Screen Arts Media Preface

Screen Media Arts
Preface

We are indebted to a number of people who made this book possible. They include those who influenced us throughout the course of our academic and media production experiences and more specifically those who helped in the practical realisation of the project through Oxford University Press.

Thanks to our first editorial consultant from OUP, Lucy McLoughlin who guided the book through the early developmental stage of its conception and who then finalised its commission. She also read and commented on early drafts of chapters and facilitated the review process that allowed us to move to the writing stage. Upon Lucy’s retirement from Oxford, Karen Hildebrandt took up the reins and was equally supportive and responsive to all our queries. The sub-editor, Natasha Broadstock was a joy to work with. Her efficiency and expertise contributed hugely to the readability of the text. Thanks also to Naomi Hamilton, Senior Editor with OUP for keeping us on track and within our target release date. Tim Campbell’s layout of the book turned our writing into a visually exciting and accessible text ideal for the target audience. We feel indebted to all the OUP staff that so ably supported this project. We would like to single out for special mention our research assistant, Lisa Kaufmann who tracked down our image selection and secured permissions for their use.

The School of Communication Arts and the College of Arts through Dean Wayne McKenna of the University of Western Sydney have been generous in their support of our work in offering professional development leave giving us the time to complete this project. We would like to thank Professor Lynette Sheridan Burns, Head of the School of Communication Arts for her strong support and Sue Powell, the Senior Administrative Officer in the School. We are indebted to Professor Ross Gibson for his contribution to the book – both for writing the Forward and the images provided for illustration of the section, The Future Screen. As members of the Centre for Cultural Research, we also would like to acknowledge the intellectual stimulation we receive from colleagues within this research context.

We would like to offer special thanks to our families for their support during the execution of the project and to our colleagues and students for their advice and enlightenment.

We have learned from and wish to acknowledge the support and encouragement of the following people:

Michael Atherton, James Bradley, Ron Burnett, Martha Burnett, Rachel Bentley, Antonio Castillo, Alejandra Canales, Sylvia Margolian Cohen, Annie Cohen, Maisie Cohen, Peter Dallow, Kokila De Silva, Mitzi Goldman, Alasdair Hamilton, Peter Hutchings, Reisa Levine, Elaine Lally, Rob Leggo, Rachel Morley, Virginia Nightingale, Dennis O’Rourke, Neville Petersen, Brian Shoesmith, Leo Sulllivan, Vincent Tay, Rosemary Thomson, Steve Tredinnick, Phil Vitone, Tony Wilson, Noemi Weis, and Michel Zwecker.