Pinewood Studios, the Independent Frame, and Innovation

Street, Sarah

doi:10.2307/j.ctv125jsnh.9

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In all, as I have argued elsewhere, 'even though the Independent Frame experiment lasted only a few years, in the longer-term it contributed to the establishment of a robust technical infrastructure at Pinewood which laid the foundations for the studio's subsequent outstanding reputation for technical excellence as well as streamlined methods of production'. 60 This is a good example of what Edgerton terms 'use-centred' history, in which the uptake of technology is the dominant factor, rather than focusing solely on invention, to demonstrate how 'technologies do not only appear, they also reappear, and mix and match' across time. 61 In this way technicians' experience working with back projection technologies fed into travelling matte solutions, creating a circular link between past and present, research, development, and uptake.…”

Section: The Independent Framementioning

confidence: 99%

Cultures of Innovation at Pinewood

Street

2024

Pinewood

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter is based on documentation from the British Film Institute’s Special Collections which offers new, primary information on visits made in 1945 by British technicians to film studios in Hollywood. The visits aimed to gather information on and insights about contemporary Hollywood practices which then informed Pinewood’s post-war policies around equipment and studio infrastructures. The documentation sheds light on strategic areas such as special effects, set design, the evolution of Independent Frame technologies as well as attempts to change working practices at Pinewood during a time of economic recession. The chapter provides an opportunity to reflect on how British studio practices differed from Hollywood’s, with commentaries from technicians and leading figures in the film industry including Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, and cinematographer Ronald Neame.

show abstract

Section: The Independent Framementioning

confidence: 99%

Cultures of Innovation at Pinewood

Street

2024

Pinewood

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While in the shortterm the Independent Frame's methods were not widely adopted by the industry, it was nevertheless influential in the longer-term development of Pinewood's reputation for technological innovation and state-of-the-art facilities. 87 In the shorterterm, it responded to contemporary debates about rising film production costs which appeared to hamper the industry's planned expansion. At the end of 1948 a committee chaired by Lord Gater examined rising costs and recommended that studios needed to economise, institute time management, and make more efficient use of space.…”

Section: Labour Materials and Production Equipmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Requisitioning film studios in wartime Britain

Street¹

2022

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Whitehead claimed to have been responsible for 'the first bigscreen back projection shot', with the Western Electric interlocking camera and projector for the Paramount British film Lily Christine (1932), shot at British and Dominion studios, Elstree (Whitehead 1947: 13). 5 Staffell worked at Pinewood on the 'Independent Frame' films of the late 1940s that used back projection as a core method in its aim of producing British films more efficiently (Street 2020). In 1947 David Rawnsley, the British set designer who devised the Independent Frame system, and Edward Green of Production Facilities (Films) based at Denham, collaborated on the invention of an improved mobile and adjustable screen holder for use in back projection, together with 'a platform or gantry elevated above the back-projection screen .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing ‘the whole world on to the British screen’: Back Projection and British Film Studios in the 1930s and 1940s

Street¹

2022

Journal of British Cinema and Television

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Back projection was a technique used particularly in the 1930s and 1940s to create the impression that film stars had been on location when in fact a camera recorded them in a studio acting in front of previously shot location footage projected onto a screen from behind. This article discusses its application in British studios, highlighting the contribution of key technicians to its development and refinement. Key examples are explored to show that a variety of approaches were used in different genres including thrillers, musicals and comedies. The technique’s novelty in films such as Rome Express (1932) and as used by Alfred Hitchcock in Young and Innocent (1937) brings out the multiple uses it could perform, as well as enabling theoretical reflection on reading sequences that deployed back projection. It is argued that back projection was one effect among many that were being developed and that in many cases these were mutually supportive. The article notes the keen contemporary interest in how films were made as studio correspondents recorded interesting cases of back-projected footage. In wartime and in the immediate postwar years the technique helped to cut costs and solve logistical problems while at the same time enabling films to present scenes that would otherwise have been highly difficult and even dangerous. Although travelling matte and other effects and processes subsequently superseded the use of back projection, its legacy remains as an enduring technical and aesthetic element of many classic and lesser-known British films.

show abstract

Pinewood Studios, the Independent Frame, and Innovation

Cited by 4 publications

References 4 publications

Cultures of Innovation at Pinewood

Cultures of Innovation at Pinewood

Requisitioning film studios in wartime Britain

Bringing ‘the whole world on to the British screen’: Back Projection and British Film Studios in the 1930s and 1940s

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About