FIGURE IT OUT… FOR PRODUCERS OF BROADCAST SERIES, IT'S EXPENSIVE TO HIRE PEOPLE OVER 75

Manon CERDAN, a doctoral student in information and communication sciences, is interested in representations of old age in broadcast fiction, both on the production side and on the audience side. Her research is based on the series Septième Ciel*, which narrates the love affairs of two residents of a nursing home, and the obstacles and difficulties that stand in the way of their emotional and sexual lives.

She questioned the construction of representations on the production side, based on participant observation during the scriptwriting of the series, in her position as “old age advisor”. She supplemented this ethnographic investigation with interviews with the producer and creator, with the aim of identifying contingencies specific to the characters' age.

Analysis of this material shows the constraints imposed by insurance contracts. On a movie set, only the key staff who is insured, those without whom the shoot would be jeopardized: director, cinematographer, first assistant director and lead actors. However, for the latter “... beyond the age of 75, insurance no longer covers”, unless you pay a premium that is unaffordable for productions like Septième Ciel. So, whatever the scriptwriters' intentions, the series shows nursing home residents under the age of 75, when the average age of residents is actually around 86, a gap of just over 10 years.

So, by discouraging producers - and writers more broadly - from hiring actors and actresses who are “too old”, the broadcast industry induces a discrepancy in the fictional representation of old age. In doing so, series contribute to making invisible the variety of situations faced by people over 75, even if they are the subject of the series.