FAVz026 Film and Television Production Cultures

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2011
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 5 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
John Caldwell (lecturer)
Mgr. Šimon Bauer (assistant)
Mgr. Radomír D. Kokeš, Ph.D. (assistant)
doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D. (alternate examiner)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 130 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/130, only registered: 0/130, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/130
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 15 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
At the end of the course students should be able to: understand and explain how production communities in film and Tv operate as a "local culture" in cultural-anthropological sense.
Syllabus
  • This lecture series provides and overview of various methods and approaches to studying film and television production as a social and cultural activity. The course pays particular attention to how the social organization of crews and production firms, creative labor practices, economic conditions, and new technologies impact both: (a) the images and narratives that production companies put up on the screen as primary content for audiences; and (b) the cultural expressions, rationalizations, and trade stories that film/video workers tell about themselves to themselves and affiliate groups within the industry. Integrating cultural research with political-economic analysis is now essential if scholars hope to better understand either: the current, unstable conditions of film and television production during the transmedia or digital era; or, the shifting nature of industry and media now that many distinctions between “professional” media workers and “amateur” fans are in jeopardy or largely breaking down.
  • BASIC READINGS:
  • 1. Caldwell, J., “Cultures of Production: Studying Industry’s Deep Texts, Reflexive Rituals, and Managed Self-Disclosures,” in Holt, J. and Perren, A., eds., Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009). 199-212.
  • 2. Caldwell, J., “Screen studies and industrial ‘theorizing’”, Screen, (2009) 50 (1): 167-179.
  • 3. Caldwell, J., “Hive-Sourcing Is the New Out-Sourcing: Studying Old (Industrial) Labor Habits in New (Consumer) Labor Clothes”, Cinema Journal, 49, no.1, Fall 2009, pp160-168.
  • LESSONS:
  • *Lesson 1: “How Production Studies Compare to Media Industry Studies” (Contrasting Histories and Traditions of Research and Scholarship) **Reading #1: Sullivan, John, “Leo Rosten’s Hollywood: the Primacy of Economic and Social Networks in Cultural Production” in Mayer/Banks/Caldwell, eds., Production Studies”, (New York: Routledge, 2009).
  • *Lesson 2: “Analyzing Production Culture as Production Culture Analyzes Itself” **Discuss Basic Readings A&B: Caldwell, “Cultures of Production: Studying Industry’s Deep Texts…”; and Caldwell, “Screen Studies and Industrial Screen ‘Theorizing’” (full citations above)
  • Lesson 3: “Trade Stories, Trade Spaces, Trade Rituals” **Reading #2: Caldwell, John, “Trade Rituals and Turf Marking”, Ch.2 in Caldwell, John, Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television, (Durham: Duke UP, 2008) 69-109.
  • *Lesson 4: “Below-the-Line Precarious Labor, Technologies, and Authorship” **Reading #3: Mayer, Vicki, “Ch.2. Producers as Professionals: Professionalism in Soft-core Production,” in Mayer, Vicki, Below-the-Line: Producers and Production Studies in the New Television Economy,” (Durham: Duke UP, 2011). 66-100
  • *Lesson 5: “Above the Line Precarious Labor, Branding, and Authorship”, **Reading #4: Matt Stahl, “Privilege and Distinction in Production Worlds: Copyright, Collective Bargaining, and Working Conditions in Media Making,” in Mayer/Banks/Caldwell, eds., Production Studies”, (New York: Routledge, 2009). 54-68.
  • *Lesson 6: “Meta-Industries”/”Para-Industries”: How Constant Self-Reflection Now Fuels Both Media Consumption (Audiences) and Media Production (Industries) **Reading #5: Rifkin, Jeremy, “When Markets Give Way to Networks, Everything is a Service,” in Hartley, John, ed., Creative Industries, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005). 361-374. **Plus Discuss Basic Reading C: “Hive-Sourcing is the New Outsourcing,” (citation above).
Literature
    required literature
  • CALDWELL, John Thornton. Production culture : industrial reflexivity and critical practice in film and television. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008, x, 451. ISBN 9780822341116. info
Teaching methods
Lectures.
Assessment methods
Written test.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Information on completion of the course: Full time students: 100% presence at the lectures is required. Distance students: two absences are tolerated.
The course is taught only once.
The course is taught: in blocks.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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