ECREA16-Abstract

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Thursday, November 10

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PP 162

Bringing Statistics and Film Studies Together: Using Cluster Analysis to Define a Taxonomy of Documentaries

S. Villanueva Baselga

Universitat de Barcelona, Department of Library and Information Science, Barcelona, Spain

Documentary films have always constituted a minority among the objects of analysis within the field of Film Studies. However, research concerning

the non-fiction genres is lately experiencing a boom concomitant to the emergence of new media and new forms of transmedia, crowdfunded and crowd‑

sourced production. One of the main documentary theorists is Bill Nichols (1991, 2001), who has developed a taxonomy of six modes of representation by

which documentaries can be classified and, thus, characterized. Film scholars work traditionally in the realm of heuristic discussion, focusing their research,

when they do, on empirical data emerged from qualitative analysis. Just a few of them, like Barry Salt (2006), have moved on quantitative, statistical and

data-centered methods to debate largely accepted theories and assumptions that have been only defended discursively. The aim of this work is to discuss

Bill Nichols’taxonomy by means of qualitative methods. To do so, we have performed a cluster analysis on data emerged from systematic map of literature

written by the author and a battery of semistructured interviews to scholars specialized in Film Theory. Cluster analysis was perform on mental maps from

20 scholars, filmmakers and film students resulting on 216 variables organized in 5 different clusters that led us to confirm four of the six modes of repre‑

sentation theorized by Nichols. Besides, analysis based on the emerged dendogram allowed us to know how to define each one of these modes based on

narrative, textual and contextual elements.

PP 163

The Creative Producer: How to Detect in a Film the Producer’s Work

I.B. Rebanda Coelho

, N. Zagalo

Minho University, ICS- Communication Sciences, Braga, Portugal

After a filmic and bibliographic analysis as well as having personal experience in the film production field, one question often appeared: what does a pro‑

ducer actually do? Although this question has been formulated many times, few are those who know the answer. Especially when speaking about the cre‑

ative and artistic side of the producer, however, there are still many who ignore the existence of this facet. The social oblivion, by the public and even by

the producer’s colleagues, was so grave that it still exists today and it has been promulgated by a stereotype: the producer is the one that gets the money.

The answer given by some producers to this was to divide the term producer in two separate concepts: the creative producer and the financial producer.

Although these concepts gradually have infiltrated the artistic field (especially the creative producer’s concept), not only the cinematographic, but all the art

grounds where the term producer exists (theater, dance, television, etc.), this was still not enough for the producers. Their demands have increased, though

in silence because they’re producers. However, even if the spectator is helped to realize the artistic and creative work of the producer, how can they detect

it while watching a film? This was the big question when the research started and it is the starting point for this article. We can detect all the creative and

creational work from the team members of a film, but it’s really difficult to say the same thing when we are talking about the producer’s work. So, our

intention was to find a more practical and simplistic way to show the producer’s creative side. To help us to answer this question, we have the purpose to

demonstrate the“uncelebrated hero”path through the American and European cinema until nowadays. That together with the film analysis during the dif‑

ferent eras, from the most commercial to the more independent films, will help us to create a new approach, which we call the Credit Theory. This approach

will help both connoisseurs and cinema lovers to detect the work of the producer just by watching a film. A technique that will help specially cinema

students to distinguish and analyze the different functions inside the cinema industries and show that the work of the producer can influence the language

and the aesthetic of a film. This theory was presented on 16

of November of 2015 in the Salford University during the Salford International Media Festival,

the Challenging Media Landscapes, inserted in the Painel D- Creativity and Participation in Film, without publication.