Tag Archives | TSoS US

Inside the USA Network Upfronts + Afterparty

By Jessica on May 18, 2012 in Events, Telly, TSoS US

This week marked the end of Upfronts Week in New York. If you don’t know what Upfronts are – and it’s cool if you don’t, I only knew the term from Lisa Kudrow’s shortlived HBO show, The Comeback- it’s a yearly ritual where all the TV networks put on a show to pimp out their upcoming season to advertisers in New York. It’s purely an insider’s event: they fly their major stars, show runners and executives to the East Coast for a week long affair of boozing and schmoozing with the sponsors who bankroll them. For the masses not involved in either industries, this week is better known as the time when renewals and cancellations are announced.

I was lucky enough to get a press invite to the USA Upfronts presentation this year. It was my very first Upfronts, and it also happened to be the very last event this year. The USA Network is one of the few cable channels to do one, and certainly it’s the cable network with fanciest venue- this year’s was held at Alice Tully Hall of New York City’s Lincoln Centre, better known as the home of the New York Philharmonic. Of course that’s probably because, as repeated multiple times during the presentation, USA is currently the highest rated cable network in the US.

USA TV posters featured inside the Alice Tully Hall

Glitzier Upfronts typically include some kind of musical performance or comic routine. The USA Network had both: performances from Mark Ronson, the Dap-Kings and Erykah Badu, as well as a genuinely funny monologue by Bruce Campbell. The show itself is basically like a very, very awkward awards show, if you can imagine such a thing.

Erykah Badu (who replaced Jennifer Hudson last minute) killing it onstage after the presentation.

Two actors come on stage every few minutes to present a little video segment on a new show (Graceland! Political Animals!), or some warmhearted corporate slogan (USA doesn’t stand for hate!). Like an awards show, there is a lot of poorly scripted banter. Unlike an awards show, that is literally all there is. There are no genuine, unscripted moments, ever. The only laughs happened when the actors messed up reading the teleprompters. I have a degree in screenwriting and know people who went on to make big bucks writing award show banter, so I always feel bitter when I have to witness stuff like that which I could do better myself. But I digress.

Of course the Upfronts parties are where it’s at. The big networks hold theirs at fancy restaurants and steakhouses across New York. USA held theirs in the lobby of the theater where they put on their show. It was a bit crowded, but I couldn’t complain. There was booze and food, and it satisfied my ultimate event requirements: there were both a photobooth and swag. Okay, so their gift bag contained a T-Shirt and some postcards- but who doesn’t appreciate a free T-Shirt to sleep in? It’s the simple things that make me happy.

The crowds outside the Lincoln Center afterparty

Photobooths on the other hand are pretty much de riguer at happening events these days. I am known to haughtily complain on twitter if I am at an event and there isn’t one. USA did one better by hiring photographers with ~~polaroid cameras~~ Fujifilm Instax cameras to mingle amongst the crowds, asking if anyone wanted a picture taken. My one complaint was that the photographers weren’t so much photographers as mildly competent models from a low level modeling agency. I had to ask one of them this because my photo with Matt Bomer came out with my face half cut off.

Which brings me to to the fact that I did something which I never, ever do, which is, I walked around and asked actors to pose for photos. Yes, like I was some tourist or something. As I might have mentioned before, I went to film school, and as a rule, am trained to remain stony faced around famous actors, no matter how good looking they may be. God forbid I act like some fan or something lest they recognize me later on in life. But the Upfront crowd was full of ad industry types with no such pretensions. The actors were essentially paid to hang around, fake small talk and pose for photographs. It was a little sad, actually, but that’s what you got to do. So when in Rome, I figured. Like a Pokemon Master, I collected Polaroids with Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, Mehcad Brooks, Christopher Gorham (I commended him for his performance in Popular), and Gina Torres (who is depressingly skinny in real life). My one regret was that I couldn’t find Piper Perabo, and that I didn’t have the guts to interrupt Bruce Campbell’s conversation for a photo.

All in all, I had a blast at USA Upfronts. Here’s to the future, where I hope to attend many more of them, hopefully at least once as a showrunner or writer.

**note from Sabrina – I can’t explain how jealous I am that Jessica got to meet Matt Bomer. SO SO GREEN WITH ENVY.

Matt Bomer

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Review: Girl Model, a Documentary

By Jessica on May 10, 2012 in Behind The Scenes, Fashion, Reviews, TSoS US

Dear Loyal The Science of Style Readers

I’m Jessica, the new contributing writer from the US. I’m based in New York City, where grew up, and went to high school and college (university to you). After attending series of pretentious schools, I graduated with a very expensive degree in Dramatic Writing (screenwriting and playwriting) and history, which is pretty much as useless as you’d imagine.

I, among other things, enjoy accumulating useless entertainment industry gossip, and consuming an unhealthy amount of media. In my spare time, I love to travel, getting into conversations with random people, being sneaky and getting myself into sticky yet hilarious situations. I also love politics and current events, enjoy being right all the time and have a particular knack for pissing off self important people with a well timed cutting remark. As you can expect, I am an insufferable little know-it-all, unemployable in any other field except writing.

My love for fashion was started by the TV shows Mad Men, and What Not to Wear, as well as all the gorgeous European models I hung out with while studying abroad in Berlin. I also love online shopping, Broadway shows, Taylor Swift, swimming and good food.

It’s well known that the modeling world in the West is dominated by teens and preteens from the developing world. Eastern Europe, in particular, supplies the swaths of alien eyed, wispy, thin young girls on the runways every year, while Brazil sources the more curvaceous types you’ll find in Victoria’s Secret catalogues. These women- and you can barely call them women, as they’e barely hit their teens – come from poor countries, have few years of proper education, and usually barely speak English. And for every household name that came from rags to riches, hundreds of others struggle for years on end with no payoff.

Every so often, rumblings about the problems that are so pervasive to the industry makes its way to the press. Those stories usually centre around eating disorders, or exploitative labor practices, or the antics of Terry Richardson and are often sensationalized. Girl Model on the other hand, attempts to tell the truth of what does goes on in the modeling industry. If you ever wondered how the hamburger is made, “Girl Model” follows the supply chain to the very beginning, a beauty pageant in a small town deep inside Siberia.

“Girl Model” centers around two narratives. The 13 year old Nadya, wins the pageant and a coveted contract to model in Japan, with the 30something British modelling scout, Ashley. Nadya is an innocent girl with a dollike face from the countryside, as you would expect, while Ashley is coldblooded and unhinged, her job consisting of travelling throughout Eastern Europe signing childlike models for the Asian market. Ashley once modeled herself in Japan, and much of the dramatic irony in the piece are of the stories that she tells her young recruits of the glamorous life that await them. Her own life, however, says otherwise.

Model scout Ashley

Nadya, on the other hand, is genuine, and her narrative is the heart of the story. It’s to the filmmakers’ credit that her story isn’t sensationalized. Yes – she’s made to prance around in a bikini in the full glare of grown men at the beginning, and it is deeply unsettling; Ashley unflinchingly compares the process to prostitution later on in the film. But the worst moments that await her in Tokyo are the days and days of non stop rejection. She gets further and further in debt to her agency, and returns home a financial burden on her parents.

Ashley’s story on the other hand is manipulative and unnecessary. Apparently she herself pitched the idea for the documentary to the filmmakers and she wastes no time mugging for the cameras. She shows off the her collection of plastic baby dolls, which, of course, she dissects in her spare time, because she can’t have children of her own. She makes long and vague speeches about how lonely she is and gazes forlornly into the distance on multiple occasions. A lot of screen time could have been cut indulging her narcissism, and the film would have been stronger for it.

Ultimately Girl Model tells a story about the not so lurid, but still sad realities of the people that populate the modeling industry- the young girls forced to grow up all too quickly, and the adults, who never quite grew up themselves.

Jessica Wu is a writer in her early 20s from New York City. She has a very expensive and very useless degree in Dramatic Writing, enjoys travel, food and politics, and has a knack for mouthing off in front of important people.

Girl Model is available on DVD now and is screening worldwide. Check the site for a screening in your country.

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