CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Europe Focuses on Local Production

Variety: As global consumers turn towards series produced in their own countries and other non-US content, developing authentic stories for local markets might be the key to global success, pointed out participants of the Berlinale Series Market opening on Monday.

2 comments:

Bunny Brand said...

I don’t think that I really noticed the amount of international film and tv that has started to become very popular, even in America. I think that “foreign film” used to be seen as this thing that only people really into movies and cinematography would watch, but it’s becoming more and more popular. I think it’s less seen as pretentious now. It’s weird because American films just aren’t the best, there are so many great international films and tv that have so much to offer. On Netflix there have been a lot of extremely popular shows like Young Royals which is from Sweden and one mentioned in the article Squid Game, which is Korean. Also both of these shows also used local and undiscovered talent which the article is also talking about. I think its so great to do this, it honestly gets tiring to see the same few really popular actors playing the same roles just in different stories. I feel like they have also be doing this more local casting with big book adaptions, like Shadow and Bone and The Wheel of Time. I think it’s so great to see a variety of film from different countries.

Lilian Nara Kim said...

Not surprised, but the tone of this article is interesting. Obviously, the perspective of this article is Western, however, the emphasis on the surprise of the quality of Eastern media reads a little small-minded to me. To me, there is no question that the West dominates popular media, however, the quality of it is always debatable. However, because of this domination, the quality is never debated.

“While the audiences look for the next big thing, shows that embrace their cultural heritage seem to be gaining traction”

I wonder why this is the truth, or even if this is the truth. Like, haven’t they heard? Diversity is in. People who have always seen themselves in media want to see something different, and those who have never seen themselves want to see themselves.

Or is it that those shows that “embrace their cultural heritage” are actually just good at packaging their cultures in a palatable bite for the Western audience. We have to question, while these shows and the stories being told are changing, are the audience, and the people we are making these shows for, also changing?