Doing Research on the European Film Industry Huw Jones University of York.

Doing Research on the European Film Industry

Huw JonesUniversity of York

Project description• Our experience of other Europeans is heavily

mediated through film and TV drama.– Which European films and TV drama actually

travel well within Europe?– How do these represent other Europeans?– How do audiences engage with such screen

fictions?

• Need to understand the funding, production, distribution, dissemination and policy circumstances which enable European films and TV drama to be made and circulate.

• Study therefore combines Europe-wide overview with detailed national case-studies for the period 2005-2015.

Research team

My role on the project• Joined in January 2014 as part of the team

responsible for studying European film

• Gathering data from public databases (e.g. LUMIERE), film agency reports (e.g. Focus Market Trends), trade press (e.g. Screen Daily) and interviews with industry players

• Analysing data on trends in the production, distribution and circulation European film

• Blogs and working papers:– Circulation of European films– Foreign Language European Films in UK Cinemas– Profiling Film Audiences in Europe– UK-Europe Co-productions

European co-productions• Films produced by two or more

production companies from different countries.

• Supported by a range of policy incentives – e.g. European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production

• Research questions:– How widespread are COP in the UK?– What are the different kinds of UK/EUR COP?– How creative and/or financial input does the

UK’s COP partner have?– How well do UK COP films perform on the

European market?The Wind that Shakes the Barley, A Ireland / UK / Germany / Italy / Spain / France / Belgium / Switzerland co-production

Source of industry data• BFI Statistical Yearbooks:

– trends in number of UK co-productions, UK spend, budget, territory of shoot, official co-productions

• UK Film Council database:– producing countries, production companies,

territory of shoot, director, screenwriter, lead cast, sales agent, UK distributor, genre

• LUMIERE database:– cinema audience in EUR36, territories released,

director, producing countries, distributor

• IMDb:– genre, awards, critic and audience approval,

production companies, casts and crew, budget, release dates and territories

• Trade press/interviews– Background to the production, financing,

distribution deals, release strategy

Challenges• Gathering data:

– Availability of statistical data (e.g. VoD sales figures)– Access to key industry personnel– Language and cultural barriers

• Data validation:– Accuracy of data (e.g. missing country data)– Consistency of data (e.g. country of origin)

• Analysing data:– Computing skills (e.g. Excel, SPSS)– Advanced statistical tests– Technical knowledge (e.g. legal terminology, tax systems)

• Disseminating findings:– Permission to use data

Conclusion

• An understanding the film industry is essential to making sense of the cultural significance of European film

• But film researchers face key challenge of gathering, validating, analysing and disseminating industry data

• More investment required in developing key skills (e.g. quantitative data analysis) and technical know-how (e.g. finance, tax systems, contract law)