I have previously looked at how censorship bodies around the world deal with sexual content in movies. This prompted a few readers to get in touch and ask about other aspects of possibly objectionable content. Well, I’m glad you asked as I…
A few months ago, Elizabeth and Nitza from The Writers Lab approached me with a simple question: “What percentage of movies are written by women over the age of 40?” The Writers Lab is an organisation set up specifically to nurture the…
Sex in movies is a hot topic. Only last month, my research caused a substantial amount of conversation online when I teamed up with The Economist to track the level of sex in movies over the past quarter century. I found that levels of…
I have previously studied gender representation across all acting roles (see Do films directed by women have more women in the cast?), so today I will zero in on particular jobs, as revealed by the credit the actor received. I identified…
Last week, a group of friends and I watched Last Action Hero (1993). The script started life as a satire on dumb action moves (its original title was “Extremely Violent“) but was so heavily re-written during development and production that…
I have been attending the film Cannes Film Festival for almost twenty years, and over that time, I’ve heard some pretty mad things. I used to keep a loose list of the funniest and most revealing comments, as a part of my lessons to film…
A couple of years ago, I looked into whether erotic thrillers were indeed dying out or if it was just availability bias due to the fact that the main examples which come to mind are mostly from the 1980s. More recently, Rachel Lloyd from…
Last week, I examined the origin of movie scripts, showing that Original Screenplays still account for over half of all movies — the same figure it was forty years ago. This prompted a few readers to write in and ask whether there is now a…
Today, I’m checking in with the data behind a question I get asked often. Almost every week, a reader or journalist asks me why modern movies aren’t as original as they used to be. So I turned to the data on almost 60,000 movies to find…
My work covers a range of topics; some studies look at pressing issues of inequality or untangle the dense web of the film industry’s economic frameworks. This article is not one of them. It’s one of the other ones. By which I mean it’s…
This is the second half of a mini-project I set myself to pay penance for not paying enough attention during film school. In a previous article, I examined when colour movies became more prevalent than black-and-white ones. Today, I am…
Although I attended film school, (a) it was two decades ago; and (b) I shamefully skipped many of the classes on film history. As time has passed, I have become increasingly aware of just how poor of a decision it was to eschew the chance…
The film industry is pretty slow to change and usually opts to do whatever it was doing last year rather than embrace change. This is never more true than in the area of employment and the roles on-set. However, two types of roles which…
In just over a week, many of the world’s film industry professionals will be trying to keep warm in Berlin. That’s because it’s the start of the annual ten-day film industry gathering in Berlin which is half film festival (the “Berlinale”)…
A reader has been in touch to ask how 3D movies are faring. They said “I reckon the 3D bubble has well and truly burst – has it? Are we free from 3D movies blighting the big screen?“. It’s a great question, and so I turned to the data to…
Warning: This article contains 17 uses of the f-word, 9 uses of the s-word and 8 uses of the c-word, among other examples of foul language. Even the graphs are graphic. You have been fucking warned. Like last week, this is another offshoot…
One of my most enjoyable side jobs is the work I do for Guinness World Records. They work with wonderful Bruce Nash at The Numbers for the headline records (Top Grossing Movie, Biggest Budget, etc) and so they look to me for the slightly……
Sometimes things are so silly you just can’t make them up. The UK government is trying to bring in a policy to force all students to study maths until the age of 18. In a hurried attempt to back up this policy, they reached out to a number…
I was contacted by a reader who asked whether “female audiences respond more positively to feature films that have at their heart a female creative team? In particular, a female director and writer“. It’s a fascinating question as it…
As we start to ease out of the ‘pandemic emergency’ phase, I’m getting an increasing number of questions about the effects the pandemic had on the film business. The short answer to almost everything I’m asked is – it’s too early to tell.…
Last week I investigated if there was a link between the number of people thanked in a movie’s credits and the quality of the movie. This week I am testing a related industry truism; namely, that a greater number of producers is an…
David Wilkinson got in touch yesterday asking for advice on his new crowdfunding campaign. One of the topics he wanted to chat about was the ‘cost’ of offering a “Thanks” credit to his backers. This involves awarding someone who backs the…
Last week I looked at the popularity of various first names in movies over the past two decades. The process involved building up a vast database of acting credits, noting both the gender of the fictional role and of the performer…
As regular readers will know, last year I was hired by a film producer to “write” a feature film screenplay entirely using artificial intelligence (more on that here). One of the challenges that I, and my collaborator Dr Eliel Camargo…
For the past six months, I’ve been working in secret on a real-world experiment. Today, I’m delighted to begin sharing what we’ve been doing, why we’ve been doing it and to be part of a larger public debate about the questions it raises. I…
At the core of any movie-watching experience are the emotions you feel. The marketers will have used all their skills to create certain emotional expectations, the movie itself will take you on a journey, and afterwards you may continue to…
Regular readers will know that I’ve conducted a number of research projects into horror films over the years. Despite not being much of a watcher of horror movies, the business side fascinates me. The genre seems to break many of the rules…
I have just returned from a trip to the Cannes Film Festival and market. While I was there I learned more and more about what it is like for the 200+ interns attending Cannes via the student programs run by the American Pavilion (“AmPav”).…
Today’s topic comes from a reader. They are in pre-production and were challenged by a stakeholder on their casting choices. The objection came from an experienced professional who said “My concern is that this film will play to an older…
An opinion piece in The Guardian last week caught my eye. In it, Gwilym Mumford argues that the Erotic Thriller is due to a comeback (if you’ll pardon the pun). The piece takes as a given that the heyday of the subgenre “seems to be all…