Global Risks and Local Spectacle: Ethnography of Film and Television Production

Abstract

This talk draws from anthropological research I conducted in Hollywood and Hong Kong on the production of commercial film and television. Based on participant observation on film and television sets I argue that production personnel such as camera operators, actors, and directors are not immune to the spectacular images and themes they conjure and convey to audiences. Less explored in media and film studies, ethnography of the production process of narrative film and television reveals that the work of filming dangerous stunts and graphic death scenes are for some media workers exciting and pleasurable, for others harrowing, and for many of them an affective engagement with their craft. Anthropology’s attention to meaning-making in production sites helps us better understand creative labor.