Film support and the challenge of ‘sustainability’: on wing design, wax and feathers, and bolts from the blue

In recognition of the importance of film in generating both economic and cultural value, the UK Labour government set up a new agency – the United Kingdom Film Council (UKFC) – in 2000 with a remit to build a sustainable film industry. But, reflecting a plethora of differing expectations in relation to the purposes behind public support for film, the UKFC's agenda shifted and broadened over the organisation's lifetime (2000–11). Apparently unconvinced by the UKFC's achievements, the Coalition government which came to power in May 2010 announced the Council's abolition and reassigned its responsibilities as part of a general cost-cutting strategy. Based on original empirical research, this article examines how the UKFC's sense of strategic direction was determined, how and why the balance of objectives it pursued changed over time and what these shifts tell us about the nature of film policy and the challenges facing bodies that are charged with enacting it in the twenty-first century

Teaching Queer Cinema With Independent Media

In lieu of an abstract, this is the article\u27s introductory paragraph: One of the most exciting dimensions of teaching film (and popular culture) is learning what students already know and then generating an informed and critical epistemology from the familiar. Teaching LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) representation in film and media presents rich opportunities to build on student familiarity — with such mainstream breakthroughs as Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2006) and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-07) — and to formalize the knowledge and challenge the assumptions that students have about LGBT history, lives, and struggles for representation. With the commercial success of gay-themed work and the acceptance of such out celebrities as Ellen Degeneres, the recent past is a teachable moment of both social transformation and market logic, and students of diverse backgrounds have illuminating perspectives on and important stakes in making sense of it. By focusing on film and media by and about LGBT producers, teachers can connect questions of political and aesthetic representation and expose students to independent media sources

The Migration Of Forms: Bullet Time As Microgenre

Rehak considers the ways in which the film The Matrix branded bullet time both as technical process and stylistic convention, and discusses bullet time\u27s ancestry in image experimentation of the 1980s and 1990s. In his analysis, Rehak uses the conceptual framework of the microgenre to explore the cultural lifespan of bullet time, treating it less as a singular special effect than a package of photographic and digital techniques whose fortunes were shaped by a complex interplay of technology, narrative and style. Rehak\u27s goal is to shed light not just on bullet time, but on the changing behavior of visual texts in contemporary media. He examines an overview of special effects scholarship to date, most notably the indication that the repetition of special effects dulls their effectiveness, in part due to the changing competencies of audiences. Rehak also looks at the struggle of the filmmakers of The Matrix to craft sequels that simultaneously preserved bullet time\u27s appeal while varying it enough to ensure another breakthrough