The Big Screen vs. The Small Screen

A one-day conference exploring the competing cultures and contexts of cinema and
television in a changing media environment

Canterbury Christ Church University (Department of Media), UK

February 16, 2011

Confirmed key speakers:

Professor Charlotte Brunsdon (University of Warwick)
Professor Mark Jancovich (University of East Anglia)
Dr. Karen Lury (University of Glasgow)

Distinguishing between big screen and small screen, cinema and television, Pauline Kael
once wrote that cinema audiences “want the theatre screen to do what the television
screen can’t do: overpower them” (1965). Nearly fifty years later, do such
expectations and experiences hold true? Is cinema (from IMAX to “home cinema”) able
to “overpower” us in a way that television cannot? Is it television (a “golden
age”?), as opposed to cinema, that exists at the vanguard of experimentation? By what
routes, and with what consequences, has recent television been adapted for cinema, and
vice versa? In relation to new technology and related institutional shifts, how are
cultures of production and consumption changing? Ultimately, how relevant are
distinctions between “big screen” and “small screen” in an era of increasing
convergence?

This international conference seeks to address these and other questions ­ we are
seeking proposals for 20-minute presentations.
Topics for consideration might include (but are not limited to):

* medium specificity then and now ­ re-assessing the cinema/televvision debate

* gazes, glances (and 3D glasses!) ­ cinema and television spectaatorship

* the “cinematic experience” and “home viewing” ­ changing patterns of
consumption
* generational shifts ­ cinema, television, and youth culture
* cross-media influence and intertextuality ­ the migration of geenres, styles, and
aesthetics from cinema to television and vice versa

* from small screen to big screen and back again ­ contemporary aadaptations, remakes,
and spin-offs

* networks and studios ­ industrial and institutional relations aand integration

* pantheon directors ­ applying models of film authorship to conttemporary television

* from IMAX to iPod ­ ever bigger and ever smaller screens
* technology and convergence ­ the “death(s)” of  cinema and television as discrete
media

Abstracts, of approximately 200 words (including a short biographical note), should be
sent by email to shane.blackman AT cant.ac.uk and andrew.utterson AT cant.ac.uk by 1st October
2010 at the latest.

Please include your name, affiliation (where appropriate), home and office telephone
numbers, and postal and email addresses with your proposal.

Please include any A/V requirements with your submission.

http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-humanities/media/