Film Industry Research Articles

Research on Risk Management and Control of Chinese Film and Television Drama Production—The Case of ‘Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace’

With the gradual enrichment of material life, people’s spiritual needs are becoming increasingly large, stimulating the development of TV dramas. The Chinese Intellectual Property (IP) film and television industry has recently been enlarging. However, some risks are hiding in this new hit. This thesis analyzes the case of ‘Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace’, a famous and typical palace fighting drama that invested a lot of money and eventually became mediocre. This study lists the main risks and corresponding reasons for this failure and separates them into script, finance, policy, and marketing, which includes the problems of the creative environment and producers’ processing methods. This essay puts different suggestions to the official department and producers in these four perspectives to improve the current situation. However, this passage has some limits due to the lack of more convincing and authentic data to get an accurate conclusion. But if recommendations can be implemented, it will greatly improve China’s film and television drama creation environment.

Navigating the New Age: Exploring Operations and Modern Business Models in Film and Television Production

This article explores the dynamic film and television industry’s operational system and diverse business models. The industry has adapted its strategies in response to globalization, technological advancements, and changing consumer behaviors. The operational system encompasses stages from development to exhibition, ensuring creative ideas translate into compelling content. Business models include the product-oriented, market-oriented, and Business Model 2.0. The digital revolution has ushered in the Long Tail, DIY, and 360-degree models, reshaping distribution and engagement. Applying field theory, the article examines the industry as a structured field where actors vie for different capitals. This multidimensional analysis deepens our understanding of how these models drive the industry’s evolution. The article discusses how the relationship between creating content and making money has become more complex due to the growth of streaming platforms and online distribution. This has led to a need for new ways to make money from content, such as subscription services, ads, and pay-per-view. The industry is focused on finding ways to make consistent profits.

Cultural affinity and international trade in motion pictures: Empirical evidence using categorised internet search activity

It is well established that cultural affinity between countries affects international trade patterns. To date, most research on this topic has only considered cultural affinity between a pair of countries as a single measure that is static over time. In this paper, we introduce a novel bi-directional and time-varying measure of cultural affinity and examine its relevance to sectoral trade with an application to the motion picture industry. Using Google Trends search topics related to countries, and specific to the ‘Arts and Entertainment’ category, we construct a measure of ‘relative search interest’ (RSI) as a proxy for cultural affinity. We incorporate this proxy into a structural gravity model of motion picture trade and find that a one percent increase in RSI is associated with a 0.2–0.4 percent increase in box office revenue flow. Our analysis suggests that RSI in other categories can provide useful insights in other industries.

An Analysis of the Marketing Mode of Modern Chinese Commercial Movies

China's movie market has continued to grow over the past few years and is now the world's second-largest box office market. Commercial movies are undoubtedly the fastest-growing category of films. This paper will systematically discuss the specific subcategory of Chinese commercial films from various aspects and explore the marketing model of Chinese commercial movies as a complex and diversified systematic project. First, this study analyzes the characteristics of the Chinese film market, the marketing mode of modern Chinese commercial films, and the types and needs of Chinese film audiences; secondly, it aims to discuss the drawbacks and challenges Chinese commercial films face under the characteristics of such an environment and marketing methods. By analyzing the market trends, industry models, and marketing strategies, the paper will delve into the development of Chinese commercial cinema as an industry and provide some suggestions on how to succeed in the highly competitive film industry.

Analysis of Chinese Film Profit Model and Optimization Strategy

With the development of China’s economy, people pay more attention to entertainment activities. Movies have become a great entertainment for people. The development of the film market has an important impact on people’s lives and the development of China’s economy. A good movie may not have high profitability, so studying the film’s profit model and optimization strategy is necessary. Films are monetized mainly through the sale of box office copyrights and derivatives. This paper mainly analyzes the shortcomings of the Chinese film profit model and proposes optimization strategies through the film “Heat”. Chinese films regard the box office as the most important way to make money while ignoring many other ways that have the potential to bring more money to the film. This article hopes to bring some new ideas to the film industry. As one of the entertainment methods of the masses, movies have also had a certain impact on the Chinese economy.

Strategies Responding to the Uncertainties in the Hollywood Film Industry—A Case Study of Movie “Jurassic World (2015)”

The Hollywood film industry is renowned for its blockbuster successes and devastating failures, characterized by highly variable uncertainty. The uncertainty inherent in this industry stems from various sources, including unpredictable audience tastes, rapidly evolving technology, and dynamic market conditions. This paper explores the impacts of product line uncertainty from the perspective of environmental state uncertainty, organizational effect uncertainty, and decision response uncertainty, similarly applied in the Hollywood film studio. Despite these challenges, some films manage to not only survive but also thrive in this highly competitive environment. This paper examines the strategies employed by Universal Pictures during the production and release of the movie “Jurassic World”, a groundbreaking film directed by Colin Trevorrow. By conducting a detailed case study of “Jurassic World”, this study aims to shed light on the strategies that enabled the film to respond effectively to uncertainties in the Hollywood film industry.

Inclusive Leadership and Its Role in Organizational Innovation: Empirical Insights from IDEO’s Approach with Cineplanet

This study investigates the fusion of inclusive leadership and human-centered design thinking at IDEO, and their influence on fostering organizational innovation, specifically examining their application within Cineplanet, a key figure in the Peruvian and Chilean film industry. Since its inception in 1991 by David Kelley, Bill Moggridge, and Mike Nuttall, IDEO has championed transformative problem-solving in fluctuating market conditions. This report analyzes the amalgamation of IDEO’s teamwork and leadership models, examining the potential transference of their philosophy to augment Cineplanet’s service offerings and competitive stance. By dissecting the alignment of IDEO’s design thinking process with Tuckman’s Model of Group Development and exploring the synergy between distributed and inclusive leadership practices, this research provides a strategic framework for Cineplanet’s enhancement. The findings propose actionable recommendations for Cineplanet to adapt IDEO’s innovative culture to elevate customer experiences, thereby achieving sustainable market success.

Movie Character Recognition from Video and Image using AI

Recognition of movie characters using video and images An innovative research study called Using AI explores the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for recognizing and identifying movie characters using still photos and video clips. The study offers a new AI system that analyses visual input, extracts attributes, and correctly identifies movie characters using machine learning and deep learning methods. This system is able to identify characters in a single frame and follow their actions over several frames, giving it a thorough understanding of the character's function in the story. The technology's potential uses in a number of industries, including film creation, advertising, and audience analytics. The suggested AI system can automate video editing, help with character recognition-based targeted advertising, and offer insightful data on audience preferences and habits. The implications of this technology are enormous, creating new opportunities for the film industry to grow technologically. The challenges and limitations of implementing AI in movie character recognition. It highlights issues such as handling low-resolution images, varying lighting conditions, and changes in character appearance over time. Despite these challenges, the AI system demonstrates a high degree of accuracy and efficiency. The concludes by suggesting future enhancements to the system.

Экранизация повести Генри Джеймса «Что знала Мейзи»: любительский кинодискурс как подвид институционального кинодискурса

Amateur film discourse is a new special subtype of discourse that has not yet been subjected to scientific research. Its participants have no special cinema education: they discuss the film industry based on their own life experience, ideas, and values. This work was part of the contemporary anthropocentric paradigm, where language comes to the fore as the most important property of human beings. The article identifies the genre of amateur film discourse using online Russian comments to the screen adaptation of Henry James’s What Maisie Knew (1897), directed by S. McGehee and D. Siegel (2012). The methods of comparison and discourse analysis revealed sincerity in the way the commentors evaluated their impressions. The commentors seemed focused on the plot and the action. The discourse was highly emotional and colloquial, filled with aposiopesis and rhetorical questions.

Theatrical Release Windows: A Playground for “Cultural Exception” Policies?

In recent years, cinema culture in Europe has undergone a substantial reorganization of production models and a profound change of public intervention in favor of the film industry. This article aims to reconstruct the different combinations between protectionist and liberalist policies through a comparative analysis of the contemporary European national cinema aids, identifying differences and shared trends and verifying the existence of a “continental” cinema support model. Therefore the article will analyze public support policies on cinema production, distribution, and exhibition in the EU and in several of its member states (including France, Germany, England, Spain, and Italy) from 2018 to 2022. Focusing on theatrical release windows, this essay will attempt to answer the following main questions: is there a “European” mark in policies in favor of cinema? Can we speak of a “European” model (even outside the European Union) of support for the cinema? What are the elements and actions that define it? What are the sectors of the industry in which it is most fully expressed (production, distribution, exhibition)? And what are the themes and areas in which, on the contrary, national differences (sometimes driven by resurgent nationalisms) are most marked?

‘[O]ne of the year’s difficult problems’: the UK cinema industry and the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic posed fundamental challenges for the cinema industry, encouraging potentially lasting changes in the ways films were delivered to and consumed by audiences. In light of this, this article evaluates the impact of an earlier pandemic, the waves of influenza that affected the United Kingdom in 1918–1919. The flu struck as cinema was establishing itself as a distinct entertainment form, although still subject to criticism for its perceived effects on the moral and physical health of those attending. Consequently, the exhibition of film became a prime focus of ameliorative action, many health professionals and local councillors seeing it as a prime vehicle for the transmission of disease. For all that, the impact of any regulations proved to be uneven: attention centred primarily on the threat to children and servicemen in uniform, and what restrictions were imposed proved highly localised, reflecting systems of health administration inherited from the previous century. Finally, compared to experiences elsewhere, the duration of controls proved brief. An assessment of the flu’s impact is offered for both the short term, reflected in the finances of individual businesses and aggregated tax returns, and the longer term, in challenging or reinforcing perceptions of cinema’s social worth.

A big little fiction form: last decade of production and circulation of made-for-TV movies in Europe

ABSTRACT Made-for-television movies, originating as popular television forms in the 1960s, have historically received scant scholarly attention and faced persistent devaluation within the film industry. However, the contemporary landscape witnesses a resurgence in interest, catalyzed by the focus of VOD services on long-form fiction tailored for streaming, commonly referred to as “originals.” This paper conducts a retrospective examination of the past decade, scrutinizing the presence of made-for-television movies within general television and accentuating their intrinsic value by investigating intra-European circulation flows. Through comprehensive content analysis of general-interest channel schedules in five prominent European countries, this study explores the nuances of production, circulation dynamics, and the influence of public corporations in this scenario. The findings reveal distinctive circulation patterns characterized by continual European exchanges, setting made-for-TV movies apart from TV series, particularly on public channels. Notably, a select cluster of large European countries emerges as pivotal players dominating these intra-European flows.

There’s more to life than the monomyth: multiperspectival approaches to teaching narrative and story in university film and media departments

ABSTRACT This article critiques the ongoing dominance of the Hollywood monomyth in the film and television industry, at least in the UK if not more widely. It considers how this is impacting on the teaching of narrative and story in university film and media departments as they move towards stronger collaborations with industry. It argues for the importance of two-way dialogue to help equip students and their future employers for a world facing complex global challenges. Drawing on the author’s extensive experience in teaching and practice-led research, it advocates for a creative problem-solving approach which decentres conflict-driven models of narrative development, such as the Hero’s Journey, placing them alongside alternative models which engage with the relationship between conflict and harmony in a variety of different ways. Considering narrative structures such as Kishōtenketsu, indigenous storytelling methods and the author’s own work with the Polyphonic Documentary project, the need for a genuinely inclusive and expansive approach is brought to the fore. A mixed economy is considered to be essential, with experimental and traditional approaches preparing students for current industry demands whilst also encouraging them to shape future storytelling landscapes. The argument is made that this is crucial to foster a nuanced understanding of narrative and story that can respond creatively and effectively to the demands of a rapidly changing world.

The Man at Noah’s Window—The Death of the Old King in Patrick Roth’s Novel Starlite Terrace

Starlite Terrace is a contemporary novel comprised of four interlinked stories about the American film milieu by the German-American writer Patrick Roth. Four protagonists tell their Hollywood-tinged, highly personal life stories to a fifth, who is also the main narrator. In each of their singular collisions with life, a universal and mythical pattern is gradually revealed that gives these so-called ordinary people a dignity they have long since lost in everyday life. Literary scholars are considering Starlite Terrace a brilliant portrayal of the so-called “seeker spirituality” found primarily on the West Coast of California. In fact, the novel is part of Patrick Roth’s own life story, a condensation of his 40 years of experience in Los Angeles, the center of the American film industry. The novel represents a new kind of literature, a new poetics that strives to give expression to an archetypal layer of the unconscious through the writing process, thus bringing together these separate spheres. The highly Jungian worldview is mirrored in the character of Rex, “The Man at Noah’s Window,” among others. In his fixation on the movies and movie stars, he represents an aspect of the narrator’s shadow, a content eventually recognized and accepted. Ultimately, Rex, the “eternal outsider,” embodies the old ailing king in desperate need of rejuvenation. On the level of the collective psyche, the figure of Rex conveys the end of the old God image and the beginning of a new one, as experienced and foretold in the narrator’s archetypal puer aeternus dream.

Moviegoing in the wake of a pandemic: Re-evaluating the attitudes, intentions, and behaviors of U.S. Moviegoers in the streaming era

ABSTRACT In the last decade, streaming services rose to create an entirely new market of high-quality content that would coexist with the traditional theatrical release model; however, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. As the theatrical industry struggles to recover from the consequences of the pandemic-era streaming boom, scholars and industry practitioners alike are in desperate need of actionable, data-driven insights that look beyond pre-pandemic industry precedent. Our research aims to fill the research gap by expanding the scope of who the industry has traditionally targeted as a “moviegoer.” This study uses exploratory survey data to reevaluate moviegoer attitudes, intentions, and behaviors for watching a film via streaming services vs. in movie theaters. Our analysis presents significant implications for long-term U.S. film industry recovery in the post-pandemic streaming era.

‘Bridal Outfits from the Heart of Filmland’: Clothes Rationing, Wartime Film Production and Gainsborough Pictures’ Studio Hire Service

This article explores the Studio Hire Service, a wardrobe ‘pooling’ scheme set up by Gainsborough Pictures at the Shepherd’s Bush film studio following the introduction of clothes rationing in 1941. The Service enabled producers to hire rather than purchase items of clothing for use in their films, saving them money, reducing the number of new outfits required for each production and allowing clothing coupons, which film-makers were expected to use sparingly, to be spent on only the most important or unusual costumes. Vital to the production sector in wartime Britain, the Studio Hire Service also played a notable role outside the film industry, not least in that it loaned outfits – including those worn by major female stars in films such as Love Story (1944) and Waterloo Road (1945) – to women for them to use as wedding dresses. In the last years of the war and the early years of the peace, hundreds (and possibly thousands) of British brides were married wearing a film-studio dress. The contribution that costume made to contemporary enjoyment of many of Gainsborough’s most famous films has been noted by scholars; this article shows that some of these same costumes also had a significant role to play in the real-world experiences of many ordinary Britons, offering access to a glamorous bridal outfit in a period of widespread sartorial scarcity and providing a noteworthy example of the way in which the bond between the picturegoer and the cinema extends beyond the auditorium.

News, business and politics: Evita in Italy – newsreels and cinema in a shared post-war agenda

Eva Perón’s trip to Italy in the summer of 1947 has prompted this research about the development of links between the Italian and the Argentine film industries in the years immediately following the Second World War. Our work takes a historical approach to this topic through the analysis of different film types (movies, newsreels and documentaries), supported by other documents derived from periodical publications, such as newspapers and specialized magazines. It concludes that while at the time of Evita’s trip there was an economic agreement between both governments that consisted of shipping grains in exchange for encouraging the migration of skilled Italian workers who could carry out the economic plans devised by Perón, in the film industry, there was an attempt to attract top class Italian actors and directors in order to secure the growth of the budding Argentine film industry.

Cultural Transmission in Korean Genre Films: Examining the Disaster Movie “Train to Busan” as an Example

In recent years, Korean films have become increasingly prosperous. In addition to borrowing from the classic Hollywood model, their genres have also widely incorporated local culture and values, revealing human nature. The combination of these two elements has broadened its dissemination worldwide and widely promoted Korean culture, providing some inspiration for the development of Chinese genre films. Taking the Korean disaster film “Train to Busan” as an example, this paper analyzes the general framework of cultural communication employed in South Korean films. By studying the film’s content and communication style, it becomes evident that Korean filmmakers blend local values into their narratives while referring to the Western film model. This nuanced approach not only captivates audiences but also carries cultural messages that resonate universally. At the same time, it is also compared with China’s films, which provides strategic reference for the international spread of Chinese films. By recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of both cinematic traditions, China's film industry can refine its strategies, enhancing its global reach while preserving its unique cultural identity. In essence, the success of Korean films offers valuable lessons and inspiration for the continued growth and influence of Chinese genre films in the global cinematic landscape.

Determination of phase diagram of polyolefin blend nanocomposites by rheological approach: Influence of rheological method and nanoparticles on shifting the phase transition boundary

AbstractIn this research, by using different rheometric methods, the temperatures of phase transition for upper critical solution temperature phase diagram of polyethylene (PE) and poly(ethylene‐co‐vinyl acetate) (EVA) blends and filled systems with organically‐modified nanoclay (ONC) were measured. Since the PE/EVA‐based mixtures are widely applied in the film and foam industries, the evaluation of the phase behavior of these mixtures is of great importance. Microscopic observations show that ONC nanoparticles have a compatibilization role on the biphasic microstructure of PE/EVA. ONC nanoparticles have a remarkable impact on the viscoelastic properties of the EVA phase, leading to a reduction in the asymmetry of the viscoelastic properties of the two polymeric phases. The findings of this work focused on the isochronal dynamic temperature sweep tests on the well‐mixed and phase‐separated nanofiller‐filled systems with different cooling/heating rates indicated that these series of experiments did not have the necessary efficiency to determine the phase separation boundary and spinodal temperatures in thermodynamically equilibrium conditions. By using Han plot and dynamic temperature sweep tests at the minimum possible heating rate, 0.25 K/min, it was proved that by adding nanoparticles to PE/EVA blends, the area of well‐mixed region of the phase diagram did not show a significant increment. The pinning effects of nanoparticles on the polymeric chains and correspondingly, the reduction of molecular dynamics mainly affect the phase separation phenomenon.

A Study on The Strategy Of "Social Media Loop" Of Chinese Commercial Films--Taking Chen Sicheng's Film as An Example

Today's Chinese film industry is thriving, and there are many commercial films that have achieved high box office. So how to stand out from the crowd and get high box office is a question to ponder. Therefore, this paper starts from the study of Chen Sicheng's commercial film's media marketing tactics to explore the media marketing strategy of Chinese commercial film constitutes the closed loop of media marketing. Such a study is significant, not only in terms of how it helps a high-grossing film come to life, but also in terms of the positive lessons such marketing strategies can have for other industries. Finally, this paper finds that the media marketing strategies for Chinese commercial films include, but are not limited to, localising the scripts with current hot topics, and providing a large amount of exposure before and after the release of the film, such as roadshows and appearances of the protagonists on variety shows, in order to attract traffic to the film. These media marketing strategies form a closed media marketing loop that positively impacts the box office of commercial films. But "excessive viral marketing and consumption of hot topics" can have a negative impact. Thus, according to this paper, the marketing of films should be done in a proper way.