CFP: From TV To Screen: The Critical Relationship Between Popular Television Programmes and their Transition to Film

The transition of popular television programmes to film is a familiar route, but one that has had mixed results. The list of examples is extensive, from The X Files and Sex In The City, to The Fugitive, Doctor Who, Star Trek and a host of ’70s British Sitcoms, and most recently, The Man From UNCLE – an example that especially highlights the complex relationship between television and film. The transition of television to screen, therefore, is a process that not only relates to contemporary trends in film-making, but one which was recognised early on by Hollywood, and in many respects the ‚big screen‘ remake has often been heralded as prestigious or a sign of success and popularity. Some transitions and adaptations have involved a complete change of circumstances, referencing the franchise or original creation only tenuously, while others have attempted fidelity, usually through the retention of the original cast.

Although there has been plenty of research into filmic remakes (Horton and McDougal [1998], Mazdon [2000], Forrest and Koos [2002], Verevis [2006], Loock and Verevis [2012]), there has been little in the way of research into television-to-screen processes and its phenomenon in film and popular culture studies. This Special Collection for the OLH aims to build upon recent interrogations of TV-to-screen adaptations, most notably, Transnational Television Remakes edited by Constantine Verevis and Claire Perkins (Continuum 2015), and Constantine Verevis’s forthcoming chapter “TV to Film” in American Hollywood 2, Directory of World Cinema (Intellect Books, 2015). Understanding the complex formal and industrial processes underpinning the transition of television programmes to screen requires a variety of theoretical approaches, of which adaptation studies has been the most visible in film scholarship to date. However, the transition of a local/national television programme to the global screen should also be considered in terms of cross-cultural identity, transnational flows, transmedial storytelling across different media platforms, and also perceived hierarchies within and across local and global media.

This Special Collection of articles for the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) will examine the critical and often complex relationship between television and film when popular television programmes are re-made for the big screen. The collection therefore aims to illuminate the complex networks of knowledge involved in this process, and to encourage a variety of critical approaches to examining the TV-to-Screen transition.

Papers can include, but are not restricted to, examinations of the transitional processes of:

•    Industry and production values
•    Narrative development
•    Character/personnel changes and/or development
•    Plot and scenario transitions
•    Original versus adaptation
•    Failures and successes
•    Long Form versus Seriality
•    The television to screen phenomenon

Research articles should be approximately 8000 words in length, including references and a short bibliography. Submissions should comprise of:

•    Abstract (250 words)
•    Full-length article (8000 words)
•    Author information (short biographical statement of 200 words)

The deadline for submission is: 3rd June 2016 [N.B. This has been extended from the original deadline of 4th April 2016].

The special collection, edited by Kenneth Longden, is to be published in the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) (ISSN 2056-6700). The OLH is an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded open-access journal with a strong emphasis on quality peer review and a prestigious academic steering board. Unlike some open-access publications, the OLH has no author-facing charges and is instead financially supported by an international consortium of libraries.

Submissions should be made online at: https://submit.openlibhums.org/ in accordance with the author guidelines and clearly marking the entry as [“FROM TV TO SCREEN” SPECIAL COLLECTION]. Submissions will then undergo a double-blind peer-review process. Authors will be notified of the outcome as soon as reports are received.

To learn more about the Open Library of Humanities please visit:
https://www.openlibhums.org/