012

71%

2011

64%

2011

29%

2011

76%

2010

65%

2010

28%

2010

82%

2009

63%

2009

35%

2009

79%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

0%

20%

40% 60% Men Women

80%

100%

Figure 5.3 shows the gen der split of key crea tives on the fe a ture films shot in the UK and r eleased be tween 2009 and 2013

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Figure 5.4 Percentage of women in the crew of British films and top grossing films in America, 2009-13 30% 25%

26.4%

26.1% 22.6%

27.9%

25.8% 22.4%

24.9% 22.4%

21.7%

21.8%

20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2009 stephenfollows.com/blog

2010

2011

UK films (2009-13)

2012

2013

US box office (2009-13)

Figure 5.4 compa res th e perce ntage of women on the featur e films shot in the U K an d rele ased between 2009 and 2013 with th at of key c rea tives on the 500 hi ghest grossing films at the US Box Office between 2009 -2013 (top 100 films of each year )

Figure 5.5 Percentage of women as directors, writers and producers of British films and top grossing films in America, 2009-13

Directors 30%

Writers

Producers

30%

30%

25%

25%

25%

20%

20%

20%

15%

15%

15%

10%

10%

10%

5%

5%

5%

stephenfollows.com/blog

0%

0% 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

0% 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

UK films (2009-13)

UK films (2009-13)

UK films (2009-13)

US box office (2009-13)

US box office (2009-13)

US box office (2009-13)

Figure 5.5 compa res th e perce ntage of women as directors, write rs and producers on the f eature films shot in the U K an d r eleased between 2009 an d 2013 wi th that of key c rea tives on the 50 0 highest gr ossing films at the US Box Office between 2009 -2013 (top 100 films of each yea r)

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6. Does the gender of a crew matter for audiences? Key Findings     

All of the films that were most popular with men were written and directed by men 42% of the films that were most popular with women were written by women The films with the highest proportion of men in the audience were Action films Over the past decade, the films with the highest percentage of men in the audience were United 93, V For Vendetta and Captain America. The films with the highest percentage of women in the audience were Penelope, Jane Eyre and Wild Child.

Do female audiences prefer to watch films made by female filmmakers?

There are many reasons why the under-representation of women in the film industry could be seen as a problem. These include female crew members finding it harder to get hired/paid, employers selecting workers from a pool that is half the size it should be, fewer female role models for aspiring creatives and, of course, justice / equality / fairness. Another possible reason is a reduced female perspective in stories/characters, so I took on a side project to investigate the question “Do female audiences prefer to watch films made by female filmmakers?” In order to answer this question we need to ask the following sub-questions… 1. Do men and women go to the cinema in equal numbers? 2. Do men and women watch the same films? 3. What gender are the filmmakers behind the films that each gender prefers?

Q1. Do men and women go to the cinema in equal numbers?

Roughly, yes. The UK population is 51% female and that the average person in the UK visits the cinema 2.7 times a year. There is no difference between the frequency of cinema visits between genders.

Figure 6.1 Percentage of UK population who visit a cinema at least once a year 80%

Figure 6.2 Percentage of UK population who visit a cinema at least once a month 30%

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70% 60%

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25% 20%

50% 40%

15%

30%

10%

20%

5%

10% 0%

0% 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 % of UK Men

% of UK Women

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 % of UK Men

% of UK Women

Source: BFI/ UKFC Yearbooks, CAVIAR 23 and Quarterly Reports, CAA Film Monitor

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Q2. Do men and women watch the same films?

The BFI regularly carry out exit polls on new film releases to discover more about who is watching films in UK cinemas. Taking this dataset for 251 films released between 2003-2012, I have been able to build up a list of the films with the highest proportion of men in the audience and the equivalent for women. This gives us a league table of sorts, revealing the 'Most Male' and 'Most Female' films of the past decade.

Figure 6.3 Films with the 'Most Female' Audience in UK cinemas 2003-12 Film

Male

Female

Penelope Jane Eyre Wild Child Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging Sex and the City One Day Bridesmaids Hairspray Miss Potter The Other Boleyn Girl Marley & Me The Devil Wears Prada The Queen High School Musical 3 Mamma Mia! Evelyn Calendar Girls Sex and the City 2 S Club Seeing Double Enchanted

10% 14% 15% 16% 19% 19% 21% 22% 22% 22% 22% 22% 23% 24% 25% 26% 27% 27% 28% 29%

90% 86% 85% 84% 81% 81% 79% 78% 78% 78% 78% 78% 77% 76% 75% 74% 73% 73% 72% 71%

Figure 6.3 shows films with th e highest perce nta ge of wome n in the audience f or the 251 films feature d in BFI e xit polls, release d in U K cinem as between 2003 -12.

Figure 6.4 Films with the 'Most Male' Audience in UK cinemas 2003-12 Film United 93 V for Vendetta Captain America: The First Avenger Green Zone Resident Evil: Apocalypse Severance Dredd Alien Vs Predator Layer Cake Senna Transformers: Dark of the Moon Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol 300 Terminator Salvation Alexander Iron Man Match Point Dodge Ball: A True Underdog Story Wrath of the Titans Shaun of the Dead

Male 89% 82% 78% 76% 75% 74% 74% 74% 73% 73% 73% 73% 72% 72% 72% 71% 71% 71% 70% 70%

Female 11% 18% 22% 24% 25% 26% 26% 27% 27% 27% 27% 27% 28% 28% 28% 29% 29% 29% 30% 31%

Figure 6.4 shows the films with the hi ghest perc enta ge of m en in the audience for the 251 films featur ed in B FI exit polls, release d in UK ci nemas between 2003-12.

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Q3. What gender are the filmmakers behind the films that each gender prefers?

Once I had complied these league tables I researched who were the key filmmakers behind these 40 movies. The results tell a clear story... The 'Most Male' films are written and directed exclusively by men, four out of five of the producers are male and three-quarters of the principal cast (i.e. top seven names) are also men. In total, 83% of the people involved with these films were men. However, the pattern is not the same for women. While there are far more female filmmakers in the 'Most Female' chart, men are still the majority at 54%. The only place where women outnumber men is in the principal cast. It should be noted that 42% of the writers for the 'Most Female' chart are women, which is way above the UK average of 12% for all films.

Figure 6.5 Gender of the key creatives for the top 20 films with the 'Most Female' audiences in UK cinemas 2003-12

Figure 6.6 Gender of the key creatives for the top 20 films with the 'Most Male' audiences in UK cinemas 2003-12

100%

100%

90%

90%

80%

41% 58%

70% 60%

80% 70%

71% 85%

50%

50%

40%

40%

30%

59% 42%

20% 10% 0%

0%

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Male

100%

30%

10%

15% Directors Producers Writers

88% 100%

20%

29%

Female

72%

60%

Principal Cast

28% 12% 0% 0% Directors Producers Writers

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Female

Principal Cast

Male

Figure 6.5 shows the gen der of the write r, pr oducer , di rector an d principal cast (up to seven people) for the 20 films wi th the highest percen tage of wom en in the au dience ( out of th e 25 1 films featured in BFI exit pol ls, released in UK cinemas in 2 003 -12). Figure 6.6 shows the gen der of the write r, pr oducer , di rector an d principal cast (up to seven people) of the 20 films with the highest percen tage of men in the audience ( out of the 251 films featuring in BFI exit polls, release d in U K cinemas in 2003-12).

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Q4. Which genres do men and women prefer?

Using the audience data above we can see how popular different genres are with each gender.

Figure 6.7 Genres of the top 20 films with the 'Most Female' audiences in UK, 2003-12 Teen 2%

Biopic 2%

Romance 19%

Period drama 2% Musical 6% History 2% Historical 2% Fantasy 4% Family 6%

Comedy 30%

Drama 26%

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Figure 6.7 shows the gen res of the 20 films with the high est percentage of wom en in the a ud ience of the 251 films fea tured in BFI exit polls, rele ased in UK cine mas between 2003 -12

Figure 6.8 Genres of the top 20 films with the 'Most Male' audiences in the UK, 2003-12

War 4% stephenfollows.com/blog

Thriller 12%

Sport 4%

Action 23%

Sci-Fi 12% Romance 2%

Adventure 8%

Horror 10% History 4%

Drama 12%

Crime 2% Fantasy Documentary 2% 2%

Comedy 6%

Figure 6.8 shows the gen res of the 20 films with the high est per centage of men in the audi ence for the 251 films feature d in BF I exit polls, rele ased in UK cine mas between 2003 -12

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About This Research Data Sources

The raw data came from industry sites (including IMDb and Opus), other publicly available data sites (including Wikipedia and official movie websites) and trade publications (including BFI Statistical Yearbooks and CAA Film Monitor). It was not possible to rely on a single source, as I could not find one place that had accurate enough data. I spoke to IMDb about licencing their database but they were unwilling to do so as my plan was to raise the $15,000 annual fee via crowd-funding.

Methodology

The principle lists of films shot in the UK from the BFI and the British Council. For the avoidance of doubt, whenever I refer to ‘the crew,’ I do not include the cast. I have defined ‘crew’ as all the people it took to make a film, excluding actors, voice artists, extras and background artistes.

Assessing Gender

The size of this study meant that it would be impossible for me to manually inspect each person’s biography and assess their gender. Therefore I found ways of automating this process. In about half of the cases I was able to find external, verifiable evidence of a person’s gender using publicly available data. In the past I have found that IMDb’s ‘gender’ attribute is only set in some cases, and in a few cases is actually wrong. A case in point is Emmy-award winning director cinematographer of Mad Men and The Sopranos, Phil Abraham, who is listed as a woman.

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For the remaining people I built a program to analyse the probability that they were a man or a woman. This used lists of names and genders as well as the data from the names for which I did know a gender. If at least 90% of people with a certain first name were a man then I assumed that all of the unknown people with that first name were also men. I spot-checked this method a number of times and feel satisfied that it produced suitable accuracy for my needs. If all these methods failed to assess gender to a high enough degree of certainty then I listed them as ‘Unknown gender’ in my data. Across all my data, 3% of names were classified as ‘Unknown’ and I excluded this when calculating the male and female percentages. Given more time or resources I would like to go back and discover genders for the missing 3%, but even if I were to do so it couldn’t affect the overall headline figures enough to be significant.

Limitations and Subjective Decisions

Below are some of the limitations to this research, as well as the subjective decisions I made along the way, which could have influenced the results. 





Reported data – To perform this kind of analysis I am reliant on the producers, studios and crew members taking the time to display their up-to-date credit details publicly. This means that if someone was uncredited on the film and had not taken to the time to add themselves to a site such as IMDb then I have no way of knowing that they should be included in that film’s crew. I feel that this will be a very small number of people as such sites are used by industry professionals as evidence of experience. Furthermore, I see no reason to assume either gender have a higher propensity to under-report their professional credits, so I doubt this factor will affect my results in any significant way. Film tracking – In order to track all British films I relied upon data gathered by the BFI. This means that my dataset is of all films made, whereas my previous research into top grossing film in America used the top grossing 100 films of each year at the US Box Office. This means that some of the differences could be a result of these different criteria for selection. British-ness – A film is officially defined as ‘British’ if it passes the DCMS’s Cultural Test or gains official co-production certification. This interpretation of a film’s nationality may differ from some people’s idea of which films are ‘British’. For example, films passing the test (and therefore included in this research) include ‘The Dark Knight’, ‘Fast and Furious 6’ and ‘John Carter’.

Thanks

This survey would not have been possible without the continued support of Sophie Lifschutz and Alyssa Thorne – thank you both :).

Find Out More

I publish all of my investigations and their findings at http://www.stephenfollows.com, where you can also see my previous surveys, research and data.

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