Streaming Production Cultures: How Netflix & Co. Impact Screen Media Work(ers) in Europe

Sylwia Szostak (SWPS University, Warsaw)

Netflix has declared Poland one of its key growth markets, establishing itself as the most popular streaming service and one of the main producers of local Polish-language content. SkyShowtime and Disney+ are now following Netflix’s path of local commissions. This presentation is meaningfully acknowledging industry’s disruptive transition to platform streaming in Poland and tries to understand its impact on local audiovisual culture and everyday practices of local creative workers. The talk maps out the opportunities and challenges that streaming platforms introduce to key film professions: exploring how producers leverage streaming financing models and the creative liberties, how screenwriters perceive and adapt to the influence of streaming analytics on their creative processes and how streaming workflows and organizational culture impacts on practices of postproduction professionals.

Deborah Castro (University of Groningen) & Débora Póvoa (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Media representations shape our understanding and experience of the world, impacting travel choices and place identities. While extensive research exists on how films and TV series depict locations, there is a lack of studies on the role of location managers and scouts in global streaming productions. This presentation aims to address this gap by examining their roles, particularly in Netflix productions, and focusing on Madrid as a significant European production hub.