Film Studios conference, Bristol

Call for Papers

Film Studios: Histories, Evolution, Innovation, Futures

5-7 June 2023

University of Bristol

Keynote speakers: Brian R. Jacobson; Noa Steimatsky

The ERC-funded STUDIOTEC project welcomes proposals for individual twenty-minute papers and pre-formed three-paper panels for Film Studios: Histories, Evolution, Innovation, Futures, an in-person, three-day conference organised by the University of Bristol, UK, and held at the Watershed, Bristol, 5-7 June 2023.

Academic interest in the spaces and places of film production has grown in recent years, and this conference will take stock of recent and current research into film studios around the world. While ideas of the Hollywood studio system have tended to dominate the collective imaginary, recent research has made clear that different film studios have evolved in distinct ways in response to varying local contexts. It is this diversity that the conference wishes to emphasise, exploring commonalities between film production infrastructure in different parts of the world while noting the specific factors that have shaped the development of film studios in different geographical temporal, political and economic circumstances.

Intended to demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of studio studies, Film Studios: Histories, Evolution, Innovation, Futures will explore film studios as a global phenomenon, considering their material as well as economic and socio-cultural dimensions and the links they have established with the various environments within which they operate. The conference aims to highlight the diverse range of practices and labour types that contribute to the successful operation of a film studio, the key role that studios have played in film production and technical innovation, and how studios have shaped the professional and social lives of film industry employees.

We are interested in all areas of studio studies, and in film studios in all periods and all parts of the world, but would be especially interested to receive proposals for papers or panels looking at:

• The influence of geographical, political and economic contexts on the location, development and operation of film studios
• Film studios outside Western Europe and North America
• The studio as a working environment (training and careers, professional practices, labour conditions, health and safety)
• How film studios adapt to technological innovation (sound, colour, digital, etc.)
• Women in film studios
• The studio as a social space (exchange and circulation of cultural and professional practices, cooperation between studios, leisure activities)
• The architecture and design of film studios
• The representation of film studios in popular culture
• Film studios’ intermediality (intersection with different media, e.g., broadcasting studios)
• Networks of film production (studios’ ancillary services)
• Archives and resources relevant to the academic study of film studios
• Transnationality and film studios (co-production, movement of labour, etc.)
• What does the future hold for film studios?

Proposals for individual papers must include an abstract (max 250 words) and a short speaker biography (max 100 words).

Panel proposals must include a 150-word rationale for the panel, a 250-word abstract for each of the three papers, and a biography for each speaker of no more than 100 words.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 10 February 2023, and proposals should be submitted to c.mereukeating@bristol.ac.uk or richard.farmer@bristol.ac.uk

Notification of acceptance will be sent out in March 2023.

For more information about the STUDIOTEC project, please visit https://studiotec.info/