Finally – some big news!
Please find below details of two edited collections that will be published towards the end of November/beginning of December 2017. Both provide insights into various home media platforms. They are edited by Jonathan Wroot and Andy Willis.
Cult Media: Re-packaged, Re-released and Restored
DVD, Blu-ray and Beyond: Navigating Formats and Platforms within Media Consumption
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319636788
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319627571
Cult Media summary and endorsements:
This volume brings together writing on the topic of home media, and in particular releases described as appealing to ‘cult’ fans and audiences. Despite popular assumptions to the contrary, the distributors of physical media maintain a vivid presence in the digital age. Perhaps more so than any other category of film or media, this is especially the case with titles considered ‘cult’ and its related processes of distribution and exhibition. The chapters in this collection chart such uses and definitions of ‘cult’, ranging from home media re-releases to promotional events, film screenings, file-sharing and the exploitation of established fan communities. This book will be of interest to the ever-growing number of academics and research students that are specializing in studies of cult cinema and fan practices, as well as professionals (filmmakers, journalists, promoters) who are familiar with these types of films.
“Through a range of illuminating case studies, this collection develops our understanding of cult media, an increasingly widespread and prominent term both culturally and commercially. Covering film and television, formal and informal distribution and public and private forms of exhibition, this collection maps the vital role cult plays in contemporary media culture, in categorising forms of media, in articulating audience taste and identity, and in complicating our conceptions of the media text and media ownership.” (Kate Egan, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Aberystwyth University, UK)
“Wroot and Willis have assembled a terrific line up of scholars to interrogate the intricacies of cult media distribution and reception, from the VHS era to the digital age. Covering areas as diverse as Japanese horror, Nordic Noir, Brucesploitation and Bollywood from a range of methodological perspectives, Cult Media: Re-packaged, Re-released and Re-stored provides a lucid and engaging assessment of the afterlives of cult movies beyond the move theatre.” (Johnny Walker, Senior Lecturer in Media, Northumbria University, UK)
“Cult Media: Re-packaged, Re-released and Restored is an illuminating collection of essays on the relations between cult media, new technologies, and the repackaging of older media content. This diverse collection – covering media texts, business operations, piracy, the formation of canons and more – provides a range of perspectives on cult media and is recommended to students and scholars alike.” (Jamie Sexton, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies, Northumbria University, UK)
“Cult scholarship has often focused on the semi-mythologised historical contexts of the grindhouse and the midnight movie. This groundbreaking new collection shifts attention to home media and the ways in which VHS, DVD and Blu-ray releases have transformed cult practices. With chapters on everything from distribution companies like Arrow and Criterion through to filesharing and fan vidding communities, Wroot and Willis’s book is essential reading for everyone interested in the changing nature of cult.” (Iain Robert Smith, Lecturer in Film Studies, King’s College London, UK)
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DVD, Blu-Ray and Beyond summary and endorsements:
This book demonstrates, in contrast to statistics that show declining consumption of physical formats, that there has not been a mass shift towards purely digital media. Physical releases such as special editions, DVD box-sets and Blu-Rays are frequently promoted and sought out by consumers. And that past formats such as VHS, Laserdisc and HD-DVD make for sought-after collectible items. These trends are also found within particular genres and niche categories, such as documentary, education and independent film distribution. Through its case studies, this collection makes a distinctive and significant intervention in highlighting the ways in which the film industry has responded to rapidly changing markets. This volume, global in scope, will prove useful to those studying the distribution and exhibition of films, and the economics of the film industry around the world.
“The volume makes a great addition to the important investigation that reveals how the medium that carries the film to the consumer plays as important a role as the aesthetic features of the film text.” (Dina Iordanova FRSA, Professor of Global Cinema and Creative Cultures, University of St Andrews, Scotland)
“As the digital distribution revolution rolls on, it is easy to overlook the importance of optical disc formats and the role they have played — and continue to play — in media distribution. This thought-provoking collection provides a timely exploration of the cultural and industrial legacies of the DVD, and the ongoing interplay between physical and digital media formats. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of home entertainment.” (Ramon Lobato, RMIT University, author of Shadow Economies of Cinema)
J L Wroot 