European Productions Research Articles

Markets as free speech providers and political resignation: Swedish (non)regulation of streaming platforms

In Sweden, the government has been reluctant to regulate streaming platforms, including the measures in the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which aim to maintain domestic and European productions. This article investigates what values are mobilized to legitimate the (non)regulation of streaming platforms in Sweden and what this means for democratic deliberation about platforms, content and culture. Building on policy documents and in-depth interviews, our findings are structured around policies addressing (1) democracy, equality and diversity and (2) European content, production and cultural values. Regulations are perceived to be difficult to enforce and often undesirable. This article identifies a shift in policy where regulating television has given way to producing media-literate, self-governing subjects. We introduce the concept ‘platform gaze’ to explain how regulation has deferred to the desires of platform providers, neglecting, e.g. independent producers. Further, we argue that the political space to discuss streamed content as culture has diminished.

Theatrical Interactivity as a Model of Communication in Modern Culture

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of theatrical interactivity as a model of communication in modern culture and to consider interactive theatre as a means of social transformation. Research methodology. The terminological method, the typological method, the method of functional analysis, the method of synthesis, as well as the method of systematisation and generalisation are applied (for consideration and scientific substantiation of the concept of theatrical interactivity, identification of the characteristic features of interactive theatre as a phenomenon of modern cultural space). Scientific novelty. Theatrical interactivity as a model of communication in modern culture has been studied; analysed models of interactivity by M. L. Ryan, McIver Lopez, S. Dixon and others in the context of the interaction between the participant and the production; the theatre methodology of A. Boal "Theatre of the Oppressed" is considered (the audience is an active participant in the performance). Based on the analysis of modern European productions of interactive theatre, the main criteria of the approach to their creation are identified. Conclusions. Interactive theatre is a form of theatrical action that involves the active participation of the viewer, who ceases to be just a spectator, turning into a full participant in the joint creative process. Theatrical interactivity involves taking the viewer out of the comfort zone, from the position of an "observer" and bringing them into the sphere of live communication and perception. At the same time, this is not always synonymous with empowerment or satisfaction, and the desire to give the viewer some freedom is in some cases restrained by manipulative performances. As an alternative communication space, a place where people listen to each other, express their own thoughts – interactive theatre is a means of social transformation. They establish direct contact with their audience, who not only perceives and evaluates the productions, but thanks to the live dialogue becomes a partner in the stage action. Theatrical interactivity involves the observance of the following criteria: thinking outside the place of the performance, substantiating the relationship between the audience and the actors, moving away from the demonstration of the audience, maximum simplification and consistency. Individual practices of interactive theatre allow participants to distance themselves from social roles and bring their own values to this experience.
 Keywords: theatrical interactivity, interactive theatre, actor, audience, communication model, modern culture, interaction.

Article: Auditioning for Hollywood: A Comparative Study of Tax Incentives Offered to the Film Industry

The European film landscape is characterized by a strong presence of Hollywood productions. In 2019, American productions held approximately 70% of the market within the European Union while European productions had 25%. As a response, the EU has introduced differing types of financial support schemes with the aim of offsetting the imbalance between the American and the European film industries. This article describes and analyses tax incentives offered to the film industry from two main lines of inquiry: (1) a comparative and empirical tax study of twelve jurisdictions (Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States) in which the design of such tax incentives is investigated, and (2) a conceptual tax policy discussion on how states may design and implement such tax incentives. Tax incentives, sustainability, development, film industry, tax competition, tax design, comparative tax law

Проекционные образы в театре: режимы (медиа)присутствия

The article examines the phenomenon of (media)presence as a projectional embodiment of objects in theatre. The aim is to describe techniques of using projectional surfaces and devices in performances, using as material Western European productions of the 2000s and 2010s. We attempt to identify and elucidate the modes of presence through the use of projectional images in theatre. The theoretical and methodological framework employed in the article includes a set of ideas at the intersection of theatre, visual, and media studies. Such a framework makes it possible to define performance as a visual event — the act of looking, and to shift the focus from technological artifacts to the processes of mediation of presence by projectional images. We introduce the concept of “(media)presence” as relevant for a productive description of the phenomenon. (Media)presence is the effect of being in the perceptual field of objects of perception, when their physical absence is compensated for by the presence of their screen substitutes. The use of projectional technologies in theatre allows one to achieve the effect of (media)presence through mediation of “life” performances. The ways in which directors utilize projectional surfaces and devices activate several modes of performative embodiment of perceptional objects through projectional images: “absent”, “composite” and “augmented” (media)presence. The text offers a complex analysis of practices of using projectional images in contemporary theatre aimed at achieving the effect of (media)presence.

The creative figure of Dilber Yunus in the context of the vocal art of China in the XX–XXI centuries

Statement of the problem. The processes of globalization are increasingly affecting the existence of human culture, leading to fundamental changes in cultural exchanges in the East-West system. Starting in the XVIII century, a significant number of European composers turned to oriental topics: from the choice of certain subjects and citations of musical material to a new perception of musical art as such. Simultaneously, there was also a reverse process of borrowing the achievements of European culture by representatives of the artistic community of the eastern region, including through the implementation of the Western system of music education. In our opinion, the performing arts deserve special attention here, as they actualize «other people’s texts» and influence composers’ creativity, audience preferences, and, ultimately, changes in public artistic views. For example, China has given rise to a whole galaxy of outstanding masters of «Chinese bel canto, » whose work is proof of the productivity of cultural exchanges and, at the same time, a very interesting material for scientific research. The purpose of this article is– to draw up a creative portrait of Dilber Yunus in the context of the vocal art of China in the XX – XXI centuries. Results and conclusion. The vocal art of China has its origins in folk songs, the specific organization of the musical texture of which is determined by the phonetics of the spoken language. There are 56 nationalities and almost 100 dialects in China, which has led to a wide variety of song palettes. However, this did not prevent the development of a single standard of vocal sound, which crystallized in the phenomenon of the Beijing Opera at the very time when the process of forming the bel canto style in Western European art was completed. For almost a century after that, these two systems existed without intersecting. However, from the end of the XIX century, when the Chinese government relaxed the policy of closed borders, cultural exchanges became possible. From that time on, the process of transformation of Chinese vocal art began, which, among other things, was due to globalization, and therefore the measure of a singer’s professional success is his or her demand for European opera productions. This article will try to make a creative portrait of one of the most famous contemporary Chinese singers, coloratura soprano Dilber Yunus. She was born on October 2, 1958, in the city of Kashgar in western China, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Dilber began her career with the Xinjiang Song and Dance Ensemble, created to preserve and popularize the folk art of ethnic minorities. In 1980, the singer entered the vocal department of the Beijing Central Conservatory in the class of the outstanding professor Shen Xiang / 沈湘. In her fourth year of study, Dilber Yunus won one of the most reputable international competitions for young singers, founded in 1984 in honor of Mirjam Helin. This victory determined the singer’s fate, as she fulfilled the dream of many Chinese.

글로벌 OTT 사업자 규제에 대한스위스 국민투표와 그 시사점

Switzerland guarantees a system that allows its people to express and validate their opinion on relevant laws through the submission of a referendum when deemed necessary. In 2021, both chambers (the National Council and the Council of States) imposed an obligation for streaming platforms to invest in local Swiss cinema. With this new law, not only video streaming service providers based in Switzerland but also those abroad would have to re-invest 4% of their gross revenues generated in Switzerland in Swiss independent film creation. In addition, the law introduced a quota system requiring at least 30% of the offered catalogue to be made up of European cinema productions. In May 2022, a referendum against this draft bill was initiated by the referendum committee due to consumer opposition As a result, more than half of the amendment voted in favour of the amendment, and the revised film law will come into force in 2024. In the recommendation, the referendum committee expresses its opinion against the law and stipulates whether it originally was the logic of regulatory approval by the regulators and against regulations imposed by consumers. As a result, consumers’ benefits and welfare, which remained up to now unclear, can be verified through actual cases, and the regulatory differences for the same service provider in Switzerland and in Korea can be highlighted. We examine the implications of such platform regulations by looking at Switzerland, which regulates the obligation to reinvest in the local film industry to protect cultural diversity and content comptetitiveness, and Korea, which requires the obligation to stabilize services for network quality.

Capturing European crime

As “shop windows” for newly produced but not-yet-released films, the study of festivals is one measure by which it is possible to assess the nature, presence and relative quantity of European crime films made in any given year. This article explores the presence of European crime films at European film festivals by examining the complete festival programmes from Cannes, Berlin and Venice. These three festivals are widely regarded as the most prestigious and largest in Europe (forming part of the global “Big 5” alongside Sundance and Toronto) and as such are premier destination for films of all types, particularly European productions. The prestige and visibility afforded by them means that they are key sites of exhibition, marketing and potential distribution to any film that is programmed there. The aim is to begin substantiating the numerical, national and transnational make-up of European crime cinema by using its presence on the European festival circuit as means to highlight its contemporary production status. A systematic analysis of all films programmed at Cannes, Venice and Berlin in order to identify the European crime films present identified a total 289 films (8.05% of the total films programmed at these festivals) out of 3587 films surveyed across a five-year period (2016–2020).

Exploring film marketing in the new age digital era. Four cases of marketing European art house film productions

Exploring film marketing in the new age digital era. Four cases of marketing European art house film productions

Effect of Popcorn (Zea mays var. everta) Popping Mode (Microwave, Hot Oil, and Hot Air) on Fumonisins and Deoxynivalenol Contamination Levels.

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites that are produced by molds during their development. According to fungal physiological particularities, mycotoxins can contaminate crops before harvest or during storage. Among toxins that represent a real public health issue, those produced by Fusarium genus in cereals before harvest are of great importance since they are the most frequent in European productions. Among them, deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FUM) frequently contaminate maize. In recent years, numerous studies have investigated whether food processing techniques can be exploited to reduce the levels of these two mycotoxins, which would allow the identification and quantification of parameters affecting mycotoxin stability. The particularity of the popcorn process is that it associates heat treatment with a particular physical phenomenon (i.e., expansion). Three methods exist to implement the popcorn transformation process: hot air, hot oil, and microwaves, all of which are tested in this study. The results show that all popping modes significantly reduce FUM contents in both Mushroom and Butterfly types of popcorn. The mean initial contamination of 1351 µg/kg was reduced by 91% on average after popping. For DON, the reduction was less important despite a lower initial contamination than for FUM (560 µg/kg). Only the hot oil popping for the Mushroom type significantly reduced the contamination up to 78% compared to unpopped controls. Hot oil popping appears to provide the most important reduction for the two considered mycotoxins for both types of popcorn (−98% and −58% average reduction for FUM and DON, respectively).

Performing for Peace and Social Change in Africa's Great Lakes Region

International aid has influenced and, in part, shaped the artistic sector in Africa's Great Lakes region (DRC, Rwanda, Burundi) since the 1990s, a period marked by numerous conflicts and mass violence. Due to NGOs’ programmatic foci, artists performing for social change are increasingly compelled to focus on reconciliation and conflict resolution, generating political awareness and bringing about social change, healing and peacemaking. Through a comparative analysis of European and local productions on the genocide this article asks, how and why does an ‘NGO-style theatre’ develop a specific audience in the region? How have themes such as mass violence, inter-ethnic conflict and social cohesion become the main concerns of the territory's theatre? How do performances made and/or sponsored by NGOs challenge not only theatre's form, its social stakes and functions, but also the conception of its audience and the relationships between actors and spectators?

From Remade Drama to Original Crime – HBO Europe’s Original Television Productions

In this article, we examine developments in HBO’s original European productions based on a quantitative overview of production from 2007 to early 2020. We supplement this overview with an analysis of the generic changes during the past decade as well as a practical producers’ approach to remakes. The intention is not to analyse the specific series’ content; rather, we scrutinize genre, talent and remakes through the perspective of the HBO brand and the creatives behind the series. The main empirical material for this article is interviews with key informants and an exploitation of online resources. Altogether, this establishes both a historical overview of the productions and an up-to-date idea of how the transnational institution considers its own local endeavours.

Europa y el sueño europeo en las artes. Un análisis del impacto del cine europeo dentro de sus propias fronteras

El presente artículo plantea una investigación sobre el impacto que tienen las producciones cinematográficas europeas dentro de su propio territorio. A tal fin, se ha examinado la representación de la idea de Europa y del sueño europeo en el cine que se consume en Europa; y, de manera complementaria, las representaciones de realidades exclusivamente nacionales dentro de Europa, y a aquellas ajenas al espacio europeo pero también consumidas en el territorio común.
 El objetivo principal de la investigación persigue saber si las optimistas coordenadas señaladas por Rifkin en 2004 sobre la pujanza del sueño europeo ha tenido, más de una década después, repercusión en el cine que se consume en Europa. La investigación triangula entre el análisis de contenido cuantitativo aplicado a los informes anuales de la Unión Internacional de Cines (UNIC) desde 2015 a 2019; y el análisis narrativo, que busca arrojar luz cualitativa sobre las películas estudiadas, en especial aquellas que abordan realidades nacionales europeas, el concepto de Europa mismo, o el sueño europeo.
 Los resultados ratifican la hipótesis central, que afirmaba que el sueño europeo o la idea misma de Europa apenas aparecen representados en los relatos cinematográficos más consumidos por los europeos.

Steve Neale (ed.), Silent Features: The Development of Silent Feature Films 1914–1934

In its basic outline, Silent Features: The Development of Silent Feature Films 1914–1934 is as its title suggests: a collection of essays on fifteen features and two serials from the global silent era, examining two decades of stylistic, generic and structural characteristics. Yet its exclusively silent focus has resulted in a unique and noteworthy volume. Rather than a conventional overview of early feature filmmaking, this is a work with a corrective impulse: to highlight underexamined, and in some cases little-known, examples of such films in all their diversity. As Steve Neale’s introductory remarks on the multivalent origins of the term ‘feature’ suggest, the emergence of longer films was a matter of extreme complexity, irreducible to the story of a single evolving entity. Accordingly the collected essays historicize multi-reel production with a pronounced emphasis on specific industrial moments, sociopolitical contexts and aesthetic traditions. Teleological explanations are eschewed, and variations, discontinuities and transnational exchanges are stressed – even though major American and European productions still predominate (perhaps because all but one of the contributors are based in the UK or USA).1

Microbial Monitoring in the EDEN ISS Greenhouse, a Mobile Test Facility in Antarctica.

The EDEN ISS greenhouse, integrated in two joined containers, is a confined mobile test facility in Antarctica for the development and optimization of new plant cultivation techniques for future space programs. The EDEN ISS greenhouse was used successfully from February to November 2018 for fresh food production for the overwintering crew at the Antarctic Neumayer III station. During the 9 months of operation, samples from the different plants, from the nutrition solution of the aeroponic planting system, and from diverse surfaces within the three different compartments of the container were taken [future exploration greenhouse (FEG), service section (SS), and cold porch (CP)]. Quantity as well as diversity of microorganisms was examined by cultivation. In case of the plant samples, microbial quantities were in a range from 102 to 104 colony forming units per gram plant material. Compared to plants purchased from a German grocery, the produce hosted orders of magnitude more microorganisms than the EDEN ISS plants. The EDEN ISS plant samples contained mainly fungi and a few bacteria. No classical food associated pathogenic microorganism, like Escherichia and Salmonella, could be found. Probably due to the used cultivation approach, Archaea were not found in the samples. The bioburden in the nutrition solutions increased constantly over time but never reached critical values like 102–103 cfu per 100 mL in irrigation water as it is stated, e.g., for commercial European plant productions. The surface samples revealed high differences in the microbial burden between the greenhouse part of the container and the SS and CP part. However, the numbers of organisms (bacteria and fungi) found in the planted greenhouse were still not critical. The microbial loaded surfaces showed strong temporal as well as spatial fluctuations. In samples of the nutrition solution and the surface, the amount of bacteria exceeded the amount of fungi by many times. For identification, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed for the isolated prokaryotic organisms. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the most abundant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. These phyla include plant- and human-associated bacterial species. In general, it could be shown that it is possible to produce edible fresh food in a remote environment and this food is safe for consumption from a microbiological point of view.

Post-15th century European glass beads in southern Africa: Composition and classification using pXRF and Raman spectroscopy

A hundred and twenty-seven glass beads found at the archaeological sites in southern Africa were analysed using pXRF and Raman spectroscopy. The beads are identified as European productions on the basis of their composition and morphology. Six identified glass groups are soda-based plant ash (61%), potash-rich wood ash (14%), synthetic soda (8%), mixed alkali (4%), lead-soda (22%) and natron (4%). Except for soda-based plant ashes and natron (outliers), all the groups date back to the 19th century. Calcium antimonate (Ca2Sb2O7) detected in most of the soda-based plant ash glasses (87%) indicated that some of the beads had been imported from Europe since the 17th century.

“Poles of Attraction” – Kris Van Heuckelom’s Study of International Migration on Screen

The article is a review of Kris Van Heuckelom’s 2019 book titled Polish Migrants in European Film 1918–2017, which is – as the title suggests –a comprehensive study of the representation of Polish migrants in over 150 European film productions from the interwar period up to contemporary times. The author discusses those films made in Western European countries, in which immigrants from Poland appeared, both as protagonists and as background characters, placing them in a wider social and historical context. The chapters into which the book is divided correspond with the periods of political changes which had an impact on who emigrated from Poland and why. The films analysed, belonging to a wide variety of genres, illustrate the evolving image of Polish migrants and their roles in the societies in which they found themselves.

A Hand that Holds a Machete

This article explores the norms, spaces, positions and conditions of visibility for non-white refugees and migrants as well as white non-refugee characters in Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, 2015), a film which received much praise for its humane representation of refugees and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Through a close analysis this article aims to demonstrate number of recurring elements that are often determined by imaginations of race in European film productions that represent refugees and migrants. Analyzing the film, along with its production and reception this study shows how European whiteness remains the invisible norm of non-violence, while the non-whiteness of the displaced remains outside this norm and is visibly and unquestionably locked into acts, positions, objects (holding a machete) and spaces of violence and crisis: (the jungle, the refugee camp, the banlieue, the darkness of a cellar).

Exploring film marketing in the new age digital era. Four cases of marketing European art house film productions.

Exploring film marketing in the new age digital era. Four cases of marketing European art house film productions.

From New to Neo-Europe: Titus redivivus

The ‘dramatic rise’ of Titus Andronicus ‘among critics and directors’ in the 1990s was primarily linked to ‘the growth of feminist Shakespeare criticism’.1 Its recent stage popularity, however, lies in its responses to the new geopolitical realities and the shifting physical and mental borders of the European Union. This article examines four European productions of Titus Andronicus in their engagement with political change, migration, rising nationalism and xenophobia, which, I argue, refocus attention onto this play’s position in the Shakespeare canon.

Handling Ophelia: a Story in Four Unscripted Scenes

Referring to several European productions of Hamlet between 2001 and 2014, Nicoleta Cinpoeş in this article examines the stage struggle to ‘recuperate’ an Ophelia that both discursive criticism and visual objectification bury prematurely, albeit by different means and for different aims, when they claim, in Laertes's words: ‘The woman will be out.’ She takes Laertes's words to mean both taking the woman out and putting the woman on view, and offers a preliminary survey of the customary textual cuts and their effect on Ophelia's part, exploring ‘the four unscripted scenes’ of three directors – Vlad Mugur, Radu Alexandru Nica, and Jan Klata – and their impact on Ophelia's role as found in Shakespeare's play. Nicoleta Cinpoeş is Principal Lecturer at the University of Worcester and author of Shakespeare's Hamlet in Romania 1778–2008 (Mellen, 2010) as well as editor of, and contributor to, Doing Kyd (Manchester University Press, 2016). She has published articles in Shakespeare Bulletin, SEDERI, Testi e linguaggi, Arrêts sur scène, Theatrical Blends, and Studia Dramatica.