Any value in the chain? A criticism on the suitability of using the value chain model for the motion-picture industry: a UK low-budget independent film perspective.

Despite its long-established use in business assessment, the ‘value chain model’ has only recently been applied to the motion-picture industry. Although this research has proved useful in opening the ‘film value’ discourse, the timing of its arrival and the nature in which it has been used highlight inherent framework-design limitations when attempting pure ‘Porteresque’ analysis on certain areas of the feature-film industry. These limitations relate to using the model in industry-wide analysis, measuring customer value and the non-monetary priorities of particular filmmakers. Bearing in mind that the original purpose and design of the value chain model is to facilitate corporate strategy selection through the identification of competitive advantages, these limitations suggest that certain film industry sectors might be better served through the use of other process-assessment models, such as a ‘supply chain’ framework. Therefore, this study weighs up the suitability of the value chain model in film industry analysis by first contextualising the contributing factors that have led to its recent use, how it is designed, what is its purpose and previous film value chain research. The limitations of value chain are then described through a comparison of the United Kingdom’s low- budget film sector with other US-studio financed and independent film sectors. The study ends with a number of conclusions and suggestions for further media-business academic research.