From Hollywood to Borehamwood- Exploring nepotism and networking in US and UK freelance film careers

Abstract

This paper considers whether the differences in the national institutional contexts in which US and UK freelance film workers operate result in different job search strategies and career building patterns. In particular the paper explores the extent to which nepotism (securing employment as a result of family connections) and networking (the active process of seeking employment opportunities through personal contacts) are employed as strategies in each of these national contexts. The paper begins with a description of the context within which careers are built in the film industries of the two countries, as while there is a degree of comparability between the sectors, there are also important differences. In the second section existing theoretical explanations of the process of obtaining employment in the cultural industries are examined. After then describing the research methods of the two studies which provide the data in the paper, the fourth section reports the empirical trends emerging from the UK and US studies, examining the processes of both getting in and getting on in the respective film industries of the two countries.