3. • Cinematography (from Greek: kinema - κίνημα "movement" and graphein
- γράφειν "to record")
• is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording
photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art
of still photography. Many additional issues arise when both the
camera and elements of the scene may be in motion, though this also
greatly increases the creative possibilities of the process.
4. • Modern cinema is generally regarded as descending from
the work of the French Lumière brothers in 1892, and
their show first came to London in 1896.
• However, the first moving pictures developed on celluloid
film were made in Hyde Park in 1889 by William Friese
Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in
1890.
• The film is the first known instance of a projected
moving image. At the end of the 19th Friese-Green started
to experiment in how to get a moving image onto a screen
on a commercial basis.
• The first people to build and run a working 35 mm camera
in Britain were Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres. They made
the first British film ‘Incident at Clovelly Cottage’ in
February 1895, shortly before falling out over the
camera's patent.
• The early films were often melodramatic in tone, and
there was a distinct preference for storylines which were
already known to the audience - in particular adaptations
of Shakespeare plays and Dickens' novels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk
5. • By the mid-twenties the British film
industry was losing out to heavy
competition from Hollywood 25% of
films shown in the UK were British
• By 1926 this had fallen to 5%.
• The Cinematograph Films Act 1927 was
passed in order to boost local production
• In the silent era, is English actor Charlie
Chaplin the biggest star.
• First all-talking British feature, The
Clue of the New Pin (1929) was
released.
• Documentary movements were founded
in 1929 by John Grierson (Drifters )but
they didnt have mass following
• First british movies with international
commercial success :Korda,The
private life of Henry VIII
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m
YtNMDFyXQ
6. • Sound increased the influence of
already popular American films.
Alfred Hitchcock's
• Blackmail (1929) is regarded as
the first British sound feature.
• Several other new talents
emerged during this period,
and Alfred Hitchcock would
confirm his status as one of the
UK's leading young directors
with his influential thrillers The
Man Who Knew Too
Much (1934)or The Lady
Vanishes (1938), before moving
to Hollywood.
7. • The confusions imposed by World War II seemed
to ive new energy to the British film industry and
British films began to make increasing use of
documentary techniques and formed more
realistic films, many of which helped to shape the
popular image of the nation at war. Among the
best known of these films are In Which We
Serve (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942), We
Dive at Dawn (1943), ).
• In the later war years GainsboroughStudios
produced a series of popular period melodramas
including The Man in Grey (1943) and The
Wicked Lady (1945).
• Stewart Granger, Margaret
Lockwood and James Mason.
• The war years also saw the flowering of
the Powell and Pressburger partnership with films
set in a wartime and were very much about the
people affected by war rather than battles : 49th
Parallel (1941), The Life and Death of Colonel
Blimp (1943) and A Canterbury Tale(1944)
8. • British cinema's growing international reputation was
enhanced by the success of The Red Shoes, the most
commercially successful film of its year in the U.S., and
by Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, the first non-American
film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture
• In the 1950s the war films were often based on true
stories
• They helped to make stars of actors like John Mills
or Jack Hawkins and some of the most successful
included The Cruel Sea (1953), The Dam
busters (1954),
• Popular comedy series by the St Trinians: Doctor in the
House in 1954.
• Also twin brothers John and Roy Boulting produced a
series of successful satires on British life (Private's
Progress)
• Among the most significant films produced during this
period were David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and
his Dickens adaptations Great Expectations (1946) and
Oliver Twist (1948),
• At the end of the 1950s producer Hammer Films made
influential and wildly successful horror films.
• Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy.
9. • The term British New Wave, or "Kitchen Sink Realism", is used to
describe a group of commercial feature films made between 1955
and 1963 which portrayed a more gritty form of social realism than
had been seen in British cinema previously.
• The British New Wave feature films are often associated with a
new openness about working class life , and previously taboo
issues such as abortion and homosexuality (e.g. The Leather Boys,
1964).
• A group of key filmmakers was established around the film
magazine Sequence which was founded by Tony
Richardson, Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson who had all made
documentary films (Momma Don't Allow.)
• Together with future James Bond producer Harry Saltzman, John
Osborne and Tony Richardson established the company Woodfall
Films.
• These included adaptations of Richardson's stage productions
of Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer
• Other significant films in this movement include Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning (1960), A Kind of Loving (1962), and This
Sporting Life (1963).
• After Richardson's film of Tom Jones became a big hit the group
broke up to pursue different interests.
10. • In the 1960s British studios began to enjoy major success in the
international market with a string of films that displayed a more
liberated attitude to sex, capitalising on the "swinging London" image
propagated by Time magazine. Films like Darling, Alfie, Georgy Girl,
and The Knack …Women in Love, broke taboos around the
portrayal of sex and nudity on screen.
• At the same time, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R.
Broccoli combined sex with exotic locations, casual violence and
self-referential humour in the phenomenally successful James
Bond series with Sean Connery in the leading role.
• The series success led to a spy film boom, with The
Liquidator (1965), The Deadly Affair (1966).
• Blacklisted in America, Joseph Losey had a significant influence on
British cinema in the 60s, particularly with his collaborations
with playwright Harold Pinter and leading man Dirk Bogarde,
• The success of these films : Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Tom
Jones (1963), Zulu (1964) and Those Magnificent Men in Their
Flying Machines (1965) encouraged American studios to invest
significantly in British film production.
• Four of the decade's Academy Award winners for best picture were
British productions, including six Oscars for the film
musical Oliver! (1968), based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver
Twist.
11. • Major films were still being made at this time, including Anne of the
Thousand Days (1969), Battle of Britain (1969) or Billy Wilder's The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
• Among the more successful were adaptations of the Agatha
Christie stories Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the
Nile (1978).
• The British horror boom of the 1960s also finally came to an end by the mid-
1970s, with the leading producers Hammer and Amicus leaving the genre
altogether in the face of competition from independents in the United States.
• Some British producers, including Hammer, turned to television series for
inspiration, and the big screen versions of shows like Steptoe and Son
• More relaxed censorship in the 1970s also brought several controversial
films, including Ken Russell's The Devils (1970), Sam Peckinpah's Straw
Dogs (1971), James Bond series with The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977.
However, the next film, Moonraker (1979), broke with tradition by filming
at studios in France.
• Some American productions did return to the major British studios in 1977-
79, including Star Wars at Elstree Studios, Superman at Pinewood,
and Alien at Shepperton.
12. • Although major American production, continued to be filmed at British studios in the
1980s, the decade began with the worst recession the British film industry had ever
seen. in 1980 only 31 British films were made, down 50% on the previous year, and the
lowest output since 1914.
• Puttnam-produced Chariots of Fire (1981) won 4 Academy Awards in 1982, including
best picture,
• However, further attempts to make 'big' productions for the US market ended in failure,
with Goldcrest losing independence after a trio of commercial flops. However, by this
stage the rest of the new talent had moved on to Hollywood.
• Handmade Films produced series of comedies and gritty dramas such as The Long
Good Friday (1980) and Withnail and I and it had proven popular international
success.
• With the involvement of Channel 4 in film production a number of new talents were
developed in Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette) and Mike Newell (Dance with
a Stranger.
• Company Palace Pictures also enjoyed some notable successes, including Neil
Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984) and Mona Lisa (1986),Lewis
Gilbert's Educating Rita (1983), Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1981) and Peter
Yate's The Dresser (1983).
13. • While cinema audiences were climbing in the UK in the early 1990s, few British films were enjoying
significant commercial success, even in the home market. The same company also enjoyed some
success releasing the BBC period drama Enchanted April (1992). Kenneth Branagh to The Madness
of King George (1994) proved there was still a market for the traditional
• British costume dramas : Sense and
Sensibility (1995), Restoration (1995), Emma (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998) by Miramax
Films, who also took over Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996) when the production ran
into difficulties during filming. Although technically an American production, the success of this film,
including its 9 Academy Award wins would bring further prestige to British film-makers.
• The surprise success of the comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) introduced Hugh Grant to
global fame, led to renewed interest and investment in British films, and set a pattern for British-set
romantic comedies, including Sliding Doors (1998) and Notting Hill (1999).
• Working Title Films, quickly became one of the most successful British production companies .
• After a six year hiatus for legal reasons the James Bond films returned to production with the 17th
Bond film, GoldenEye. With.
• American productions also began to return to British studios in the mid-1990s, including Interview
with the Vampire (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Star Wars
Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) and The Mummy (1999), as well as the French
production The Fifth Element (1997), at the time claimed to be the most expensive film made in the
UK.
14. • The new century has so far been a relatively successful one for the British film industry. Many British
films have found a wide international audience due to funding from BBC Films, Film 4 and the UK
Film Council Working Title
• Their three major international successes, all starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, with the romantic
comedies Bridget Jones's Diary (2001),the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Love
Actually (2003). But the most successful of all was, Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! (2008)
• The new decade saw a major new film series in the US-backed but British made Harry Potter films,
beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001. David Heyman's company Heyday
Films has produced seven sequels, with the final two titles – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -
released in two-parts in 2010 and 2011. All were filmed in England.
• In 2004, Mike Leigh directed Vera Drake, an account of a housewife who leads a double life as an
abortionist in 1950s London. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
• The Queen(2006) by Stephen Frears based on the events surrounding the death of Princess Diana won
the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival and Academy Awards and the BAFTA for Best Film.
• Slumdog Millionaire - an Indian story that was filmed in Mumbai with a mostly Indian cast, though
with a British director (Danny Boyle), producer (Christian Colson), screenwriter and star . It has won
four Golden Globes, seven BAFTA Awards and eight Academy Awards, including Best Director and
Best Film
• The King's Speech tells the story of King George VI's attempts to overcome his speech impediment. It
received four Academy Awards (including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay) in
2011.
15. BAFTA (British academy of film and television art ) Awards for Best British Film
• At the 1993 British Academy Awards the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film was introduced.
The BAFTAs had included a Best British Film category since 1948, although the idea was dropped in the
1960s. Since 1993 the winners have been:
• 1993 - The Crying Game
• 1994 - Shadowlands
• 1995 - Shallow Grave
• 1996 - The Madness of King George
• 1997 - Secrets & Lies
• 1998 - Nil by Mouth
• 1999 - Elizabeth
• 2000 - East is East
• 2001 - Billy Elliot
• 2002 - Gosford Park
• 2003 - The Warrior
• 2004 - Touching the Void
• 2005 - My Summer of Love
• 2006 - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• 2007 - The Last King of Scotland
• 2008 - This Is England
• 2009 - Man On Wire
• 2010 - Fish Tank
• 2011 - The King's Speech
16. • Many Hollywood films with a British dimension
(based on British people, stories or events) have
had enormous worldwide commercial success.
• Six of the top seven highest-grossing films
worldwide of all time have some British
historical, cultural or creative
dimensions: Titanic, The Lord of the
Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Harry
Potter movies. The second culturally American
film on the list, Star Wars at number 9, was
filmed principally in the UK. Adding four
more Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films,
plus three about a Scottish ogre in British fairy
tale setting (Shrek), and about two-thirds of the
top twenty most commercial films, with combined
cinema revenues of about $13 billion, had a
substantial British dimension.
• British influence can also be seen with
the 'English Cycle' of Disney animated films,
which include Alice in Wonderland, Peter
Pan, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood, One
Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the
Stone, The Rescuers and The Many Adventures
of Winnie the Pooh.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOtnSnVUou
M&feature=relmfu
