MAKING EUROPEAN CULT CINEMA: FAN PRODUCTION IN AN ALTERNATIVE ECONOMY OLIVER CARTER A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Birmingham City University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. August 2013 Birmingham School of Media, The Faculty of Performance, Media and English ii For Hayley iii PREFACE Extracts from chapter two have been published in the chapter ‘Sound and Vision’ Radio Documentary, Fandom and New Participatory Cultures (co-authored with Sam Coley) from the forthcoming book The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (Halligan, Edgar, Fairclough- Issacs, 2013). This chapter is included in section B of the appendices. A version of chapter six has been published in the chapter ‘Slash Production’: Objectifying the Serial ‘Kiler’ in Euro-Cult Cinema Fan Production from the forthcoming book Murders and Acquisitions: Representations of the Serial Killer in Popular Culture (MacDonald, 2013). This chapter is included in section C of the appendices. Extracts from chapter seven have been translated to Italian and published in the chapter ‘Sharing All’Italiana – The Reproduction and Distribution of the Giallo on Torrent File-Sharing Websites from the forthcoming book The Piracy Effect (Braga and Caruso, 2013). This chapter is included in section D of the appendices. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of a number of important people who I now give mention to here. When I came to Birmingham City University in 2001, then named the University of Central England, as a mature undergraduate to study Media and Communication, the first person I met was Paul Long. Paul taught me, supervised my undergraduate dissertation, mentored me as a member of staff and, following the transfer of my PhD from Birmingham University to Birmingham City University, became my first supervisor. His patience, generosity with time, detailed feedback, general support and his wife’s vegetarian lasagne will never be forgotten. Tim Wall’s input as my second supervisor changed the direction of my initial proposal to something more substantial and intellectually challenging. His support of me as a member of staff as well as a postgraduate student has gone far beyond his duty. It was Tim’s support during the final stages that pushed me to complete this dissertation and explicitly tease out my thesis. John Mercer joined as my Director of Studies in the final years of my PhD. His pragmatic approach, instilling of confidence and sense of humour contributed greatly to me realising that completion was actually achievable. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of my colleagues at the Birmingham School of Media. Particularly I would like to thank Head of School Philip Thickett for funding my seven years of doctoral research, Sue Heseltine, my fellow PhD students Pete Wilby and Faye Davies, Linda Watts and the following, who offered specific support during my studies: my office mate Sam Coley, Simon Barber, Matt Grimes, Annette Naudin for her guidance on entrepreneurship, Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore, Kerry Gough, Nick Webber and Jon Hickman. Also, thank you to my students, past and present, for keeping me going while writing this dissertation. Thanks to the following scholars whose work inspired this study and my career as an academic: Martin Barker, Dave Hesmondhalgh, Matt Hills, Henry Jenkins and Xavier Mendik. To those who were interviewed for this study, giving their time and openly discussing their activities, this study would not have been possible without your contributions. Thank you. Also thanks to Jonny, Paul, Rich, Aarron and Marc for providing fanzines and general information. Sue and Terry for their kindness and support. To my parents, Robert and Wendy, for their love and support not just during my PhD, but throughout my life. And finally, as you would leave the last Malteser to the one that you love, thank you to my wife Hayley for her patience, love and support. v ABSTRACT Making European Cult Cinema: Fan Production in an Alternative Economy Oliver Robert Carter A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD Birmingham City University 2013 Supervisors: Paul Long and Tim Wall Director of Studies: John Mercer This study gives attention to the fan production surrounding European cult cinema, low budget exploitation films often in the horror genre, that engage a high level of cultural commitment and investment from its fans. It addresses wider issues of debate relating to why people are fans and whether they are anything more than obsessive in their consumption of media. The academic study of fandom is relatively a new area, the formative year being 1992 when studies such as Henry Jenkins’ Textual Poachers, Lisa Lewis’ The Adoring Audience and Camille Bacon-Smith’s Enterprising Women approached fandom as a cultural activity. Studies such as these celebrate fandom and focus on fan production as a symbolic activity rather than an economic activity. Academics have only recently have academics recognised the commitment, time and effort that fans invest when producing artefacts. I explore the ways European cult cinema fandom might be understood as an alternative economy of fan production by looking at how fans produce artefacts and commodities. It uses a method of data collection, which includes ethnographic observation and interviews, focused on public offline and online fan activities, and my own personal experiences as autoethnography. The collected data is interrogated using a theoretical framework that incorporates ideas from cultural studies and political economy: using the concept of an ‘alternative economy’ of European cult cinema fan production. The purpose being to interpret an object of fandom as a production of meaning, physical artefacts and commodities, therefore understanding fandom as both cultural and economic production. I argue that, in this alternative economy, fans are ‘creative’ workers, using digital technologies to produce artefacts that are exchanged as gifts or commodities; this practice relating to repertoires of professionalism. I find that fans are not just producing artefacts and commodities relating to European cult cinema, but that through these processes they are culturally and economically making what has become known as European cult cinema. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of figures ......................................................................................................................................ix Introduction ........................................................................................................................................1 1. Conceptualising the Fan ..............................................................................................................8 1.1. Fancademia .....................................................................................................................8 1.2. Defining the fan ...............................................................................................................12 1.3. From capitalists to resisters .............................................................................................17 1.4. Fandom as a celebration ..................................................................................................22 1.5. Conclusion - Fan studies as fan production .....................................................................27 2. Fan Production as an Alternative Economy ..............................................................................30 2.1. Fandom as an economy ...................................................................................................31 2.2. Defining the ‘alternative economy’ .................................................................................36 2.3. Fans as creative workers ..................................................................................................40 2.4. Fan produced texts as exchangeable artefacts .................................................................54 2.5. Fans transgressing rules and regulations .........................................................................57 2.6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................63 3. Defining European cult cinema ...................................................................................................65 3.1. Trash or cult? ...................................................................................................................65 3.2. What is European cult cinema? .......................................................................................69 3.3. The ‘giallo’ ......................................................................................................................75 3.4. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................78 4. Researching the alternative economy of European cult cinema fan production ....................80 4.1. A (fan) ethnographic approach ........................................................................................81 4.2. A new model for fan ethnography: the ‘combined ethnography’ ....................................87 4.3. Using the combined ethnography model .........................................................................94 4.4. Limitations and ethical considerations ..........................................................................101 4.5. Conclusion .....................................................................................................................106