Each week I look at a different topic around the film industry, focusing on the data and statistics which reveal what’s going on.
In my previous article, I looked at the number of people who have only worked once in key film jobs and departments across their whole career. A number of readers got in touch to ask how frequently people work in multiple positions across their career. If it were commonplace for people to work within more […]
Earlier this year, I looked at how many people work on a film, and how that figure has shifted over time (up from around 200 in the year 2000 to around 300 today). This prompted a number of readers to get in contact to ask about the changes in more detail. i.e. which jobs were […]
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, […]
