Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays

Issue 13 is an ordinary open call. We invite scholars, researchers, and creators to send pieces centered on film, TV and digital production, consumption, circulation, and cultural exchange. We are particularly, but not exclusively, interested in works that focus on Spanish and Latin American cultural production.

Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays launches its CFP for issue 14. It is a biannual, peer-reviewed journal, which also offers a monographic dossier each year. This journal is published by the research group Tecmerin (Television, Cinema, Memory, Representation and Industry) of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Department of Media).

DOSSIER: HORROR FILM & TELEVISION

Horror has exponentially grown in the 21^st century as one of the most commmercially successful and critically acclaimed film and television genres. In the cinematic arena, franchises such as It, The Conjuring, Saw, Final Destination or A Quiet Place have smashed previous records, topping the highest-grossing lists. In addition, new trends, cycles and approaches have also taken center stage. For example, the early 2000s was the heyday of the Hollywood remakes of Japanese horror (J-Horror) with films such as The Ring or The Grudge. In the same period, the rise of digital technology as a storytelling tool and a production modus operandi gave birth to groundbreaking found footage independent features like The Blair Witch Project or, a bit later, Paranormal Activity. Subsequently this trend entered the mainstream with Cloverfield, produced by one of the power players in the world film industry, J.J. Abrams. In the US and elsewhere,  TVseries such as American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Servant, Inside No. 9, Penny Dreadful, True Blood, The Returned, Dark, 30 coins, o Tales To Be Awake or Kingdom have opened new paths for serialized fiction, turning into critical components of the contemporary social imaginary.

Not all horror films or series have been new feats though. Hollywood continues to endlessly recycle and reshuffle some of its most coveted properties. Thus, franchises such as The Exorcist, Halloween, The Invisible Man, The Walking Dead or Scream have been rebooted to update the original films for new audiences, reinventing their mythology or, at times, shamelessly exploiting their popularity. Economic and critical returns have been uneven.

At the same time, new voices have reinvigorated horror filmmaking from very diverse perspectives and modes of production. Jordan Peele’s independent feature Get out (2017) earned over 250 million dollars worlwide and was universally acclaimed as a vanguardist and necessary development within horror, bringing to the forefront cultural, social and economic anxieties and bigotry within the contemporary US imaginary. Peele has followed this effort with two other notable films, Us and Nope, earning significant profits and critical acclaim. In the same period, other filmmakers such as Ari Aster have conquered the critics’ favor with well-crafted films like Hereditary or Midsommar. David Robert Mitchell shocked everyone with It Follows, a rearticulation of the latent dangers within the apparently safe white picket fence suburbia that the original Halloween explicitly deconstructed. Former theater designer and director Robert Eggers returned to the origins of “America” in The Witch, designing a disturbing tale in 17^th century New England by focusing on the Puritan mindset that organized society in this era.

21^st century horror film has not only been a US phenomenon. Not at all. In fact, elsewhere, some of the most innovative cinematic endeavours have fallen within this generic category. In South Korea, for example, Bong Joon-Ho updated with extraordinary results the monster movie in The Host (2006). Other remarkable South Korean horror films include, for example, A Tale of Two Sisters and I Saw the Devil. Japanese cinema, as mentioned above, has also produced a remarkable amount of horror films, which have been deeply influential across the globe. Among others, we may highlight Audition, Pulse (or The Curse.

Latin American has reshuffled national myths and socioeconomic realities to receive great critical attention. Vuelven / Tigers Are not Afraid by Mexican filmmaker Issa López triumphed in the Austin Film Festival and garnered critical acclaim. Guatemalan La Llorona  updated a traditional popular tale for a new area, receiving great international attention. Additionally, Guillermo del Toro has been a pioneer since his debut film Cronos, subsequently making transnational works in Spain before becoming a de facto Hollywood director.

In Europe, filmmakers have engaged with the very history of horror and have also explored untapped territories. 28 Days Later started to put in the map the zombie narratives; a subgenre that has increasingly populated mainstream cinema for the last two decades. Let the Right One In reinvented the vampire narrative and was soon thereafter remade in the US. Martyrs (explored the limits of sadism and representation. Furthermore, in Europe, women filmmakers have center taken stage. Films such as Trouble Every Day, Hotel, Dorothy Mills, Raw, Good night, mommy!, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night or Revenge have turned upside the horror genre, adopting a diversity of female points of view that reframe horror filmmaking from novel perspectives.

Finally, in Australia and New Zealand, horror films have emerged strongly, with global franchises like The Babadook and incredibly creative endeavors such as What We Do in the Shadows, later turned into a critically acclaimed television series.

In issue 14 of Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisuals, we invite contributors to focus on the horror genre both within the film and television arenas. We are especially interested in 21^st century horror. However, we will also accept proposals of 20^th century pioneering horror films and television shows, genres and subgenres, stars and production companies.

Submissions may include but are not limited to the following topics:

• Horror and gender.
• Genre hybridity & horror.
• Horror subgenres (slasher, zombie films etc.)
• Stars & horror.
• Horror & the representation of LGBTQI+ subjectivities and bodies.
• Horror & class.
• Distribution and exhibition of horror films.
• Connections between different film industries.
• Horror fandom.
• From Media to Media: horror films and TV shows that have existed across multiple viewing platforms.
• TV and film horror franchises, remakes and reboots.

We are also launching a special call about horror stars for the Screen Stars Dictionary. See specific guidelines for this section here:

Screen Stars Dictionary

Instructions for authors:

Researchers and creators may send their audiovisual essays to one of the following sections:

1. Video-Essays: audiovisual essays that offer a critical take on diverse aspects of cinema, television and popular culture.
2. Creators: experimental or documentary pieces that approach a specific cultural topic, as long as it is related to the history of audiovisual media.

Video-Essays must be uploaded on VIMEO, as private. If this were not possible, contact us and we will offer an alternative. Each author will send the following information to this email: tecmerinrevista@uc3m.es

1. Vimeo url address.
2. Password for video.
3. 500-800 word text, presenting the video in word format (also anonymous).

4.Three-to-five (3-5) keywords.

5. Description of the video to be shown at the journal home.
6. A video frame that could work as a thumbnail. Format: .jpg preferably with dimensions 300×260 px and weight less than 1MB.

Deadline:

Call for Papers Issue 13 (May, 2024): April 15th, 2024

Call for Papers Issue 14 (October, 2024) – Dossier. Horror Film & Television: September 1st, 2024

Videos cannot contain the name of the author to facilitate the blind peer review.

Language: Video essays can be in any language with Spanish or/and English subtitles.

Length: the maximum length of the video essays is preferably 10-15 minutes.

Video size: less than 800 MB.

Guidelines for the text of the audiovisual essay

The text must accompany the audiovisual essay and its purpose is to deepen, in a scientific manner, aspects of the piece, such as the theoretical background of the essay or the justification of the analysis. In no case should it be a transcription of the voice-over used in the video essay, and it should avoid reiterating the information seen in the audiovisual essay.  

The text should include: 

1. Title of the piece (bold).
2. Author and full affiliation
3. Abstract (100-150 words)
4. Keywords (between three and five, arranged in alphabetical order)
5. Text (500-800 words)
6. Bibliography (and filmography)

This text must establish a dialogue with other previous theoretical proposals, so it is necessary to reference the works it is based on. These references should appear as in-text citations and in a bibliography at the end of the text (which does not fall within the 500-800 word limit). It is also pertinent to add a filmography with the titles referred to in the text or used in the audiovisual essay. Thus, works that have not been cited in the body of the text should not appear in the list of references. 

It is also advisable to add a filmography with the titles referred to in the text. Both bibliographical and filmographic references must follow the APA rules (7th edition).

Authors who publish an audiovisual essay will have to wait 1 year to publish again.

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If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at tecmerinrevista@uc3m.es