Each week I look at a different topic around the film industry, focusing on the data and statistics which reveal what’s going on.
I have been contacted by a number of readers asking how many people have lost work due to the cancellation of film productions. Sadly, the complexity of the industry means I cannot calculate the exact number of people unemployed. However, it is possible to look at how many people would typically work on a feature […]
In much of human life, we equate the length of time someone has been performing a task with their level of skill. Businesses proudly state how long ago they were founded, a lawyer with “30 years’ experience” can charge more than one fresh out of college and ‘time served’ often denotes seniority. But is this […]
I am working on a long-term research project looking at gender among documentarians. Previously, I’ve studied the gender split among directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, composers and sales professionals – but always focusing on fictional feature films. As I branch out to study factual films, I wanted to do a couple of micro-research projects to learn […]
I have produced films alone and I have produced in partnership with other producers. Personally, I prefer the latter. Producing a movie is a big undertaking and so it’s good to have people to share the load and journey with. Plus the film gets to benefit from multiple people’s strengths, passion and contacts. Recently, I […]
Of all the creative jobs involved in the making of a feature film, the role of director is perhaps the most important. It’s also the one which most clearly identifies a film. We talk about Spielberg films and Tarantino films more than we do Streep or Hanks films, even though all of these creatives are […]
Last week, a reader emailed to ask “How many composers actually work in Hollywood?!” They then added: “It seems to me the same old men score all the movies”. It’s a great question so I thought I’d take a look and, along the way, see what else I could discover about film composers. I used […]
Last week, horror super-producer Jason Blum got himself in hot water after a comment he made during an interview with Polygon. Blum said “There are not a lot of female directors period and even less who are inclined to do horror”. When I first read this, I was horrified! How could he say such a thing? […]
This blog is my 250th article and it’s also my five-year blogiversary (I know that’s not a real word but I felt the made-up occasion needed a made-up word). Over the past five years, I have published research on every single sector within the film industry, from directing to diversity, funding to festivals, actors to awards, […]
Between filmmakers and film audiences lie a complex network of middlemen, distributors and sub-distributors. They play a vital role in the film value chain, ensuring that films are available all over the world in all manner of formats to all types of audiences. This side of the industry is less visible than most other aspects, for […]
Almost exactly two years ago, Alexis Kreager and I published a big report into the gender inequality faced by film directors working in the UK film industry. Soon after it was published, we were approached by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) about studying the plight of screenwriters, both in the film and television industries. This […]
