We’ve recently shared a petition calling for regulation in self taping. That came to us through an email from ERA 50:50 while perhaps they are more a campaign than a business, we really want you to know about them!
ERA (Equal Representation for Actresses) is a movement of actresses in the UK set up in 2015 by actresses Lizzie Berrington and Polly Kemp.
Referencing Geena Davis, their website reports that women are outnumbered two to one by men, on screen. Other stats they share include the fact that women speak about one fifth of the words that men on screen do. As they rightly point out, this does not accurately represent our society and we agree with them when they say this distorts our – and all audiences – view of the world.
They aim to inspire British film, television and theatre to lead the way and implement equal gender balance on screen and stage across their drama and comedy slates. They ask that casting and creative decisions made by commissioners, programme makers and distributors are held up to a basic requirement of a 50:50 gender balance across their yearly content.
We are fully behind this campaign and the petition they shared with us around self taping. For those not in the industry, self taping is a practice whereby an actor is asked to submit a self taped audition for a specific role. The turnaround is often incredibly tight, – just a few days – and many actors will not have access to lighting, direction etc which means those actors with either a bigger bank balance or a wider network, can achieve slicker productions.
