Postsocialist Producer: Collaborative Creative Work in Czech Film and Television Production after 1989

This research examines film and television production after 1989 from a previously unexplored perspective: that of the producer. It asks how modes of managing collective creative work influence the cultural, artistic, and commercial values of audiovisual works. Drawing on contemporary methodologies in the critical study of media industries (critical media industry studies and production studies), the project focuses on a profession that is key to understanding both the postsocialist transformation and the current position of Czech audiovisual production in a globalized world. In state-controlled media, producers did not exist. The first generation of FAMU graduates whose understanding of the producer’s role corresponds to European standards—conceiving the producer as both project initiator and coordinator of the entire production process from economic and creative perspectives—did not emerge until the second half of the 1990s. Systematic engagement with so-called development processes and international co-productions has taken place only over the past decade. The research assumes that production methods are a crucial factor in both the commercial and artistic success of audiovisual works and aims to explain their development and consequences.

Outputs

Petr Szczepanik, Screen Industries in East-Central Europe. London: Bloomsbury – BFI, 2021.