Simon Brown

I am Associate Professor of Film and Television and Course Leader for the BA Film Cultures Undergraduate Degree. I 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, Censorship, Documentary and the History of Non-Fiction Film, Archiving and the Media Industry as well as Contemporary American Film and Television.
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.