ABSTRACT
This chapter develops several case studies that reveal how some television professionals have transitioned into filmmaking careers, how these transformations of professional identity have come to be understood in the entertainment press, and how these professional advancements shape the way Hollywood filmmaking is understood in relation to television. To do so, it first considers how Marvel Studios has turned to former television professionals to guide their extremely lucrative filmmaking enterprise, examining trade reporting about the career trajectories of the Russo brothers that naturalizes the idea of television as a training ground for filmmaking. Second, it interrogates the narrative of transformation that frames such professional trajectories as permanent crossings and reinforces hierarchical distinctions between fixed media. Finally, the chapter considers how women and people of color, while largely excluded from these trade narratives of transformation, might offer perspectives to challenge these hierarchies between television and film.
