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Papers by Robin MacPherson
Evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee's December ... more Evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee's December 2014 call for evidence on the economic impact of the creative industries, specifically "To consider how Scotland can grow sustainable TV and film and video games industries"
Scotland is a small, stateless nation whose mainstream media and national cinema have generally b... more Scotland is a small, stateless nation whose mainstream media and national cinema have generally been positioned by media scholars as constituting an alternative to the UK’s metropolitan mainstream. Consequently the specificity of alternative practices and the dual identity of Scottish media (as both mainstream and alternative) has largely been overlooked. Focusing on the development of filmmaking this essay argues that alternative practices developed later, more erratically and less sustainably in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK because of its subordinate position within the wider political economy of the British media. It argues that the very underdevelopment of Scotland’s mainstream film and broadcast media sector has, in a seeming paradox, served to inhibit alternatives; that the pursuit of a ‘national cinema’ has helped displace more radical practices; and, though at key moments metropolitan institutions and public funding have been progressive influences on Scottish film, they have also helped to ensure its integration within a UK media system which assigns it a subordinate and limited role. The essay concludes by questioning whether the apparently greater freedom afforded by new technologies and lower entry costs are as progressive as they seem. In Chris Atton (ed) (2015) Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media
An overview of radical and socially engaged filmmaking in Scotland from its origins in the labour... more An overview of radical and socially engaged filmmaking in Scotland from its origins in the labour movement through the film and video workshops of the 1980s to the digital activism of the 21st century. FORTHCOMING 2015 in Nowlan and Finch, eds. (2015) The Directory of World Cinema: Scotland
Small European countries with low levels of film production might be expected to suffer from dis... more Small European countries with low levels of film production might be expected
to suffer from diseconomies of scale and other structural disadvantages that
would tend to produce a lower ratio of ‘hits’ to ‘flops’ than larger countries.
Analysis of Scottish, Irish and Danish data suggests that, despite significantly
different levels of production, the distribution of ‘hits’ is in fact very similar and
consistent with the Paretian distribution of audiences and revenues in major
markets such as the United States and others. The skewed distribution of
cinema audiences in Scotland, Ireland and Denmark appears to confirm the
‘scale independent’ importance of a small number of unpredictable highperforming
‘outliers’ in determining total and average audience/revenues.
Analysis of overall production levels and aggregate audience share for
domestic films in several small countries reveals a correlation that emerges
once production exceeds a critical level. A predictive model of how revenues
are distributed as production levels increase is tested. The implications of a
consistent pattern of film success for film funding policy in small countries are
discussed and avenues for further research suggested.
What counts as a ‘successful’ film (industry) inevitably means different things to different peop... more What counts as a ‘successful’ film (industry) inevitably means different things to different people. Nonetheless, when it comes to building a sustainable domestic film sector for cultural or economic reasons or both, small countries around the world face similar challenges in countering the hegemony of regional and global film ‘superpowers’. Whether competing with Hollywood, Bollywood or Nollywood for audience share there is some evidence, from Europe at least, that smaller countries’ patterns of success are in fact remarkably congruent with each other and with the industrial giants.
Articles by Robin MacPherson
Films by Robin MacPherson
Highlights of a conversation with Wu Wenguan, renowned Chinese independent documentary filmmaker ... more Highlights of a conversation with Wu Wenguan, renowned Chinese independent documentary filmmaker who inspired the jishizhuyi or 'spontaneous realism' movement and co-founder of the pioneering film and dance resource, Caochangdi Workstation in Beijing. Recorded during a visit he made to Edinburgh in 2014 to screen films from the Folk Memory Project, presented by the Confucius Institute for Scotland. See video below.
In 2013 Edinburgh based women’s theatre company Stellar Quines set out to discover how they could... more In 2013 Edinburgh based women’s theatre company Stellar Quines set out to discover how they could reach a larger audience in the cinema, something big players like the UK’s National Theatre and the New York Met Opera have had conspicuous success with but which, until now, has been beyond the reach of smaller theatre companies.
Restaging their 2012 Edinburgh Festival ‘Fringe First’ winning production of Canadian dramatist Jennifer Tremblay’s hit one woman play The List, starring Maureen Beattie, Stellar Quines commissioned BAFTA winning film director Morag McKinnon to work alongside the company’s Artistic Director Muriel Romanes and her team to produce a cinema version of the play. Their aim was to create a filmed experience that didn’t compromise the live-ness and intimacy of the actor’s relationship with an audience.
What happened next is the subject of ‘Filming the List’, a half hour observational documentary that goes behind the scenes as the two groups of professionals find out how to reconcile the creative and technical differences between theatre and cinema in pursuit of a film of which they can both be proud.
Scottish Television, Imperial War Museum, Community Chanel, Jan 1, 2004
Tree Fellers (24 mins) tells the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1942 left the tropi... more Tree Fellers (24 mins) tells the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1942 left the tropical rainforests of British Honduras to help Britain fight fascism by felling trees in Scotland. Sam ( 93), Eric (87) and Amos (86) were among those who stayed on after the war to make new ...
YLE, RTE, Jan 1, 2004
Rebel Frontier (65/52 mins) is an anti-war film set in the US which sees America's immig... more Rebel Frontier (65/52 mins) is an anti-war film set in the US which sees America's immigrant communities up against the national security state. The war in question is the First World War and the anti-war protesters the Irish and Finnish miners of Butte, Montana a copper ...
# Edinburgh Napier University. Home. INSPIRING FUTURES. ...
Channel 4 Television, 1996
Evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee's December ... more Evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee's December 2014 call for evidence on the economic impact of the creative industries, specifically "To consider how Scotland can grow sustainable TV and film and video games industries"
Scotland is a small, stateless nation whose mainstream media and national cinema have generally b... more Scotland is a small, stateless nation whose mainstream media and national cinema have generally been positioned by media scholars as constituting an alternative to the UK’s metropolitan mainstream. Consequently the specificity of alternative practices and the dual identity of Scottish media (as both mainstream and alternative) has largely been overlooked. Focusing on the development of filmmaking this essay argues that alternative practices developed later, more erratically and less sustainably in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK because of its subordinate position within the wider political economy of the British media. It argues that the very underdevelopment of Scotland’s mainstream film and broadcast media sector has, in a seeming paradox, served to inhibit alternatives; that the pursuit of a ‘national cinema’ has helped displace more radical practices; and, though at key moments metropolitan institutions and public funding have been progressive influences on Scottish film, they have also helped to ensure its integration within a UK media system which assigns it a subordinate and limited role. The essay concludes by questioning whether the apparently greater freedom afforded by new technologies and lower entry costs are as progressive as they seem. In Chris Atton (ed) (2015) Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media
An overview of radical and socially engaged filmmaking in Scotland from its origins in the labour... more An overview of radical and socially engaged filmmaking in Scotland from its origins in the labour movement through the film and video workshops of the 1980s to the digital activism of the 21st century. FORTHCOMING 2015 in Nowlan and Finch, eds. (2015) The Directory of World Cinema: Scotland
Small European countries with low levels of film production might be expected to suffer from dis... more Small European countries with low levels of film production might be expected
to suffer from diseconomies of scale and other structural disadvantages that
would tend to produce a lower ratio of ‘hits’ to ‘flops’ than larger countries.
Analysis of Scottish, Irish and Danish data suggests that, despite significantly
different levels of production, the distribution of ‘hits’ is in fact very similar and
consistent with the Paretian distribution of audiences and revenues in major
markets such as the United States and others. The skewed distribution of
cinema audiences in Scotland, Ireland and Denmark appears to confirm the
‘scale independent’ importance of a small number of unpredictable highperforming
‘outliers’ in determining total and average audience/revenues.
Analysis of overall production levels and aggregate audience share for
domestic films in several small countries reveals a correlation that emerges
once production exceeds a critical level. A predictive model of how revenues
are distributed as production levels increase is tested. The implications of a
consistent pattern of film success for film funding policy in small countries are
discussed and avenues for further research suggested.
What counts as a ‘successful’ film (industry) inevitably means different things to different peop... more What counts as a ‘successful’ film (industry) inevitably means different things to different people. Nonetheless, when it comes to building a sustainable domestic film sector for cultural or economic reasons or both, small countries around the world face similar challenges in countering the hegemony of regional and global film ‘superpowers’. Whether competing with Hollywood, Bollywood or Nollywood for audience share there is some evidence, from Europe at least, that smaller countries’ patterns of success are in fact remarkably congruent with each other and with the industrial giants.
Highlights of a conversation with Wu Wenguan, renowned Chinese independent documentary filmmaker ... more Highlights of a conversation with Wu Wenguan, renowned Chinese independent documentary filmmaker who inspired the jishizhuyi or 'spontaneous realism' movement and co-founder of the pioneering film and dance resource, Caochangdi Workstation in Beijing. Recorded during a visit he made to Edinburgh in 2014 to screen films from the Folk Memory Project, presented by the Confucius Institute for Scotland. See video below.
In 2013 Edinburgh based women’s theatre company Stellar Quines set out to discover how they could... more In 2013 Edinburgh based women’s theatre company Stellar Quines set out to discover how they could reach a larger audience in the cinema, something big players like the UK’s National Theatre and the New York Met Opera have had conspicuous success with but which, until now, has been beyond the reach of smaller theatre companies.
Restaging their 2012 Edinburgh Festival ‘Fringe First’ winning production of Canadian dramatist Jennifer Tremblay’s hit one woman play The List, starring Maureen Beattie, Stellar Quines commissioned BAFTA winning film director Morag McKinnon to work alongside the company’s Artistic Director Muriel Romanes and her team to produce a cinema version of the play. Their aim was to create a filmed experience that didn’t compromise the live-ness and intimacy of the actor’s relationship with an audience.
What happened next is the subject of ‘Filming the List’, a half hour observational documentary that goes behind the scenes as the two groups of professionals find out how to reconcile the creative and technical differences between theatre and cinema in pursuit of a film of which they can both be proud.
Scottish Television, Imperial War Museum, Community Chanel, Jan 1, 2004
Tree Fellers (24 mins) tells the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1942 left the tropi... more Tree Fellers (24 mins) tells the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1942 left the tropical rainforests of British Honduras to help Britain fight fascism by felling trees in Scotland. Sam ( 93), Eric (87) and Amos (86) were among those who stayed on after the war to make new ...
YLE, RTE, Jan 1, 2004
Rebel Frontier (65/52 mins) is an anti-war film set in the US which sees America's immig... more Rebel Frontier (65/52 mins) is an anti-war film set in the US which sees America's immigrant communities up against the national security state. The war in question is the First World War and the anti-war protesters the Irish and Finnish miners of Butte, Montana a copper ...
# Edinburgh Napier University. Home. INSPIRING FUTURES. ...
Channel 4 Television, 1996
Channel 4 Television, 1996
Channel 4 Television, 1996