Explanipedia

Acknowledgements Open

Annie van den Oever, Lori Emerson, John Ellis, Tessy Delledera, Brigitte Melchior-Dolenc , et al. · 2022

CHANNEL 4 AT 40 Open

John Ellis · 2022

The UK’s Channel 4 turns 40 on 4 November 2022. How can we assess the achievements (and failures) of this unique broadcasting initiative? The UK’s fourth TV channel was set up by a conservative government to be innovative in the form and c…

2022: THE YEAR OF BRITISH BROADCASTING ANNIVERSARIES Open

John Ellis · 2021

There’s an avalanche of anniversaries coming in 2022, a veritable tsunami of television history. The big one is the BBC’s centenary, starting with the publication of David Hendy’s The BBC: A Peoples’ History in January, and running through…

Editorial Open

Mari Pajala, John Ellis · 2021

As VIEW enters its tenth year of publication, we present our first open issue. The resulting collection of articles represents a varied smörgåsbord of European television, covering television in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Russia, Spa…

How documentaries mark themselves out from fiction: a genre-based approach Open

John Ellis · 2021

Assessments of the truthfulness or otherwise of documentaries are best understood as genre conventions which vary historically. Genre conventions are shared between audiences, filmmakers and institutions. Beliefs about the acceptable use o…

NO MORE GUILT ABOUT ‘GUILTY PLEASURES’ Open

John Ellis · 2021

TV viewing has become more important during the pandemic, but a sense of shame still lingers around it. Even TV scholars still use the term ‘guilty pleasures’ to describe their enjoyment of a particular reality TV format or even of series …

Editorial Open

John Ellis, Dana Mustata · 2019

Television’s material culture offers a starting point into this exploration of television’s current status. Artefacts and material traces are imbued with social relations. They unearth for us the web of users, uses and meanings associated …

Filming for Television Open

John Ellis · 2019

A media archaeology project reveals how film crews worked together. By reuniting analogue equipment with the professionals who used to use it, the ADAPT project is able to unpack the professional routines and relationships of both people a…

Why Hands on History Matters Open

John Ellis · 2019

Historical reenactment television has flourished since the early 2000s, lately turning its attention to histories well within the memory of many viewers. This chapter traces the development of the new form of reenactment, which has emerged…

Supercollider critics should learn from history Open

John Ellis · 2019

10. Storytelling and Mainstream Television Today – A Dialogue Open

John Ellis, Annie van den Oever · 2018

Watching Television as a "Working Through" of Everyday ConcernsAnnie van den Oever: In several publications since the 1970s, amongst them your Visible Fictions, you have described watching mainstream television as a working through in the …

SKY: THE MURDOCHS EXIT… NOT WITH A BANG BUT WITH A WHIMPER Open

John Ellis · 2018

Sky TV has been sold to the US giant Comcast, a virtual unknown in the UK market. The Murdoch family has lost out… in power terms, not, of course, in money terms. Rupert Murdoch’s last audacious business move blew up in his face. Here’s th…

Did Grace Kelly Shed a Tear? Open

John Ellis · 2018

Early television reveals the radical nature of the new medium as well as many of its affordances that were later rejected. The coverage of the Monegasque Royal Wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco and GraceKelly exposes the differences betw…

SKY HIGH… BUT FOR HOW LONG? Open

John Ellis · 2018

It’s all happening around Sky at the moment. The first was an unexpected bid from the US giant Comcast, disrupting the cosy deal that the Murdoch and Disney groups had planned. The second was Sky’s own doing: to offer Netflix subscriptions…

16mm-filming-productionassistants.mp4 Open

Nick Hall, John Ellis, Amanda Murphy · 2018

This footage was filmed in May 2015 in the television studio at Royal Holloway University of London in Egham, United Kingdom.A team of veteran television film cameramen, electricians, and sound engineers who worked at the BBC Television Fi…

Stories Open

Ian Christie, Annie van den Oever, Jan Baetens, Vincent Amiel, Miklós Kiss , et al. · 2018

Stories are perceived as central to modern life. Not only in narrative entertainment media, such as television, cinema, theater, but also in social media. Telling/having "a story" is widely deemed essential, in business as well as in socia…

ADAPT: Outside Broadcast Captions Open

John Ellis, Amanda Murphy, Nick Hall · 2018

A collection of videos from the ADAPT project's outside broadcast reenactment.

Storytelling and Mainstream Television Today - A Dialogue. Open

Annie van den Oever, John Ellis · 2018

YOUR FAVORITE OLD BBC SHOWS FOR FREE? Open

John Ellis · 2017

How should the BBC make its huge archive public? This is the challenge that faces Peter Rippon, the newly appointed Editor of BBC Online Archive. Appointed a few months after the demise of the unmourned BBC Store in May, this appointment o…

Interview with Professor John Ellis Open

John Ellis · 2017

Keith’s dark side (and some others) Open

John Ellis · 2017

After some historical and personal reminiscences, I will discuss what we can learn about the possible scale of supersymmetry from the density of dark matter, and the prospects for discovering supersymmetry at the LHC, in direct searches fo…

SKY DIVING: THE END OF ADVENTUROUS COMMISSIONING AT OSTERLEY Open

John Ellis · 2017

Big changes are taking place at Sky, even before the much anticipated buyout of non-Murdoch shareholders by Fox. This buyout is currently awaiting approval from Ofcom and the relevant minister. At least that isn’t John Whittingdale any mor…

WRITING WITH PICTURES: THE AUDIOVISUAL, THE ESSAY AND TELEVISION Open

John Ellis · 2017

How do we write using the audiovisual? Many of us are facing this challenge, frustrated by the restrictions of prose-only analyses. One answer is the audiovisual essay, in its poetic and analytic variants. These have recently taken off in …

16mm Film Editing: Using Filmed Simulation as a Hands-on Approach to TV History Open

Amanda Murphy, Rowan Aust, Vanessa Jackson, John Ellis · 2017

Two television editors who once worked with 16mm film discuss and explore their former working methods and demonstrate how to make a picture cut using film. The method of ‘hands-on history’ used for this simulation is discussed, as are the…

BROADCASTING APPOINTMENT CHAOS Open

John Ellis · 2016

Who wants to be Chair of the BBC? As it happens, nobody really. Who wants to be a director of Channel 4? As it happens, Ofcom recommended Althea Efunshile, former deputy chief executive of the Arts Council and a BAME woman.

WHY CAN’T I FIND ANYTHING TO WATCH ON TV? Open

John Ellis · 2016

Why has the television business made it so hard for its users to find something they want to watch? It used to be so easy. You turned on the TV and instantly there was something, if you didn’t like that you could hop from one channel to an…

Editorial Open

John Ellis, Andrea Esser, Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano · 2016

Editorial to the issue on "TV Formats and Format Research: Theory, methodology, history and new developments." During the last 15 years format research has grown into a notable, distinct field of academic investigation alongside the dramat…

Picking Up (On) Fragments Open

John Ellis · 2015

This article discusses the implications for archival and media archaeological research and reenactment artwork relating to a recent arts practice project: reenacttv: 30 lines / 60 seconds. It proposes that archival material is unstable but…

16mm Film Editing for Television Open

Amanda Murphy, Rowan Aust, Vanessa Jackson, John Ellis · 2015

Two television editors who once worked with 16mm film discuss and explore their former working methods and demonstrate how to make a picture cut using film. The method of ‘hands-on history’ used for this simulation is discussed, as are the…

FILMING FILMERS FILMING: THE ADAPT PROJECT REUNITES BBC EALING CREW MEMBERS Open

John Ellis · 2015

Couple of weeks ago, the ADAPT project, researching the use of technologies in television, undertook an ambitious three day shoot reuniting members of BBC Ealing’s legendary Film Unit with the 16mm equipment they used to use. I lead the pr…

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