Papers by Christopher Meir
Studies in European Cinema, 2019
Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2024
The year 2022 saw three Scandinavian films – Loving Adults, Black Crab and Troll – place highly o... more The year 2022 saw three Scandinavian films – Loving Adults, Black Crab and Troll – place highly on Netflix’s lists of the most popular non-English language films on the service globally. These were led by Troll, a Norwegian feature that was fully financed by Netflix itself and branded as an ‘original’ film, which went on to become the most popular non-English language film ever on the platform. Using the popularity of these films and other Nordic titles on the world’s leading subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) platform as a point of departure, this article investigates the changing industrial landscape for film production and distribution in the region in light of the influence that streaming platforms are having therein. The focus is on a detailed case study of the integrated studio SF Studios, which produced two of these three landmark films as well as numerous others that were released as Netflix original movies …
Palgrave European film and media studies, 2024
New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Mar 16, 2021
Streaming Video: Storytelling Across Borders, 2023
Much of the key academic writing about subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms to date has ... more Much of the key academic writing about subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms to date has focused on the ability of the technology itself and the companies that operate these platforms to “disrupt” various aspects of the television industry (eg, Lotz 2017; Jenner 2018; Lobato 2019). In comparison, very little scholarly attention has been paid to the impact of SVOD on other screen industries, such as the film industry. This topic has instead largely been dealt with in journalistic circles and by the industry itself and has typically been concerned with the extent to which SVODs stand to undermine theaters or other forms of film exhibition and consumption. This chapter explores the question of whether Netflix, Prime Video, and to a lesser extent Apple TV+ have “disrupted” the global film business in ways different from services that are attached to legacy studios such as Disney+, Paramount+, or HBO Max. Instead of fixating on the threats that these disruptive SVOD players supposedly pose to the film industry, this chapter explores the contributions of these companies to global film industries and cultures through their investments in the production of original films. The chapter focuses on two types of films that SVOD services have produced, both of which diversify cinema away from big-budget Hollywood franchise productions. The first is monumental auteur filmmaking, which describes works directed by recognized auteur filmmakers who were not otherwise able to find the funding and other types of support necessary to realize their creative visions within the existing film establishment.
Border Crossings and Mobilities on Screen, 2022
This chapter examines a number of tendencies found in Netflix original films that depict transnat... more This chapter examines a number of tendencies found in Netflix original films that depict transnational mobility. Surveying these works, the chapter argues that certain ideologically-inflected patterns are apparent, patterns which are related to the generic strategies deployed in the specific works. Two overarching patterns feature representations of privileged mobility on one hand, and precarious mobility on the other. The films which feature privileged mobility largely also deploy popular genres such as action films and romantic comedies to tell stories of tourism, university study abroad, and lucrative military, law enforcement, or criminal activity. Films depicting precarious mobility, in contrast, come from the middlebrow and arthouse artistic traditions and depict economic and politically motivated migration. The chapter concludes with an assessment of Netflix's use of pre-existing traditions of depicting transnational mobility as a globalized commercial strategy with ideological ramifications for the peoples and cultures represented in the films surveyed.
European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms and Production, 2024
Beyond even its importance as a constituent of the so-called ‘big five’ Western Europe media econ... more Beyond even its importance as a constituent of the so-called ‘big five’ Western Europe media economies, Spain has proven itself to be a particularly attractive market for the global SVOD services. Beginning with Netflix’s arrival in 2015 and commissioning of the original series The Cable Girls / Las chicas del cable (Netflix, 2017–2020) shortly thereafter, each of the major global platforms has shown a keen interest in not only growing its subscriber base in Spain, but also investing in original production from the country. These investors include the platforms operated by Silicon Valley technology companies (i.e. Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+), as well as platforms operated as divisions of the legacy Hollywood studios, including Disney+, HBO Max and Lionsgate’s StarzPlay. Speaking to the platforms’ demand for local Spanish content, the European Audiovisual Observatory estimated in 2022 that on a relative basis the country led all of Europe in incoming investment from the global platforms, with such investment constituting some 37% of the audiovisual production in the country, a figure that is more than double the European average of 16% and which is far ahead of the Netherlands, which has the second-biggest figure at 23% (Fontaine 2022, 14). Language has been said to be a particularly important factor in the heightened demand for Spanish audiovisual production, with global platforms seeing such content as appealing for audiences in Latin America as well as the United States, but other factors such as the need to meet European content quotas and the sheer global popularity of series such as Netflix’s Money Heist / La casa de papel (Antena 3/Netflix, 2018–2022) could also be helping to drive this demand. Whatever the exact reasons, Spain has since 2015 seen an unprecedented boom in the production of films and series, driven not only by platform commissions and co-productions, but also aggressive spending on the part of national broadcasters and pay-television players, some of whom have launched their own VOD services and stocked them with original content. This boom came after a penurious first half of the 2010s, a period in which the audiovisual industries grappled with the fallout of the 2011 economic crisis, and has continued despite the economic pressures caused by the Covid 19 pandemic.
European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms and Production, 2024
An introduction to the book European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms and Productio... more An introduction to the book European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms and Production. As such, the chapter outlines the major contours of the history of the European film industry, details the major milestones that mark the "streaming era" and introduces each of the book's sections and chapters.
Is it French? Popular Postnational Screen Fiction from France, 2024
Gaumont is the world’s oldest continually operating film studio, and this legacy is so important ... more Gaumont is the world’s oldest continually operating film studio, and this legacy is so important to the company that it brands its title cards with the slogan ‘Depuis que le cinéma existe’ (‘since cinema has existed’). In recent years, however, Gaumont has diversified into series production while also selling off its movie theatre holdings, all so the company could focus its strategies on producing for the newly emerging streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while also trying to maintain its presence in French cinema. This chapter analyses the company’s strategic evolution since 2012—when it began diversifying into series—and examines what this shift has meant for Gaumont and French cinema more broadly as streaming services became the most important companies in the global film industry.
European Film Remakes , 2021
A report commissioned by the European Commission. Submitted December 2020, published in July 2021.
Over the last three decades, Scottish cinema has seen an unprecedented number of international su... more Over the last three decades, Scottish cinema has seen an unprecedented number of international successes. Films ranging from Local Hero to The Last King of Scotland have not only raised the profile of film-making north of Hadrian's Wall, but have also raised a number of questions about the place of cinema originating from a small, historically marginalised, as yet stateless nation, within national and transnational film cultures. By providing detailed case studies of some of the biggest films of contemporary Scottish cinema, including Local Hero, Mrs. Brown, Morvern Callar and others, this volume will help readers to understand the key works of the period as well as the industrial, critical and cultural contexts surrounding their creation and reception. As the field of Scottish film studies has also grown and developed during this period, this volume will also introduce readers to the debates sparked by the key works discussed in the book.
A wide-ranging interview with Scottish film producer Andrea Calderwood in which she discusses dis... more A wide-ranging interview with Scottish film producer Andrea Calderwood in which she discusses discusses her experiences at BBC Scotland, her work on canonical Scottish films such as Mrs. Brown and The Last King of Scotland, the art of transnational co-production and the future of British film institutions such as Creative Scotland and the British Film Institute.
The Routledge Companion to European Cinema
Contemporary French Civilization: Volume 46, Issue 3
This article utilizes Canal+’s film production and distribution subsidiary Studiocanal as a way t... more This article utilizes Canal+’s film production and distribution subsidiary Studiocanal as a way to understand both companies’ impacts on French cinema since the formation of the subsidiary in the early 1990s. As such, the article is structured as a chronology and an analysis of the major films made in French and financed by Studiocanal in terms of their critical and popular reception. The article also examines the talent relationships underpinning this production and the trajectories of the various stars, writers, directors, and producers who worked on the films as well as the executives who oversaw them. Finally, the article analyzes the corporate rhetoric that was advanced by both Studiocanal and Canal+ over the years to position itself in the French and international markets. Synthesizing these branches of the analysis and noting certain cyclical patterns, the article argues that Studiocanal’s relationship to French cinema has been complex and changeable, at times limited in favo...
Aardman Animations, 2019
This chapter explores Aardman's work in feature films through the lens of its partnerships with d... more This chapter explores Aardman's work in feature films through the lens of its partnerships with distribution companies and financiers. As such, it examines the company's relationships with DreamWorks, which produced Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away; Sony Animation which produced Pirates! and Arthur Christmas; and Studiocanal, which has to date produced two films in the Shaun the Sheep franchise as well as Early Man. Surveying the company's fortunes within these partnerships and contextualizing them within the history of British/European producers negotiating the global film industry, the chapter argues that Studiocanal in principle offers the closest alignment to date between Aardman's artistic vision and that of its global sales and distribution partners.
Contemporary French Civilization: Volume 46, Issue 3
Studies in European Cinema , 2019
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Papers by Christopher Meir
The collection is divided into three sections where detailed individual essays explore a broad range of contrasting producers working in different historical, geographical, generic and industrial contexts. Rather than suggest there is a single type of producer, the collection analyses the rich variety of roles producers play, providing fascinating and informative insights into how the film and television industries actually work. This groundbreaking collection challenges several of the conventional orthodoxies of film and television studies, providing a new approach that will become required reading for scholars and students.