Transnational Crews and the Post-socialist Precarity: Globalizing Screen Media Labor in East-Central Europe
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| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | This paper discusses how political history filters globalizing trends in screen media labor, unevenly affecting different segments of production. In Prague, screen industries remain under the influence of their socialist past. In 1991 the de-facto monopolistic producer, studios Barrandov, laid off most of its 2700 employees, including all creatives. It turned into a regional hub of international production, serving mainly Hollywood and taking advantage of the vast pool of qualified, non-unionized labor, and lately a 20% rebate program. During its peak in 2003, international production generated $178m, 1/20 of the domestic industry, composed of dozens of tiny companies producing just 30 features annually. The only institutional continuity has been the public-service television which keeps about 3000 employees, more than 60% of them over 40 years old, often old-timers from the pre-1990 era. There are three dominant gravity centers on the labor market—international production, public television, and independent production—resulting in three relatively impermeable economies, work cultures, and globalizations. Transnational teams on runaways represent the highest-income end; however their Czech members have significantly lower creative control, job security, and prospects of upward mobility. Interviews and ethnographic data delivered by student interns indicate this inequality induces a specific dynamics within the community. |
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