December 3, 2021
9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
 
James Bridges Theater and online
 
 
SCHEDULE
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTORS
9:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m.
Denise Mann, Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
 
PANEL ONE
9:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m. PST/6:30 p.m.-8:20 p.m. (France)
“It's (not) so French.” French Productions in the Age of Global Streaming
 
MODERATOR
Violaine Roussel, Professor, Université Paris VIII and Affiliated Scholar, UCLA TFT
 
PANELISTS
•              Isabelle Degeorges, President, Gaumont Television France (zoom)
•              Daniela Elstner, Executive Director, UniFrance Film International
•              Christophe Riandée, Vice CEO, Gaumont (zoom)
•              Ana Vinuela, Associate Professor, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
 
PANEL ONE OVERVIEW: France is known for its distinctive film tradition and festivals such as Cannes, but also for the protective regulations and the state subsidies to its cinema — this being part of a European strategy to preserve the diversity of content and local culture heritage within its borders. How is the rapid expansion of streaming services changing the situation? A show such as Lupin on Netflix illustrates the success of content that reaches beyond just local audiences, while being based on an iconic character of the French popular culture. The panelists will question what makes French content and talent travel internationally today. We will shed light on new forms of transnational collaborations in the production and dissemination of content, discussing the effects of local arrangements and regulations as well as the disruptive force that are the streaming giants.
 
BREAK: 11:20 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
 
PANEL TWO
11:30 a.m.-1:20 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m.-10:20 p.m. (Poland)
Netflix’s The Witcher: Runaway Productions in Central-Eastern European Locales
 
MODERATOR
Denise Mann, Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
 
PANELISTS
•              Anikó Imre, Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts
•              Sylwia Szostak, Assistant Professor, University of Silesia in Katowice (zoom, Warsaw)
•              Mateusz Tokarz, Senior VFX supervisor, Platige Image (zoom, Warsaw)
•             Karol Zbikowski, Chairman of the Management Board, Platige Image (zoom, Warsaw)
 
PANEL TWO OVERVIEW: This panel examines the latest wave of runaway production as U.S. streamers are drawn to Eastern European capitals, such as Budapest, Prague and Warsaw, which offer lucrative, tax rebates; skilled, inexpensive labor forces; and reduced workplace and environmental regulations. At the same time, these post-socialist vistas provide backdrops for ancient legends and mythical, VFX-generated creatures far removed from contemporary reality. Budapest has been used for several high-profile streaming originals, including Netflix’s The Witcher, which is based on Polish fantasy writer Andrew Sapkowski’s popular book series and the adapted popular video game, and was shot primarily in Hungary in and around Mafilm Studios near Budapest. Cultural-industrial, socio-economic, and ideological paradoxes abound, given that so many of these state-influenced media outlets are controlled by far-right governments that are willing to court the neoliberal, global capitalism favored by their U.S. financial partners in order to access the economic windfall stemming from the U.S. streaming wars. Many of these “history-fantasy cocktails” deliver a postmodernist mélange of possible interpretations for distinct taste cultures that the U.S. streamers are uniquely qualified to bundle, given their mastery of automated curation and data management technologies.
 
LUNCH BREAK: 1:20 p.m.-2:30 p.m.  See UCLA map for dining options on campus.
 
PANEL THREE
2:30 p.m.-4:20 p.m. PST
Transcultural Fandom in the Age of Streaming Media
 
MODERATOR
Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

PANELISTS
•              Abigail De Kosnik, Associate Professor and Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media, University of California, Berkeley
•              Susan Kresnicka, Business anthropologist and Founder/President, KR&I
•              Hye Jin Lee, Clinical Assistant Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
•              Aswin Punathambekar, Associate Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia (zoom, Virginia)
 
PANEL THREE OVERVIEW: Streaming services have impacted the circulation and consumption of media content around the world. Did fan subbing and “piracy” pave the way for these new circuits? How has the mass availability of such content reshaped old fan and audience practices? What audiences are most ready to engage with transnational and transcultural content and why? How does consuming media content change the ways consumers think about the cultures from which it originated? Do these new audiences prefer “odorless” content or are they becoming “pop cosmopolitans”? Is this a new form of cultural imperialism producing a monoculture or does the system depend upon diverse styles and genres from the participating countries? Does this content still rely on well-trod trade routes and diasporic communities or are new contact zones between countries emerging?
 
BREAK: 4:20 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
 
PANEL FOUR
4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. PST/7:30 a.m.-9:20 a.m. (Singapore)
Logistical Underworlds of HBO Asia Originals
 
MODERATOR
Jasmine Nadua Trice, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
 
PANELISTS
•              Garon De Silva, Vice President, Original Production, HBO Asia (zoom, Singapore)
•              Ler Jiyuan, Showrunner, writer-director, Invisible Stories, Grisse (HBO Asia) (zoom, Singapore)
•              Olivia Khoo, Associate Professor, Film and Screen Studies, Monash University (zoom, Melbourne)
•              Michael Wiluan, Executive Producer, Grisse, Halfworlds; CEO, Infinite Studios (zoom, Singapore)
 
PANEL FOUR OVERVIEW: This panel examines HBO Asia Originals by exploring the complex negotiation between the physical spaces of film production and the pro-filmic fantasy worlds they enable. For HBO Asia Originals, on-screen narratives present efforts at pan-Southeast-Asian place-making, with casts from across the region switching between English and Asian languages, within stories that negotiate regional mythologies and globalized genre conventions. But their geographic specificity emerges not through diegetic worldmaking, but in the extra-textual, material conditions of production — specifically, through the locations that their narratives seek to transform. The panel focuses on two shows, in particular, the anti-colonial “mee goreng western” Grisse, set in 19th-century Java and shot at Infinite Studios in the Free Trade Zone of Batam, Indonesia; and Halfworlds, an auteur-helmed supernatural action thriller shot at Infinite Studios, as well as Jakarta (Season 1) and Bangkok (Season 2). As HBO Asia’s Garon De Silva describes, “We discovered that despite different culture and languages in Asia, they shared common beliefs in supernatural creatures…we aim to bring Asian stories together for a global audience.”  On the one hand, such programs are creative opportunities for media practitioners within the region, who may find pockets of creative agency within global media industries; on the other, such shows are tasked with the unwieldy goals of simultaneous cultural authenticity, universal appeal, and regional interchangeability.