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Shadow economies of cinema : mapping informal film distribution / Ramon Lobato.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Cultural histories of cinema | Cultural histories of cinemaPublication details: London : Palgrave Macmillan [on behalf of the] BFI, 2012.Description: viii, 168 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781844574117
  • 1844574113
  • 9781844574124
  • 1844574121
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 791.43 LOB
LOC classification:
  • PN1995.9.D57 L63 2012
Contents:
Introduction -- Distribution from above and below -- The straight-to-video slaughterhouse -- Informal media economies -- Nollywood at large -- Six faces of piracy -- The grey internet -- Conclusion : coordinates for studying distribution in a digital age.
Summary: Combining industrial and cultural analysis, this book looks at film distribution circuits from across the Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and explains how they shape film culture in their own image.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Standard Loan LSAD Library Main Collection 791.43 LOB (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 39002100632695

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

How do people access movies today? What are the most popular and powerful channels for media distribution on a global scale? How are film industries changing in the face of media convergence and digitisation? To answer questions such as these, argues Ramon Lobato, we must shift our gaze away from the legal film business and toward cinema's shadow economies. All around the world, films are bought from roadside stalls, local markets, and grocery stores; they are illegally downloaded and streamed; they are watched in makeshift video clubs, on street corners, and in restaurants, shops and bars. International film culture in its actually-existing forms is a messy affair, and it relies to a great extent on black and grey media markets. Examining the industrial dynamics of these subterranean film networks across a number of different sites - from Los Angeles to Lagos, Melbourne to Mexico City - this book shows how they constitute a central rather than marginal part of audiovisual culture and commerce. Combining film industry analysis with cultural theory, Shadow Economies of Cinema opens up a new area of inquiry for cinema studies, putting industry research into dialogue with wider debates about economic informality and commodity circulation. Written in an accessible style, this book offers an original 'bottom-up' perspective on the global cinema industry for researchers and students in film studies, cultural studies, and media and communications.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-161) and index.

Introduction -- Distribution from above and below -- The straight-to-video slaughterhouse -- Informal media economies -- Nollywood at large -- Six faces of piracy -- The grey internet -- Conclusion : coordinates for studying distribution in a digital age.

Combining industrial and cultural analysis, this book looks at film distribution circuits from across the Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and explains how they shape film culture in their own image.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Preface (p. vii)
  • Acknowledgments (p. viii)
  • Introduction (p. 1)
  • Why distribution? (p. 2)
  • Formal and informal film economies (p. 3)
  • Shadows, sites and circuits (p. 4)
  • 1 Distribution from Above and Below (p. 9)
  • Redefining distribution: theory and practice (p. 10)
  • Distribution from below (p. 13)
  • The cultural politics of distribution (p. 14)
  • Conclusion (p. 19)
  • 2 The Straight-to-video Slaughterhouse (p. 21)
  • 'Anything with sprocket holes' (p. 22)
  • The STV aesthetic (p. 24)
  • Transnational STV circuits (p. 26)
  • Shooting and selling STV action in the Asia-Pacific (p. 30)
  • The slaughterhouse of cinema (p. 32)
  • Conclusion (p. 36)
  • 3 Informal Media Economies (p. 39)
  • The formal and the informal (p. 39)
  • The centrality of informality (p. 41)
  • Informal economies of cinema (p. 43)
  • Informality, cinema and the state (p. 47)
  • Between formal and informal distribution: Tropa de elite (p. 49)
  • 4 Nollywood at Large (p. 55)
  • A short history of the Nigerian video boom (p. 56)
  • The formalising imperative (p. 59)
  • Formalising international distribution (p. 63)
  • Conclusion (p. 66)
  • 5 Six Faces of Piracy (p. 69)
  • Copyright and the construction of piracy (p. 70)
  • Piracy as theft (p. 72)
  • Piracy as free enterprise (p. 74)
  • Piracy as free speech (p. 76)
  • Piracy as authorship (p. 78)
  • Piracy as resistance (p. 80)
  • Piracy as access (p. 82)
  • Everyday ethics of piracy in Tepito, Mexico City (p. 85)
  • Tepito postscript 2010 (p. 91)
  • 6 The Grey Internet (p. 95)
  • Mapping the online distribution ecology (p. 96)
  • Linking sites (p. 100)
  • Video-hosting sites (p. 101)
  • Cyberlockers (p. 104)
  • Informal enforcement on the digital frontier (p. 106)
  • Conclusion (p. 109)
  • Conclusion: Coordinates for Studying Distribution in a Digital Age (p. 111)
  • From pipelines to swarms (p. 112)
  • Rethinking informational freedom (p. 114)
  • Appendix: A Film Distribution Research Guide (p. 119)
  • Notes (p. 129)
  • Bibliography (p. 149)
  • Index (p. 163)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Ramon Lobato is a research fellow at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
Cultural Histories of Cinema Series Editors: Lee Grieveson, University College London, and Haidee Wasson, Concordia University.

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