The University of Nottingham

Southern Italy, 1977. A group of pals emerge from a screening of Star Wars. Like teenagers around the world they loved the tale of Luke Skywalker, the smalltown boy in a galaxy far, far away who dreams of adventure. For one of the young film fans, however, the movie struck a more resonant chord. Gianluca Sergi recalls: “When we walked out of the movie I simply said something which I thought was totally uncontroversial — ‘the film sound was fantastic’. People looked at me like I was from outer space!”

Gianluca would later go on to write a PhD on film sound and the Dolby technology that emerged in the mid-70s and was exploited in ground-breaking movies such as Star Wars. Back then he was a schoolboy growing up in Reggio di Calabria, the city on the toe of Italy, with “a passion for film and for cinema and all things movies” that formed almost as early as he could remember.

That passion would take Gianluca to England to study film at university and an academic career researching film-making practices in Hollywood studios across the world. As one of the few academics seeing the potential of mutually beneficial research with film-makers and studio executives, he established contacts and forged friendships with some of Hollywood’s leading players. Those contacts were instrumental in Dr Sergi, Associate Professor of Film Studies at The University of Nottingham, helping to set up the University’s Institute for Screen Industries Research, which seeks to collaborate on research, encourage talent and suggest new ways film and television makers can answer digital and global challenges. He became the Institute’s first Director in September 2011.

Film degrees, in their infancy in the UK, were unknown in Italy when Gianluca went to university. He studied economics at his hometown university. While a student, stints as the producer and presenter of a weekly radio show on American sports suggested a possible media career. However a friendship with an exchange student from The University of Nottingham offered the tantalising prospect of something closer to his heart. “She asked if I had ever thought about studying in the UK — and said ‘I have an uncle who teaches film and maybe I can ask some advice’.”

That uncle was Alan Lovell, a film academic who became a mentor, friend and collaborator on two books with Dr Sergi after Gianluca did indeed study film in the UK, at the University of Warwick. It was Alan who encouraged Gianluca to develop an essay on film sound which became the basis of his PhD at Sheffield Hallam.

While researching his PhD, Gianluca forged another life-changing friendship.  Ray Dolby, whose Dolby Sound System had revolutionised the music and film industries,  agreed to be interviewed . Would Gianluca like to come out to San Francisco? The stunned young researcher — “I was nobody,  just a PhD student” — spent many hours with Dolby, who introduced him to other key figures in the industry.

This included his collaborator Ioan Allen, who opened more doors for Gianluca in Hollywood. Ioan also became a friend and later a supporter of the Institute for Screen Industries Research. He now holds an honorary degree from The University of Nottingham.

“Ray and Ioan introduced me to the top professionals in their field, to Oscar and Emmy winners. I got interested in labour relations in Hollywood, how film-makers are organised, how they think about their profession, how they are trained. I started to get a lot more interested in studios and my horizon shifted.”

Thanks to the clout and generosity of Ray Dolby and Ioan Allen, Dr Sergi found he had access to studio executives that many film researchers could only dream of. He also discovered that he was forging a different path to many of his peers, concerned less with the theory or history of film-making than research into how studios worked, the practice of film-making, and how film-makers and executives adapted to change. He also realised there was more to Hollywood than the cynical, money-driven industry so often depicted by cineastes.

Dr Sergi also found the film and television industry had its own preconceptions: “Why would we want to have anything to do with universities, what could they possibly offer us?”

The creation of the Institute for Screen Industries Research in September 2011 is testament to Dr Sergi’s success in overcoming such doubts and his belief that film-makers, executives and scholars can collaborate on research.

Today the Institute hosts visits from preeminent figures in their field. This includes Oscar winners such as Randy Thom, the sound designer on a number of Star Wars and Harry Potter films, who give academics  and students access to research material as well as inspirational insight into possible careers in film, television and other screen industries. The Institute places students on internships with Hollywood studios Fox and Lionsgate and the Art Directors Guild. In September 2013 it launches a Masters in Film, Television and Screen Industries.

Dr Sergi says the Institute is well-placed to work with the industry, not least because of its international presence. “The film and television industry is global. The international market is now the dominant aspect of the box office,” he says. “This University has a presence in China — which is without doubt the biggest interest for a lot of our industry —  a campus in Malaysia and campuses here in Nottingham,  so we are a possible research gateway to the world. That sounds very grand but it came straight out of the mouth of a top studio executive.”

Research includes how audiences engage with ‘second screens’ — tablets, mobile phones and other portable devices — and piracy. Dr Sergi has also investigated possible models of development for studios in the digital age. “I’ve been lucky enough to do work with Fox, Lionsgate and Pixar, Weta (the visual digital effects company set up in New Zealand by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson) and Babelsberg in Germany — all these locations in the world have very different takes. So as academics and scholars we can get an overview. That creates opportunity for scholars and students, creates talent for industry and is beneficial for industry.”

Of course, Dr Sergi still finds time for movies. His office shelves are crammed with DVDs and VHS tapes, from Errol Flynn swashbucklers and art house cinema to Tom Cruise blockbusters. “I like all genres, all kinds, all types. I’m a big fan of Hollywood movies,” he says. However, if pushed to name a favourite, Dr Sergi will — reluctantly — plum for Late Spring, a 1949 Japanese film.  “A very, very small movie and if you ask me why it’s my favourite film I would probably struggle to tell you. But it’s a film that moves me every single time and I’m amazed by its capacity to offer so much in such a deceptively simple packaging. Plus to my mind it has the best final sequence of all movies of all time.”