ZooScope

Visit ZooScope: The Animals in Film Archive

Animals have played a crucial role in the development of film as an artistic medium, from the literal use of animal products in film stock to the capturing of animal movement as a driver of stop-motion, wide-screen and CGI film technology. In terms of content and form, the wish to picture animals’ lives, whether naturalistically or playfully, has led to the establishment of key genres such as wildlife film and animation.

ZooScope looks at and beyond these major aspects of animals in film, and entries can consider, inter alia: animals’ role in film genres and styles from arthouse to documentary to horror; the range of literal and symbolic ways animals appear in film; animals in the film star- system; animal lives and the ethics of film-making; adaptation and the different challenges of filmic and literary representation of animals.

ZooScope is a collaborative research project: students on No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of this Module (a third-year BA module designed by Dr Robert McKay at the University of Sheffield) contribute to its development by researching and writing an archive entry on a film.

Web design is by Martin Aleksiev, Robert Dunbar, Jordan Milner, Pavel Velkov. Continuing support is provided by Jamie Lepiorz.