Beijing 15/08/2011 Mirko Mancinelli, ID: 1102051369 University of Beijing Global Media Industry

The Tension between Globalization and Localization in the Global Film Industry

Since the last century one characteristic common to the main part of the economic industries is the eternal conflict and dilemma between two different processes of implementation of the industries: globalization versus localization. First of all, it is necessary to clarify these two concepts in order to understand clearly and deeply their impact in the global movies industry. Globalization is the spreading of an idea, product, or technology around the world, with a consequent social, economic, industrial impact. Localization is a process, which reverses the trend of globalization by discriminating in favour of the local 1, or, otherwise, it is the process of adapting a globalized product, which you have already processed for localizability, to a particular culture/locale. The movie industry is particularly affected by this tension and

Colin H. , Localization A Global Manifesto, London: Earthscan, 2000

1

its structure has undergone a significant transformation due to globalization, driven by internet, new technological developments, lower countries entry barriers, consolidation, improvements of IT, interaction of global corporations and a general greater mobility. The movies business, particularly in the second half of the last century, has seen the emergence of an economical, cultural and social dominance of US Movie industry, especially Hollywood. Hollywood invested high costs into large-scale marketing and distribution, overcoming liabilities of foreignness through being present with local distribution and locally adapted marketing campaigns on a high number of export markets, dubbing films, and, on some export markets, creating cultural preferences for Hollywood-style aesthetics and narrative, as well as Englishlanguage films rather than other foreign films 2. Hollywood became a pillar and a source of imitation for the global film economy. There are several reasons that explain how and why Hollywood imposed its dominance in the world movie market. First of all, the emerging Hollywood studios benefited from first mover advantages in feature film production: they owned international distribution networks, they could offer cinemas large portfolios of films at a discount (block-booking), sometimes before they were even made (blind-bidding) 3. A second factor was the rise of Hollywood as production location and cluster. U.S. film companies started to locate in Southern Hoskins, C., & Mirus, R. , Reasons for U.S. dominance in the international trade in television programmes, Media, Culture and Society, 70,499-515, 1988. 3 Bakker G. , The Economic History of the International Film Industry, University of Essex, 2010-02-05
2

California sharing of inputs, exploiting knowledge spillover. Lastly, the market size was becoming of essential importance as it affected the amount of money that could be spent on a film, because it is based on the potential profits calculated on countrys market size 4. Indeed, the countries that have become specialized in film production are countries with large home audiences, such as USA, China and India (1041 film releases in 2005), USA (599 releases in 2006). Hollywood and Bollywood are both commercial and large-scale, but differ in their degree of integration; Denmark and Korea are both small-scale and disintegrated, but differ in their degree of state involvement; and Iceland and France are both state-subsidized and disintegrated, but differ in their scale Japan (417 in 2006), and China (330 in 2006) 5. The conflict between globalization and localization involved the main global movies industry, so in order to gain more knowledge and facilitate the conceptual assimilation of the tension it is necessary analyzing the evolution of the involved countries, underlining the organizational and cultural transformations in their own film sector. Globalization as a process involves trans-national relationships and formations that connect multiple locations in networks and complex and contradictory ways 6. Indian movies market is the perfect example of how the globalization has hit the entire world and how it is Bakker G. , The Economic History of the International Film Industry, University of Essex, 2010-02-05 5 Lorenzen M. , On the Globalization of the Film Industry, Creative Encounters, February 2008 6 Desai J. , Beyond Bollywood: The cultural politics of South Asian diasporic films, New York: Routledge 2004
4

difficult find a balance with localization. Before the 1990s the main feature of Indian movie was an angry young man, a simple representation of a common, poor low/medium class. In those movies were represented all the values of the most part of the population. It was an emblematic example of how movies can represent the culture, social view and tradition of a determined country. At the beginning of 1990s, the globalization and the progressive liberalization of Indian economy entailed a wide openness toward the foreign film sector, especially the American production. In those years the Hollywood doctrine started to insert and mix in that one Indian. This event gave birth to a new segment of Indian movie industry: Bollywood. It is a reproduction and exasperation of Hollywood model. Bollywood changed completely the messages, communication, ideal and values that were represent in the Indian films in the past. There arent ideals, principals or values aimed to create national unity and to emphasize the realistic situation of the Indians. This new version doesnt represent anymore the low classes, the rural and poor young angry man. Instead there was represented a new dimension: a dream world where luxury world, expansive cars, boat, money, foreign locations, actors, singer and liberal use of English in dialogues are occidental features that characterize Bollywood, its westernization and the new urban, riche and niche audience. The metaphor of dreamword is the symbol of the disconnection between the content of the films from the lives of audience: absolutely no connection between Bollywood and Hindi people.

The globalization of the dreamworld is connected to the materiality of overconsumption7 and commercialization and indeed the product placement and the advertising are always more present in the movies. The Globalization of the Bollywood changed completely new the Indian movie industry, until then based on localizations ideals and standards. At the same time, the liberalization of Indian economy in the 1990s facilitated the growing internationalization of the production and distribution of the Hindi movie. Globalization is not merely another word for Americanization, and the recent expansion of the Indian entertainment and film industry proves it8. Nowadays, Bollywood production is exported in large number on all around the world, especially in USA and UK. In the latter half of the century, India, where the audience remains hugely attached to cinema going, overtook USA as the Worlds largest film producer. If Bollywood can be considered as an example of Globalization of the Global Film Industry, it is also true that Nollywood can be considered one of Localization. Nollywood, the Lagos-based Nigerian film industry, has become the third-largest film industry in the world and has pioneered and innovative and highly successful model of film production and distribution 9. It consists of many small producers working with tiny amounts of capital and low Shakuntala Rao, The globalization of Bollywood: an ethnography of non-elite audiences in India, The Communictation Review, 10, New York 2007 8 Power C. , Mazumbdar S. , Bollywood goes global, Newsweek, February 28 2000 9 Lombato R. , Creative industries and informal economies: Lesson from Nollywood, International Journal of Coltural Studies, 13, Swinburne University of Technology, 2010
7

technology; it therefore has not been able to build its own spacesstudios, theatres, office complexesand remains nearly invisible in the Lagos. It represented Nigeria with cynic realism: a turbulent and dangerous landscape, class divisions and chaos and misery. A shared realism, local actors, the concept of movies as a social event, creates a considerable coherence in the representation of Nigerian population and culture. The term Nolywood was coined in 2002 and it was really criticized from Nigerians because they thought was only a mere copy of the American model Hollywood. By the way, the Hollywoods example is unavoidable and impossible in Africa today. Despite an undeniable imitative element (Nollywood draws on a great number of cultural influences, domestic and foreign, Hollywood among them), Nollywood fundamentally does not resemble Hollywood or anything else apart from its smaller sibling, the Ghanaian video film industry 10. In conclusion, Bollywood and Nollywood are the real and concrete representations of the dualism between Globalization and Localization. It is clear that whereas the first one represents the product of an industry totally and deeply affected by internationalization and by globalization, the latter is the result of a strong identity and powerful linkage with the countrys roots. Unfortunately it is not possible to identify a winner in this conflict. Both the approaches show some advantages and some disadvantages, so as it is unlikely that one completely overcomes and overwhelms the other. Haynes J. , Nollywood in Lagos, Lagos in Nollywood Films, Africa Today, 54, Winter 2007
10

Furthermore, today there are really low possibilities to find a market that show a perfect balance between them. A globalized market focuses on global common needs, tastes and values, joint with rich resource, capital and the sharing of knowledges and technologies; but lacks completely of the representation of messages and ideals that actually represent the countrys population. A localized market is based on the symbolizing of a countrys culture, tradition and value, joint with an efficient of representation of real live; but lacks of capital resource, quality and technology. The sooner it will be possible to find a balance between globalization and localization, the greater will be the improvement and development of the global Film Industry.

REFERENCE: Bakker G. , The Economic History of the International Film Industry, University of Essex, 2010-02-05;

Colin H. , Localization A Global Manifesto, London: Earthscan, 2

Desai J. , Beyond Bollywood: The cultural politics of South Asian diasporic films, New York: Routledge 2004; Haynes J. , Nollywood in Lagos, Lagos in Nollywood Films, Africa Today, 54, Winter 2007 Hoskins, C., & Mirus, R. , Reasons for U.S. dominance in the international trade in television programmes, Media, Culture and Society, 70, 1988; Lombato R. , Creative industries and informal economies: Lesson from Nollywood, International Journal of Coltural Studies, 13, Swinburne University of Technology, 2010 Lorenzen M. , On the Globalization of the Film Industry, Creative Encounters, February 2008; Power C. , Mazumbdar S. , Bollywood goes global, Newsweek, February 28 2000 Shakuntala Rao, The globalization of Bollywood: an ethnography of non-elite audiences in India, The Communictation Review, 10, New York 2007