International Research Network (IRN-CNRS)
TRansforming ENtertainment in the Digital age (TREND)
Coordinator : Violaine Roussel
Project Presentation
The “transition to digital” in the entertainment industry appears to observers as a major upheaval and, at the same time, a ubiquitous and ongoing process which poses a challenge to academic analysis and professional practice alike. Much of the professional and popular discourse on this topic points to a technological revolution that is disrupting industry conventions and audience behaviors. In fact, however, key industry players are at the heart of these transformations and actively contribute to shaping them behind the scenes. This project investigates how the uses of technologies by entertainment professionals translate into the emergence of new areas of specialties and changes in career paths and work organization ; how new channels for content distribution and circulation come to prevail, audiences get re-delineated, business models re-imagined, and creative content redefined in the process. It explores how preexisting occupational systems shape the digital transformation as much as they are reconfigured by it, in ways that are extremely consequential for creative practices and projects that develop at the very core of these industries. What is at stake with this project is therefore nothing less than shedding new light on the making of popular culture as it is drastically changing.
More specifically, the worlds of production, distribution, and talent representation are the focus of this study, defining an original angle to grasp this transformation process. Our empirical fields of study include and compare the French and American film, television, and music industries while placing the analysis of their transformation and changing relations in the larger European and global context.
To do so, this project brings together an interdisciplinary team of expert scholars and leading professionals of the studied industries. Starting from preexisting collaborations in the context of an International Project for Scientific Cooperation (PICS CNRS), this initiative extends the perimeter of the partnerships to include three American research teams and French scholars from various research centers : CRESPPA (Centre de recherches sociologiques et politiques de Paris), co-affiliated with CNRS, University of Paris 8 and University Paris Nanterre, partners with the UCSB Orfalea Center for Global Studies (21st Century Global Dynamics, headed by Michael Curtin), the UCLA Film, Television and Digital Media department (Denise Mann’s Transforming Hollywood initiative), and the USC School of Cinematic Arts (Michael Renov). In addition, individual scholars in other institutions in France and the US have also joined the team and bring their expertise to the network.
This IRN creates new scientific synergies by organizing the cooperation of researchers otherwise dispersed across different institutions and place the international research team it forms in favorable conditions to develop leading innovative research on the basis of stable collaborations.
This project develops in three interconnected directions. We investigate :
(1) the reconfiguring of professional relations, especially (1.1) the transformations of professional roles and identities with the rise of new brokers and middlemen in the studied entertainment industries (new categories of “sellers” and “buyers” of talent and content, including the new international streaming platforms) and the ways in which they contribute to shaping new types of artistic profiles and careers, and (1.2.) the correlative emergence of new cultural forms (the definition of new creative genres and formats) and the subversion of the traditional divisions between different categories media (transmedia production) ;
(2) the identification of new audiences in the age of predictive algorithms and the construction of digital markets : we will examine (2.1) how the studied professional activities collectively concur to making digital markets and reshaping economic relations and business models ; (2.2.) this is also inseparable from the ways in which the concerned professionals have to rethink authorship and creative rights, and participate, more or less directly, to the definition of issues of “digital heritage.”
(3) digital circulations and embedded sociotechnical transformations : we explore (3.1) the interplay of local processes of digital transformation, on one hand, and the transnational circulation of artists and projects between the studied industries, on the other hand ; as well as (3.2.) the intertwining of transformations that are specific to the entertainment industries with those simultaneously affecting other social worlds with which entertainment professionals have close relationships or strong interdependence. This includes, in particular, the alliances and mutual investment strategies that increasingly often tie entertainment organizations to new technology companies.
The activities and events organized in the context of this IRN project include internal workshops and seminars which gather the network participants on a regular basis in Paris and in Los Angeles, as well as international public events held in the two countries. The program of events combines academic conferences with events/panels aimed at a much wider audience, allowing us to reach beyond the scientific community, the students, and the most directly concerned professional circles, and to attract various profiles of participants with an interest in the arts and digital media.
Past events
- TREND Webinar Series : (De)Mobilizing with Digital Media, February 25-26 & March 11, 2021.
Co-organizers : Violaine Roussel (University of Paris 8/CRESPPA-CNRS) & Ann Crigler (USC)
- TREND Panel : Annual Meeting of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), chaired by Michael Curtin (UCSB), March 17, 2021 : “Transforming Entertainment in the Digital Age : New Industrial Practices and Strategies” (Panel A16)
- TREND Panel :“Documentary media in the age of streaming platforms”, Visible Evidence International Conference, Los Angeles, July 24-28, 2019.
- TREND Day of conference : “The political economy of digital media” (with Patrick Vonderau, Martin Luther University & Jacob Matthews, Université Paris 8) and “Understanding algorithmic governmentality” (with Thomas Berns, Université Libre de Bruxelles), CRESPPA, Paris, December 4, 2019.
December 3, 2021
Programme détaillé de l’Atelier Trend du 26 juin 2023 Event full program / Programme détaillé
December 3, 2021 : TREND co-organized the 9th edition of the Transforming Hollywood conference series, on “U.S. Streaming and International Co-Productions” (held in person at UCLA and by Zoom), and in particular the first panel : “It’s (not) so French.” French productions in the age of global streaming. / TREND a co-organisé la 9e édition de la série de colloques internationaux Transforming Hollywood , consacrée aux coproductions internationales à l’ère des plateformes de vidéo en streaming, et en particulier le panel 1, “It’s (not) so French.” French productions in the age of global streaming.
Event webpage / Voir la page de l’événement
!Now Available !
Watch the 4 panels online / Regardez la vidéo des 4 panels en ligne
Transforming Hollywood 9 in the press / Dans la presse
April 8, 2022
April 8, 2022 : TREND co-organizes the 10th edition of the Transforming Hollywood conference series, on Streaming to Global Markets (this year at USC and by zoom), and in particular the second panel : "Towards data-driven entertainment ?"
/ TREND co-organise la 10e édition de la série de colloques internationaux Transforming Hollywood (cette année à USC et par zoom), intitulée Streaming to Global Markets, et en particulier le panel 2, "Towards data-driven entertainment ?" (19h45-21h05, heure française)
Event webpage / Voir la page de l’événement
9 septembre 2022
TREND vous invite au colloque International "Métiers et filières de l’audiovisuel à l’ère du streaming".
Lieu : 59-61 rue Pouchet, Paris, salle de conférences (RdC).
S’inscrire pour participer et recevoir les documents utiles
Voir la page de l’événement
Voir les vidéos des interventions au colloque
9 septembre 2022 : You are invited to the TREND International Symposium "Film and Television Professions and Sectors in the Streaming Era".
Location : 59-61 rue Pouchet, Paris, France, Conference room (ground floor).
View the program
RSVP to participate
11 octobre 2022, 9h-12h
Séminaires TREND | Chloé Delaporte (MCF HDR à l’Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3) présentera son ouvrage : La culture de la récompense. Compétitions, festivals et prix cinématographiques
Lieu : Université Paris 8, Bâtiment de la recherche, salle MR002 (Métro ligne 13, Saint Denis Université) Voir le programme
Mardi 25 octobre 2022
Séminaires TREND | Bleuwenn Lechaux (MCF HDR à l’Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3) présentera son travail sur : « Jouer n’est pas consentir. Le harcèlement sexuel dans le théâtre new-yorkais » (paru dans Catherine Cavalin, Jaércio da Silva, Pauline Delage, Irène Despontin Lefèvre, Delphine Lacombe, Bibia Pavard (dir.), Les violences sexistes après #Metoo, Paris, Presses des Mines, 2022).
Lieu : Université Paris 8, Bâtiment de la recherche, salle MR005 (Métro ligne 13, Saint Denis Université)
26 juin 2023, 10h-17h
Journée d’ateliers TREND : Reconfigurations de l’audiovisuel
Cette journée d’ateliers examine sous différents angles les mutations qui recomposent actuellement les industries culturelles et en particulier audiovisuelles. Un premier panel se place "Aux frontières mouvantes des industries culturelles". Les contributions explorent comment l’émergence des plateformes et fonctionnalités numériques redessine certains roles et métiers, conduisant à l’ascension de nouvelles catégories professionnelles (tel.les les youtubeurs et youtubeuses étudié.es par Olivier Alexandre, ou les spécialistes de la production de "souvenirs numériques" chez Rémi Rouge) et à la remise en cause de figures jusqu’ici centrales (comme celle du producteur indépendant, analysée par Ana Vinuela).
Le second panel donne à voir des "Logiques de valorisation économique et symbolique en mutation" dans ces espaces. Des technologies comme la blockchain sont ainsi présentées comme porteuses de nouveaux méchanismes de valorisation (examinés par Jacob Matthews et Katia Andrea Morales Gaitán), tandis que les modes d’évaluation des projets se transforment également (ce que montre Maxime Besenval à propos de la "bible" audiovisuelle).
Invité spécial de cette journée, John T. Caldwell (Professeur à UCLA) présentera enfin son analyse des mutations des régimes de production au coeur de son nouveau livre, Specworld, qui vient de paraître chez UC Press.
Avec les interventions de : Olivier Alexandre (Centre Internet et Société), Maxime Besenval (Sciences Po/CSO), John Caldwell (Université de Californie à Los Angeles), Jacob Matthews (Université Paris 8/Labsic), Katia Morales-Gaitan (Université Paris 3 & Université de Montréal), Rémi Rouge (Université Paris 8/CRESPPA), Ana Vinuela (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle/IRCAV).
Lieu : CRESPPA, Site CNRS-Pouchet, salle 255
Programme détaillé à télécharger
1er décembre 2023
Le réseau TREND (Transforming Entertainment in the Digital Age) vous invite au colloque international co-organisé avec UCLA et USC :
TRANSFORMING HOLLYWOOD 11 : STORYTELLING & TECHNOLOGY
1er Décembre 2023 (à partir de 19h, heure française)
Par Zoom - S’inscrire pour participer
Détails de l’événement :
(Attention les horaires ci-dessous sont exprimés en heure des États-Unis, côte ouest)
Welcome to “Storytelling and Technology” the 11th edition of the Transforming Hollywood conference, an annual summit in which communication and media studies scholars join media industry professionals, creators, producers, talent, and executives to engage in panel discussions regarding the future of online entertainment. This year’s Transforming Hollywood conference focuses on various dimensions of the relationship between technology and storytelling in the age of digital distribution ecosystems given the reliance on data, algorithmic recommendation systems, virtual production technologies, and generative artificial intelligence. We will discuss the scope of these upheavals with some of the industry experts at the heart of these changes, and with internationally recognized scholars working on these issues.
Panel one, “Innovation in Content Strategy,” examines what happens at the critical moment when projects are selected to become films or shows. Content definition strategies have been profoundly transformed by the use of data and technology. Far from being just a business issue, the new, technologically-equipped ways of assessing what should be produced or acquired have a direct creative impact. Our panelists will shed light on what goes on behind the scenes in this area, which the public doesn’t usually get to hear about.
Panel two, “Virtual, Augmented, and Artificial Creativity,” considers the positive and negative impact of four different categories of digital technologies on creative labor practices. This includes generative artificial intelligence (AI) ; virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR), to support community-based mobile gameplay and online shopping experiences—sometimes dubbed The Metaverse ; and the ongoing impact of on-set virtual production technologies, such as ILM’s Stagecraft and its dedicated soundstage The Volume, which was used to deliver Mandalorian (2019-present) as part of the high-profile launch of Disney+.
Panel three, “Other Visions, Other Realities,” brings together artists, curators, theorists and entrepreneurs to discuss rapidly emerging developments in the field of generative AI as it is being used by creative artists and industrial makers alike. Focusing on alternatives to the prevailing discourse of generative AI as marking the end of human agency and creativity, this panel situates image synthesis technologies in a historical and critical context.
EVENT SCHEDULE
10am : Opening remarks, Denise Mann, UCLA & Michael Renov, USC
10:30am-11:50am
Panel 1. Innovation in content strategy.
Moderated by Violaine Roussel, Professor, University of Paris VIII/Research Scholar, UCLA
With : Liesl Copland, Executive Vice President, Content Strategy, Participant ; Todd Hoffman, CEO, Storied Media Group ; John S. Couch, Head of Galvanize Studios ; J. D. Connor, Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts, USC
12pm-1:20pm
Panel 2. Virtual, augmented, and artificial creativity
Moderated by Denise Mann, Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA
With : Kim Adams, Director of Art and Production, Pokemon Go, Niantic, San Francisco ; Rene Amador, CEO, Arwall, Los Angeles ; Alessandro Botteon, Co-founder and CEO, Impssbl, Rome/Los Angeles ; Thibault Matthieu, Founder, Wilkins Avenue AR – Immersive & Metaverse Experiences, Paris
1:30pm-2:50pm
Panel 3 : Other visions / Other realities
Moderated by Steve Anderson, Professor of Digital Media, UCLA
With : Rachel Joy Victor, FBRC.ai : Technologist/Entrepreneur/Organizer ; Mashinka Hakopian, Associate Professor in Technology and Social Justice at ArtCenter College of Design ; Jesse Damiani, CEO, Galatea ;
Holly Willis, USC Professor and Co-director, Center for Generative AI and Culture
Event permanent website :
RSVP to attend
10 avril 2024, 10h-12h30, CNRS Pouchet salle 255
Séminaire THE POLITICAL UTILITY OF STORYTELLING
Avec Francesca POLLETTA (Professeure de sociologie, University of California, Irvine)
Autour de son ouvrage : Inventing the Ties that Bind : Imagined Relationships in Moral and Political Life (University of Chicago Press, 2020)
Discutantes : Emeline Jaillais Neliaz (Cresppa LabToP) & Guiseppina Sapio (Cemti)
