Creative Accounting: British Producers, British Screens
Two day conference, University of the West of England (Bristol), UK
19-20 April 2011 (Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol)
Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2010
?Even the title of ?producer? has become
diluted, where not denigrated. And the
producer?s ?personal touch? is largely missing
in films of late?. (Michael Klinger, 1972)
The role of the producer has historically been
sidelined, or even ignored, by Film Studies.
When not ignored, the producer is often
unfairly characterised as a brutish philistine
interfering in the creative process, concerned
only with the bottom line. Indeed, one could
argue that even such an unflattering stereotype
finds its source in American popular culture,
demonstrating how ill-defined the British producer is.
This proposed two day conference will seek to
investigate the role of the British screen
producer. It is organised by Andrew Spicer and
Anthony McKenna as part of an AHRC-funded
Research Project investigating the career of
Michael Klinger (1960-1985). The two-year
project sits within the Faculty of Creative
Arts, University of the West of England, and is
supported by the project partners: School of
Creative Arts, Film and Media, University of
Portsmouth. The conference will work with a
broad definition of ?British? in order to
encompass British producers working outside the
British industry, and overseas producers working
in the British industry. Similarly, contributors
will not be restricted to cinema, but encouraged
to discuss the producer?s role in television and
new media. The overarching aim will be to
re-examine concepts of agency within Screen
Studies that have hitherto over-privileged the role of the director.
Papers addressing, but not restricted to, the following topics are welcome:
· The British producer and national cinema
· The creative role of the producer
· The auteur producer
· The studio (contract) producer
· The executive producer
· The independent/entrepreneurial producer
· The international British producer
· The genre producer
· The television series producer
· The documentary producer
· The producer?s role in New Media/digital cinema
· The micro budget producer
· Theorising the producer
· Research methodologies (including the
role of archives and archival research)
The intention is to publish a selection of the
papers in an edited collection.
Abstracts ? no more than 250 words ? along
with contact details and institutional
affiliation, should be sent to
<mailto:(britishproducers /at/ gmail.com)>(britishproducers /at/ gmail.com).
Andrew Spicer
Reader in Cultural History, UWE
(Andrew2.Spicer /at/ uwe.ac.uk)
