01.08.2013 Views

Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

teams encourage creativity. Recruit<strong>in</strong>g and develop<strong>in</strong>g the widest<br />

range of talent can reduce recruitment costs. S<strong>in</strong>ce most bus<strong>in</strong>ess is<br />

now <strong>in</strong>ternational, the <strong>in</strong>dustry needs skills <strong>in</strong> trad<strong>in</strong>g goods and<br />

services across borders and <strong>in</strong> multiple languages. A diverse workforce<br />

will aid negotiation and communication, and represent a progressive<br />

image <strong>to</strong> the rest of the world. Corporate reputation can be damaged<br />

by adverse publicity and discrim<strong>in</strong>ation cases that come <strong>to</strong> court.<br />

Under-served audiences can be targeted more specifically <strong>to</strong> attend<br />

c<strong>in</strong>emas. This will become even more important if c<strong>in</strong>ema audiences<br />

cont<strong>in</strong>ue <strong>to</strong> decl<strong>in</strong>e, as they have <strong>in</strong> the last two years. The size and<br />

spend<strong>in</strong>g power of the older, gay, disabled and m<strong>in</strong>ority ethnic<br />

population groups is very large but these markets are not always<br />

unders<strong>to</strong>od properly by ma<strong>in</strong>stream providers.<br />

If the sec<strong>to</strong>r does not comprise a more diverse workforce, films that<br />

get made may lack the perspectives of under-represented groups.<br />

British films may be less heterogeneous as a consequence.<br />

7.5 <strong>Research</strong> priorities for the future<br />

As this report has <strong>in</strong>dicated there are significant <strong>in</strong>formation gaps <strong>in</strong><br />

relation <strong>to</strong> diversity <strong>in</strong> film. This section summarises the key ones.<br />

7.5.1 Roles allocated <strong>to</strong> under-represented ac<strong>to</strong>rs<br />

There is little research <strong>in</strong> the UK on ac<strong>to</strong>rs from under-represented<br />

groups and whom they portray on screen, that is, numbers <strong>in</strong> films as<br />

C:\Documents and Sett<strong>in</strong>gs\mcorless\Desk<strong>to</strong>p\Intranet\<strong>Barriers</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Diversity</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Film</strong>_DS_RB 20 <strong>Aug</strong><br />

<strong>07</strong>.doc<br />

173

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!