Dr. Paul Craddock | Co-founder, producer

Paul has fifteen years’ experience making films for research-led institutions across science, medicine, humanities and the arts. His clients have included Nature, the Science Museum, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Oxford University, and Imperial College London. He’s also an award-winning writer and medical historian.

Paul is Honorary Professor of the History of Surgery & Society at University College, London, and a Science Museum Group Senior Research Associate.

e paul@commonfilms.co

Cal Murphy Barton | Co-founder, director

Cal works in research-led and collections-based contexts. He’s devised and overseen film projects at research institutes and archives including the Science Museum, Imperial College, King’s College, UKDRI, the Alan Turing Institute and the War Graves Commission. His independent work has screened internationally.

His working background is varied, taking in political consultancy, arts administration & cultural policy, and mental health law in the context of forensic psychiatry.

e cal@commonfilms.co

• Bradford Forwards and Backwards (2025, 29 mins) 

  Documentary film. Made in partnership with AHRC, Towards a National Collection.

• Dylan’s Dear Diaries (2025, Postproduction)

  Documentary film. Made in partnership King’s College London Libraries and Collections.

• Towards a Filmic Humanities (2024, 3 Mins)

  Video essay. Made in partnership with the Science Museum Journal.

• Workshop Mechanics (2025, 7 mins)

  Research film. Made in partnership with Imperial College London.

• The Congruence Engine (2023, 2 mins)

  Promo film. Made in partnership with the Science Museum. 

• Visit the Past (2023, 2 mins)

  Exhibit film. Made in partnership with the Science Museum and Discovery Museum. 

• Listen to the Past (2023, 2 mins)

  Exhibit film. Made in partnership with the Science Museum and Discovery Museum. 

• Mapping the Past (2023, 2 mins)

  Exhibit film. Made in partnership with the Science Museum and Discovery Museum.

Our published research positions Common’s filmmaking in relation to: multimodality; sensory ethnography; artisanal and industrial epistemology; re-enactment methods; practice-as-research; and arts research:

• Craddock, Paul. (2025). ‘Implicating the Knowledge of the Maker in Practices of Research’ in Marta Ajmar (ed.), Encounters on the Shop Floor. London: UCL Press (forthcoming 2025).

• Craddock, Paul and Harris, Anna. (2024). ‘Tracing Embodied Knowledge in the History of Science and Medicine: Expanding the Role of Film in Historical Research’. Science Museum Group Journal. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15180/242203.

• Craddock, Paul. (2023). ‘Connecting with industrial heritage collections using video production methods: Greg Kotovs and the can-gill machine’, Science Museum Group Journal. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15180/221808.

• Craddock, Paul. (2022). ‘Fabric Bodies: The Craft of Vascular Anastomosis’, Configurations 30 (2): pp.141-169. DOI: 10.1353/con.2022.0009

• Craddock, Paul. (2022). ‘The Cigarette Paper’ in Anna Harris and John Nott (eds.) Making Sense of Medicine. Bristol: Intellect.

• Craddock, Paul and Harris, Anna. (2020). ‘Workshopping: Exploring the Entanglement of Sites, Tools and Bodily Possibilities in an Academic Gathering’, Journal of Embodied Research, 3 (1), 2 (16:17), DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/jer.30

Throughout all publications, we suggest that research can and should be conducted in multiple modes, and that we should embrace even non-discursive modes. Accordingly, our film-making practice often involves attempting to render subjective experience on film (our own and others’), emphasising the sensory dimension of anything from a historically re-enacted making practice to handling paper archives and rare materials.

Drop us an email at info@commonfilms.co