The place of the audience : cultural geographies of film consumption / Mark Jancovich and Lucy Faire with Sarah Stubbings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jancovich, Mark.

Contributor:

Faire, Lucy.

Stubbings, Sarah.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture audiences.

Motion picture audiences--Great Britain.

Motion picture theaters--Location.

Motion picture theaters.

Motion picture theaters--Location--Great Britain.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

vi, 281 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : British Film Institute, 2003.

Summary:

It has been a recurring complaint both within, and against, Film Studies that it has largely ignored the activities of audiences. This book aims to address this absence (as compared to Television Studies) and to explain its cause. The authors argue that there is a social context in which the consumption of film can be understood or studied historically and aims to demonstrate that a concentration on the place of film consumption within the changing cultural politics of the city can offer a compelling and productive focus of analysis. As a result, the book examines not only the different meanings of different sites of film exhibition and distribution (city centre cinemas, local cinemas, art house cinemas, multiplexes, terrestrial television transmission, video rental and retail, and satellite/cable), but also the meanings of the activities of film consumption associated with these sites. Through unique use of archival materials and ethnographic studies of the audience, the book therefore examines the meanings of film consumption from the earliest film showings up to the present day.

Contents:

1 From Spectatorship to Film Consumption 3

2 Contexts of Film Consumption 16

Part 2 The Construction of the Cinema: Fairgrounds, Theatres and Spatial Regulation

Introduction: Class, Gender and Public Space in Early Film Consumption 37

3 Novelties, Fairgrounds and the Exoticisation of Place 52

4 Constructing the Cinematographic Theatre: Purpose-Built Cinemas, Community Relations and the Politics of Place 67

Part 3 A Progressive City and Its Cinemas: Technology, Modernity and the Spectacle of Abundance

Introduction: Slum Clearance, Cinema Building and Differentiated Experiences 83

5 Translating the Talkies: Diffusion, Reception and Live Performance 92

6 The City Centre, the Suburbs and the Cinema-Building Boom 100

7 Consuming Cinemas: Technology, Modernity and the Spectacle of Abundance 114

Part 4 Cinema Closures, Post-War Affluence and the Changing Meanings of Cinema and Television

8 Contemporary Understandings of Cinema Closure 134

9 Locality, Affluence and Urban Decay 143

10 From Cinemagoing to Television Viewing: The Developing Meanings of a New Medium 154

11 Negotiating Nostalgia: Modernity, Memory and the Meanings of Place 167

Part 5 Beyond Cinema: Film Consumption in the Information Age

12 Regulating Reception: Legislation, Time-Shifting and the Sociality of Video 185

13 'The Splendid American Venture on the Ring Road': Multiplexes, Americanisation and Mass Consumption 197

14 Cultural Capitals: Culture, Diversity and Legitimacy 212

15 Media Revolutions: Futurology, Film Content and the New Media 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [254]-274) and index.

ISBN:

0851709435

0851709427

OCLC:

51068850