Nicolas Winding Refn on Night Tide and the importance of extreme cinema

Interview about the cult online film museum and archive streaming project, byNWR, with filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn

You Are Bognor Regis RAR: White Riot And The Anti-Fascist Labour Of Rock Against Racism

As part of my ongoing interest in music documentaries and concert films, which is part of my film criticism output and also long-term research for a proposed book on the subject, I wrote about a film release for the website the Quietus, this time focusing on Rubika Shah's White Riot, at it's Premiere at the 2020 Berlinale

“You Talkin’ To Me?” - Returning to Conversation,

Contribution to the crowd-sourced reflection titled 'Doing Arts Research in a Pandemic, published by the Culture Capital Exchange

Reel Sounds - Vol.2: Crosby, Cuba and More in Focus at Doc'n Roll 2019

As part of my ongoing interest in music documentaries and concert films, which is part of my film criticism output and also long-term research for a proposed book on the subject, I wrote about a film release for the website the Quietus, this time focusing on a preview of the 2019 Doc'n Roll festival

In The Driver's Seat: The Demented Fun of ByNWR

Feature and interview with the team cult online film museum and archive streaming project, byNWR, including filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn

How film education might best address the needs of UK film industry and film culture

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Professional Doctorate.This thesis reveals and explores contemporary relationships between film education, film industry and film culture within a UK context through a series of interviews, data analysis, historical research and international case studies. It highlights what appear to be binary oppositions within film such as divisions between theory and practice, industry and academia or art and entertainment and interrogates how they have permeated film education to the point where the relationship between film studies and film practice is polemical. Also, the thesis investigates how a relationship between two binary areas might be re-­engaged and it is within this context that this thesis addresses contemporary issues within UK higher education and national provision of film education. There is detailed analysis of UK film policy alongside the philosophies and practicalities of filmmaking to establish how connected the practice of filmmaking is to the film industry and national strategy. An international perspective is provided through the analysis of the film school systems in Denmark and the U.S. and this postulates potential future directions for UK film education, particularly within the university sector. A main focus of the thesis is to question film education by engaging with the voices of actual filmmakers and also via data analysis of the educational background of filmmakers as a way of developing film education. The thesis is undertaken at a time of major changes across film and higher education. Film production, distribution and consumption have undergone major technological evolution and the structures that were once in place to facilitate graduate movement into the workplace are changing and shifting. Simultaneously the identity of the university as a place of skills training or critical development is under consistent scrutiny. With this in mind this thesis seeks to engage with the potential future for film education

Are probabilities overweighted or underweighted when rare outcomes are experienced (rarely)?

When making decisions involving risky outcomes on the basis of verbal descriptions of the outcomes and their associated probabilities, people behave as if they overweight small probabilities. In contrast, when the same outcomes are instead experienced in a series of samples, people behave as if they underweight small probabilities. We present two experiments showing that the existing explanations of the underweighting observed in decisions from experience are not sufficient to account for the effect. Underweighting was observed when participants experienced representative samples of events, so it cannot be attributed to undersampling of the small probabilities. In addition, earlier samples predicted decisions just as well as later samples did, so underweighting cannot be attributed to recency weighting. Finally, frequency judgments were accurate, so underweighting cannot be attributed to judgment error. Furthermore, we show that the underweighting of small probabilities is also reflected in the best-fitting parameter values obtained when prospect theory, the dominant model of risky choice, is applied to the data

A synaptic nidogen: developmental regulation and role of nidogen-2 at the neuromuscular junction

Background: The skeletal neuromuscular junction is a useful model for elucidating mechanisms that regulate synaptogenesis. Developmentally important intercellular interactions at the neuromuscular junction are mediated by the synaptic portion of a basal lamina that completely ensheaths each muscle fiber. Basal laminas in general are composed of four main types of glycosylated proteins: laminins, collagens IV, heparan sulfate proteoglycans and nidogens (entactins). The portion of the muscle fiber basal lamina that passes between the motor nerve terminal and postsynaptic membrane has been shown to bear distinct isoforms of the first three of these. For laminins and collagens IV, the proteins are deposited by the muscle; a synaptic proteoglycan, z-agrin, is deposited by the nerve. In each case, the synaptic isoform plays key roles in organizing the neuromuscular junction. Here, we analyze the fourth family, composed of nidogen-1 and -2.Results: In adult muscle, nidogen-1 is present throughout muscle fiber basal lamina, while nidogen- 2 is concentrated at synapses. Nidogen-2 is initially present throughout muscle basal lamina, but is lost from extrasynaptic regions during the first three postnatal weeks. Neuromuscular junctions in mutant mice lacking nidogen-2 appear normal at birth, but become topologically abnormal as they mature. Synaptic laminins, collagens IV and heparan sulfate proteoglycans persist in the absence of nidogen-2, suggesting the phenotype is not secondary to a general defect in the integrity of synaptic basal lamina. Further genetic studies suggest that synaptic localization of each of the four families of synaptic basal lamina components is independent of the other three.Conclusion: All four core components of the basal lamina have synaptically enriched isoforms. Together, they form a highly specialized synaptic cleft material. Individually, they play distinct roles in the formation, maturation and maintenance of the neuromuscular junction