Each week I look at a different topic around the film industry, focusing on the data and statistics which reveal what’s going on.
This is the third instalment of a four-part series chronicling trends and changes in the film industry. To compile the list, I have been back through all of my old research, conducted new projects, read outside research and solicited suggestions from my industry readership (thank you to everyone who contributed). The result is a list […]
This is the second instalment of a four-part series chronicling 48 different trends and changes in the film industry. Last week I gave you trends 1 to 12, in the fields of development and finance and in future weeks I will cover distribution, sales, exhibition and structural changes in how the film industry operates. This week’s twelve trends […]
Last week, I experienced the latest Transformers movie. The constant fast-paced action and frenetic editing got me thinking just how many shots were in that movie. Sadly, I lost count during the screening but afterwards, I resolved to look into the broader question: How many shots are in the average movie? How many shots […]
Last week saw the publication of my report ‘Cut Out Of The Picture‘, which looked at gender inequality in the UK film industry. In the process of researching and writing the report, we spoke to over 200 film professionals about how someone becomes a film director. I thought aspiring film directors may benefit from a distillation of what […]
A couple of years ago I looked at the number of Assistant Directors on Hollywood films. I want to return to the topic as I now have more data, I can add the UK figures into the mix and because I have conducted interviews with over 30 working 1st ADs in the UK and US to get the […]
Either I’m getting older or movies are getting longer… and longer … and longer. So which is it? I took a look at the numbers. I studied the running time of the top 100 US-grossing films since 1994 (2,200 films in total) and all films shot in the UK 2005-14 (2,142 films). In summary… The median length of […]
On the face of it, writing and directing a feature film are two very different jobs. The clichés are of the introverted writer squirrelling themselves away in a quiet room while the loud, bombastic director strides confidently on set and orders hundreds of people around. However, when you look a little closer you see that there is […]
Last week, I looked at the average age of action stars and as an aside, I shared data on the average age of action film directors. Since then, I have been contacted by a number of people asking if the average age of action film directors (45 years old) is also true for other genres. […]
Last week there was a long and well-written piece in The Guardian commenting on the recent trend of stars in action movies getting older. It covers a number of topics but its main thrust is that action stars are getting older because we want different things from our action heroes than we once did. The […]
As the weather cools and the faces become ever more haggard, it’s clear that we’re past the midpoint of the Cannes Film Festival. The reviews are in for about half of the selected ‘In Competition’ films at Cannes and speculation is rife about who will win the coveted Palme d’Or. To mark this moment, […]
