THE PRODUCTION PULSE - October 2025
The screen industry is undergoing a spellbinding shift in format, funding, and geographical focus. But don’t get spooked by the unknown. Focus on this month’s news highlights to learn how producers are staying alert to navigate these changes, embracing both hyper-short-form content and global blockbuster ambition.
Just scream. Who’ll notice? It’s Halloween.
What better way to clear away the fog of screen industry disruption? Draw inspiration from this latest music video screamer featuring the bewitching Florence + The Machine produced by Anonymous Content with film support in Manchester & West Yorkshire by our PSN UK (LS Productions) team.
Are you paying attention? We’re entering a ‘Blockbuster Era’ for music video screening in cinemas that “could push filmmakers to think bigger, experiment more, and create experiences that feel cinematic and larger than life. It also means new audiences, better viewing platforms, and hopefully, better budgets.” (Click to read the article in LBB)
Genre Hopping. Team Building.
In an age when budget constraints often take precedence over creative vision, it takes a broad range of expertise – and skilled listeners – to craft local service to scale. In any given week, producers call on our production service teams to determine feasibility for everything from a studio-backed TV series to a pharmaceutical campaign to a stills-and-motion shoot in multiple countries tailored to feed social media posts.
Based on the award-winning commercial films showcased in Berlin at Ciclope Festival this month, our UK Production Liaison joined the chorus of commercial producers affirming that the execution of great work depends more than ever on the team bringing it to the screen.
“The level of creativity and quality of craft on display in this year’s submissions, show that the industry is innovating, and will continue to rise to the challenge.” (Click here for article in Shots)
Silver Linings in Scripted Production.
Hollywood notes that production starts are up in the film industry. Madrid hummed to an upbeat tune during this month’s Iberseries & Platino Industria event.
“Creators are enjoying freedoms, Americans are reading subtitles, the only stories which work come from a vital need to tell them, which aligns with the market, connecting with primitive human emotions and universal moral questions.” (Click here to read the article in Variety)
Film and television producers gathering at the event in Spain’s capital joined special guests from the land of K-content. PSN Spain had just completed filming scenes of a K-drama series in Málaga with Asian stars Park Seo-Joon and Won Ji-An. A Warner Bros. Discovery Partnership with CJ ENM announced this month will “co-invest and co-produce original Korean drama to feed the growing international appetite for Korean storytelling.” (Click here for article in Variety)
Welcoming foreign producers and helping them determine where in the world to film their next projects is where our conversations begin. Tapping into the local expertise of our PSN Partners is where we prove the depth of our production knowledge pool. Let’s discuss your next project!
Read on to unearth more timely insights in my monthly curated selection of industry news.
FILM AND TELEVISION
MIPCOM Sees YouTube and Creator Economy Rise From Industry Contraction Ashes
“Much of the downturn is driven by streamer pull back, down over 100% on early 2024. The new reality is here to stay.” (Variety)
Microdramas To Generate $11bn By 2025, Doubling FAST Channels
“The rise of microdramas is a perfect example of how innovation in storytelling and distribution continues to transform audience behaviour globally. This isn’t just a trend: it’s the next wave in the evolution of content.” (C21Media)
Freemantle’s Reach Out To The YouTube Generation
“Nowadays, engagement also means social media interaction. When we’re talking about longevity, we know one of the things that keeps the conversation going around the shows is social video. Young people consume content probably more than anybody else on the planet, and I still want our formats to speak to young people.” (Variety)
New Originals Key To Platform Subscriber Retention
“This higher degree of non-exclusivity within SVoD catalogues reflects the maturity of the US market: Platforms are established and now understand that subscriber retention is driven by new originals and flagship franchises while the longer tail of their content portfolios is less central, allowing those titles to be made available elsewhere for additional revenue.” (Ampere Analysis)
California Incentive Optimism Builds While Hollywood Sees Third-Quarter Slowdown
“Los Angeles is not losing relevance but is rather between chapters. The region remains coveted but no longer assumed. Its future will depend less on nostalgia and more on operational sharpness. Incentives have opened the door for renewal, but policy momentum must be met with logistical discipline and creative confidence.” (TLG)
Netflix MOU With India To Showcase Wide Range Of Locations
“The agreement marks a first-of-its-kind institutional alliance between a government tourism body and a major streaming platform in South Asia. The expectation is that Netflix gains in production efficiencies and destination access, while the Ministry gains a new global marketing channel.” (TLG)
Busan Film Festival Suggests Co-Productions Offer Solution To Korean Cinema Crisis
“Major Korean companies like CJ ENM and Hive deepening ties with the vibrant Indonesian market. ‘We look forward to Indian cinema, Korea, and all of Asia working together more closely to create new stories for the future.’” (Variety)
Netflix, Amazon, Movistar Plus+ Back Biggest Spanish Premieres at San Sebastian Film Festival
“All three streaming services are holding back some of their biggest and best Spanish-language swings for San Sebastián, the local market’s most impactful movie event.” (Variety)
San Sebastian Celebrates App Selling Cinema Seats Last-Minute
“Quickets is a dynamic-pricing app that releases discounted cinema seats only 60 minutes before showtime, filling empty theaters without cannibalizing presales. Quickets positions itself as both exhibitor recovery tool and youth-focused access platform.” (Variety)
Commissions Drop And Investment Rise Frame Rome MIA Market
“This shift means it is becoming more selective about projects and giving preference to works that can travel. Total investment in Italy’s TV and film industries grew 9% in 2024. But the output of Italian original content has dropped 12% to 658 hours during the past season.” (Variety)
Brazil’s Moment Is Now Say Experts At RioMarket
“It is a very good time for the Global North industries, the creative industry of Europe, the U.S. and the U.K., to begin to take India and Brazil more seriously. We know this, because we noticed it in South Korea 15 years ago, when it was a small fish.” (Variety)
Micro-Dramas Draw Huge Numbers Finds Study
“More than one in ten internet users have watched drama episodes lasting ten minutes or less on social media. YouTube is the most popular destination for viewers, with 44 percent of those who have watched a micro-drama doing so on the platform. TikTok follows close behind at 38 percent.” (World Screen)
Fox Entertainment Leans Into Vertical Video
“Verticals can carry premium drama, thriller, romance, and more – not just a narrow set of tropes. Our partnership with Fox Entertainment validates that vision and gives us the scale and creative firepower to accelerate it. Development deals with top Hollywood talent unveiled soon, with areas of collaboration including original vertical video series, ad sales and brand partnerships.” (C21Media)
Micro-Drama Platform GammaTime Launched By Former Miramax Boss and Quibi Vet
“We’re bringing the same data-driven sophistication to storytelling that top mobile games use for player engagement.” “Every story is tested and optimized before full production. It’s not about replacing creativity — it’s about amplifying it by aligning with what audiences truly crave.” (Deadline)
Global Expansion of Micro-Drama Leader
“This is not a passing trend in China or the U.S.—it’s a global shift in storytelling. People have consumed vertical content since Instagram Stories and TikTok, but what’s evolving is the storytelling itself. Our investments worldwide are helping the industry adapt and thrive as microdramas become part of everyday viewing.” (World Screen)
SAG-AFTRA Verticals Agreement for Micro-Dramas
“This agreement works for the realities of these productions — their pace, their budgets, and their creative ambitions, while upholding the union’s core standards of actor protections.” (WorldScreen)
Hollywood Unphased By Trump’s Latest Tariff Threat
“If the president really wanted to help the American film industry — and help to create more American jobs — he would work with Congress to create national programs to incentivize production in the U.S. that rival the programs that exist in Europe and around the world.” (Variety)
Three Obstacles Of Trump Tariff
“Back in May, he said was “authorizing” such a tariff. On Monday, he said he “will be imposing” it. Not unusually for Trump, that leaves many practical and legal questions unanswered.” (Variety)
The Enduring Glow of Diane Keaton
“The fact that audiences never stopped seeing Annie Hall in her was not a mark of patronization — it was a measure of how much she could transport us with her glow, which remained, to the end, as irresistible as it was undimmed.” (Variety)
ADVERTISING
TV Relevance For Advertisers As The Medium Enters A Second Century
“Television has a continuing vital role to play. All the data (as in: client profitability data, not intermediate nonsense) still points to brand-building on TV as the single best use you can make of your advertising capital (and the single biggest multiplier of your investment in other media).” (LBB)
First-Of-Its-Kind Global Marketing Deal Between ABInbev and Netflix
“We know that there is a huge opportunity to build a culturally defining partnership together — one that takes shape in different markets, around different stories, and in ways we can co-create together. The ambition is exciting. The flexibility to shape it side-by-side is even better.” (THR)
Tariff Impact Weighs Down U.S. Digital Ad Spending Forecast
“Automotive and retail are leading a digital ad spending retreat due to tariffs. The researcher downgraded its full-year digital ad spending forecast for the U.S. by two percentage points, foreseeing 9.5% growth year over year to $338.27 billion.” (Marketing Dive)
INCENTIVES
“‘It’s time to intervene.’ The move comes at a time when Italy is producing a high number of Italian and international films. However, Italian films are continuing to underperform at the box office compared to the pre-pandemic era.” (Screen Daily)
CRAFT
Kids To Star In Their Own Stories With Start-Up CenterStage
“Technology amplifies human creativity to deliver stories that resonate deeply and responsibly. We saw a coming wave of technology that will need to adapt to the economics of the movie space.” (Variety)
OpenAI Making Full Hollywood Animated Feature
“Human actors will still lend the movie’s characters their voices. Human artists will also feed their sketches into OpenAI’s tools. But whether “Critterz” will be a success is far from guaranteed. Especially considering the widespread blowback companies have already received for using AI, audiences have clearly grown wary of the tech.” (Futurism)
Being Human
Gender Balance Call To Action By Industry Leaders At Rome’s MIA
“If the continent’s drama output wants to reflect the society it serves, it must start by fixing the imbalance behind the camera. The best workers are often mothers – women who’ve been through maternity leave know how to get things done.” (Cineuropa)
Sora 2 At The Frontier of Filmmaking
“‘There will be many creative unintended consequences, but I don’t think any of them will be the cessation of human creativity.’ ‘When the creators come to the platform, then we’ll know what this thing really is.’ ‘In a landscape where anyone can generate infinite ‘content,’ discernment becomes the real currency.‘” (LBB)
Behind The Hype Of Tilly Norwood
“The irony is perfect: a fake actress just gave us the most human performance of all – a reminder of our capacity for self-deception. We must never pretend that the fastest way to innovate is to eliminate humans. There is a better path: using AI to amplify human creativity, not erase it – to make artists more powerful, not redundant.” (LBB)
Just The FAQ’S
- What is the latest trend in music video distribution? This edition notes an emerging “Blockbuster Era” for music video screening in cinemas, which is expected to push filmmakers to “think bigger, experiment more, and create experiences that feel cinematic and larger than life,” potentially leading to new audiences and better budgets.
- What’s driving script production and storytelling in the film industry? Production starts are up in Hollywood, and in select European countries, causing an upbeat sentiment at the Iberseries & Platino Industria event in Madrid. The prevailing view is that the only successful stories are those that come from a “vital need to tell them,” connecting with primitive human emotions and universal moral questions.
- How are streaming platforms maintaining subscriber retention? Industy analysts say platforms like those in the US market are finding that new originals and flagship franchises are the primary drivers of subscriber retention. This maturity in the market allows the longer tail of their content portfolios to be made available elsewhere for additional revenue.
- What’s the significance of the rise of microdramas and vertical video? Microdramas are seen as the “next wave in the evolution of content” and is expected to generate $11 billion by 2025. Vertical video is also growing, with validation from partnerships like the one with Fox Entertainment, showing it can carry “premium drama, thriller, romance, and more”.
- What is the new reality for the overall film/TV industry? The industry has settled into a contracted state compared to just a few years before. Streamer “pull back” was most recently noted at MIPCOM. This is leading to a new reality where YouTube and the creator economy are rising. There’s a strong emphasis on team building and a broad range of expertise to scale production efficiently amidst budget constraints. Reach out to Production Service Network for the local skillset required to achieve top results when filming abroad.
- How is the industry reacting to the use of AI in filmmaking? While companies like OpenAI are making animated features, there is widespread wariness among audiences regarding AI. The preferred path for many is to use AI to “amplify human creativity, not erase it,” to make artists more powerful, rather than redundant. Discernment is becoming the “real currency” in a landscape where anyone can generate infinite content.
Double-take on the faker fake. There’s a screamer about Tilly Norwood between those lines, I’m sure…
Time to channel our drama back into storytelling for screens of all sizes. See you on set!
Warm wishes,
Michael
