Film and Multimedia Interest Group

Page last updated: 6 November 2017

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Mission Statement
E-mail Listserv
Discussion Platform
Bibliography
Call for Proposals
Upcoming Events
SMT Conference Activities
Contact

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Mission Statement

The Film and Multimedia Interest Group (FMIG) strives to create a scholarly space to stimulate and disseminate research on music (broadly understood to include sound) within film, game, and multimedia, employing well-established music analytical methodologies, as well as newly developed analytical frameworks. By extension, this group will seek to facilitate dialogue and collaboration with researchers working in cognition, musicology, and allied fields. Regular activities include planning special sessions, coordinating discussion groups and roundtables, maintaining a discussion platform, compiling non-commercially available scores, and creating resources (bibliographies and other documents) for the membership at large.

E-mail Listserv

Any SMT members are invited to join the FMIG e-mail listserv. We use this listserv to make announcements, initiate discussions, and generally facilitate communication amongst our members. To subscribe, go to:
http://lists.societymusictheory.org/listinfo.cgi/fmig-societymusictheory.org

(or you can e-mail Steve Reale and ask him to subscribe you)

(Remember: you must be a member of SMT to join FMIG.)

The list archive can be viewed here:
http://lists.societymusictheory.org/private.cgi/fmig-societymusictheory.org/

Discussion Platform

FMIG hosts a discussion forum on SMT Discuss, under the Film and Multimedia category. We encourage any and all to post questions or discussion points here (you don't have to be a member of FMIG to join in the conversation).

Bibliography

The Film and Multimedia Interest Group has created an open, crowd-sourced Bibliography. The aim of this bibliography is to provide a resource for music theorists to discover and share in the small but growing literature on music in film, television, video games, and sonic multimedia. Any user may add literature they believe may contribute to this field, so long as it fits within the (broadly conceived) interests and intellectual frameworks of music theory.

Call for Proposals

Submit proposals for upcoming conferences related to our field:

Max Steiner: Man and Myth Symposium
Date: February 24-25, 2018
Location: California State University, Long Beach

Max Steiner, the film composer for King Kong, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and The Searchers, has long been hailed “Dean of Film Music.” But Steiner’s familiar presence in iconic films overshadows the vast majority of his work and legacy, which remain more acknowledged than studied. Only recently, for instance, has research on early sound cinema corrected long-held beliefs on the relationship of Steiner’s music in King Kong to early Hollywood scores. Similar work remains to be done, whether considering Steiner’s upbringing in Vienna, his peripatetic career in musical theater, his fluctuating arrangements with Hollywood studios, his relationships with individual filmmakers and musicians, and his shifting approach to composition across genres and over time.

This symposium brings together scholars to reconsider and expand our understanding of Steiner’s work, its historical context, and its broader relationship to musicological film studies. To encourage greater dialogue, the program committee welcomes paper proposals that address any facet of Max Steiner’s life and music, within film and beyond. Additionally, the symposium organizers encourage submissions of lecture-recital proposals.

Symposium Organizing Committee:
Roger Hickman (California State University, Long Beach)
Nathan Platte (University of Iowa)
William H. Rosar (University of California, San Diego and Journal of Film Music)
Aaron Fruchtman (California State University, Long Beach)

Please send abstracts (and inquiries) to steinersymposium -at- gmail.com, by December 15, 2017.

Proposers will be notified of acceptance/rejection by December 22, 2017.

Upcoming Events

Related conferences:

None at the moment. (Let Steve know if you know of any that should be added)

SMT Conference Activities

Here is a list of FMIG activities from Annual Meetings of the SMT:

SMT 2017 (Arlington, VA)
> Another round of lightning talks! See program here: FMIG-2017_Lightning_Talks.pdf

SMT 2016 (Vancouver, BC)
> This year, we hosted a joint program with the proposed AMS Music and Media Study Group
> Lightning Talks program

SMT 2015 (St. Louis, MO)
   > FMIG-related talks
   > Meeting Minutes
   > Lightning Talks
   > Photo of the illustrious Bill O'Hara, engaged in scholarly activities, driving the video game demonstration for Enoch Jacobus' lightning talk, kept in line by rigorous time-keeper Jim Buhler