Dan O’Brien

Screenworks 16.2 - "Laird's Constraint": Videographic Montage Analysis Special Issue, entry #4 of 6

@drdanobrien.bsky.social's "Everybody Dreams" analyzes the closing montage from "Vanilla Sky", and connects it with Hans Richter’s "Dreams That Money Can Buy":
www.screenworks.org.uk/archive/volu...

Curated by me, edited by Screenworks' Editor in Chief @charlottecrofts.bsky.social, and featuring pieces by @vikap8.bsky.social, @newsfromnihon.bsky.social, @drdanobrien.bsky.social, @colleenlaird.bsky.social, Quan Zhang and me, all made for my 2024 Parametric Summer Series. Very proud of this one!!

Halloween Double Bill Screening | University of Essex Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and William Wyler’s The Collector at Electric Palace Cinema, Harwich

🎬 Double Bill this Saturday 1st Nov at the Electric Palace:
The Collector (William Wyler, 1965)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
🎟️ Discount available for both!
👉 Event info: www.essex.ac.uk/events/2025/...
🎟️ Tickets: electricpalace.com/production/2...
📺 Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmBP...

The Thing With Feathers: a dark but uplifting exploration of grief and despair Dylan Southern’s film is a sharply crafted adaptation of Max Porter’s poignant book, grounded in powerful performances.

My review for The Thing With Feathers 🪶 theconversation.com/the-thing-wi...

Very happy to have contributed a (35-seconds-long) fragment to the 2nd collection of @fragmentsjournal.bsky.social, alongside fragments by @drdanobrien.bsky.social, @bolddecade.bsky.social , @ursmusically.bsky.social, and others!

Arnold Schwarzenegger. Screen Stars Dictionary This is "Arnold Schwarzenegger. Screen Stars Dictionary" by JOURNAL OF AUDIOVISUAL ESSAYS on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who…

Screen Stars Dictionary #36: Arnold Schwarzenegger, by @drdanobrien.bsky.social: vimeo.com/1104220855

Very pleased my video-essay will be part of today’s screening at the Marienbad Film Festival, showing alongside the brilliant work of fellow video essayists and filmmakers. m.youtube.com/watch?v=LdHX...

SUPERB! The Film Atlas is a collaboration between the International Federation of Film Archives and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is - or aims to be - an interactive global map of the history of film technology. The site has just gone live and it is free to use for all.
www.filmatlas.com

Very pleased to be part of this new issue of MAST on Time Machines with some more video-essay work on Time Loops. Many thanks to Michael Goddard, James Burton, and Aleena Chia for your support with this 🕰️➰⏰ www.mast-journal.org/vol-6-no-1-2...

The Phoenician Scheme: a fun watch even though it’s the same journey in a different vehicle Anderson is in danger of parodying his own style in his 13th film, but there’s still plenty to enjoy.

The Phoenician Scheme: a fun watch even though it’s the same journey in a different vehicle
theconversation.com/the-phoenici...

Ears Led the Way (Cut to Sound, Group 2) Made as part of a collaborative videographic experiment I organized in 2024-2025. Participants: Oswald Iten, Rotem Sudman, Daniel O'Brien, Daniel Pope, Viktoria…

Cut to Sound #2: "Ears Led the Way"

A collaborative video, with images and words by
Oswald Iten, Rotem Sudman, @drdanobrien.bsky.social, Daniel Pope, @vikap8.bsky.social, Eduardo Gama, Ada Etgar, and Alan O'Leary: vimeo.com/1076654961

Amazing Rebellious Research workshop at @baftss.bsky.social today from the Practice Research SIG - bring on the manifesto! Also a plug to all creative practice researchers for the Creative Practice Colloquium at UoB in June! #BAFTSS2025

Not quite a comedy, not quite a horror, not quite a musical - film expert @drdanobrien.bsky.social reviews Opus.

He explains why this satire about an evil celebrity cult has plenty to say, but what that is remains frustratingly unclear.

theconversation.com/opus-clunky-...

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest: 50 years on Jack Nicholson’s greatest performance is as fresh as ever McMurphy becomes an unlikely leader to the asylum patients, helping them to discover self-belief and confidence.

Pleased to have another article published with @uk.theconversation.com on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest & the role of games within the film. Like Anora, it picked up 5 Oscars at the 48th Academy Awards including best picture, actress & director. This article includes a short video-essay I made:

Film expert @drdanobrien.bsky.social reviews the multi-Oscar nominated Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Does this ballad of a thin man live up to the hype or is it tangled up in blue?

Read the full review in the @uk.theconversation.com

theconversation.com/a-complete-u...

Was pleased to attend another press screening today, this time for A Complete Unknown at Soho Hotel. The plush surroundings certainly did not upstage the film and a very favourable review will follow shortly 🎸🪕

The best video essays of 2024 From film festivals to TikTok, our annual poll showcases 183 unique video essays nominated by 47 international voters.

Incredibly happy to be included in the Sight and Sound poll of best video-essays of 2024. In fact all videos from ILUMINACE: Configuring Computer Labor, put together by @veronikahanakova.bsky.social & @jirianger.bsky.social was. Proud to be in such great company. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

YouTube video by Essay Film BAFTS SIG SEMINAR Second Essay Film Seminar 2024

A video lecture on teaching the video essay by James Slaymaker, author of a new book on the essay film. youtu.be/7nbmM4gfJ8c

NECSUS - Double blind peer-reviewed Journal of Media Studies NECSUS is an international, double blind peer-reviewed journal of media studies initiated and published by NECS.

New issue of NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies out now. necsus-ejms.org #follow necsus.bsky.social

As it’s Thanksgiving, here’s some of Dylan Baker’s original audition for Owen in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)✈️ 🚋 🚗 Happy Holidays

Very novel seeing work in print these days.📚More than happy to share a PDF of the chapter if you are interested?

Many thanks! It’s a great song that should have got more attention during lockdown as an anthem of hope through digital communication.

Pleased to have received an author copy of this in the post

💙 My baby is here 💙

ILUMINACE 2/2024 - OPEN ACCESS - TEXTS & AV ESSAYS

What if we stopped asking how computers shape moving images and asked: how is computer iconography represented in audiovisual media?

Dive into the complex portraits of computer labor in film & TV.

See: bit.ly/3YMMG5m

If you want to contribute to the newest volume of the Screen Stars Dictionary, then here's your chance.
Previous entries in this series of video essays can be found on the website of the Journal of Audiovisual Essays TECMERIN (see tinyurl.com/2f74a8ej).

Very pleased to be part of this wonderful publication and congratulations to @veronikahanakova.bsky.social and @jirianger.bsky.social for putting it all together 💾🖥️💿⌨️

Gladiator II: a wavering thumbs up for a rehashed sequel that can’t escape the ghost of Russell Crowe While undoubtedly entertaining, the sequel feels like a duplicate of the original which sacrifices characterisation for ambitious set pieces.

Gladiator II: a wavering thumbs up for a rehashed sequel that can’t escape the ghost of Russell Crowe

Scholarship in Sound & Image Workshop on Videographic Criticism

Are you a film & media scholar who wants to learn how to make video essays? Applications for the two-week June 2025 workshop Scholarship in Sound & Image at Middlebury College in Vermont are now open. Come be a videocamper and spread the word!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=LdHX...

Gladiator II: a wavering thumbs up for a rehashed sequel that can’t escape the ghost of Russell Crowe While undoubtedly entertaining, the sequel feels like a duplicate of the original which sacrifices characterisation for ambitious set pieces.

Gladiator II is out today! So too is my review with @uk.theconversation.com which you can read here:
theconversation.com/gladiator-ii...