Essays exploring the methodologies used by film scholars to develop a spatial history of the moving image. Leading scholars in the interdisciplinary field of geo-spatial visual studies examine the social experience of cinema and the different ways in which film production developed as a commercial enterprise, as a leisure activity, and as modes of expression and communication. Their research charts new pathways in mapping the relationship between film production and local film practices, theatrical exhibition circuits and cinema going, creating new forms of spatial anthropology. Topics include cinematic practices in rural and urban communities, development of cinema by amateur filmmakers, and use of GIS in mapping the spatial development of film production and cinema going as social practices. “Introduces some of the concrete ways practical mapping and GIS technologies help elaborate historical film projects. . . . The scope of many of these projects is breathtaking in scale. . . . Others embrace ethnographic methods that tell poignant individual stories. Still others deftly merge qualitative and quantitative approaches. . . . As a whole, the volume brings together disparate fields of study in interesting ways.” —James Craine, California State University, Northridge “This collection breaks new ground for cinema history. Hallam and Roberts have gathered some of the foremost scholars who are mapping spatial histories of the moving image and the geographies of film production, distribution and consumption. Introducing new interdisciplinary methods and asking new questions, Locating the Moving Image takes film studies into new territory, beyond the boundaries of the text and its interpretation, towards an understanding of the relationship between culture, spatiality and place.” —Richard Maltby, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Screen Studies, Flinders University

Explores how moving images both produce and are predicated on place

This edited collection explores the relationship between urban space, architecture and the moving image. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches to film and moving image practices, the book explores the recent developments in research on film and urban landscapes, pointing towards new theoretical and methodological frameworks for discussion.

The Moving Image: A Complete Introduction to Film provides students with an accessible and complete introduction to the world of motion pictures. The text covers the basics of how films are constructed, why they matter, and how to analyze them. It highlights diverse filmmakers and approaches, through the study of feature films, music videos, short films, and new media. The text begins by defining cinema, discussing its origins, and introducing students to pioneers of film, including Eadweard Muybridge, Alice Guy-Blaché, and Thomas Edison. Later chapters discuss the fundamentals of film analysis and the concepts of ideology, representation, and identity in film. Students learn about cinematography, narrative structure, sound, editing, acting styles and methodologies, and the various aspects that go into creating a scene. The book features chapters devoted to experimental and cult cinema, documentaries, and animation and CGI technology. It closes with chapters that address authorship and provide an overview of key genres in filmmaking. Designed to provide students with a comprehensive primer on film and cinema, The Moving Image is well suited for film appreciation or introductory film courses.

"This book traces the story from early spatial experiments with film and video technologies to the current widespread use of projected images in museums and galleries."--BOOK JACKET.

Looking at film through its communication properties rather than its social or political implications, this work draws on the tenets of James J. Gibson's ecological theory of visual perception and offers a new understanding of how moving images are seen and understood.

Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image examines the choreographic in cinema - the way choreographic elements inform cinematic operations in dancefilm. It traces the history of the form from some of its earliest manifestations in the silent film era, through the historic avant-garde, musicals and music videos to contemporary experimental short dancefilms. In so doing it also examines some of the most significant collaborations between dancers, choreographers, and filmmakers. The book also sets out to examine and rethink the parameters of dancefilm and thereby re-conceive the relations between dance and cinema. Dancefilm is understood as a modality that challenges familiar models of cinematic motion through its relation to the body, movement and time, instigating new categories of filmic performance and creating spectatorial experiences that are grounded in the somatic. Drawing on debates in both film theory (in particular ideas of gesture, the close up, and affect) and dance theory (concepts such as radical phrasing, the gestural anacrusis and somatic intelligence) and bringing these two fields into dialogue, the book argues that the combination of dance and film produces cine-choreographic practices that are specific to the dancefilm form. The book thus presents new models of cinematic movement that are both historically informed and thoroughly interdisciplinary.