British Film Industry Research Articles

‘Making Every Seat for Everyone’: Audience Development Research Report for New Independent Cinema FilmLab

The British independent film industry has experienced a consistent decline in revenues over the past decades, resulting in heightened competition among independent cinemas. FilmLab, a newly established independent cinema affiliated with ArtsLab - a highly regarded arts organisation in Edinburgh – has commissioned this report in response to its client brief. The aim is to help FilmLab attract wider audiences using limited financial resources. We adopted audience development as the approach to address these concerns because of its two characteristics: first, its social objective of making the arts widely accessible, and second, its equal attention to the needs of existing and potential audiences. Existing research emphasises the significance of reducing barriers to participation in the audience development process. However, much of the previous work in this field has primarily focused on mainstream cinema attendance. As a result, the applicability of these findings for niche, less economically productive independent cinemas remains unclear. Therefore, this report mainly examines the barriers that prevent Edinburgh residents from independent cinemas and explores how FimLab can increase participation among different groups by creating more opportunities for participation. Through a questionnaire and eight follow-up interviews with Edinburgh residents, along with semi-structured interviews with five industry experts, we identified barriers and potential incentives in four crucial aspects: visibility, attractiveness, affordability, and sustainability. Meanwhile, we developed corresponding recommendations. We propose that independent cinemas could serve as open and accessible spaces for all audiences by reducing the common barriers to audience participation. The findings of this report may offer references for the identification of barriers to independent cinema attendance, while our strategies could inspire audience development strategies for independent cinemas.

The Mistress of Bond: Eileen Sullivan, and the Role of Cutting the Cloth of James Bond's Wardrobe and Beyond

This article spotlights the work of Eileen Sullivan and her career as a wardrobe mistress, later wardrobe supervisor, which included working on the James Bond films from Dr No (1962) until You Only Live Twice (1967). It will further consider how her career and role as a wardrobe mistress and supervisor changed within the British film industry from the mid-1940s until the mid-1980s, through personal papers shared by her family with me. Alongside this, the article draws upon papers available in the Film Finances Archive, the British Film Institute (BFI) and the British Library. This article will work to redress the absence in scholarship on the labour provided by costume workers below that of the costume designer, which as Melanie Williams (2016) has previously recognised, has been rendered invisible despite their costume work appearing on screen that contributes to the overall visual coherence of a film’s design. It will also address the difficulties of researching the work of wardrobe personnel who have hitherto remained unacknowledged in broader scholarship, and analyse the role of the wardrobe mistress and supervisor including agency and labour, and the impact of caring responsibilities on this ‘gendered’ role.

Barbara Broccoli and the Popular Image of the Bond Producer

Of all the women involved in the James Bond film franchise over the years, for the last three decades producer Barbara Broccoli has had the greatest power and influence on its development. Since taking over as co-producer (alongside half-brother Michael G. Wilson) of the Bond films in the mid-1990s, Broccoli is constantly mentioned in relationship to James Bond, yet there has been no academic attention paid to her role as Bond producer. This article will address this oversight in Bond studies and contribute to the growing area of scholarship on the producer in the British film industry by analysing the popular image of ‘the Bond producer’ using promotional materials and press coverage. The approach adopted in this article is framed in terms of a negative stereotype of (male) film producers that is widely generalised, and pressbook evidence showing that the original Bond producers Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were positively caricatured in the Bond film publicity. It will consider the enduring legacy of the ‘Men Behind James Bond’ producer image to examine the role played by Broccoli in the discourses of marketing and promotion during the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig eras. The article will demonstrate that although a high degree of public visibility might be expected to come with the role of Bond producer, the woman behind the image and the day-to-day business of film production largely remains hidden in favour of the authorised narratives shaped by the earlier promotional materials, references made to Bondian character types or popular discourses of gender which the mainstream press reproduce. In so doing the article will reflect on debates about gender and diversity in the Bond franchise to connect to wider discourses around inclusivity in British popular culture that have come to the fore in recent years.

Alex Rock, The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919–1956: Public Relations, Collaboration and Control

Alex Rock, <i>The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919–1956: Public Relations, Collaboration and Control</i>

The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919–1956: Public Relations, Collaboration, and Control. By Alex Rock

The Metropolitan Police and the British Film Industry, 1919–1956: Public Relations, Collaboration, and Control. By Alex Rock

British Quota Production and Film Costs in the Early 1930s

This article explores the economic contexts of British film production in the early 1930s through an analysis of the cost data provided in a ledger compiled by the Board of Trade documenting the statutory costs of all British ‘long’ films registered for renters’ quota during the quota year 1 April 1932 to 31 March 1933. This is the most comprehensive source for British film costs in the early 1930s. The evidence provided by the ledger suggests a more nuanced overall picture of the costs of British film-making than the standard narrative of ‘quality or quota’ would allow. It highlights the different production strategies of British and American distributors and sheds new light on the costs of ‘quota quickies’ and their place in the British film industry in the 1930s.

Research on Development Strategies of British Animated Films

This article aims to explore the development strategies of British animated films, analyze their history, current situation, and challenges faced, and propose corresponding strategic suggestions. British animated films boast a rich and colorful history, with early paper-cutting animation and stop-motion animation forms exhibiting unique characteristics. However, in the global market, the share of British animated films is limited, and there is a certain gap compared to giants like Disney and Pixar in the United States. Nevertheless, we also see opportunities amidst the challenges. Through in-depth research and analysis of the development of the British animated film industry, we hope to contribute new ideas to the prosperity and development of this industry and provide valuable reference for relevant practitioners. Therefore, this article will focus on how to promote the British animated film industry to achieve greater scale and broader success and explore effective strategies that may be adopted to facilitate the achievement of this goal.

‘Were Our Ideas of Maintaining Control Mythical?’: Film Policy at Hampton Court Palace, 1911–1989

From 1851, the British government became responsible for the management of Hampton Court Palace in an arrangement of the Crown Lands Act, leading to the government maintaining the site on behalf of the reigning monarch ‘in right of Crown’. From 1911, the government considered whether to allow filmmakers access to Hampton Court for their productions. This article will trace the history of the film policy relating to this site until 1989, when Historic Royal Palaces was formed as an Executive Agency of Government to maintain the site, later acquiring charitable status in its own right in 1998. It will draw upon material held in the National Archives, which demonstrates how the film policy relating to Hampton Court adapted and changed over time. This article will analyse key film projects, both realised and unrealised, including Royal England: The Story of the Empire’s Throne (1911), Hampton Court Palace (1926) and The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) to explore how the government approached allowing filmmakers access to the site, and the reasons behind their rigid stance toward film production on location within the broader context of the government’s support toward the British film industry more generally.

‘Twelve thrills for the screen’ or a ‘ludicrous travesty’? Harry A. Berg’s Cosmopolitan Productions Limited and Haunted Houses and Castles of Great Britain (1926)

ABSTRACT The British film production company, Cosmopolitan Productions Limited, was founded in October 1924 by Americans Harry A. Berg and Ivor M. Rosenbaum. In its short life, the company produced a series of 12 two-reel films under the umbrella title Haunted Houses and Castles of Great Britain. Berg employed George A. Banfield as scriptwriter and producer, as well as well-known film directors including Bert Cann, Maurice Elvey and Fred Paul. The series was trade shown in January 1926, with a general release in September. However, due to various financial problems, Cosmopolitan Productions filed for bankruptcy in February 1926. Using a variety of archival sources, this article will trace the rise and fall of Cosmopolitan Productions within the context of the turbulent British film industry of the mid-1920s. Furthermore, it will offer analysis of the surviving short films from the series including Hampton Court Palace, Kenilworth Castle and Amy Robstart and Warwick Castle in Feudal Days.

Stanley Kubrick, the 1974 Finance Act, and the crisis of the British film industry: a case study of access, power and privilege in British media and politics

Between 1975 and 1977, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick secretly campaigned to overturn the new tax provisions of the Labour government’s 1974 Finance Act. His aim was to develop a crisis narrative in which the legislation that affected the amount of earnings foreign residents would pay tax on in the UK was deemed directly responsible for the imminent and absolute collapse of the British film industry. Drawing on archival sources from the Stanley Kubrick Archive, the Harold Wilson papers, and The National Archives, the article reconstructs Kubrick’s actions during this period to reveal how he planted stories in the press, lobbied MPs, ministers, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the prime minister, manipulated trade union officials, and secretly wrote press releases and campaign letters under the name of the general secretary of the ACTT, Alan Sapper. The archival case study widens understanding of the narrative of crisis pertaining to the British film industry in the 1970s and how this was exacerbated and exploited by powerful and wealthy individuals like Kubrick for personal gain. The article also contributes to the broader topics of access, power, and privilege in British society and how the rich subvert and undermine democracy, thereby aggravating structural inequalities, inequalities that have only deepened since Kubrick’s political interventions and machinations.

Campbeltown Speaks: Small-Town Cinema and the Coming of Sound

The popularity of cinema from its earliest days in small-town settings emphasises the importance of local circumstances in explaining the medium’s success. This article employs surviving business records relating to the Picture House in the Scottish burgh of Campbeltown to explore aspects of cinema-going peculiar to that corner of rural Argyllshire, including a propensity, hitherto unidentified among Scottish audiences, to support the productions of the British film industry. Beyond this, the Picture House has a broader significance. As a monopoly provider of commercial entertainment to an enclosed market, it offers telling insights into a key point of transition for cinema, that from silent to sound film. Placed in the context of national trends, documented by data relating to the taxation of entertainments, Campbeltown provides compelling evidence that the advent of the talkies marked a fundamental discontinuity in the history of the medium at all levels, from the local to the national.

Movie Workers: The Women Who Made British Cinema

Movie Workers: The Women Who Made British Cinema

Beyond the “Exhibition Straight-Jacket”: How British Amateur Film Clubs Created an Alternative Distribution and Exhibition Network, 1923–1933

This article explores an overlooked third strand of the 1920s British film industry's distribution and exhibition practices: amateur filmmakers. Our analysis of the UK amateur networks that were created through the 1920s and into the early 1930s offers a challenge to accepted ideas that British cinema exhibition was limited to a small number of metropolitan mainstream or independent art cinemas. By tracing the amateur cinema's move from an interaction with mainstream exhibition venues to the introduction of a national amateur network, we offer a more nuanced understanding of amateur-film culture and its community-led model of distribution and exhibition.

The British Film Campaign in Spain During the First World War (1914–1918)

The First World War brought a propaganda battle of enormous proportions to Spain. The conflict mobilised a popular debate in the country, and the belligerent powers deployed persuasive campaigns that included films as an instrument of control. Cinema put aside its traditional role of entertainment and turned war material into an ideological weapon. Despite the French monopoly of the Spanish film industry and the limitations imposed by the Spanish Government, Great Britain unleashed film campaigns that spread throughout Spain through private and diplomatic showings. This article examines the British film industry in Spain, analysing its operation and progressive improvement during the First World War.

The Prudential Group Archive: Alexander Korda, London Film Productions and Denham Studios

This article examines the Prudential Group Archive, a valuable resource for the study of London Film Productions (LFP), the British film company founded by Alexander Korda in 1932. The Prudential, a long-established British life insurance and financial services company, invested in LFP at a time when the British film industry was expanding, and Denham Studios was built as a major production facility in 1936. The primary sources generated through this connection provide a rare opportunity to study the financial operation of a major film company as well as to evaluate the strategies that were put in place by the Prudential to monitor its progress throughout its time as an investor which ended in 1945. The article uses the archive to gain insights into the Prudential’s motives for backing the film industry, the building of Denham, the management of Korda and LFP and the impact of the Second World War. It is demonstrated how the archives provide a unique resource for understanding the pressures on film production in the 1930s, as well as highlighting rarely glimpsed material, infrastructural and collaborative aspects of film history such as the practical operation of studios during the Second World War when they were affected by bomb damage, requisitioning and labour shortages. Unlike archives relating to the British film industry which predominantly deal with film personalities and film titles, the Prudential Group Archive documents the crucial importance of the financial aspects of film production. The article also points to documentation in other collections that can productively be interrelated with the Prudential’s archives.

Pictures of Poverty: The Works of George R. Sims and Their Screen Adaptations by Lydia Jakobs

Reviewed by: Pictures of Poverty: The Works of George R. Sims and Their Screen Adaptations by Lydia Jakobs John Plunkett (bio) Lydia Jakobs, Pictures of Poverty: The Works of George R. Sims and Their Screen Adaptations (New Barnet: John Libbey, 2021), pp. ix + 266, $39/ £34.66 paperback. Was there any creative endeavour that George R. Sims did not turn his hand to? A well-known journalist, comic writer, dramatist, and poet, as well as social critic and observer of London poverty and urban life, Sims was everywhere in the late-Victorian literary world. Sims was more than a prolific polymath though. As Lydia Jakobs's book makes clear, his work was fostered by a cultural landscape that encouraged crossovers between the worlds of literature, journalism, illustration, theatre, and public performance, whether in the form of penny readings, magic lantern shows, or early film. Jakobs's book joins a growing number of publications to flesh out the multifarious and extended lives enjoyed by individual texts and narratives in this profoundly intermedial world. Pictures of Poverty particularly focuses on mapping the way Sims's ballads and social exposés were remediated into lantern slide sets and film narratives. The magic lantern was at the height of its popularity in the period from 1880 to 1920, with hundreds of thousands of slides of every imaginable scientific, educational, and amusing subject, from travelogues and temperance [End Page 464] tales to illustrated hymns and adaptations of popular fiction. After 1896, audiences could also experience the cinematograph; the blossoming British film industry often sought to adapt and draw on popular narratives that were already well-known to the public. For both the lantern and early film, which coexisted happily across these decades, Sims's ballads were prime material for transferring into pictorial narratives. There were many such adaptations. Thirty-two of Sims's texts were adapted for the magic lantern, twenty-four of which are from the Dagonet Ballads (1881). Sims, according to magic lantern experts Joss Marsh and David Francis, was the most popular living writer for lantern adaptations. Jakobs's book takes us from Sims's most famous ballad, "In the Workhouse: Christmas Day," first published in 1877, to a film adaptation of the same ballad by G. D. Samuelson in 1914. Sims's own work was often a rich mix of the visual and textual. This was particularly true of his volumes on London and its underclass, which were illustrated by many photographs and illustrations. Jakobs is interested in Sims's work as an observer and reformer, evident in series such as How the Poor Live (1883) and Living London: Its Work and Its Play, Its Humour and Its Pathos, Its Sights and Its Scenes (1901–3). Jakobs's chosen title is Pictures of Poverty, and the book accordingly devotes as much time to discourses around Victorian poverty and its broader pictorial depictions, including those by Sims, as to the remediation of his work. This reviewer, however, found Sims's engagement with the lantern and cinematograph much more absorbing; it was fascinating to discover Sims's relationship with early film. He gave his name and approval to a film version of Living London produced by Charles Urban in 1904, which widely toured across England in 1905. In 1908, Sims was commissioned by the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation to write an adaptation of one of his short stories, "Lady Letmere's Jewellery" (1903); he also collaborated with Gaumont in 1909, credited as a script writer on "The Martyrdom of Adolf Beck." Sims's involvement in film was part of the narrative and social expansion of the burgeoning film industry, a drive to give the upstart medium an imprimatur of respectability through the involvement of well-known literary figures. In 1908, the Era praised Gaumont for "co-operating with Mr Geo. R Sims in the production of a high-class series of authorised cinematograph films" (104). Between 1914 and 1923, there were fifteen film adaptations of plays by Sims and his contributors. Jakobs's book is at its illuminating best when she focuses on three case studies to demonstrate the multiple remediations of Sims's work: How the Poor Live, "In the Workhouse: Christmas...

Geoffrey Macnab, The British Film Industry in 25 Careers: The Mavericks, Visionaries and Outsiders Who Shaped British Cinema

Geoffrey Macnab, <i>The British Film Industry in 25 Careers: The Mavericks, Visionaries and Outsiders Who Shaped British Cinema</i>

French connection UK: the Dinard film festival and the politics of culture

ABSTRACT This article looks at the thirty-year history of the Dinard Film Festival (until 2018, the Dinard Festival of British Film), with a particular focus on the financial support provided by bodies with industrial and/or cultural remits: specifically, the UK Film Council, the British Council and the British Film Institute. As I discuss, Dinard is a significant case study for understanding the British film-industrial relationship with France, but also for analysing the interrelationship between economic and cultural policy-making in the British film industry. As I also argue, looking at the history of the Dinard festival offers a significant example of the ways such showcases for ‘national cinema’ are bound up with the shifting contexts of film-industry policymaking. As I conclude, the changing economic fortunes in British film, and the economic contexts informing UK film policy, have not only impacted on Dinard, but also given the festival a renewed outlook – as well as a more political one in the recent contexts of the UK’s EU referendum and ‘Brexit’.

Jack Ellitt as Director: Documentary Films of the 1940s

This article examines the work of the film-maker and composer Jack Ellitt (1902–2001) who remains something of an enigmatic and marginal figure in historical accounts of British documentary cinema. Research on Ellitt has so far focused on two key aspects of his life and career: firstly, his association with the New Zealand-born film-maker and artist Len Lye, and secondly, his pioneering work as a composer of electro-acoustic music. However, little research been undertaken on the work that he produced during the three decades he spent working as a documentary director in the British film industry, beginning in the early 1940s and ending with his retirement in the 1970s. He was a member of the remarkable generation of film-makers associated with the British documentary movement, and a composer whose radical experiments with recorded sound might well have secured him a more prominent place in the history of experimental music than is currently the case. Focusing on films made by Ellitt during the 1940s, the primary aim of this article is to offer a chronological appraisal of his early work as documentary director, while also considering what new perspectives this group of films might offer on his earlier creative collaboration with Lye, and the extent to which his radical experiments in electro-acoustic composition may have influenced the use of sound within the films he directed.

Meteorology and British film studios: an article of the London fog

Industrial winter fogs posed an almost existential threat to filmmaking in Britain during the first decades of the twentieth century, disrupting outdoor or location filming, penetrating studio buildings and delaying production schedules and increasing costs. The problem was exacerbated by many British studios being located in, or on the outskirts of London, a city famous for its ‘pea soupers’. This article, having outlined the nature and extent of the problem, explores the ways in which the British film industry responded to the fog. Some studios ceased operations in the winter, whilst some producers relocated to less meteorologically-challenging climes. Two other responses, however, allowed for year-round production in Britain: the installation of specially designed fog-dispersal plant, and the construction of new studios outside the London ‘fog-zone.’ Using fog to explore the impact of climate on the siting, design and equipping of British film studios, the article is intended to encourage recognition of the ways in which the spaces and infrastructure of film production develop in relation to specific local, regional or national level factors, and stimulate discussion of the relationship between filmmakers, studios and the natural (or, in the case of the London fog, anthropogenic) environments within which they operate.