Production Studies: Film, Television, and their Industrial Contexts

The Cinema and Television History (CATH) Research Centre, De Montfort University, invites postgraduates and early career researchers to its fifth annual postgraduate conference.

In recent years, studies of production and the creative industries have intervened in film, media and cultural studies to investigate the operation of power within production communities and the impact of this on the cultural texts produced. This growing body of research has considered, amongst other themes: the lived experiences of production workers, the working cultures in which they operated, the identity of the production worker and its influence on their production decisions, the creative agency of actors, the influence of wider economic and political forces, the impact of new technologies, and the formal and informal hierarchies which have shaped working practices in the film and television industries.

This conference aims to contribute to the existing scholarship on Production Studies and the creative industries by inviting proposals which explore film and television production, both historically and contemporarily, and within any national context. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

·Lived experiences of production workers, both above and below the line (e.g. producers, writers, directors, lighting technicians, continuity supervisors, production assistants, laboratory technicians, camera operators, etc.)

·Creative identity and agency of production workers and actors

·Working cultures in film and television production (e.g. informal andformal hierarchies, collaborative working practices, etc.)

·Organisation of production and the impact of changing industrial trends (e.g. influence of political and economic forces, new media, digital technologies, etc.)

·Tensions between commercial and creative interests

·Inequality in the film and television industries' gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, and disability

·Labour relations in the film and television industries' the role of trade unions, guild organisations, etc.

·Impact of the industrial context on the text produced