Cinema cities, media cities: the contemporary international studio complex

Advances in information and communication technologies have enabled elements of film and television production to be perhaps more widely dispersed than at any previous time in the history of the media. A single project's financing, pre-production, production, post-production and marketing each can and do take place in different parts of the world. And while historically it is not unusual for elements of a single project's production and post-production to be undertaken in different locations, in recent years the amount of internationally mobile production and post-production has grown to unprecedented levels. Statistical data on the volume and total production spend of runaway production indicate that such production has become an integral part of many film economies. Looking at the pre-production, production and post-production parts of that chain, the tendency until recently has perhaps been most remarkable in animation, but location production and dispersed post-production have both become increasingly common. But at the same time as this growing dispersal which appears to free audiovisual production as never before, there is a movement towards concentration of production and post-production in a number of particular locations. Some of these have been historically significant filmmaking centres. Others have developed capacity in more recent times. A key common feature of these centres is the existence of a studio complex and/or a cluster of related production and service companies. For a time it seemed as though large cities and aspirant players could meet the spatial needs of producers with sound stages fashioned from converted warehouses, factories or bus depots (such as the provincial government-owned The Bridge Studios in Vancouver, Canada). Many if not all production services could be obtained in the city or region around the sound stage. But in recent times it seems that in order to maintain or grow their share of the increasing volume of mobile, international production, these centres have needed to develop integrated production spaces allowing for the co-location of a variety of services. There has been something of a recent vogue internationally for large-scale studio complexes comprising sound stages, construction workshops, production offices, perhaps a watertank and backlot, and a number of tenant or related service companies enabling considerable amounts of work on a project to be conducted on a single site. Studio complexes with multiple sound stages capable of meeting the production needs of high-budget and blockbuster production while simultaneously servicing telemovie, television series or advertising production are springing up or being talked up around the globe. Existing facilities are undergoing extensive and often extremely costly refurbishments to remain technologically competent and internationally competitive. In many cases such developments have obtained substantial public support in the form of loans and tax concessions, as well as indirect benefits from the promotional work of film agencies. Some are even part publicly owned or managed as state-owned enterprises. Increasingly, it seems, they require ongoing support, needing periodic injections of public funds or largesse to remain competitive and on the technological cutting edge. Along with tax and investment incentive schemes, favourable foreign currency exchange rates and a pool of highly skilled personnel, studio complexes are core components of the production infrastructure necessary to attract and generate ongoing work. And they 'play a structuring role' as a focal point and key indicator of the health of national production. To date little attention has been paid either to the nature, character and variety of studio complexes or to the production ecologies comprising domestic and international activity that make up the production work of particular places. This study will map the variety of studio complexes internationally, situate Australia's current and projected complexes within this international framework, and discuss the contemporary character of the relations between studio complexes and international production. The studio complexes examined in this report are all outside the United States, both to indicate the international aspect of principally English-language production and to make the study manageable