S'mae ti heddiw? A Conference Reminder "S4C: The First 25 Years"

S4C: The first 25 years
International conference to mark the first 25 years of broadcasting by S4C (Welsh language television)

Date: 2-3 November 2007

Location: The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

The Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies in association with the Wales Institute for Cultural and Communication Industries and the Mercator Centre for Minority Languages is hosting a two day international conference at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth to mark the 25th anniversary of the first broadcast by S4C, the Welsh language television channel, on 1st November 1982.



The Conference aims to analyse significant events and scrutinise major decisions taken in the trajectory of S4C from the legendary broadcasting campaign right through to the channel’s vision of its future role and position in the market-led, post-analogue, multi-platform world.

In addition to academic papers and presentations, keynote speeches and panel discussion, the Conference will hold a number of unique witness sessions during which key figures will be interviewed in depth on the subject of their role in the creation / development of S4C.

While the focus of this Conference is firmly on S4C as a Welsh language broadcaster, its position as the first dedicated minority language channel will be addressed through the comparative international context.

Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to:

The emergence of S4C as a cultural, economic and linguistic force in Wales
The relationship between S4C and other broadcasters in Wales and the UK
S4C as pioneer of minority language broadcasting
S4C as multi-platform content disseminator
S4C and cultural vitality in Wales
Commissioning and programming
Content
Audiences, citizens and consumers

Contact: For further information regarding the conference please contact us on mercator@aber.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)1970 62 1982

Minority Language Media In The European Union

Mercator's main goal is to gather, store, analyse and distribute information through a documentation and information network for regional and minority languages in the European Union.

Mercator Media is one of the three research and documentation centres in the Mercator network. Mercator was founded as an initiative of the European Commission in 1987 to meet the growing interest in various aspects of minority and regional languages and the increasing need of the language communities to exchange experiences and cooperate in a European context. Through Mercator it has become possible to improve the accessibility and exchange of information of minority and regional languages in a more systematic way.

Conference Notice "S4C: The First 25 Years"



Deuddydd llawn o ddadansoddi datblygiad S4C drwy sesiynau tyst a chyfweliadau gyda ffigurau blaenllaw yn y diwydiant darlledu o’r cychwyn cyntaf hyd heddiw.

Cinio’r Gynhadledd yng nghwmni Prif Weithredwr S4C, Iona Jones.

Ymysg y siaradwyr bydd: Euryn Ogwen Williams, Geraint Stanley Jones, Huw Jones, Gwilym Owen, Geraint Talfan Davies, Rhodri Glyn Thomas...

I weld y rhaglen ac i gofrestru ewch i http://www.aber.ac.uk/mercator/cy/s4c25

Sesiynau yn cynnwys:

- Darlledu yn y Gymraeg cyn creu S4C
- Sefydlu Sianel
- Archifo’r Sianel
- Agweddau ar S4C
- Y Gymhariaeth Ryngwladol
- Mater yr Iaith
- Hunaniaeth y Sianel
- O bedair sianel i bedwar cant: S4C rhwng 1994 a 2005
- Yr Annibynnwyr
- Newyddion a Materion Cyfoes
- Gweledigaeth Ddramatig
- Y Berthynas Newydd - BBC ac S4C

Cynhadledd "S4C: Y Chwarter Canrif Cynta on FaceBook

For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on Face Book

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Why Do Many Small Nations 'Specialize' in Film Adaptations?

It has been estimated that an overwhelming percentage of Welsh films and television dramas are intentionally based upon other literary sources.

This overwhelming dependence upon literary adaptation is primarily from important Welsh literary or cultural sources. This suggests an attempt to ‘recall and recollect’ and to re-‘write the nation’, after a period of suppressed or neglected representations of Welsh-ness.

While Dave Berry’s book and other studies have attributed this Welsh dependence upon literary adaptation as ‘laziness’ (Berry 1994: 234), we see it as being related to issues of post-colonial ‘re-telling’ of a national story, or more related to the economics of production.



For example, Stephen Bayly directed Joni Jones (1982) as a well-received television series for S4C, an adaptation based upon the well-known children’s stories by R. Garallt Jones entitled Gwared y Gwirion or ‘Redemption of the Innocents’.

It is often the case in Wales, that directors will create a series which is actually suited to be converted into a feature film at a later date, should the funding and political will be present to effect the re-formatting.

Additionally, one of Wales's most famous sons is Andrew Davies, who is known around the world as the 'Prince of Adaptation'.

Andrew Wynford Davies (born September 20, 1936 in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales) is a British screenwriter.

He is the creator of the children's Marmalade Atkins television series and A Very Peculiar Practice, and is also well known for his adaptations of classic works of literature, including the 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and the 1998 adaptation of Vanity Fair.



Literary and stage adaptations have added clout with film production investors, who assume that a successful novel or stage play will naturally make a successful film.

Some screenwriters have been known to 'invent' a novel AFTER writing a film script, for purposes of marketing the film, and for raising venture capital.

In small nations, broadcasting drama department Commissioning Editors often opt for an adaptation. This satisfies several remits: nationalistic and cultural agendas are fulfilled, while it's assumed that an established audience exists for the new film or TV series.

My favorite book on film and literature in general is Tom Corrigan's 'Film & Literature' (1999, Prentic Hall Inc / Simon & Schuster).

Here's a pleasant Youtube tribute to Colin Firth in Pride & Prejudice:









'Adaptation: Studying Film and Literature' (Paperback) by John Desmond (Author), Peter Hawkes (Author) is concise and readable new text for courses in Film Adaptation or Film and Literature introduces students to the art of adapting works of literature for film.

'Adaptation' describes the interwoven histories of literature and film, presents key analytical approaches to adaptation, and provides an in-depth overview of adaptations of novels, short stories, plays, nonfiction, and animation.

The book concludes with an analysis of why adaptations sometimes fail.



mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Friday/Gwener -- Film-lovers' Forum Followed by Gala Premiere: Welsh and British Film Expert Steve Blandford Tonight at Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre

Pictured right: Professor Steve Blandford, Associate Dean of Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, is an expert in British film and television.

Professor Blandford will discuss his new book, 'Film, Drama and the Break-Up of Britain' at tonight's film event at Chapter Arts Centre.

Special Film Event: Screening of the new film, 'This is England' plus a talk by Professor Steve Blandford (18)

Buy Tickets Now from the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff

Friday, 29 June 2007 20:15 Cinema 1
Fri 29 June / Gwener 29 Mehefin

UK/2006/100 mins/18. Dir: Shane Meadows. With Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley.

Shane Meadows’ most accomplished film to date is set in 1983, and focuses on a lonely 12-year-old who runs into a group of skinheads, but finds himself drawn into more uncomfortable territory when an older, overtly racist gang member is released from prison.

This screening will be preceded by a 30-minute talk on current British cinema by Steve Blandford, professor of theatre and media and associate dean of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan, and author of the new book 'Film, Drama and the Break-Up of Britain'.



Critics say that 'This is England' is "fizzing with energy and humour, powered by brilliantly engaging performances" -

BBCi

www.thisisenglandmovie.co.uk

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Film, Drama and the Break Up of Britain - Steve Blandford 2007

Congratulations to Professor Steve Blandford as his much anticipated, new book is hot off the presses -- This book engages with ideas that are highly topical and relevant: nationalism, nationhood and national identity as well as the relationship of these to post-colonialism. However, it does so within the broad field of drama.

Examining the debates around the relationship between culture and national identity, the book documents the contributions of actual dramatists and film-makers to the chronicling of an important historical moment.

The book breaks down what have been traditional barriers between theatre, film and television studies, considering the very broad range of ways in which the creators of dramatic fictions are telling us stories about ourselves at a time when the idea of being ‘British’ is increasingly problematic.

Much has been written on the ‘break up’ of Britain, but there has been very little to-date about the impact that this is having on drama in the theatre, on television and on film.

A very wide range of material is discussed in the book, ranging from box office hits such as The Full Monty to community based theatre in Scotland and Wales.

Order yours today:

Labels: Steve Blandford, British Film and TV, British Devolution, Welsh Films, Irish films, Scottish Films, British Drama[British Film]

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods