The higher education debate which is ongoing is dominated by people who were given a grant to go to university (not means tested), had no fees or debt and could then go into top graduate jobs with little competition. They could even claim dole in the holidays and enjoyed free presciptions and eye tests. This applies to pretty much every member of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet. They were also far better taught than we are, with small tutorial groups, lots of contact time and even 1:1 teaching.
Here are my plans for a graduate tax.
Everyone who received a free university education and a grant from 1950 to 1997 should be retrospectively invoiced for their education as follows:
Current cost of living at university (halls, books, etc): £6000
Tuition fees: £3300
Quality teaching and easy graduate job market premium £700
X number of years at university
=£30,000/£40,000 per student
If they can't pay it off in a lump sum, interest should be charged at current student loan rates.
This is the only fair way. Do you really think it will happen?
Monday 11 October 2010
Masters update
Before I actually start work on the Phd, I have got to finish the Masters. My Masters examines the character of Za La Mort, a romantic Parisian apache. Emilio Ghione created Za La Mort and directed himself in a series of Za La Mort films from 1914 to 1924. Ghione then wrote two Za La Mort novels, a Za La Mort serial in a cinema magazine, took Za La Mort on a theatre tour and found time to write his autobiography and an essay on Italian silent cinema before dying in 1930.
My work is indebted to Denis Lotti's research, in Emilio Ghione L'ultimo apache. This book is very good and can be purchased from the Cineteca di Bologna website for just 8 Euros, but is in Italian.
Masters chapter division:
Chapter one. The real apaches of Paris and the construction of a serial narrative around them in newspapers. Criminological viewpoints on the apache phenoomenon. French crime serials. Italian crime films, divided into three categories: comedy, apache film and serial-hero crime film. 10,000 words target
Chapter two: analysis of Za La Mort films made by Ghione. 20.000 words target.
Chapter three: Za La Mort on paper; Ghione's writing and theatre performances. Metacinematographic texts, focused on preserving Za La Mort, who was rapidly disappearing from popular fiction 10.000 words target
Chapter four: Analysis of two attempts to revive the Za La Mort character. Raffaele Matarazzo's film, starring Emilio Ghione Jr, Fumeria D'Oppio (1947). Za La Mort fumetto ( Italian comic) series in 1946-7. 5,000-7,000 words target
Conclusion 3,000 words target
So far, I am about 30% through on words target. All research is pretty much complete for chapters 2,3,4 and nearly done for chapter 1.
All is going well. I am currently doing research into the Italian variety theatre of the 1900s and 1910s and its connection to the various Italian crime films of the 1910s, such as the serial hero crime film (featuring Detective Holmesock, Nat Pinkerton, Raffles, Griffard etc) and the apache films, which were based on the theatrical representations of the Parisian apache gangsters. The Parisian apache identity was quickly romanticised and turned into a performative identity by the dancers Mistinguett and Max Dearly, who invented the apache dance. This dance mania quickly spreas throughout Montmartre and eventually into other national variety theatres in London, Rome and America. I have found some interesting things, but the chapter is tricky because I am venturing into uncharted waters and attempting to combine theories and ideas that have not been put together before. So, in essence, the first chapter of the Masters will be a dry run at the first chapter of the Phd.
My work is indebted to Denis Lotti's research, in Emilio Ghione L'ultimo apache. This book is very good and can be purchased from the Cineteca di Bologna website for just 8 Euros, but is in Italian.
Masters chapter division:
Chapter one. The real apaches of Paris and the construction of a serial narrative around them in newspapers. Criminological viewpoints on the apache phenoomenon. French crime serials. Italian crime films, divided into three categories: comedy, apache film and serial-hero crime film. 10,000 words target
Chapter two: analysis of Za La Mort films made by Ghione. 20.000 words target.
Chapter three: Za La Mort on paper; Ghione's writing and theatre performances. Metacinematographic texts, focused on preserving Za La Mort, who was rapidly disappearing from popular fiction 10.000 words target
Chapter four: Analysis of two attempts to revive the Za La Mort character. Raffaele Matarazzo's film, starring Emilio Ghione Jr, Fumeria D'Oppio (1947). Za La Mort fumetto ( Italian comic) series in 1946-7. 5,000-7,000 words target
Conclusion 3,000 words target
So far, I am about 30% through on words target. All research is pretty much complete for chapters 2,3,4 and nearly done for chapter 1.
All is going well. I am currently doing research into the Italian variety theatre of the 1900s and 1910s and its connection to the various Italian crime films of the 1910s, such as the serial hero crime film (featuring Detective Holmesock, Nat Pinkerton, Raffles, Griffard etc) and the apache films, which were based on the theatrical representations of the Parisian apache gangsters. The Parisian apache identity was quickly romanticised and turned into a performative identity by the dancers Mistinguett and Max Dearly, who invented the apache dance. This dance mania quickly spreas throughout Montmartre and eventually into other national variety theatres in London, Rome and America. I have found some interesting things, but the chapter is tricky because I am venturing into uncharted waters and attempting to combine theories and ideas that have not been put together before. So, in essence, the first chapter of the Masters will be a dry run at the first chapter of the Phd.
Thursday 9 September 2010
Release those films! RANT
Cinema archives are the bane of my life. I realise that they have preserved lots of precious films and do some great work restoring things. But...
All of these organisations are given films as donations by members of the public or given taxpayer money to buy them. The restorations are largely subsidised by...the taxpayer. Then, they do there very best to stop people watching them. No, we don't do copies. No, you have to come here and watch the film on Tuesday mornings. No, you can't watch it twice. No, we won't tell you what it's about so you can work out whether it is worth the journey. No, we won't use Youtube. The token efforts to put things on the internet amount to mere fractions of the total material held.
Many films in archives are at least on DVD/VHS. Burning them to DVD for a moderate charge (£20 a disc) is fair. Charging £50 for a VHS or 100 Euro AN HOUR to watch old films on a safety reel is absurd.Why do ordinary people have to pay even more to watch films in a film institute? You paid for it. You should just be able to take a DVD along and get it burned!
Some of this is the archives being anal. Some of it is evil copyright dogs. If you've just written a novel or made a film, I have no objection to you using copyright law so that your intellectual/artistic product gives you an income for the rest of your life. But, people have put copyright on silent films who have NOTHING to do with the original films. Most silent film actors, actresses, directors and production companies are long dead, but someone is still making money out of Griffth's back catalogue more than sixty years after he died. People and companies 'own' rights to silent films that, in the vast majority of cases, they have no connection to whatsoever.*
Films that are over 80 years old should all be out of copyright, like classic literature. That should be the law. In absence of legislation, cinema archives and collectors 'sit' on films, hoping they can copyright them. I advise you to to steal these films and post them on the internet. Don't pay for silent film, try and download it for free. If you are afraid of 'copyright holders' and don't want to release a silent film in your collection because of their threats, ignore them and post it on the internet. If a 'copyright holder' complains, please direct them to me and I will tell them to f*** off.
As if that wasn't bad enough, most of the people doing research in cinema archives (students, archive staff and university academics) are paid for or subsidised by...the taxpayer. Then, all the research gets hidden away in libraries, sold in expensive journals and generally made unavailable to the very people who paid for it all! Just like the films!
So, my blog is an attempt to fight against all of this. I receive a bursary from a UK University, which, indirectly, you have paid for (if you are a UK taxpayer, that is. If you aren't a UK taxpayer, please send me a few pounds!) So, YOU can find out about what I'm up to. I'm sharing my knowledge with you. If you want a DVD burning or more information, just ask.** Rant over. Let the cameras roll...
*Exception: Feuillade's back catalogue is at least exploited by Gaumont, who made the actual films in 1915. Same with Pathe, although much of their US stuff is now public domain. There are a few more exceptions to this rule...but not many.
**Again, this service is only available if you are a UK taxpayer. Just post me a blank DVD and enclose an SAE. If you're not, just give me a modest donation and I will answer any question you like, or burn you a DVD. Please email for payment instructions :)
All of these organisations are given films as donations by members of the public or given taxpayer money to buy them. The restorations are largely subsidised by...the taxpayer. Then, they do there very best to stop people watching them. No, we don't do copies. No, you have to come here and watch the film on Tuesday mornings. No, you can't watch it twice. No, we won't tell you what it's about so you can work out whether it is worth the journey. No, we won't use Youtube. The token efforts to put things on the internet amount to mere fractions of the total material held.
Many films in archives are at least on DVD/VHS. Burning them to DVD for a moderate charge (£20 a disc) is fair. Charging £50 for a VHS or 100 Euro AN HOUR to watch old films on a safety reel is absurd.Why do ordinary people have to pay even more to watch films in a film institute? You paid for it. You should just be able to take a DVD along and get it burned!
Some of this is the archives being anal. Some of it is evil copyright dogs. If you've just written a novel or made a film, I have no objection to you using copyright law so that your intellectual/artistic product gives you an income for the rest of your life. But, people have put copyright on silent films who have NOTHING to do with the original films. Most silent film actors, actresses, directors and production companies are long dead, but someone is still making money out of Griffth's back catalogue more than sixty years after he died. People and companies 'own' rights to silent films that, in the vast majority of cases, they have no connection to whatsoever.*
Films that are over 80 years old should all be out of copyright, like classic literature. That should be the law. In absence of legislation, cinema archives and collectors 'sit' on films, hoping they can copyright them. I advise you to to steal these films and post them on the internet. Don't pay for silent film, try and download it for free. If you are afraid of 'copyright holders' and don't want to release a silent film in your collection because of their threats, ignore them and post it on the internet. If a 'copyright holder' complains, please direct them to me and I will tell them to f*** off.
As if that wasn't bad enough, most of the people doing research in cinema archives (students, archive staff and university academics) are paid for or subsidised by...the taxpayer. Then, all the research gets hidden away in libraries, sold in expensive journals and generally made unavailable to the very people who paid for it all! Just like the films!
So, my blog is an attempt to fight against all of this. I receive a bursary from a UK University, which, indirectly, you have paid for (if you are a UK taxpayer, that is. If you aren't a UK taxpayer, please send me a few pounds!) So, YOU can find out about what I'm up to. I'm sharing my knowledge with you. If you want a DVD burning or more information, just ask.** Rant over. Let the cameras roll...
*Exception: Feuillade's back catalogue is at least exploited by Gaumont, who made the actual films in 1915. Same with Pathe, although much of their US stuff is now public domain. There are a few more exceptions to this rule...but not many.
**Again, this service is only available if you are a UK taxpayer. Just post me a blank DVD and enclose an SAE. If you're not, just give me a modest donation and I will answer any question you like, or burn you a DVD. Please email for payment instructions :)
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