Academic Year 2023-4
Professor John Oliver, Bournemouth University: The Fog of Streaming War
The SVOD streaming market has seen explosive growth in recent years with global revenues reaching $154bn in 2022. SVOD players thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, a new phase of low-growth competitive rivalry is emerging with global and local players fighting for market share. This talk will examine the strategic context and outlook for the SVOD market and illustrate how the international growth ambitions of global player (Disney+) and local player (Viaplay) pivoted to a new strategic play where costs are being cut to protect revenues and growth will be achieved by acquisition in an industry that will inevitably consolidate.
Prof. Dr. John Oliver is a leading academic in the field of media management and a former President of the European Media Management Association. He has a successful track record in delivering world class impact from his research which has informed the UK Government’s Innovation Strategy, UK communications policy and regulation, and influenced the public policy debate on internet regulation. His research into ‘strategic organisational transformation’ resulted in multi-million pound investments made by FTSE 100 firms.
Prof. Oliver currently serves as an advisor to the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology’s Horizon Scanning & Foresight Committee
Fog of Streaming War - Slides
Dr Oleg Fryazinov, Bournemouth University: Virtual Production as a Sustainable Practice -A look at sustainability in film production from a system dynamics point of view
When it comes to the sustainability practices in the film industry, the problem of the industry's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is often overlooked, while the UK aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. With the help of a mathematical model built on existing data, we evaluate the ecological footprint of traditional film production and explore sustainable alternative approaches. One such approach is virtual production technology, a digital filmmaking practice that integrates real-time computer-generated imagery (CGI) with physical sets and actors. Our mathematical model shows that virtual production practices drastically reduce GHG emissions compared to traditional movie production, thus contributing to the ongoing discussion on sustainability in the movie industry.
This research was conducted by Muhamad Bahri and Dr Oleg Fryazinov, with the latter presenting this work. The project was funded as a part of AHRC-funded project XR-Stories.
Dr Oleg Fryazinov is an Associate Professor at the NCCA. He is working in a multi-disciplinary area of applied mathematics and geometry in the field of computer graphics with applications in various sectors, including social sciences, education, manufacturing and healthcare. He was the principal investigator and co-investigator on various externally funded research projects. At Bournemouth University, he is teaching real-time technologies for Computer Animation and Visual Effects and also exploring the new emerging area of Virtual Production. In 2021, he was a part of the BU team to explore Virtual Production facilities for teaching and research purposes
Professor Helen Wood, Aston University: Reality Television, working practices and duties of care: Care about and care in the research process.
This paper outlines the thinking behind, and initial stages of, the AHRC funded project ReCARETV (2023-2026). The project is holistically investigating care across the reality television sector through the analysis of policy, production and participation. Public scrutiny and broadcast regulation has focussed on ‘duties’ of care and new protocols are changing the landscape for reality television production. This project aims to put together the intersecting relations of policy, working practices and the experiences and outcomes of reality television into dialogue for the first time. Working within a feminist framework for care, the paper draws out some initial observations and outlines our approach to data collection which puts care at the centre of our research practice.
Helen Wood is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Aston, Birmingham. She is author of numerous articles on gender, television and class, as well as the books Talking with Television (2009), Reacting to Reality Television (2012) and Reality Television and Class (2011) and her latest book Audience (2024) is now out with Routledge. She is currently PI of the AHRC project ReCARETV: Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care.
Greg Childs OBE, The Childrens Media Foundation: From Dialogue to Policy: Impactful Research and Advocacy in Children’s Media
Greg worked for over 25 years at the BBC, mainly as a director, producer and executive producer of children’s programmes. He created the first Children’s BBC websites and, as Head of Children’s Digital, developed and launched the children’s channels, CBBC and CBeebies. Greg then went on to advise global broadcasters on channel launches and well as producers on digital, interactive and cross-platform strategies.
He is Editorial Director of Europe's largest Children's Media event - The Children's Media Conference as well as the Director of the Children's Media Foundation (CMF), a UK advocacy body which campaigns and lobbies for the best possible media choices for UK kids. The CMF contributes widely to consultations on children’s media, and is in regular productive dialogue with the DCMS, Ofcom and those with a children’s media interest in Westminster – for example, through the All Party Parliamentary Group of Children Media and the Arts.
Dr Tamsyn Dent, Kings College London:‘What works?’ for equitable access, inclusion and diversity in creative Higher Education?
This CEMP talk summarises the Making the Creative Majority research report launched at the House of Commons in October 2023. The report, commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Creative Diversity, was the result of a collaborative research project between researchers based at King's College London, University of the Arts London, University of Manchester and the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (Creative PEC). The project explored pathways into creative and cultural work for the 16+ age group within the UK, examining entry routes via Higher and Further Education, degree apprenticeships and alternative routes to consider ‘what works’ for supporting equitable access and inclusion to work in the UK creative economy. The report provides a comprehensive understanding of the efficacy of current creative Higher Education (HE) pathways and indicates key recommendations for the UK Government and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
This is a critical time for Arts and Humanities education within the UK; therefore the talk encourages critical reflection on how both the HE sector and creative industries can collaborate for increased recognition to support the sustainability and diversity of the future creative economy.
Tamsyn Dent is a Lecturer in Cultural Work in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries (CMCI), King’s College London. She received her doctorate, Feeling devalued: the creative industries, motherhood, gender and class inequality through CEMP at Bournemouth University in 2017 and since then has continued to explore questions of equitable access, sustainability and inclusion across the creative economy. She was one of the lead authors on the APPG in Creative Diversity research outputs. Her research profile can be accessed here: Tam Dent – Research output — King's College London (kcl.ac.uk)
You can access the full Making the Creative Majority report here: Making the Creative Majority | King’s Culture | King’s College London (kcl.ac.uk)
Academic Year 2024-5
Laura Mansfield, ScreenSkills:The Future of Training for the UK Screen Industries
Currently developing a pan-industry skills strategy, ScreenSkills is the skills body for the UK screen sector. Industry-funded and informed, it provides national training and development programmes for all career stages. Creating a fair, equitable and inclusive workforce is central to ScreenSkills’ mission. From career development programmes like Leaders of Tomorrow and Film Forward, resources including a comprehensive portfolio of e-learning and an industry-approved HR toolkit and skills checklists, and ScreenSkills Select in partnership with higher education, ScreenSkills delivers training and resources that provide opportunities for everyone irrespective of their background to realise a career in the screen industries.
Prior to joining ScreenSkills as CEO in January 2024, Laura Mansfield was Managing Director of Outline Productions and a Creative Director of Tin Roof Media Group. She has enjoyed a successful career in television and has worked with all the major UK broadcasters. She has worked for BBC Entertainment, BBC Youth and Entertainment as well as at Watchmaker and Rapido TV. Currently a non-executive director for Elstree Film Studios, she was member of Pact Council between 2012 and 2016, and chair from 2014 to 2016. She also served as an advisory board member to the Indie Training Fund (2012-2014).
Dr Barry Dixon, British Film Foundation: Research at the British Film Institute - an Introduction
This presentation will introduce colleagues to the breadth of research conducted by and for the BFI, focussing on its interdisciplinary and intersectoral nature. It will trace and mirror the ways the research funding landscape has changed over the last five years for the GLAM and creative industry sectors, before offering a case study on the impact of research on screen sector policy.
Barry Dixon is Head of Research Development at the British Film Institute (BFI), leading on the developmental and strategic facets of the BFI's external research funding operations. He came to the BFI from the academic sector, having spent ten years in research management roles at the Universities of Warwick, Sheffield and Cambridge. Prior to this he worked for the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg and Irish Research Council in Dublin, which came after a brief stint as a lecturer in philosophy
Dr Catalin Brylla, Bournemouth University: Impact-driven Media Practice for Disability Advocacy
This talk explores two impact-driven projects that leverage media practices to enhance wellbeing within and for the disability community. The first is the AHRC project “Youth Disability Activism in East Africa”, which employed participatory grantmaking to launch and support media advocacy campaigns in Tanzania. The second is the ongoing BA project “Media Engagement for Wellbeing in the Visually Impaired Community”, which collaborates with charities to organise and deliver media creation workshops for visually impaired service users. Both projects address the intersection of disability, gender, age, class, and culture, as well as the positionalities of the researchers. They focus on participatory action research and public involvement strategies to harness the positive potential of media practices for marginalized communities. The projects' impact is evaluated using a novel framework that assesses how communicative interfaces between stakeholder groups influence their knowledge, attitudes, and actions.
Catalin Brylla is a Principal Lecturer in Film and TV and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion, and Social Justice at Bournemouth University. As a practice-led researcher, he has directed documentaries about marginalised communities, including Muslim women and disabled people. His publications include Documentary and Stereotypes: Reducing Stigma through Factual Media (2023), Documentary and Disability (2017), and Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film (2018). He chairs the DEI Committees for Visible Evidence and the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image, where he also serves on the board of directors
Coming Soon
Jen Smith, Creative Industries Independednt Standards Agency (March 19th)
Jeremy Mathieu, Head of Sustainability at ITV (April 2nd)
Dr Richard Wallis, Bournemouth University: Supportive Offboarding or the Television Industries (May 21st)
Amelia Knott, the TV Industry Human Rights Forum (June 11th)
Georgia Brown, Screen Skills Task Force (TBC)