Beyond the Bottom Line: The Producer in Film and Television Studies

306 Pages·2014·6.933 MB·English

by  Andrew Spicer, A.T. McKenna, Christopher Meir

Beyond the Bottom Line

Beyond the Bottom Line:
Th e Producer in Film
and Television Studies
Edited by
Andrew Spicer , A.T. McKenna and Christopher Meir
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2014
Paperback edition fi rst published 2016
© Andrew Spicer, A.T. McKenna and Christopher Meir, 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
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or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can
be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beyond the bottom line : the producer in fi lm and television studies /
edited by Andrew Spicer, A.T. McKenna, Christopher Meir.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-7236-5 (hardback)
1. Motion pictures–Production and direction. 2. Television--Production and direction.
3. Motion picture industry. 4. Television broadcasting. I. Spicer, Andrew, 1953-
editor of compilation. II. McKenna, A. T. (Anthony T.), editor of compilation.
III. Meir, Christopher, editor of compilation.
PN1995.9.P7B49 2014
791.4302’32–dc23
2014004633
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-7236-5
PB: 978-1-5013-1777-4
ePub: 978-1-4411-6288-5
ePDF: 978-1-4411-2512-5
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiv
1 Introduction
Andrew Spicer, A.T. McKenna and Christopher Meir 1
Part One Th eoretical and Historical Contexts 25
2 ‘A Judge of Anything and Everything’:
Charles Urban and the Role of the ‘Producer-Collaborator’
in Early British Film
Joe Kember 27
3 Mapping a Typology of the Film Producer – Or, Six Producers
in Search of an Author
Audun Engelstad and Jo Sondre Moseng 45
4 Th e Independent Producer and the State:
Simon Relph, Government Policy and
the British Film Industry, 1980–2005
Andrew Spicer 65
5 Producing the Self: Th e Film Producer’s Labour
and Professional Identity in the UK Creative Economy
Paul Long and Simon Spink 95
6 Producer and Director? Or, ‘Authorship’ in 1950s Italian Cinema
Pauline Small 109
7 Th e Australian Screen Producer in Transition
Mark David Ryan, Ben Goldsmith,
Stuart Cunningham and Deb Verhoeven 125
vi Contents
Part Two Media and Genre Contexts 143
8 Th e Producer in Animation: Creativity and Commerce from
Bray Studios to Pixar
Donna Kornhaber 145
9 ‘Trying to Ride a Naughty Horse’:
British Television Comedy Producers
Brett Mills and Sarah Ralph 161
10 Keith Griffi ths’ Poetics of Production
Sonia Friel 175
11 Th e American Independent Producer and the Film Value Chain
James Lyons 195
Part Th ree National and Transnational Contexts 213
12 Lita Stantic: Auteur Producer/Producer of Auteurs
Constanza Burucúa 215
13 Beyond National Humiliation: Han Sanping and
China’s Post-Olympics Historical Event Blockbusters
A. T. McKenna 229
14 Th e Producer and Belgian Cinema(s):
Th e Case of Jean (and Jan) Van Raemdonck
Gertjan Willems 249
15 Post-Imperial Co-Producers: Emile Sherman, Iain Canning
and Contemporary Anglo-Australian Cinema
Christopher Meir 265
Index 282
List of Illustrations

1.1 Portrait of Irving Th alberg in the 1920s. Courtesy of Photofest 3
1.2 Jack Palance as Jeremy Prokosch, in Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (1963),
a vulgar, philistine producer, who compares himself to the gods: ‘I like gods.
I like them very much. I know exactly how they feel. Exactly.’ Courtesy of
Photofest 6
2.1 Th e image of the fi lm producer. Bioscope, 15 July 1909 31
3.1 Yngve Sæther, producer at Motlys, in front of a movie poster of one of his
successful fi lm adaptations. Photo, Siv Dolmen, with his kind permission 53
3.2 Th e producer profi le grid 60
4.1 Simon Relph and Warren Beatty on location in Helsinki for Reds (1981).
Courtesy of Simon Relph 69
4.2 Lindy Hemming, Simon Relph, Richard Hope and Ann Scott during the
fi lming of Singleton’s Pluck (1984). Courtesy of Simon Relph 71
4.3 Colin Vaines, Simon Relph, Lord Barnett and Lyn Goleby relaxing at the
Cannes Film Festival in 1986. Courtesy of Simon Relph 77
4.4 Juliet Stevenson, Simon Relph and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer on the set of
Th e Secret Rapture (1993). Courtesy of Simon Relph 81
6.1 Alida Valli as Livia and Farley Granger as Franz in Senso (1954). Courtesy of
Photofest 116
6.2 Annie Girardot as Nadia and Alain Delon as Rocco Parondi in Rocco and
His Brothers (1960). Courtesy of Photofest 119
7.1 Graph showing responses to the Australian screen producers survey question:
Which one of these industries is your main source of income? 129
7.2 Producer sentiment index by sector 131
7.3 Graph comparing gender profi les of 2009 and 2011 ASPS cohorts 133
11.1 Peter Bloore’s model of the independent fi lm project value chain 199
11.2 Bloore’s supplementary timescale diagram 201
12.1 Lita Stantic and Maria Louisa Bemberg in Venice. Courtesy of Lita Stantic 218
12.2 L ita Stantic, Pedro Almodóvar and Lucrecia Martel. Courtesy of Lita Stantic 225
13.1 Camp Chairman: Th e Great Helmsman frolics in a fl owery fi eld with his
nieces. Mao is played by Tang Guoqiang, China’s foremost Mao impersonator 237
viii List of Illustrations
13.2 Zhang Ziyi (centre) and a Women’s Delegation charm Chairman Mao
(Tang Guoqiang) into changing the design of the PRC fl ag in
Th e Founding of a Republic (2009) 238
13.3 Th e changing face of Mao, here played by Liu Ye 242
14.1 Portrait of Jean/Jan Van Raemdonck. Photograph by J. Pol Payen.
Courtesy of the Royal Film Archive in Brussels 251
14.2 Mira (Willeke van Ammelrooy) experiencing a romantic moment with
her uncle Lander (Jan Decleir) in Mira (1971). Courtesy of the Royal
Film Archive in Brussels 253
15.1 Colin Firth as King George VI and Geoff rey Rush as Lionel Logue in
Th e King’s Speech (2010) 266
15.2 Oranges and Sunshine (2010) as ‘natural fi t’ UK-Australia co-production:
Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) heals post-imperial wounds by
comforting abuse victim Jack (Hugo Weaving) 277