Notes on the method

The production of Film&TV creative content is a sector of the cultural and creative industries. In recent years, this sector has been the object of researches of great interest as proven by the publication of essays, monographs, position papers and other statistical survey reports. Within these studies, the analysis of the production of cinema and television content is almost never overt but included in a wider framework within the audiovisual sector; the different activities within this area are not easy to identify and are detected by drawing up diversified outlines of the areas of research, according to interpretations adopted in relation to the sector and its industries.

It must be said however that not all audiovisual products are the result of original creativity, with significant consequences in terms of sector boundaries. Theatrical films, for example, are usually classified as creative products, unlike what happens with news products. Likewise, the original nature of an audiovisual product is associated with the need for reproduction at large-scale and in multiple formats (DVDs, for example). In this regard, some say that distribution cannot be associated with the cultural and creative supply chain of the audiovisual industry; for others, though, the inseparable link between production and distribution inevitably bonds the two activities drawing an enlarged perimeter of the sector and its industries. To get a picture of the different international approaches, a synoptic overview of the outlines adopted for the main surveys on the topic are hereby presented.