Film history has always given priority to individual filmmakers and films, or to sorting them into different genres and movements. In the past thirty years, however, it has expanded its scope to a number of contexts: industrial, socio-cultural, and political conditions of the functioning of cinema as a complex institution. But one aspect remains surprisingly ignored, perhaps because it lies between these two research frameworks, i.e., between the individual creator and the institution: the fact that films are not thought up and made by isolated individuals, nor by nations, nor by companies, but rather by particular groups or networks of coworkers.

In the film industry, however, we will find different types of groups and group work. A small team (a producer, screenwriter, director, and sometimes a script editor) can develop a project for several years. Then, a relatively large crew from ten to hundreds of members shoots the film at a rapid pace. In the final postproduction stage, the team is once again smaller, and is concentrated around the director, editor, and producer (including sound designers, special effects creators, and so on). It is possible to work on a small independent film in a more egalitarian, almost familial manner, while global networks of large-scale Hollywood productions are characterized by a strict hierarchy and can include subteams from different continents that never meet in person.