All Outputs (18)

Bristol’s film and television industries: An incremental ecosystem (2023)
Book Chapter

This chapter explores the growth and characteristics of Bristol’s screen industries, which consist principally of television production companies and a much smaller group engaged in feature film production. In contrast to what one could call ‘enginee... Read More about Bristol’s film and television industries: An incremental ecosystem.

Writing film industry history (2021)
Book Chapter

This chapter provides a critical overview of the main ways in which film industry history has been formulated and described. It argues that any account must address three basic questions: (i) how film industry history has been defined and delimited (... Read More about Writing film industry history.

Parting the iron curtain: Michael Klinger’s attempt to make 'A Man and a Half' (2020)
Book Chapter

Between 1967 and 1984, British independent producer Michael Klinger attempted to make a war film initially called Parachute that was renamed A Man and a Half. It was an international production through which as Klinger hoped to establish himself as a... Read More about Parting the iron curtain: Michael Klinger’s attempt to make 'A Man and a Half'.

Male stardom in 1960s British cinema (2020)
Book Chapter

The chapter analyses eight stars – Alan Bates, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole and Terence Stamp – all of whom were the product of the post-war changes (including the 1944 Education Act) that o... Read More about Male stardom in 1960s British cinema.

'It’s our property and our passion’: Managing creativity in a successful company – Aardman Animations (2017)
Book Chapter

This chapter explores how creativity is managed by Aardman Animations, one of the most successful independent UK film and television companies, whose vision is to forge an artists’ ‘studio’ rather than simply a business. This chapter argues that this... Read More about 'It’s our property and our passion’: Managing creativity in a successful company – Aardman Animations.

Introduction to SiFTI collection (2017)
Book Chapter

The introduction to this collection of 15 chapters reviews the current nature and concerns of what is generally called Media Industry Studies or Production Studies. It undertakes a critical survey of the literature and explains how the volume is posi... Read More about Introduction to SiFTI collection.

Conclusion to SiFTI collection (2017)
Book Chapter

The conclusion, whilst recognising the specificity of the range of different film and television companies analysed in the collection and the varied criteria behind what 'success' might mean, tries to draw together the common elements that have emerg... Read More about Conclusion to SiFTI collection.

Producers and Moguls, 1930-1980 (2017)
Book Chapter

This chapter provides an overview of production practices in the British film industry over a fifty year period. It does this through an analysis of the role of the producer, dividing producers into three broad types: moguls (who owned a studio); A f... Read More about Producers and Moguls, 1930-1980.

Producing Noir: Wald, Scott, Hellinger (2014)
Book Chapter

This chapter is the first to be written about the role the producer played in creating 'classic' film noir (1940-1959). It explores the work of three contrasting producers, Jerry Wald (studio-based); Adrian Scott (studio, then blacklisted; and Mark H... Read More about Producing Noir: Wald, Scott, Hellinger.

The independent producer and the state: Simon Relph, government policy and the British film industry, 1980-2005 (2014)
Book Chapter

This chapter is the first comprehensive assessment of the career and importance of Simon Relph, who was an independent film producer, the Managing Director of British Screen (1985-90) which was one of the two main funders and commissioners (alongside... Read More about The independent producer and the state: Simon Relph, government policy and the British film industry, 1980-2005.

Film and visual culture (2012)
Book Chapter

Film noir and Los Angeles (2011)
Book Chapter

An overview of the different ways in which Los Angeles has been represented in film noir and neo-noir, so films from the 1940s to the present, from Double Indemnity (1944) to Collateral (2004). The essay explores the particular relationship between L... Read More about Film noir and Los Angeles.

The angel of death: Targetting the hitman (2011)
Book Chapter

Although there are hundreds of films that feature hitmen, this is the first critical account of the origins, development and possible cultural and historical significance of this figure and thus an original contribution to scholarship. It charts the... Read More about The angel of death: Targetting the hitman.

An impossible task? Scripting 'The Chilian Club' (2010)
Book Chapter

On the margins: Anthony Simmons, 'The Optimists of Nine Elms' and 'Black Joy' (2010)
Book Chapter

This co-authored chapter in an edited collection on British Cinema in the 1970s recuperates from critical oblivion the BAFTA award winning film and TV director, Anthony Simmons. The article locates Simmons in the decline of the British industry that... Read More about On the margins: Anthony Simmons, 'The Optimists of Nine Elms' and 'Black Joy'.

The Mark of Cain: Eric Portman and British stardom (2009)
Book Chapter

Studies of film stardom have concentrated almost entirely on Hollywood stars. This collection breaks new ground by focusing on stardom in various European cinemas. My contribution explores an important post-war British male star, his persona, acting... Read More about The Mark of Cain: Eric Portman and British stardom.

Missing boxes: The unmade films of Sydney Box, 1940-1967 (2008)
Book Chapter

The essay is a continuation of my AHRC-funded work on Sydney Box that was published by Manchester UP in 2006. Here the focus is on the reasons why films do not get produced (lack of funds, censorship, changes in personnel, clash of personalities etc)... Read More about Missing boxes: The unmade films of Sydney Box, 1940-1967.

The "Other War": Images of the second world war in service comedies (2004)
Book Chapter

This chapter argues, following Angus Calder, that there was an official line of commemoration of the Second World War: a mythic construction that celebrated heroism, courage, resourcefulness, loyalty and patriotism. It valorised the virtues of the re... Read More about The "Other War": Images of the second world war in service comedies.