1.Research background & context: City in Film 2.Locating material 3.Constructing the on-line database 4.Research questions – methodological / theoretical

1. Research background & context: City in Film2. Locating material3. Constructing the on-line database4. Research questions – methodological /

theoretical framings5. Research problems6. Conclusions

Film and PlaceExploring Liverpool’s urban landscape and

the moving imageDr Julia Hallam, Communication and Media

University of Liverpool

MAPPING THE CITY IN FILM: A GEOMAPPING THE CITY IN FILM: A GEO--HISTORICAL ANALYSISHISTORICAL ANALYSIS

1. Research background & context: City in Film

• Liverpool: European Capital of Culture 2008• City in Film: Liverpool’s Urban Landscape and the Moving Image,

University of Liverpool (2006-2008) www.liv.ac.uk/lsa/cityinfilm• First comprehensive survey of a city on film from 1897 to 1980s

(across genres: actualities, newsreels, travelogues, amateur film…)• Local, regional and national film archives, institutions and private

collections• Partnerships, screenings and events (North West Film Archive, Tate

Liverpool, National Museums of Liverpool, British Film Institute)• BFI Screenonline: first UK city page

www.screenonline.org.uk/liverpool • Database catalogue – 1700 filmic items searchable by location, film

genre, date, producer/director, spatial representation and usage, etc.


http://www.liv.ac.uk/lsa/cityinfilm

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/liverpool

2. Film, space and mapping – recent developments in the field

• ‘Spatial turn’ in cultural studies / ‘cultural turn’ in human geography• ‘Cinematic geographies’ (Aitken and Zonn1994; Cresswell and Dixon 2002;

Rohdie 2001; Lukinbeal and Zonn 2004; Roberts 2005; Roberts and Koeck 2007)• ‘Cinematic cartography’ (Bruno 2002; Conley 2007; Hallam 2007; Castro 2008;

Roberts 2008; Special issue of The Cartographic Journal on ‘Cinematic Cartography, forthcoming 2009)

• Film and GIS: ‘GIS for Cultural Research Workshop’, University of Wollongong, March 2008. – Jeffrey Klenotic (History of cinema-going in New Hampshire, US, 1896-1920)– Robert C. Allen (Mapping early film culture in the American South)– Kate Bowles (Mapping Australia’s cinema circuits and audiences, 1956-1984)– Keynote by Sarah Elwood – use of GIS in critical urban geographies

• HoMER network - The History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception (www.homerproject.org)

• A Cybercartographic Atlas of Canadian Cinema (www.atlascine.org)• Patrick Keiller – City of the Future exhibition (BFI Southbank 2007-8)


http://www.homerproject.org/

http://www.atlascine.org/

3. Research questions – methodological and theoretical framings


Maps function 'as analytical tools...bringing to light relations that would otherwise remain hidden‘ (Franco Moretti, 1998: 3)

• City in film – methodology and practice; the role of maps

• Spatial / geographic data – geo-referencing of database records; mapping cinematic geographies and cine-spatial features (point, line and polygon)

• Historically/geographically contextualise archive film – layering of cine-spatial data; quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis

• Mapping relationship between filmic space and urban geographic space – bringing different urban spatial formations (filmic, geographical, architectural, ethnographic) into critical dialogue

Old St John’s Market and Town Scenes (Jim Gonzales/Liver Cine Group, c.1960)

Locations in Old St John’s Market and Town Scenes (c. 1960) filmed in July 2008

4. Research problems


• Accessibility to historical maps of Liverpool• Accurate geo-referencing of City in Film data; amount of data

processing required• Adaptation/tailoring of GIS software for historical film analysis• Compatibility of resource with partner/related projects (e.g. Popular

Musicscapes and the Characterisation of the Urban Environment, AHRC-funded project, Dr Sara Cohen, Dr Brett Lashua, Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool)

• Management of dual project remit – academic analysis and museum exhibit

i) construction of GIS-based film map as an academic tool for historical/spatial analysis

ii) partnership with Museum of Liverpool for development of permanent interactive digital map of Liverpool on Film

5. Conclusions


• Case study – development of a GIS-based resource for archival research, critical spatial analysis and interactive public engagement (Museum of Liverpool, permanent exhibition)

• Developing existing resource – spatialising City in Film data.• Layering of cine-spatial data – opens up of areas of analytical engagement otherwise

overlooked (see, eg, Hallam J. 2010. ‘City of Change and Challenge: the cine societies’ response to re-development in Liverpool in the 1960s. In ed. Richard Koeck and Les Roberts The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan pp 69-87).

• ‘Mapping’ exploratory pathways towards a new historiography of film and urban space…..

• Empirical research on film, representation and space; role of database in geo-historical study of a city in film: see, for example, Hallam J. and L. Roberts (2011) ‘Mapping, memory and the city: archives, databases and film historiography’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Sage, Vol 14 : 3, 355-372

• Contextualising historical geographies of film; mapping a multi-layered ‘space of representation’ (Lefebvre 1991): filmic, architectural, geographic, ethnographic : see, for example Hallam J. (2012) ‘Civic visions: mapping the ‘city’ film 1900-1960’, Culture, Theory and Society, forthcoming, Routledge

Selected references


• Caquard, S and DRF Taylor (eds) (2009) Cinematic Cartography Special Issue of The Cartographic Journal.

• Castro, T (2008) Mapping the City through Film in J Hallam, R Koeck, R Kronenburg, L Roberts (Eds) Cities in Film: Architecture Urban Space and the Moving Image, Conference Proceedings, University of Liverpool.

• Hallam, J (2007) Mapping City Space: Independent Filmmakers as Urban Gazetteers in Journal of British Cinema and Television 4 (2): 272-284.

• Roberts, L and R Koeck (2007) The Archive City: Reading Liverpool's Urban Landscape Through Film in C Grunenberg and R Knifton (eds), Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde.

• Roberts, L (2008) Cinematic Cartography: Movies, Maps and the Consumption of Place in J Hallam, R Koeck, R Kronenburg, L Roberts (Eds) Cities in Film: Architecture Urban Space and the Moving Image, Conference Proceedings, University of Liverpool.

• Hallam J. and L. Roberts (2008) Reconstructing the Archive City: the Role of the On-line Catalogue in Local and National Film Historiography, paper presented at European Network for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Budapest, 19-22nd June 2008.

• Roberts, L (2009) Dis/embedded Geographies of Film: Virtual Panoramas and the Touristic Consumption of Liverpool Waterfront in Space and Culture

Documents

1.Research background & context: City in Film 2.Locating material 3.Constructing the on-line database 4.Research questions – methodological / theoretical