| Research Publications |
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The files available for download from this page are in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to open them, you must have Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader version 7.0.5 or later installed on your computer. If you have an older version of this software (which will probably be the case if your computer was purchased or last upgraded before the summer of 2005) or you don't have it at all, Adobe Reader can be downloaded free from Adobe's website.  This page lists all of my academic research and professional publications. In cases where copyright and contractual arrangements allow, the chapters and articles are available to download. For copyright reasons I've had to disable the ability to print some files and restrict others to low resolution printing only. Please note that some of the files are quite large and will take a long time to download if you are connected to the Internet through a dial-up 56k modem. |
| Date of Publication: | 2000 |
| Title: | 'This Modern Age and the British Non-Fiction Film' |
| Reference: | Justine Ashby and Andrew Higson (eds.), British Cinema, Past and Present, London and New York, Routledge (2000), pp. 207-220. |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's Website Order from Amazon UK site Order from Amazon US site |
| Abstract: | This article considers the origins and outputs of This Modern Age, a British cinemagazine produced by the Rank Organisation which operated between 1946 and 1951. It argues that despite the series' commercial provenance and the fact that it is frequently written off as a pale imitation of its better-known American counterpart The March of Time, This Modern Age was heavily influenced by the Documentary Movement and represented an attempt by Rank to establish a public service agenda. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2001 |
| Title: | 'Post-War Urban Redevelopment, the British Film Industry and The Way We Live' |
| Reference: | Mark Shiel and Tony Fitzmaurice (eds.), Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context, Oxford, Blackwell (2001), pp. 233-243. |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's Website Order from Amazon UK site Order from Amazon US site |
| Abstract: | This chapter discusses the production and release of The Way We Live (UK, 1946, dir. Jill Craigie) in the context of broader issues to do with the way British cinema portrayed the post-war reconstruction process and in the context of the Rank Organisation's economic dominance of the British film industry in the 1940s. I argue that by sponsoring a major, feature length documentary dealing with a key policy area of the post-war Labour government, Rank was attempting to deflect attempts to increase the regulation of his business activities. |
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Not available for download, due to copyright restrictions. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2002 |
| Title: | 'The Film Industry's Conversion from Nitrate to Acetate Stocks in the Late 1940s: A Discusion of the Reasons and Consequences' |
| Reference: | Roger Smither and Catherine Surowiec (eds.), This Film is Dangerous: A Celebration of Nitrate Film, Brussels, FIAF (2002), pp. 202-212. |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's website This book is only available for sale direct from FIAF |
| Abstract: | This chapter investigates the circumstances of the technical research and development which led to cellulose triacetate film base superseding nitrate in the professional film industry. Citing evidence in hitherto overlooked files in the British Government's archives, I argue that the seizure of equipment and materials in Allied-occupied Germany may have been the catalyst. If so, this suggests that the Nazis may have made more progress in the development of safety film technology than had previously been thought. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2004 |
| Title: | 'Some Bald Assertion by an Ignorant and Uneducated Frenchman: Technology, Criticism and the 'Restoration' of Vertigo' |
| Reference: | The Moving Image, vol. 4, no. 1 (Spring 2004), pp. 130-141. |
| Publication Links: | Journal's Website |
| Abstract: | This article examines the response by critics and academics to the 1997 restoration and rerelease of Vertigo (US, 1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock). I argue that this response illustrates how many humanitites scholars display a lack of understanding of the nature and extent to which technical intervention by archivists affects the aesthetic qualities of a film, and that this lack of understanding undermines many of the resulting critical judgements. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2004 |
| Title: | 'A Real Brake on Progress? Moving Image Technology in the Time of Mitchell and Kenyon' |
| Reference: | Vanessa Toulmin, Simon Popple & Patrick Russell (eds.), The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon: Edwardian Britain on Film, London, British Film Institute (2004), pp. 21-30. |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's website Order from Amazon UK site Order from Amazon US site |
| Abstract: | This book was produced to mark the rediscovery and restoration of a collection of 800 early films from the basement of a shop in north-west England. The short actuality films were made between 1898 and 1911. The book is an edited collection of introductory essays, each intended to explore the significance of the collection to the history of film and as primary source material in the wider study of social and cultural history. My essay discusses the camera, lab and projection technology used in their production, and explains how its strengths and limitations influenced the form and content of the finished films. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2005 |
| Title: | Moving Image Technology: From Zoetrope to Digital (single authored monograph) |
| Book Details: | 307 pages; ISBN 1 904764 06 1 (paperback); 1 904764 07 X (hardback). |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's website Order from Amazon UK site - Hardback Paperback Order from Amazon US site - Hardback Paperback |
| Abstract: | This book is an overview of the history and development of film, video and digital moving imaging technologies. It is intended for students and academics in the humanities who have little if any technical knowledge, and seeks to explain the significance of technology in shaping the form and content of films and television programmes. |
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Sample chapter (introduction) - links to PDF file on publisher's website |
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| Date of Publication: | 2006 |
| Title: | Six encyclopedia entries |
| Reference: | Ian Aitken (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, New York, Routledge (2006). |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's website Order from Amazon UK site Order from Amazon US site |
| Abstract: | I contributed six entries to this book: Film Stock (vol. 1, pp. 414-415), The Great White Silence (UK, 1924, dir. Herbert Ponting - vol. 1, pp. 508-510), Ministry of Information - World War I (vol. 2, pp. 898-899), Pathe - UK (vol. 3, pp. 1031-1033), South (UK, 1919, dir. Frank Hurley - vol. 3, 1243-1245) and Video (vol. 3, pp. 1395-1396). |
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| Date of Publication: | 2006 |
| Title: | 'De Forest Phonofilms: A Reappraisal' |
| Reference: | Early Popular Visual Culture, vol. 4, no. 3 (November 2006), pp. 273-284. |
| Publication Links: | Journal's Website |
| Abstract: | This article argues that existing research on the film industry's conversion to sound largely overlooks the contribution of Lee de Forest and the 'Phonofilm' system. Informed by research in De Forest's personal archive, it suggests that to a certain extent, the development and commercial exploitation of De Forest's technology contradicts one of the principal implicit assumptions made by historians of this period, that when technology became available which fulfilled certain economic and cultural criteria, its widespread adoption quickly and inevitably followed. Rather, it was De Forest's refusal to conform to established and increasingly dominant business models that ensured Phonofilm's failure, even if the technology itself was very similar to that used by the major Hollywood studios in the eventual wholesale conversion. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2006 |
| Title: | Ten encyclopedia entries |
| Reference: | Robert Murphy (ed.), Directors in British and Irish Cinema: A Reference Guide, London, British Film Institute (2006). |
| Publication Links: | Publisher's website Order from Amazon UK site Order from Amazon US site |
| Abstract: | I contributed 10 entries to this book: on John Eldridge (pp. 174-175)*, Arthur Elton (pp. 176-177)*, Aveling Ginever (pp. 231-232), John Grierson (pp. 253-254), J.B. Holmes (pp. 299-300), Pat Jackson (pp. 320-321)*, Sergei Nolbandov (pp. 459-460), Marcel Varnel (pp. 598-599)*, Harry Watt (pp. 611-612) and Arthur Woods (pp. 631-632)*. * = co-written with Geoff Browne. Linked entries are also publlished on the British Film Institute's Screen Online website. |
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| Date of Publication: | 2007 |
| Title: | 'Have Digital Technologies Reopened the Lindgren/Langlois Debate?' |
| Reference: | Spectator (ISSN 1051-0230), vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2007), pp. 10-20. |
| Publication Links: | Journal's Website |
| Abstract: | This article examines the increasing use of digital imaging technologies by film archives to provide access to their holdings. It argues that two distinct forms of this technology are emerging: low quality, online access (as epitomised, for example, by video sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video) and high quality offline media, principally the DVD and its higher resolution successors. In conclusion, I suggest that archivists are increasingly having to battle the myth that vast quantities of footage can be made available at little or no cost using digital media, and that they remove the need for long-term preservation. By comparing the current debates over the use of digital technologies by archives with the Lindgren/Langlois debate of the 1950s and '60s, I hope to show that the issue of whether preservation or access should take priority when their needs conflict is as relevant now as it was then. |
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This page was last updated on 24 August 2007. The design and content of this website is copyright of Leo Enticknap. It must not be copied, reproduced or adapted without his permission. |