Joining the dots - or around the world in 80 studios

Tom Walsh,  ADG President,  invited handful of colleagues, myself included, to participate in a roundtable discussion with Dr. Gianluca Sergi, Director Institute for Screen Industries Research, University of Nottingham, UK on Oct 10, 2011.

Sergi is working on a publication based on his findings from a survey of the world's most prominent film studios:

 Joining the dots - or around the world in 80 studios

The University of Nottingham in the UK has begun a programme of research projects, industry engagements with leading practitioners and partnerships with major studios to build the kind of research capacity and skill-base that are necessary to help filmmakers and studios alike build a more stable, sustainable and productive environment within which to work.

As our first research project we asked a 'simple' question: what is the role of traditional studio space in the digital age? The question has emerged out of debates around the introduction of digital technologies coupled with recent large investment in traditional spaces of production (see Warner investment in Leavesden in the UK, Cinecitta' revamping of their Rome's studios, Pinewood opening studios in several countries, and the remarkable success of WETA in New Zealand).

By looking at key studios 'models' around the world, what they have in common and what differentiates them, and how studio production is changing the project provides a snapshot of what the future may have in store for studio production models, its infrastructures and how these may impact on the dynamics of filmmaking.

China and Brazil according to Sergi are poised to release a production 'tsunmai' that will impact US film production in unforseen ways unless studios start talking to each other.  I questioned him whether the studios would ever talk to one another given that they are competitors. I did not get a satisfactory answer to my question... perhaps because he has an academic point of view.

He suggested we learn to speak Mandarin!  The University of Nottingham has a campus in Shanghai.
One anecdote was of the number of skyscrapers being built there. Sergi says they keep building regardless of tenancy (high rate of vacancy) to keep people employed.  In addition they are opening new cinemas at the rate of 3 a day.

What a difference a decade makes!

http://chime.in/user/AngelaHe/chime/73286567210958848