The Velvet Light Trap is a film

Film theory

Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...

 and television studies

Television studies

Television studies is an academic discipline that deals with critical approaches to television. Usually, it is distinguished from mass-communication research, which tends to approach the topic from an empirical perspective...

 journal

Academic journal

An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...

 collectively edited by graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 and The University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

, with the support of media scholars at those institutions and throughout the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Each issue covers critical, theoretical, and historical topics relating to a particular theme. Past themes include "Innovation and Experimentation", "Defining the Americas: Media Within/Across Borders", "DVDs", "Authorship", "Narrative & Storytelling" and "Pornography".

History

In 1971, film lovers in Madison, Wisconsin, including graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, started a quarterly publication, The Velvet Light Trap. Russell Campbell founded the journal and served as editor. In 1973 John Davis and Susan Dalton took over as editors, and Davis became the publisher. The journal’s name originates from a specific part of the film camera that keeps the light out where the magazine is attached. In its earliest years, The Velvet Light Trap served the local film community with a journal that emphasized American film history. The Velvet Light Trap drew upon the talents of the graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison but it was not an official university publication. As the journal increased its circulation, it spread beyond the local community.

By the mid 1970s, The Velvet Light Trap had established a reputation for scholarly research, with faculty from around the United States publishing articles in special issues such as "RKO Radio Pictures," "MGM," and "Warners Revisited." The Velvet Light Trap often attempted to define the styles and genres that distinguished individual Hollywood studios. Access to primary documents at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research led to special interests such as the blacklist period (1947-1960s).

In 1989, the journal changed publishers, moving to the University of Texas Press

University of Texas Press

The University of Texas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texana, anthropology, U.S...

. As part of the deal with the journal’s founders, UT graduate students would collectively co-edit the journal along with Madison students. With the move to the UT Press, the journal established an international advisory editorial board and instituted blind, peer-review evaluation of its essays. The bi-annual format of Madison publishing an issue in the fall and Texas publishing an issue in the spring still stands.

External links

• The Velvet Light Trap — University of Texas Press page.