BFI Film Handbook 2005


Book Description

Provides many of the answers to questions asked by journalists, industry executives, researchers and television enthusiasts about the current UK film industry. The range of information in the Handbook is unrivalled, including a summary of all new films made and released in the UK box office.




The Television Handbook


Book Description

The Television Handbook is a critical introduction to the practice and theory of television. The book examines the state of television today, explains how television is made and how production is organised, and discusses how critical thinking about programmes and genres can illuminate their meanings. This book also explores how developments in technology and the changing structure of the television industry will lead the medium in new directions. The Television Handbook gives practical advice on many aspects of programme making, from an initial programme idea through to shooting and the post-production process. The book includes profiles giving insight into how personnel in the television industry - from recent graduates to television executives - think about their work. The Television Handbook offers chapters on the vigorous debates about what is meant by quality television, how news and factual programmes are responding to interactive technologies, and how formats such as Reality/Talent TV have risen in prominence. It also considers how drama, sport and music television can be discussed and interpreted. The Television Handbook includes: Profiles of TV news and drama producers, editors and TV studio personnel Case histories of important TV genres and series Practical programme making advice Explanations of key theoretical perspectives in television studies




The Television Handbook


Book Description

Updated to include information and discussion on new technologies and new critical ideas, Jonathon Bignell and Jeremy Orlebar present this excellent critical introduction to the practice and theory of television, which relates media studies theories and critical approaches to practical television programme making. Featuring advice on many aspects of programme making, from initial ideas to post-production processes, and includes profiles to give insight into how people in the industry, from graduates to executives, think about their work. With debates on what is meant by ‘quality’ television, key discussions include: the state of television today how television in made and how production is organized how new technology and the changing structure of the television industry will lead the medium in new directions the rise of new formats such as Reality TV how drama, sport and music television can be understood.




The Television Handbook


Book Description

Updated to include information and discussion on new technologies and new critical ideas, Jonathon Bignell and Jeremy Orlebar present this excellent critical introduction to the practice and theory of television, which relates media studies theories and critical approaches to practical television programme making. Featuring advice on many aspects of programme making, from initial ideas to post-production processes, and includes profiles to give insight into how people in the industry, from graduates to executives, think about their work. With debates on what is meant by 'quality' television, key discussions include: the state of television today how television in made and how production is organized how new technology and the changing structure of the television industry will lead the medium in new directions the rise of new formats such as Reality TV how drama, sport and music television can be understood.




The New Television Handbook


Book Description

The New Television Handbook provides an exploration of the theory and practice of television at a time when the medium is undergoing radical changes. The book looks at television from the perspective of someone new to the industry, and explores the place of the medium within a constantly changing digital landscape. This title discusses key skills involved in television production, including: producing, production management, directing, camera, sound, editing and visual effects. Each of these activities is placed within a wider context as it traces the production process from commissioning to post-production. The book outlines the broad political and economic context of the television industry. It gives an account of television genres, in particular narrative, factual programmes and news, and it considers the academic discipline of media studies and the ways in which theorists have analysed and tried to understand the medium. It points to the interplay of theory and practice as it draws on the history of the medium and observes the ways in which the past continues to influence and invigorate the present. The New Television Handbook includes: contributions from practitioners ranging from established producers to new entrants; a comprehensive list of key texts and television programmes; a revised glossary of specialist terms; a section on training and ways of getting into the industry. By combining theory, real-world advice and a detailed overview of the industry and its history, The New Television Handbook is an ideal guide for students of media and television studies and young professionals entering the television industry.




The British Cinema Book


Book Description

The new edition of The British Cinema Book has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to the major periods, genres, studios, film-makers and debates in British cinema from the 1890s to the present. The book has five sections, addressing debates and controversies; industry, genre and representation; British cinema 1895-1939; British cinema from World War II to the 1970s, and contemporary British cinema. Within these sections, leading scholars and critics address a wide range of issues and topics, including British cinema as a 'national' cinema; its complex relationship with Hollywood; film censorship; key British genres such as horror, comedy and costume film; the work of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Asquith, Alexander Mackendrick, Michael Powell, Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell and Mike Leigh; studios such as Gainsborough, Ealing, Rank and Gaumont, and recent signs of hope for the British film industry, such as the rebirth of the low-budget British horror picture, and the emergence of a British Asian cinema. Discussions are illustrated with case studies of key films, many of which are new to this edition, including Piccadilly (1929) It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Ladykillers (1955), This Sporting Life (1963), The Devils (1971), Withnail and I (1986), Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and Control (2007), and with over 100 images from the BFI's collection. The Editor: Robert Murphy is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University and has written and edited a number of books on British cinema, including British Cinema and the Second World War (2000) and Directors in British and Irish Cinema (2006). The contributors: Ian Aitken, Charles Barr, Geoff Brown, William Brown, Stella Bruzzi, Jon Burrows, James Chapman, Steve Chibnall, Pamela Church Gibson, Ian Conrich, Richard Dacre, Raymond Durgnat, Allen Eyles, Christine Geraghty, Christine Gledhill, Kevin Gough-Yates, Sheldon Hall, Benjamin Halligan, Sue Harper, Erik Hedling, Andrew Hill, John Hill, Peter Hutchings, Nick James, Marcia Landy, Barbara Korte, Alan Lovell, Brian McFarlane, Martin McLoone, Andrew Moor, Robert Murphy, Lawrence Napper, Michael O'Pray, Jim Pines, Vincent Porter, Tim Pulleine, Jeffrey Richards, James C. Robertson, Tom Ryall, Justin Smith, Andrew Spicer, Claudia Sternberg, Sarah Street, Melanie Williams and Linda Wood.




The Documentary Handbook


Book Description

From the cinematic releases of Michael Moore to Big Brother , this handbook includes interviews, case studies and illustrations and presents a critical introduction to the documentary film, its theory and changing practices.




Film England


Book Description

In a film business increasingly transnational in its production arrangements and global in its scope, what space is there for culturally English filmmaking? In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Higson demonstrates how a variety of Englishnesses have appeared on screen since 1990, and surveys the genres and production modes that have captured those representations. He looks at the industrial circumstances of the film business in the UK, government film policy and the emergence of the UK Film Council. He examines several contemporary 'English' dramas that embody the transnationalism of contemporary cinema, from 'Notting Hill' to 'The Constant Gardener'. He surveys the array of contemporary fiction that has been re-worked for the big screen, and the pervasive - and successful - Jane Austen adaptation business. Finally, he considers the period's diverse films about the English past, including big-budget, Hollywood-led action-adventure films about medieval heroes, intimate costume dramas of the modern past, such as 'Pride and Prejudice', and films about the very recent past, such as 'This is England'.




High Above


Book Description




The British Sitcom Spinoff Film


Book Description

This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of theatrically-released spinoff films derived from British radio and television sitcoms. Regularly maligned as the nadir of British film production and marginalised as a last resort for the financially-bereft industry during the 1970s, this study demonstrates that the sitcom spinoff film has instead been a persistent and important presence in British cinema from the 1940s to the present day, and includes (occasional) works with distinct artistic merit. Alongside an investigation of the economic imperative underpinning these productions, i.e. the exploitation of proven product with a ready-made audience, it is argued that, with a longevity stretching from Arthur Askey and his wartime Band Waggon (1940) to the crew of Kurupt FM and their recent People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan (2021), the British sitcom spinoff can be interpreted as following a full generic ‘life cycle’. Starting with the ‘formative’ stage where works from Hi Gang! (1941) to I Only Arsked! (1958) establish the genre’s characteristics, the spinoff genre moves to its ‘classic’ stage where, secure for form and content, it enjoys considerable popular success with films like Till Death Us Do Part (1969), On the Buses (1971), The Likely Lads (1976) and Rising Damp (1980); the genre’s revival since the late-1990s reveals a more ‘parodic’ final stage, with films like The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse (2005) adopting a consciously self-reflective mode. It is also posited that the sitcom spinoff film is a viable source for social history, with the often-stereotypical re-presentations of characters and events an (often blatant) ideological metonym for the concerns of wider British society, notably in issues of class, race, gender and sexuality.