How do the rules of the game change? The Italian television system, since its origins, has developed the quiz and game show format in an original way: Italian television was born with Il Musichiere and Campanile Sera, grew with Mike Bongiorno's quiz and today is populated with inheritances, millionaires and parcels. The game and the quiz evolve and hybridize with a thousand other imaginary formats and worlds. But in the meantime, outside Italy, things are happening: new ways of conceiving the game and building a pact with the spectator. The meeting with Axel Fiacco, one of the greatest experts on the mechanisms of format and the rules of the game, intends to take stock of the state of health of the genre in Italian television, but above all to reflect on the relationships between the national and international systems. What do we absorb from abroad, but above all, what do we not absorb and why? What game can't we play?
Andrea Bellavita is a researcher in Cinema, television and photography at the University of Trento, where he teaches Theory and technique of audiovisual language and Audiovisual aesthetics. He is the educational and scientific coordinator of MAPpt – Master in Analysis and Design of the television product, at the Catholic University of Milan. He teaches Psychoanalysis applied to media languages at the IRPA – Research Institute of Applied Psychoanalysis in Milan. He is a commentator on TV Talk.
Axel Fiacco, author and television format specialist, is responsible for the games part of Endemol Italia, after having been responsible for the new proposals office at Mediaset and editorial manager for MTV Italia. He teaches format analysis, cross-media development of television products and theory and technique of game shows at the Catholic University of Milan. He has held numerous courses and seminars on the topics of format and design in Italy and abroad. Among his publications, Understanding Formats. What they are, how they work, how they are designed” (Editori Riuniti, 2007).
