I thought the ending could have been tighter but the presentation went well.  Watch at your own peril.

Tim, Paul, Matt, Rob, Sam and I went to the Sights and Sounds Conference which was held at Salford University last Thursday and Friday.  I presented a paper with Sam that reflected on a David Bowie documentary he produced to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Bowie's visit to New Zealand the online fan response to the documentary.  The PowerPoint slides can be viewed below.  Our presentation went well, surprisingly it was the only presentation to focus on radio documentary.  I am hoping that we will find the time to finish writing the paper over the next few months and that it can be included in a forthcoming text on music documentary. 

It was also good to talk Euro-Cult cinema with Benjamin Halligan, author of a very well researched text on Michael Reeves, and spend an evening chatting with the director of the excellent documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006), Jeff Feuerzeig.  His upcoming film on Tiny Tim sounds fascinating, providing that he secures funding.  Other conference delegates were very warm and friendly, and the conference meal at the Turkish Restaurant, Cafe Istanbul was outstanding. On the Friday morning we found time to fulfill Sam's request and travel along Coronation Street to Salford Lad's Club, which was famously featured in the music video for There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths.  A group picture was a must.  I do not usually enjoy conferences but thought this was the best one that I participated in so far. 

I couldn't resist.  I have ordered a four-pack from the UK HBO store and with a bit of luck they will arrive in time for the weekend.  Hyperreal or what?

Nope, not one of mine, this shirt is from the Rabbit in Red Lounge.  They specialise in made to order shirts using full colour prints taken from original poster artwork.  I had my reservations about the quality of print but it appears to be very high.  You can have your chosen print be digitally worn.  There are three levels of grubbiness you can  request, I opted for the lightest level of wear.  The choice of prints is endless.  All of the well known cult horror films are available as well as little known obscurities.  The cult film fan could waste a lot of money here.  After a long deliberation I decided to opt for the New York Ripper design.  This was the first imported VHS video I purchased back in the mid-nineties.  This Scandinavian release of the film on the Professional Cine Media label used artwork taken from the original Italian poster.  I have always liked this poster design and thought it would be a suitable choice.  The only problem is that the size I ordered is just slightly too big for me; I should have ordered a small instead of a medium.  I might order the Zombie Flesh Eaters design which uses the excellent artwork taken from the British quad poster a bit later in the year.  Once thing to be aware of is that it can take a while for your order to be fulfilled as the shirts are made to order. 

Summer must be on its way as several of my recent posts have been about Euro-Cult inspired T-Shirts.  Actually, it has more to do with my doctoral research but it is nice to think that Summer is finally on the way.

On Friday I received The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1969) T-Shirt I ordered from Ellen over at www.giallo-tshirts.com.  I love the design and the print quality is very high.  The yellow (giallo!) bag it arrived in was a nice touch too.  Check out the site for the other great designs.  I look forward to Ellen's next design.

I have added a few new designs to my T-Shirt store. 

One of the chapters of my PhD thesis investigates t-shirt production in the Euro-Cult cinema fan community.  Having being inspired by Jonny's excellent T-Shirt designs over at the lovelockandload and the more unusual designs over at Giallo T-Shirts I have opened my own Spreadshirt shop in order to better understand the production process.   With some help from Jonny, I produced my first design: the logo for Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso (1975).  I have always wanted a T-Shirt inspired by this film and not having ever come across a decent one I decide to design my own.  I ordered the T-Shirt from Spreadshirt on Thursday and it arrived today.  I have ordered from Spreadshirt before and have always been impressed with their quality.  I chose to use the flock print method with gives the lettering a felt effect.  Though the design is somewhat basic it looks better than I had hoped.  If anyone reading this would like one you can order it through my Spreadshirt shop.  If all goes well, I will be uploading some more Euro-Cult inspired designs over the coming weeks.

On Saturday 28 March I went to the Spring 2010 Memorabilia Fair at the LG Arena in Birmingham.  This was not just the usual visit, I was there to research a chapter of my PhD thesis on fan conventions and the distribution of fan produced texts.  My friend, office mate and acclaimed audio documentary maker Sam came along with me to help with capturing some video footage of the day, using some of the University's newly purchased Kodak Zi8 cameras.  I will posting some of that content over the coming week.

Having been going to these events on and off since the mid 1990s, I find the Spring fair to be much smaller when compared to the Winter fair.  This is most likely due to the Winter fair being closer to Christmas and providing the opportunity to pick up possible Christmas presents.  Saturday's event was quieter than usual.  There were fewer dealers and many of the regulars had chosen not too attend.  This is not too surprising considering that I was told by the proprietor of the excellent online store MovieTyme that their space cost £800!  I still got chance to speak to Paul from Midnight Media, the proprietor of the Birmingham Euro-Cult store Diabolik and Peter Lennon who told me about the exclusive deal he has signed with artist Rick Melton.  Rick Melton is mostly known for his artwork that graces the covers of Arrow's recent DVD/Blu-Ray releases of Dawn of the Dead (George Romero, 1978), Day of the Dead (George Romero, 1985) and their recent Argento releases.  Apparently Melton does not have time to distribute his artwork because of the high number of commissions that he is currently receiving from Arrow and other clients.  Peter will selling prints and limited editions of Melton's work via his website The Serial Man.  I bought three of Melton's prints for Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980), Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982) and The Card Player (2004) after being very impressed with the striking quality of his work.  Fan response to Melton's work for Arrow has been positive, I believe that these will be very much sought after by fans.  A picture of the prints I purchased can be found below.  I will post my interview with Peter later this week.

We attended a Q&A with the highly underrated actor William Forsythe.  I asked him about his experience working on the film Relentless 3 (James Lemmo, 1993), he was very forthcoming.  Some extracts from the Q&A will be posted shortly, including Forsythe talking about his experience working with Segio Leone and his view on the Hollywood film industry.  John Saxon was also in attendance and I now wish I had paid to get his signature.

Whilst I was pleased to spend less money than usual I still was able to pick up some goodies, they are pictured below.

I recently completed a chapter of my PhD fan film production in the Euro-Cult cinema fan community, focusing on the Fantom Kiler film series.  An abridged version of this chapter will hopefully be published in a forthcoming edited collection on serial killer fandom.  Here is the abstract for the book chapter:

The giallo film was based on pulp crime novels that were popular in Italy from wartime onwards, the popularity eventually leading to film adaptations of several giallo stories.  A typical giallo film narrative will feature a crazed black- gloved serial killer murdering beautiful women in varying in exaggerated fashions.  In the early 1990s British and American horror film fans learnt about the giallo in fan publications such as Giallo Pages and European Trash Cinema which created interest and paved the way to forming a Euro-Cult fan culture centred around the giallo film.  Euro-Cult cinema itself is a fan determined category Not only do fans discuss the films in online communities but also actively produce texts for distribution amongst the fan network. 

I will examine the Fantom Kiler series of films, fan produced re-imaginings of the giallo film and demonstrate them as examples of ‘slash’ production; a form of fan production that particularly focuses on serial murder and highly sexualised violent content.  ‘Slash’ production is not just exclusive to fan film making but also other forms of fan production such as fanzines, clothing and DVD production. It also considers fan reactions to the Fantom Kiler film series.  Building upon textual analysis, this piece will raise theoretical and methodological questions, reflecting on the author’s developing research and personal understanding of the fan culture as a fan scholar.  The Fantom Kiler series further illustrates the contemporary fascination with the serial killer and allows for a new consideration of how fan cultures are researched and considered.

Unbelievable!  Firstly, I should state that I didn't, nor would I ever, watch it but the first scene of a recent episode of the awful Channel 4 show Hollyoaks features a homage to Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977).  The interesting thing is that it appears to have no relevance to the plot of the episode (I have not watched the whole episode, feel free to let me know if I am incorrect).  Check out yourself in the video the below, it is the first scene after the credits.

So was the director of the episode a fan who was so excited about buying the recent UK Blu-Ray release of the film that he had to pay homage to it in Hollyoaks?

Thanks to Jonny over at Lovelockandload for pointing this out.