Exclusive for beginners

Whilst I imagine most of you will know something about Hammer Films - British horror film company - I doubt the same can be said of Exclusive. That's part of the attraction for me with the PhD project.

Ironically, shortly after I officially started work on the project Hammer's owners announced that they were going back into film acquisition and distribution and so a new Exclusive was born. In the last month Hammer's parent company has changed its name from HS Media to Exclusive Media, mirroring the original corporate make-up from the 1930s. Exclusive was the parent company to Hammer, although the group of companies is better known as the Hammer group. Exclusive would also distribute films, as they do now... My project has unwittingly taken on an extra relevance and immediacy which will no doubt filter into my written work. Although this is primarily an historical study there is room for some speculation and critical analysis... otherwise this wouldn't be a PhD!

Anyway, I produced a paper for a conference in Trinity back in September, and gave it the day before I formally signed on for the course. That means it doesn't count for my current body of work, but thankfully I didn't do too much for it, and have left plenty of new material for the doctoral study. I turned the paper into a podcast (the first in a new series) so others could get a chance to listen to it. I might turn it back into a written paper at some point. If you're interested, you can get it on Itunes here.

I also wrote an article on the original Exclusive for the official Hammer Films when they announced the formation of the new Exclusive. "It's Exclusive" is a beginner's guide. I did a little consultation with them regarding their new logo and was delighted that they chose to go with something that pays homage to the classic imagery. I'm hoping to explore that with an article that's been provisionally commissioned soon...