Call for Contributors – World Film Locations: Shanghai

*** Call for Contributors Closed – Thanks for your interest!  ***

Editors John Berra (Nanjing University) and Wei Ju (Tongji University) seek suitable contributors for World Film Locations: Shanghai, a forthcoming addition to the World Film Locations series from Intellect Books. In terms of covering screen representation of China’s major cities, the Shanghai volume will follow World Film Locations: Beijing, which was published in October 2012.

The city continues to play a central role in a multitude of films, helping us to frame our understanding of place and of the world around us. Whether as elaborate directorial love-letters or as time-specific cultural settings, the city acts as a vital character in helping to tell a story. These observations have inspired World Film Locations, a series which not only aims to explore how the cinema is helping to shape our view of the city, but also to examine the role of the city in film and how can we engage with various urban cultures through the medium of cinema.

Each entry in the series will explore and reveal the relationship between the city and the cinema by using a predominantly visual approach. All books will be illustrated with evocative screen-grabs complimented by concise analysis of key scenes, complemented by essays that consider individual film-makers, key historical periods, and urban themes relating to each individual city.

As with other volumes in the series, World Film Locations: Shanghai will be comprised of 46 scene reviews (250 words each) that discuss the content/location of a specific scene from a key Shanghai film.

It would be preferred that contributors commit to 3 or 4 scene reviews

Requesting Scene Reviews:

When expressing interest in the project, please state what you would be able to commit to and provide your choices. As certain essay and scene review subjects will be particularly popular, please be flexible and suggest as many options as possible (e.g. – to write 3 scene reviews, suggest at least 5 titles, and it should be possible to assign you 3 from that list). When requesting titles, you should also try to suggest which locations/scenes you would cover in your scene reviews. This is to avoid any over-lap between contributions, as some locations are more widely-used than others, thereby ensuring that World Film Locations: Shanghai is not repetitive in content and provides the reader with a thorough cinematic guide to the city.

Scene Reviews:

Scene reviews should be of films from the following list. Other titles will be seriously considered on suggestion.

Please note that titles in bold italics have already been assigned. All other titles are still available:

• 2046 (2004)
• Apart Together (2010)
• A Beautiful New World (1999)
• Blood Brothers (2007)
• The Boxer from Shantung (1972)
• Centre Stage (1992)
• Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
• China Strike Force (2000)
• Code 46 (2003)
• Crossroads (1937)
• Dangerous Liaisons (2012)
• Daybreak (1933)
• Driverless (2010)
• Eighteen Springs (1997)
• Eight Thousand Li of Cloud and Moon (1947)
• Empire of the Sun (1987)
• Everlasting Regret (2005)
• Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
• The Founding of a Republic (2009)
• The Goddess (1934)
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
• God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai (1991)
• Go For Broke (2000)
• A Great Wall (1986)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
• I Wish I Knew (2010)
• Jasmine Women (2004)
• A Jewish Girl in Shanghai (2010)
• Jump (2009)
• Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
• Lady Blue Shanghai (2010)
• Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010)
• Like a Dream (2009)
• The Longest Night in Shanghai (2007)
• Love in Disguise (2010)
• Lust, Caution (2007)
• Man Zhou: Beijing to Shanghai (2010)
• Milk and Fashion (2007)
• Mission: Impossible III (2006)
• Mr Zhao (1998)
• My American Grandson (1991)
• Myriad of Lights (1948)
• No. 89 Shimen Road (2010)
• Nostalgia (2006)
• The Painted Veil (2006)
• Perhaps Love (2005)
• The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006)
• Purple Butterfly (2003)
• Queen of Sports (1934)
• The Red Violin (1998)
• Scenes of City Life (1935)
• Shanghai (2010)
• Shanghai Baby (2007)
• Shanghai Calling (2012)
• Shanghai Express (1932)
• The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
• Shanghai Grand (1996)
• Shanghai Kiss (2007)
• Shanghai Panic (2001)
• Shanghai Red (2006)
• Shanghai Story (2004)
• Shanghai Surprise (1986)
• Shanghai Triad (1994)
• Shaolin Soccer (2001)
• Skyfall (2012)
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011)
• The Spring River Flows East (1947)
• Street Angel (1937)
• Street Life (2006)
• Suzhou River (2000)
• Temptress Moon (1996)
• Umbrella (2007)
• The White Countess (2005)

Scene Review/Image Guidelines:

To write a scene review of a certain title, you must have access to an official, high-quality DVD of the film in order to take screen-grabs of the scene under discussion. Images sourced from unofficial DVDs or online/torrent copies will not be accepted and may result in your scene review not being used. 6-8 images from the scene under discussion must be provided in order to offer the reader a detailed visual analysis that works in tandem with your writing. Therefore, please select a scene that is sufficiently detailed, providing various angles that clearly break-down the scene/location for the reader. If possible, deactivate the subtitle option when taking images so that we just publish a clear image. All screen-grabs should be sent as separate image files and not as part of the Scene Review word document. The designer will need to work with the original screen-grab to get the best result on publication. Contributors will not be reimbursed for the cost of acquiring DVDS. Therefore, please ensure that you have access to relevant DVDs before requesting to write about particular titles. This will avoid personal or financial inconvenience at a later stage. These instructions must be followed closely in order to ensure a smooth process from submission to eventual publication.

Contributor Specification:

Contributors will preferably have experience/knowledge of Shanghai and/or expertise in such academic areas as Chinese cinema, the development of China’s urban culture, or global production trends. Contributors must be able to work to deadlines.

Deadline for Submission:

The deadline for all scene reviews will be June 30, 2013. However, it would also be appreciated if contributors could send their first scene review within a few months of the project start date in order to make sure that their approach is adhering to general project guidelines. The editors will not publish work that does not meet series standards in terms of general quality, or due to deviation from the specified format.

Contact Email: john.berra@gmail.com

Further details about the World Film Locations series can be found at the Intellect website:

http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Series,id=27/