Mobile Hollywood : Labor and the Geography of Production

Abstract

Contemporary film and television production is extraordinarily mobile. Filming large-scale studio productions in Atlanta, Budapest, London, Prague, or Australia’s Gold Coast makes Hollywood jobs available to people and places far removed from Southern California—but it also requires individuals to uproot their lives as they travel around the world in pursuit of work. Drawing on interviews with a global contingent of film and television workers, Kevin Sanson weaves an analysis of the sheer scale and complexity of mobile production into a compelling account of the impact that mobility has had on job functions, working conditions, and personal lives. Mobile Hollywood captures how an expanded geography of production not only intensifies the often-invisible pressures that production workers now face but also stretches the parameters of screen-media labor far beyond craftwork and creativity. “Engagingly written and sharply observed, Kevin Sanson’s latest book—firmly grounded in the experiences of film workers themselves—is an invaluable contribution to the field.” — JADE L. MILLER, author of Nollywood Central: The Nigerian Videofilm Industry “Every course in global media, media industries, and production studies should adopt this book.” — TIMOTHY HAVENS, author of Black Television Travels: African American Media around the Globe “Persuasively encourages a major rethinking of how we understand the dynamics of transnational film and television production.” — PAUL MCDONALD, coeditor of Hollywood and the Law