Today was unfortunately the last day of Cine Excess V. The conference has been intense but very rewarding. I attended two panels today, which featured some strong papers. Topics included: Salo as a pornographic text, the Arrow Blu-Ray release of Battle Royale, The Big Racket and the poliziesco film and the Italian comedy films. The stand out paper for me was from Emma Pett, another member of Aberystwyth University, who discussed her research into audiences of extreme Asian cinema.

Simon and I chose not to go to the final panel or the screening of Django as we had to get back to Brum. However, I did get to conduct interviews with Harvey Fenton of FAB Press and Tris Thompson, who produced a fun horror fanzine in the mid 1990s called It's Only a Movie. It was very generous of them to give up their time and such a fascinating insight into their fandom. I purchased FAB Press' latest title Any Gun Can Play, which looks at the Spaghetti Western genre. I also got to finally meet another member of my favourite forum Lovelockandload.

Usually I find conferences to be a disappointment but Cine Excess certainly changed my perspective. A number of contacts were made that I hope to further in the coming months and years. I must extend thanks to all the organisers of the conference and particularly head honcho Xavier Mendik for helping to create such a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. I am looking forward to next year. A similar version of our Cine Excess paper will be delivered at Transforming Audiences 3 in September. Bring it on!

Simon and I presented a paper on the remediation of cult texts in online communities on the first day of this year's Cine Excess conference. Despite presenting in a cinema, the paper went well and the generous response from fellow delegates was pleasing. Other papers today have looked at British censorship in the 1960s, the remake of Last House on the Left, the snuff movie myth, British camcorder horror and Cannibal Holocaust. Two papers were presented on the highly controversial A Serbian Film (2010).

FAB Press were on hand to launch a special reprint of their book Cannibal Holocaust: The Savage Cinema of Ruggero Deodato and Deodato was on hand to sign copies for fans.

The highlight of the day was Martin Barker's keynote on some recent BBFC funded research he and his team have carried out into a series of controversial films, notably Deodato's House on the Edge of the Park. Barker's point about the need to move away from psychological research and adopt a British cultural studies approach to researching controversial film was extremely valid. In what was a nice surprise, cult Italian actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice, aka John Morghen, turned up to translate for Deodato. A panel discussion with Deodato, Barker, a BBFC examiner and chair Julian Petley offered an insight into the BBFC's current practices.

The highlight of the day was the UK theatrical premiere of the new Shameless cut of Cannibal Holocaust, which has only received 14 seconds of cuts from the BBFC. Deodato passionately introduced the film and then Riz Ortolani's iconic theme boomed out of the cinema 's speaker system. Seeing this film on the big screen, albeit in a truncated version, will be a memory that I won't forget.

No, it's not my handiwork but I did help get them produced. 

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

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.

On Wednesday I presented the paper I gave at the Transforming Audiences 2 Conference on fan DVD production to my research group peers at Birmingham City University.  My colleague Andrew Dubber was kind enough (no hint of sarcasm there at all) to take a picture of me at the end of the presentation when I was fielding questions.  Though I felt that I gave a better presentation at the Transforming Audiences conference, the response from my colleagues was much more positive, having a number of useful comments.  I was quite surprised at how different it is presenting to your peers compared to presenting to strangers at a conference.  I think I prefer the latter. 

On Friday September 4 I presented a paper at the second Transforming Audiences conference based at the University of Westminster.  The paper was based on a chapter of my PhD that focuses on fan DVD production.  Here is the abstract of the paper:

The Fans Reserved 25 Copies

From Amateur to Professional: Fan DVD Production in Euro-Cult Cinema Fandom

The ubiquity of home computing technology and the World Wide Web has presented fans with the opportunity to create online networks to engage in discussion based on their interests.  In addition, the availability of desktop publishing software and video production software, both free and illegally obtainable online, has allowed fan production to become professionalised.  The distinction between amateur and professional fan production is becoming blurred.  This form of fan production is best exemplified in Euro-Cult cinema fandom.  Fans are engaged in the building of fan DVDs, using industry standard video editing software and DVD authoring software to produce composites versions of commercially unreleased Euro-Cult films, particularly those which are commonly referred to as gialli.  These DVDs are then distributed through fan networks and online file sharing technologies.

Drawing on my knowledge as both a fan and a researcher of Euro-Cult cinema, as well as an active producer of fan DVDs, I adopt an ethnographic approach to examining this particular phenomenon.  In addition, this piece will raise theoretical and methodological questions about the study of fan audiences, drawing on the author’s developing post-graduate research.  It also builds on the current lack of work in the area of fan production, itself an oft-neglected area of study, and draws on contemporary issues such as copyright, social media and modes of distribution. This example of fan DVD production in Euro-Cult cinema fandom offers a new perspective on how fan cultures are considered and researched.

Despite feeling unwell and being on the final panel of the last day of the conference I thought it went down quite well.  A pdf of my PowerPoint presentation is also included here.  Now I just need to finish the chapter.