THE GOLDEN AGE OF BRITISH FILM LABORATORIES

THE GOLDEN AGE OF BRITISH FILM LABORATORIES (2023)

The era of the film laboratory is over. In the early 1960s, British film laboratories employing 6000 people, processed millions of feet of film for newsreels, studios, advertisers, and television. Labs were big and small with such names as Colour Film Services, Kodak, Technicolor, as well as Henderson, Humphries, Kay’’s Pathe and Rank film laboratories. Some were household names. As memory fades so might our understanding of the vital importance of film labs disappear.

Forgetting is made easier because, even in their heyday, labs were the Cinderella of the industry, the poor cousin, overlooked by a public and an industry attracted to glamour and spectacle. Their reputation remains in the shadow of the studio. Labs were seen as dark, unattractive places where film rolled through tanks of noxious chemicals churning out hundreds of movies for general release. Those who worked there felt forgotten.

But the reality is a good deal different: inside the labs was a complex and changing world – part mass production, part craft -- where the assembly line of Henry Ford fused with the artisan ideals of a William Morris. Just as the studio made ‘movie magic’ so the lab was a locus of creativity in its own right. Labs enabled a whole new fantasy world of special effects. By adding dissolves, wipes and fades between scenes they also embedded movie punctuation, the foundation of film grammar.

Labs were also places of turmoil, where the pride, aspirations and prejudices of men and women mingled with recurring conflict between workers and management.

The impact of video tape heralded the end of the Golden Age, although it was a further thirty years before laboratories, as an industry, disappeared. Special effects moved outside the lab. Conditions deteriorated; the balance of power swung toward management; demoralisation set in.

Time passes and the memory of film labs dims. To a generation raised on digital media, the technology and the work processes they housed mean nothing. What little that remains is distorted by a worship of stardom.

This documentary draws attention to the importance of British film laboratories, it records their golden age, and it gives a voice to the people who worked in them.

CREDITS

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY

Andrew Dawson & Sean P Holmes

EDITOR: Andrew Dawson

NARRATOR: Andrew Dawson

RESEARCHER: Phil Windeatt

INTERVIEWS BY

Linda Brown, Alf Cooper, Janet Craven, Paul De Burgh, Alan Douglas, Peter Ferrari, Don Goldberg, Jim Gorrie, Bill Girdlestone, Ken Holt, Pat Norrish, Simon Rose, Len Runkel, Jean Timson, Syd Wilson

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Alex Barker (lacing printer), Phil Cullum, Sharen Daley, Alec Gibson (grader) Alan Hayes, Neil Hurford, Mark Petley,

THANKS TO

Terry Cannon, Mike Dick, John Dunne, Paul Frith, Bob Geoghegan, Pete Humm, Peter Jones, Bob Light, Ian Noah, Russell Potts, Martin Spence.

“Hurrah for the ACT!” Felix’s Rock Choir

British Entertainment History Project

TKone Film and Video

MOVING AND STILL IMAGES:

633 Squadron. Walter Grauman. Mirisch Films, 1964.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Nathan Juran. Columbia Pictures, 1958.

ACTT Protest Meeting Outside Kodak. ITN, 1963.

The Alchemist in Hollywood. Ralph Atkinson, Sidney Solow. American Chemical Society, 1940.

BECTU Photo Library.

Blithe Spirit. David Lean. Two Cities Films, 1945.

British Movietone News at Work. British Movietone, 1963.

Cine Technician. 1945-1956.

A Day at Denham. London Films, 1939.

The Denham Film Studios. Western Homes, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBjfShUo4M

Film and Television Technician. 1957-1991.

Gone to Earth. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. London Film Productions, 1950.

Konga. John Lemont. Anglo-Amalgamated Productions, 1961.

Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean. Horizon Pictures, 1962.

Old British Cinemas 1 and 2. Michelle Stone, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUNl27h7dP13rNXzJWSroQ

Oliver Twist. David Lean. Cineguild,1948.

Pathe News at Work. British Pathe, 1962.

Patterns of Inequality: A Woman’s Work. Open University, 1975.

Pickets at Technicolor. Len Runkel. National Film and Television Archive, 1954.

Rank Laboratories Still Images, 1930s-1980s. Alan Brazier.

Rank Special. British Movietone, 1983.

The Red Shoes. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Archers Film Productions, 1948.

Seven Up! Paul Almond. Granada Television, 1964.

Stage Screen & Radio. 1992-2010.

The Small Film Unit and the Labs. Glyndwr Harris. Humphries Film Laboratories, 1975.

Soho Nights: 1958 Until 1962. henrysgigs1. 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAM8KqzXkmU

Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope. George Lucas, Lucasfilm, 1977.

Sunshine in Soho. Burt Hyams. Diploma Pictures, 1956.

Technicolor Still Images, 1960s. Don Goldberg.

Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup. Racing UK, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JtDOs9nljY

UK TV Commercials 60s/70s Produced by Henry Bentinck. Henry Bentinck, 2012. https://w