By frag_editorial This video was originally created for an Internet Archive competition highlighting media entering the public domain in 2025. However, due to the holidays and life getting in the way, I missed the deadline by just a few hours, leaving the piece without a proper home. The video focuses on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail, weaving in footage and stills to explore its connections with other 1929 films that grapple with themes of murder and misogyny, such as G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box. Death also features in Walt Disney’s The Skeleton Dance and Patrick Hamilton’s Rope, which Hitchcock later adapted. It was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro.
About the maker
Dan O’Brien is a Lecturer in Film and Digital Media at the University of Essex. His research spans film, video games, interactive media art, and video essays, with publications across all these areas. Recent work includes “Zoom’s Performative Window” (Bloomsbury, 2024), “The Allure and Threat of the Onscreen Computer” (ILUMINACE, Winter 2024) (featured in BFI’s Sight and Sound poll for best video essays 2024) and “The Time-Loop: Cycles of Play and Inequality” (MAST, 2025). His research focuses on how evolving media influences storytelling, user experience, and the relationship between the body, technology and narrative.
Critical Commons: https://criticalcommons.org/user/DanOB1/media
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user107379730