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Research background & context: City in Film Locating material Constructing the on-line database Research questions

Film and Place Exploring Liverpool’s urban landscape and the moving image Dr Julia Hallam, Communication and Media University of Liverpool. Research background & context: City in Film Locating material Constructing the on-line database

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Research background & context: City in Film Locating material Constructing the on-line database Research questions

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  1. Film and Place Exploring Liverpool’s urban landscape and the moving image Dr Julia Hallam, Communication and Media University of Liverpool • Research background & context: City in Film • Locating material • Constructing the on-line database • Research questions – methodological / theoretical framings • Research problems • Conclusions

  2. 1. Research background & context: City in Film • Liverpool: European Capital of Culture 2008 • City in Film: Liverpool’s Urban Landscape and the Moving Image, University of Liverpool (2006-2008) www.liv.ac.uk/lsa/cityinfilm • First comprehensive survey of a city on film from 1897 to 1980s (across genres: actualities, newsreels, travelogues, amateur film…) • Local, regional and national film archives, institutions and private collections • Partnerships, screenings and events (North West Film Archive, Tate Liverpool, National Museums of Liverpool, British Film Institute) • BFI Screenonline: first UK city page www.screenonline.org.uk/liverpool • Database catalogue – 1700 filmic items searchable by location, film genre, date, producer/director, spatial representation and usage, etc.

  3. 2. Film, space and mapping – recent developments in the field • ‘Spatial turn’ in cultural studies / ‘cultural turn’ in human geography • ‘Cinematic geographies’ (Aitken and Zonn1994; Cresswell and Dixon 2002; Rohdie 2001; Lukinbeal and Zonn 2004; Roberts 2005; Roberts and Koeck 2007) • ‘Cinematic cartography’ (Bruno 2002; Conley 2007; Hallam 2007; Castro 2008; Roberts 2008; Special issue of The Cartographic Journal on ‘Cinematic Cartography, forthcoming 2009) • Film and GIS: ‘GIS for Cultural Research Workshop’, University of Wollongong, March 2008. • Jeffrey Klenotic (History of cinema-going in New Hampshire, US, 1896-1920) • Robert C. Allen (Mapping early film culture in the American South) • Kate Bowles (Mapping Australia’s cinema circuits and audiences, 1956-1984) • Keynote by Sarah Elwood – use of GIS in critical urban geographies • HoMER network - The History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception (www.homerproject.org) • A Cybercartographic Atlas of Canadian Cinema (www.atlascine.org) • Patrick Keiller – City of the Future exhibition (BFI Southbank 2007-8)

  4. 3. Research questions – methodological and theoretical framings Maps function 'as analytical tools...bringing to light relations that would otherwise remain hidden‘ (Franco Moretti, 1998: 3) • City in film – methodology and practice; the role of maps • Spatial / geographic data – geo-referencing of database records; mapping cinematic geographies and cine-spatial features (point, line and polygon) • Historically/geographically contextualise archive film – layering of cine-spatial data; quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis • Mapping relationship between filmic space and urban geographic space – bringing different urban spatial formations (filmic, geographical, architectural, ethnographic) into critical dialogue

  5. Old St John’s Market and Town Scenes (Jim Gonzales/Liver Cine Group, c.1960)

  6. Locations in Old St John’s Market and Town Scenes (c. 1960) filmed in July 2008

  7. 4. Research problems • Accessibility to historical maps of Liverpool • Accurate geo-referencing of City in Film data; amount of data processing required • Adaptation/tailoring of GIS software for historical film analysis • Compatibility of resource with partner/related projects (e.g. Popular Musicscapes and the Characterisation of the Urban Environment, AHRC-funded project, Dr Sara Cohen, Dr Brett Lashua, Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool) • Management of dual project remit – academic analysis and museum exhibit • i) construction of GIS-based film map as an academic tool for historical/spatial analysis • ii) partnership with Museum of Liverpool for development of permanent interactive digital map of Liverpool on Film

  8. 5. Conclusions • Case study – development of a GIS-based resource for archival research, critical spatial analysis and interactive public engagement (Museum of Liverpool, permanent exhibition) • Developing existing resource – spatialisingCity in Film data. • Layering of cine-spatial data – opens up of areas of analytical engagement otherwise overlooked (see, eg, Hallam J. 2010. ‘City of Change and Challenge: the cine societies’ response to re-development in Liverpool in the 1960s. In ed. Richard Koeck and Les Roberts The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan pp 69-87). • ‘Mapping’ exploratory pathways towards a new historiography of film and urban space….. • Empirical research on film, representation and space; role of database in geo-historical study of a city in film: see, for example, Hallam J. and L. Roberts (2011) ‘Mapping, memory and the city: archives, databases and film historiography’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Sage, Vol 14 : 3, 355-372 • Contextualising historical geographies of film; mapping a multi-layered ‘space of representation’ (Lefebvre 1991): filmic, architectural, geographic, ethnographic : see, for example Hallam J.(2012) ‘Civic visions: mapping the ‘city’ film 1900-1960’, Culture,Theory and Society, forthcoming, Routledge

  9. Selected references • Caquard, S and DRF Taylor (eds) (2009) Cinematic Cartography Special Issue of The Cartographic Journal. • Castro, T (2008) Mapping the City through Film in J Hallam, R Koeck, R Kronenburg, L Roberts (Eds) Cities in Film: Architecture Urban Space and the Moving Image, Conference Proceedings, University of Liverpool. • Hallam, J (2007) Mapping City Space: Independent Filmmakers as Urban Gazetteers in Journal of British Cinema and Television 4 (2): 272-284. • Roberts, L and R Koeck (2007) The Archive City: Reading Liverpool's Urban Landscape Through Film in C Grunenberg and R Knifton (eds), Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde. • Roberts, L (2008) Cinematic Cartography: Movies, Maps and the Consumption of Place in J Hallam, R Koeck, R Kronenburg, L Roberts (Eds) Cities in Film: Architecture Urban Space and the Moving Image, Conference Proceedings, University of Liverpool. • Hallam J. and L. Roberts (2008) Reconstructing the Archive City: the Role of the On-line Catalogue in Local and National Film Historiography, paper presented at European Network for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Budapest, 19-22nd June 2008. • Roberts, L (2009) Dis/embedded Geographies of Film: Virtual Panoramas and the Touristic Consumption of Liverpool Waterfront in Space and Culture

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