How to win at being a newspaper
Jan. 9th, 2010 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricSo, the SMH yesterday published an article from the Guardian (UK). It's a first-person piece by Simon Callow on the oddities and intricacies of staged / filmed love scenes: The art of faking love scenes.
The print version ran a photo of Callow himself. However, the web editorial team often change the pictures so that they have something iconic, eye- catching to put in the sidebar box on the front page. In this case, they obviously wanted a well-known romantic scene from a modern movie, which they've captioned "it takes a special bond to express physical affection", picking up on Callow's comment that intense romantic scenes are harder to film than lusty sex.
Guess what well-known image the SMH ran?
Brokeback Mountain. The iconic two-men-hugging-and-looking-depressed image. Nothing Callow said had any relation to Brokeback Mountain or the lead actors thereof. In the article, Callow identified himself as gay, and talked about one gay sex scene he'd performed, as well as various het scenes and the actresses he'd worked with. It was by no means a homo-centric article, and the caption makes nothing of the fact that it's two men expressing physical affection. It's simply a Well Known Romantic Scene. Could've been Gone With the Wind or Titanic or ANYTHING, and they've just plucked Brokeback out and popped it up there.
And felt comfortable putting on a caption suggesting that two male actors have a special bond. With absolutely no comment on the fact that it's two male actors.
Well, I'm going to comment. And my comment is: THIS IS HOW YOU WIN AT BEING A NEWSPAPER. This sort of thing never happens. That image? That's the image that was all over the fecking place when Brokeback Mountain was released, and then, it was an image that said "Gay Sex Scenes In Mainstream Movie!". Somewhere in the last five years, it's apparently become a stock photo of a Well Known Romantic Scene.
This makes me happy.
The print version ran a photo of Callow himself. However, the web editorial team often change the pictures so that they have something iconic, eye- catching to put in the sidebar box on the front page. In this case, they obviously wanted a well-known romantic scene from a modern movie, which they've captioned "it takes a special bond to express physical affection", picking up on Callow's comment that intense romantic scenes are harder to film than lusty sex.
Guess what well-known image the SMH ran?
Brokeback Mountain. The iconic two-men-hugging-and-looking-depressed image. Nothing Callow said had any relation to Brokeback Mountain or the lead actors thereof. In the article, Callow identified himself as gay, and talked about one gay sex scene he'd performed, as well as various het scenes and the actresses he'd worked with. It was by no means a homo-centric article, and the caption makes nothing of the fact that it's two men expressing physical affection. It's simply a Well Known Romantic Scene. Could've been Gone With the Wind or Titanic or ANYTHING, and they've just plucked Brokeback out and popped it up there.
And felt comfortable putting on a caption suggesting that two male actors have a special bond. With absolutely no comment on the fact that it's two male actors.
Well, I'm going to comment. And my comment is: THIS IS HOW YOU WIN AT BEING A NEWSPAPER. This sort of thing never happens. That image? That's the image that was all over the fecking place when Brokeback Mountain was released, and then, it was an image that said "Gay Sex Scenes In Mainstream Movie!". Somewhere in the last five years, it's apparently become a stock photo of a Well Known Romantic Scene.
This makes me happy.