Production Studies: Film, Television, and their Industrial Contexts

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Cinema and Television History (CATH) Research Centre, De Montfort University

Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Dr Bridget Conor, Senior Lecturer at King's College London and co-editor of Production Studies, The Sequel!: Cultural Studies of Global Media Industries (2015)

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 and formal 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

Proposals for twenty-minute presentations should include the title of the presentation, a 250 word abstract, and a brief autobiographical statement. Proposals should be submitted to cath.postgrad@gmail.com by Monday 4 April 2016. Participants will receive a response by late April. Publication opportunities may be available.

Confirmed Keynote Speaker:
Dr Bridget Conor is the author of Screenwriting: Creative Labour and Professional Practice (2014), and co-editor of Production Studies, The Sequel!: Cultural Studies of Global Media Industries (2015) and Gender and Creative Labour (2015).

Confirmed Industry Speakers:
Graham Duff is a scriptwriter and producer who has created a wealth of distinctive shows for TV, radio and stage. His latest TV show is the Sky Arts anthology horror series The Nightmare Worlds of H.G. Wells, starring Ray Winstone and Michael Gambon.

Chris Carey is a television drama producer. His recent credits include River for BBC1, written by Abi Morgan and starting Stellan Skarsgård and Nicola Walker; Remember Me, a supernatural thriller also for BBC1 starring Michael Palin, Mark Addy and Jodie Comer, and comedy drama Ambassadors with David Mitchell and Robert Webb for BBC2.