Learning on ScreenTransformation and Tradition in Sixties British Cinema
Structure and Aims
Making substantial use of previously unexploited or under-explored archival collections at the British Film Institute (who as the project partner will play a key role in the wider dissemination of the research findings) and elsewhere, the project will focus on three related areas:
- The industry and its institutions: The research team based at York will instigate a critical analysis of the organisation and functioning of British film industry during the 1960s, focussing on changes and development in the industrial frameworks of production and distribution, and the extent to which independents constituted a new and transformative entrepreneurial culture. The team will examine the new opportunities created by Hollywood finance for the industry, as well as considering the nature of existing relationships between independent producers and indigenous companies such as Rank, ABPC and British Lion. The role of public support via the Eady Levy and the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) will also be considered. This strand of the project is about fully understanding the economics that underpinned the resurgence of British film in the 1960s, beyond the received wisdom that the decade was dominated by Hollywood financing.
- The creative process: The research team based at the University of East Anglia will launch a critical analysis of the creative process of film-making during the period, focussing on the contributions made by different creative personnel (beyond the usual focus on director or writer), developments in production practices and the changing institutional, technological and aesthetic contexts of film production. The influence of other cultural forms and industries (notably television, advertising, popular music and fashion) will be considered, with the relationship between cinema and television being given particular attention. In addition to evaluating the significance of this cross media influence, the tension between novelty and tradition will once again be investigated. This will be achieved through looking at the continuing significance of established filmmakers, production techniques and aesthetic styles that continued to exist and how these sat alongside or interacted with more innovative trends.
- The promotion and marketing of British films: This final project theme, shared across York and UEA, involves a critical analysis of how British films were framed by promotion and marketing and in subsequent reviewing at home as well as in certain key overseas markets. This will entail a consideration of how discourses of Britishness functioned to ‘brand’ films – either by associating them with aspects of contemporary popular culture (associated with modernity and youth) or alternatively via more traditional associations of British culture. Variations across different markets will be identified and analysed as a means of understanding how British cinema addressed itself, both domestically and to the wider world, during this period when Britain was regarded as a cultural epicentre.
