Melanie Selfe
I am a Lecturer in Cultural Policy at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow, which I joined as an RCUK fellow in 2007.
My background is in film studies, with an emphasis on various aspects of film culture, including audiences, film criticism and film exhibition and education policy. More recently, my research interests have expanded to cover a wider range of cultural audiences and contemporary and historical creative industries practices and policies. In 2013-14 I was Co-investigator on the AHRC funded project: ‘Supporting Creative Business: Cultural Enterprise Office and its Clients’ which explored the role of an intermediary agency in delivering support for creative micro-businesses, and have completed a book on this topic with colleagues Prof. Philip Schlesinger and Dr Ealasaid Munro. I am currently working on a study of the history of product placement and its integration with Hollywood marketing developments in the 1930s.
Phone: 0141 330 2288
Address: Centre for Cultural Policy Research
University of Glasgow
13 Professor Square
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
My background is in film studies, with an emphasis on various aspects of film culture, including audiences, film criticism and film exhibition and education policy. More recently, my research interests have expanded to cover a wider range of cultural audiences and contemporary and historical creative industries practices and policies. In 2013-14 I was Co-investigator on the AHRC funded project: ‘Supporting Creative Business: Cultural Enterprise Office and its Clients’ which explored the role of an intermediary agency in delivering support for creative micro-businesses, and have completed a book on this topic with colleagues Prof. Philip Schlesinger and Dr Ealasaid Munro. I am currently working on a study of the history of product placement and its integration with Hollywood marketing developments in the 1930s.
Phone: 0141 330 2288
Address: Centre for Cultural Policy Research
University of Glasgow
13 Professor Square
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
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Papers by Melanie Selfe
https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2020.1730551
This chapter draws on a range of archival sources to explores some of the issues and motivations involved when amateur films are produced under the umbrella of an exhibition-centred organisation. Its main focus is on the production section of the Nottingham and District Film Society (NDFS), a provincial group founded in 1945 at the start of the British film society movement’s post-war boom. In particular, it explores the ways in which a film produced for the local Festival of Britain (FOB) celebrations was used to try to secure a position for the NDFS—and for the medium of cinema—within the officially sanctioned cultural life of the city. To this end, both consideration of the production and exhibition processes and the analysis of the film, Old Market Square (1951), are framed within a number of layered contexts: the aims of the film society movement, the multiple meanings of the FOB, the spectrum of film and non-film related activities planned as local festival events, and the political tensions surrounding the changing uses of Nottingham's central public space. Following the concepts of “relational geography” proposed by Doreen Massey, this amateur production is understood as located within a complex network of perceptions of place and power — from the national to the most local – dynamics which affect both the choice of subject for the Nottingham film, and the way in which it was portrayed and presented for the local audience.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2020.1730551
This chapter draws on a range of archival sources to explores some of the issues and motivations involved when amateur films are produced under the umbrella of an exhibition-centred organisation. Its main focus is on the production section of the Nottingham and District Film Society (NDFS), a provincial group founded in 1945 at the start of the British film society movement’s post-war boom. In particular, it explores the ways in which a film produced for the local Festival of Britain (FOB) celebrations was used to try to secure a position for the NDFS—and for the medium of cinema—within the officially sanctioned cultural life of the city. To this end, both consideration of the production and exhibition processes and the analysis of the film, Old Market Square (1951), are framed within a number of layered contexts: the aims of the film society movement, the multiple meanings of the FOB, the spectrum of film and non-film related activities planned as local festival events, and the political tensions surrounding the changing uses of Nottingham's central public space. Following the concepts of “relational geography” proposed by Doreen Massey, this amateur production is understood as located within a complex network of perceptions of place and power — from the national to the most local – dynamics which affect both the choice of subject for the Nottingham film, and the way in which it was portrayed and presented for the local audience.
This talk will explore the impact of an earlier technology, radio, on the culture of British criticism. It will trace the different forces – pedagogy, populism, broadcast professionalism, industry pressure and legal disputes – that shaped the development of the BBC’s policy on cultural criticism and consider the ways in which the national broadcaster’s production practices helped to reshape the wider debate. In particular, by tracing the evolution of the BBC’s approach, from the didactic talks style of the early 1930s to the panel discussions and magazine formats of the 1950s, this paper seeks to explore the relationship between medium specificity and critical practice.
At present the Robertson vs. MGM incident appears within British film writing only cursorily, invoked as indicative of British critical attitudes to mainstream American cinema and of Hollywood’s ruthless attempts to dominate the UK market. However, as a lens through which to explore the contested purpose of film criticism at a key moment in British film culture, it has far more to offer. The post-war period saw a rapid growth in ‘serious’ interest in the cinema – film societies increased tenfold in five years – but as the organizations that aimed to support this new ‘quality’ film culture (including the BFI and the Federation of Film Societies) struggled to find their feet after the war, film critics played a crucial role, providing models for ‘film appreciation’ through their regular columns, new publications and increasing presence on broadcast media. This encouraged self-reflexivity: critical freedoms and responsibilities were debated; professional standards, collective positions and educational roles were being defined. Consequently, although the Critic’s Circle Film Section rallied behind Robertson, I argue that the rules of serious criticism were changing, and would leave little room for Robertson’s style of gendered performance.
This paper draws on the trade press, records of the Circle, and Dilys Powell’s papers to consider the aims of the film section and its evolving relationship with the wider Circle. In particular, it considers the ways in which the film section contributed to debates about the standards and ethics of critical practice, and how this was troubled by the membership of trade press writers. It explores how the section policed its specialist expertise within the Circle against dilettante dabbling from other critics and how it collectively negotiated with the film trade over the working practice of press shows. This provides a crucial context for understanding the notorious MGM press show bans received by Dilys Powell and E. Arnot Robertson in the 1940s.
This paper shifts the focus to the evolution of the films’ marketing across the series, taking account of the way Cantor turned his 1929 bankruptcy into a profitable public narrative. Through an integrated analysis of the films, the press-books and selected trade titles, it argues that UA’s lack of a vertically integrated theatre chain drove an innovative approach to product placement in a field still dominated by ad hoc ballyhoo. This enabled UA to pitch the films to exhibitors as tailored marketing machines, with Cantor – famously pursuing financial recovery – as the hard-working figurehead. As the advertising strategy was refined for a pre blanket release era, production numbers become flexible marketing windows. Moreover, commerce nuanced the nature of Cantor’s star transformation, as elements of his Yiddish vaudeville performance were fragmented, stripped of their subversive qualities, and redeployed to sell goods inside and outside the film text.
At present the subsidised sector faces a challenge. In the past, strong arguments could be made about the scarcity of viewing opportunities for less mainstream cinema and the need to provide access to the tools and skills for creative filmmaking; now the sector must justify its continued relevance in an era of global DVD distribution, home cinemas, the successful development of commercial art-house in certain types of locale, and the increasing ubiquity of the means to make and disseminate media. Unsurprisingly this has seen other elements of the subsidised exhibition offer brought to the fore: education, wider community relevance and accountability, and an emphasis on collective viewing and physical space.
This paper will consider current trends towards digital screens, rural provision, locally sensitive programming and commercial viability within a longer cultural history of subsidised and non-profit screening in the UK. In particular, it will seek to identify the institutional and conceptual roots of contemporary priorities and support mechanisms, and consider the relationship between the current concept of media hubs and earlier attempts to balance devolved control and centralised services.