Dr Simon Brown
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Critical and Historical Studies
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
- Penrhyn Road
Associate professor
- Email:
- simon.brown@kingston.ac.uk
About
I am associate professor of Film and Television and joined Kingston University in 2004 after spending a decade at the BFI National Film and Television Archive, sourcing and restoring old films. From that work came my love of film history, and also my PHD which was on the early years of the British film industry. Over the course of my career, I've written about and taught a range of Film, TV and Media related subjects such as Film History and Technology, National Cinemas including Britain, China and Hong Kong, Cult Film and Television, Horror, Adaptation, Censorship, Documentary and the History of Non-Fiction Film, Archiving and the Media Industry as well as Contemporary American Film and Television. I currently teach on the BA Creative Writing (Film Pathway) and on the MA Film Studies. I am also the PGR Co-ordinator for the School of Creative and Cultural Industries.
Domains
Courses taught
My main areas of research are around film and television history and technology, genre, and adaptation. I have written extensively on various aspects of film and TV history, including the development of colour cinematography up to the arrival of Technicolor in the 1930s, the rise and fall of 3D television, and in particular the development of the film industry in the UK from its beginnings in 1895 through to the First World War. MY particular focus in this area was the pioneer filmmaker Cecil Hepworth, who was based close to Kingston in Walton on Thames. My recent film research has revolved around the horror genre and adaptation, focussing mainly on films adapted from the written works of Stephen King. In terms of TV, I have written extensively about cult tv shows such as Dexter, The X-Files, Under the Dome, and about cult networks like Showtime and Fox.
Publications
Creepshow
Brown, Simon (2019). Leighton Buzzard: (Auteur Press)
Creepshow
Brown, Simon (2019). Leighton Buzzard: (Auteur Publishing)
Screening Stephen King : adaptation and the horror genre in film and television
Brown, Simon (2018). Austin, U.S.: (University of Texas Press)
Cecil Hepworth and the rise of the British film industry 1899-1911
Brown, Simon (2016). Exeter, U.K.: (University of Exeter Press)
British colour cinema : practices and theories
(2013). London, U.K.: (British Film Institute)
Investigating Alias: secrets and spies
(2007). London, U.K.: (I. B. Tauris)
Adapting Stephen King : text, context and the case of 'Cell' (2016)
Brown, Simon, 2017, Pennywise Dreadful (1), 1, pp 42-56
Stephen King's Vampire Kingdom : Supernatural EVIL and Human evil in TV adaptations of Salem's Lot (1979, 2004)
Brown, Simon, 2017, Horror Studies (8), 2, pp 223
Alternate version of the same reality : adapting Under the Dome as a SF TV series
Brown, Simon, 2017, Science Fiction Film and Television (10), 2, pp 267-283
From novelty to normal: 3DTV as special effect
Brown, Simon, 2013, Critical Studies in Television (8), 3, pp 33-46
From inventor to renter: the middleman, the production crisis and the formation of the British film industry
Brown, Simon, 2013, Early Popular Visual Culture (11), 2, pp 100-112
Memento mori: The slow death of The X-Files
Brown, Simon, 2013, Science Fiction Film and Television (6), 1, pp 7-22
Anywhere but Scotland? Transnationalism and new Scottish cinema
Brown, Simon, 2011, International Journal of Scottish Theatre and Screen (4), 1
Book Review of: The mass image: a social history of photomechanical reproduction in Victorian London by Gerry Beegan
Brown, Simon, 2009, Journal of British Cinema and Television (6), 1, pp 141-143
Colouring the nation: spectacle, reality and British natural colour in the silent and early sound era
Brown, Simon, 2009, Film History: an International Journal (21), 2, pp 139-149
Flicker alley: Cecil Court and the emergence of the British film industry
Brown, Simon, 2007, Film Studies (10), pp 21-33
Coming soon to a hall near you: some notes on 16mm road-show distribution in the 1930s
Brown, Simon, 2005, Journal of British Cinema and Television (2), 2, pp 299-309
Early cinema in Britain and the smoking concert film
Brown, Simon, 2005, Early Popular Visual Culture (3), 2, pp 165-178
The greatest documentary ever made?: James Cameron's Titanic
Brown, S., 2003, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: a journal of criticism and theory (5), 1, pp 78-88
Stephen King and vampires
Brown, Simon (2023). In: Bacon, Simon, (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. London, U.K.: Palgrave McMillan Cham
Gothic and silent cinema
Abbott, Stacey and Brown, Simon (2021). In: Spooner, Catherine, (eds.) and Townshend, Dale, (eds.), Gothic in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, pp 22-42
Remaking Stephen King : texts and contexts
Brown, Simon (2019). In: Piatti-Farnell, Lorna, (ed.), Gothic afterlives : reincarnations of horror in film and television. Lanham, Maryland, U.S.: Lexington Books
Inspiration as adaptation : TV horror, seriality and the adapted text
Brown, Simon and Abbott, Stacey (2019). In: Kaklamanidoy, Betty, (ed.), Adaptation 4.0 : a state of polymorphia. Detroit, U.S.: Wayne State University Press
Stephen King’s Full Dark No Stars (2010) – Stephen King
Brown, Simon (2019). In: Bacon, Simon, (ed.), Horror: a Companion. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp 235-240
The Brighton School and the quest for natural color – redux
Brown, Simon (2012). In: Brown, Simon, (eds.), Street, Sarah, (eds.) and Watkins, Liz, (eds.), Color and the moving image: history, theory, aesthetics, archive. Oxford, U.K.: Routledge, pp 13-22
Censorship under siege : the BBFC in the silent era
Brown, Simon (2012). In: Lamberti, Edward, (ed.), Behind the scenes at the BBFC : film classification from the silver screen to the digital age. London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 3-14
Renegades and Wayward Sons : Supernatural and the '70s
Brown, Simon (2011). In: Abbott, Stacey, (eds.) and Lavery, David, (eds.), TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural. Toronto, Canada: ECW Press, pp 60-74
Cult channels: Showtime, FX and Cult TV
Brown, Simon (2010). In: Abbott, Stacey, (ed.), The cult TV book. London, U.K.: I.B. Tauris, pp 155-162
Case Study: the X-Files
Brown, Simon (2010). In: Abbott, Stacey, (ed.), The cult TV book. London, U.K.: I.B. Tauris, pp 163-166
The art of sp(l)atter: body horror in Dexter
Brown, Simon and Abbott, Stacey (2010). In: Howard, Douglas L., (ed.), Dexter: Investigating Cutting Edge Television. London, U.K.: I.B. Tauris, pp 205-220
Can't live with 'em, can shoot 'em: Alias and the (thermo) nuclear family
Brown, Simon and Abbott, Stacey (2007). In: Abbott, Stacey, (eds.) and Brown, Simon, (eds.), Investigating Alias: secrets and spies. London, U.K.: I. B. Tauris, pp 87-100
Introduction: 'serious spy stuff': the cult pleasures of Alias
Brown, Simon and Abbott, Stacey (2007). In: Abbott, Stacey, (eds.) and Brown, Simon, (eds.), Investigating Alias: secrets and spies. London, U.K.: I. B. Tauris, pp 1-8
Narrative and pictorialism in post-pioneer Hepworth films
Brown, Simon (2007). In: Porter, Laraine, (eds.) and Dixon, Bryony, (eds.), Picture Perfect: Landscape, Place and Travel in British Cinema before 1930. Exeter, U.K.: The Exeter Press, pp 29-36
An American werewolf in America : Stephen King's 'Cycle of the werewolf' and 'Silver bullet'
Brown, Simon(2015). In: Open graves, open minds : The company of wolves : Sociality, animality, and subjectivity in literary and cultural narratives - werewolves, shapeshifters, and feral humans, 03 - 05 Sep 2015 :Hatfield, U.K.
Blanche MacIntosh: first lady of screen crime
Brown, Simon(2008). In: Rats, Rascals and Ruffians: the Globalisation of Crime and the British Silent Film : 11th British Silent Cinema Festival, 03 - 06 Apr 2008 :Nottingham, U.K.
Brown, Simon(2004). In: ‘Goodbye to all that’ British Silent Cinema and World War I, 05-19 Apr 2004 :Nottingham, U.K.