28.
03.
2023.
Department
Doctoral-school
Doctoral-school
"Investment commitments of global streaming entities" was the title of a closed conference organized as part of a grant of the Doctoral School. The conference took place on Friday, 24, March.
Research conducted as part of the grant concerns the changing landscape of financing audiovisual productions and the development of new policies for the contribution of streaming platforms to audiovisual production in low capacity countries. The research will be carried out in two representative countries: Croatia and Poland, which have adopted different systemic solutions regarding the legal financial obligations of platforms in relation to the system of supporting audiovisual production existing in these countries. The research will be carried out in two representative countries: Croatia and Poland, which have adopted different systemic solutions regarding the legal financial obligations of platforms in relation to the system of supporting audiovisual production existing in these countries.
The conference was organized by Joanna Szymańska, a film producer and PhD student at our Doctoral School, who talked about the idea of the meeting and her research in this field:
- “The subject of our conference is not so much streaming platforms as the landscape of film financing in the context of the emergence of new players, i.e. platforms. This forces not only a change in the financing model, but also remodeling of certain schemes on other market entities, such as institutions with public funds. I am convinced that this topic should be of interest to everyone who wants to deal with the production and creation of artistic content, because both directors, screenwriters, producers - we are all elements of the great audiovisual market. Everyone is affected by how we can fund our stories. Are we able to tell the stories that interest us, or are we perhaps in a situation where we need to work on content that we can fund. It seems to me that this topic of financing and what this landscape of public and private funds looks like in our part of Europe should be of interest to all of us.”
The question arose whether streaming platforms are an opportunity or a threat to the financing of film production.
- “As a producer working with platforms, I have to say that I absolutely believe this is an opportunity! Because they are organizations operating in a completely different structure than public funds. These are companies that make decisions much faster and more transparently. They communicate better than often bureaucratic structures. However, of course, such a change that has taken place in the last three years is also a potential threat, because platforms are guided by a very specific taste, they refer to schemes generated by marketing algorithms, on the basis of which they make creative decisions. The problem is that it is not regulated in any way, which means that we - producers and creators - do not receive specific information: how many people viewed our project, how many clicks and viewers we had. I believe this area should be regulated."
The conference was organized thanks to an internal grant of the Doctoral School, thanks to which an international scientific team was established: Petar Mitric (University of Copenhagen), Ivana Kostovska (University of Brussels) and Joanna Szymańska (Lodz Film School). -
“The entire project, which is co-financed by the Lodz Film School thanks to the grant I received as a doctoral student at the Doctoral School, is coordinated by the Swedish Film Ivast Institute. It is known in Europe mainly because it studies the market and tries to understand its mechanisms of action. It publishes a series of in-depth reports on the changes taking place in the market. I had the pleasure of being in the group chaired by Petar Mitric, the moderator of today's meeting. A few years ago, it was Petar who conducted a research interview with me for the purposes of his own doctorate thesis, which he was working on. That's how we met. Last year, when he found out that I got accepted to the Doctoral School, he suggested that we organize this conference together and that we also work together on a report on changes in the financing structures and business models of producers from Central and Eastern Europe. It's kind of an alliance of PhD students."
The project involves conducting several workshop sessions: one took place in Łódź (March 24, 2023), the next one is planned in Zagreb.
The conference was organized by Joanna Szymańska, a film producer and PhD student at our Doctoral School, who talked about the idea of the meeting and her research in this field:
- “The subject of our conference is not so much streaming platforms as the landscape of film financing in the context of the emergence of new players, i.e. platforms. This forces not only a change in the financing model, but also remodeling of certain schemes on other market entities, such as institutions with public funds. I am convinced that this topic should be of interest to everyone who wants to deal with the production and creation of artistic content, because both directors, screenwriters, producers - we are all elements of the great audiovisual market. Everyone is affected by how we can fund our stories. Are we able to tell the stories that interest us, or are we perhaps in a situation where we need to work on content that we can fund. It seems to me that this topic of financing and what this landscape of public and private funds looks like in our part of Europe should be of interest to all of us.”
The question arose whether streaming platforms are an opportunity or a threat to the financing of film production.
- “As a producer working with platforms, I have to say that I absolutely believe this is an opportunity! Because they are organizations operating in a completely different structure than public funds. These are companies that make decisions much faster and more transparently. They communicate better than often bureaucratic structures. However, of course, such a change that has taken place in the last three years is also a potential threat, because platforms are guided by a very specific taste, they refer to schemes generated by marketing algorithms, on the basis of which they make creative decisions. The problem is that it is not regulated in any way, which means that we - producers and creators - do not receive specific information: how many people viewed our project, how many clicks and viewers we had. I believe this area should be regulated."
The conference was organized thanks to an internal grant of the Doctoral School, thanks to which an international scientific team was established: Petar Mitric (University of Copenhagen), Ivana Kostovska (University of Brussels) and Joanna Szymańska (Lodz Film School). -
“The entire project, which is co-financed by the Lodz Film School thanks to the grant I received as a doctoral student at the Doctoral School, is coordinated by the Swedish Film Ivast Institute. It is known in Europe mainly because it studies the market and tries to understand its mechanisms of action. It publishes a series of in-depth reports on the changes taking place in the market. I had the pleasure of being in the group chaired by Petar Mitric, the moderator of today's meeting. A few years ago, it was Petar who conducted a research interview with me for the purposes of his own doctorate thesis, which he was working on. That's how we met. Last year, when he found out that I got accepted to the Doctoral School, he suggested that we organize this conference together and that we also work together on a report on changes in the financing structures and business models of producers from Central and Eastern Europe. It's kind of an alliance of PhD students."
The project involves conducting several workshop sessions: one took place in Łódź (March 24, 2023), the next one is planned in Zagreb.