APPENDIX B
THE COLLECTIONS
The BFI's collection is one of the largest and
most important moving image archives in the world. It comprises:
— 50,000 fiction film titles, including
features, on all gauges of film and formats of videotape.
— 100,000 titles broadly tracing the
history of the use of the moving image in non-fictional settings
and for non-fiction purposes.
— An estimated 575,000 television titles
including material recorded off-air, as it was seen by the viewer,
as well as production and transmission material.
— Recordings on audio and video tape
of the proceedings of the two houses of Parliament and select
committees.
The Collection is of national and international
importance as a record of the history and culture of filmmaking
and television production, and as a record of the contemporary
life of the UK from the late nineteenth century to the present.
It is an unparalleled resource for researchers,
students, filmmakers and television producers, historians and
any interested member of the public. It is an essential part of
the BFI'S purpose to champion moving image culture in all its
richness and diversity, across the UK, for the benefit of as wide
an audience as possible and to create and encourage debate.
The following paragraphs describe the collections
in more detail.
1. FICTION FILM
The collection currently numbers some 50,000
titles on all gauges of film from 8mm to 70mm and various formats
of videotape. These have been collected both from UK and overseas
donors and depositors, who include film and video distributors,
production companies, laboratories, studios, other archives, trade
organisations and individual filmmakers.
The majority are British-produced or British-related.
There are also significant international holdings including silent
films (some 80% of total output of silent film has been lost;
surviving materials are found in archives around the world); abandoned
titles, where rights-holders and archives in their country of
origin have no interest in their preservation; and productions
that may be endangered in their country of origin for political
reasons.
The collection covers the range of fiction production
from the earliest examples to recent Film Council sponsored titles,
including experimental and avant-garde material, animation and
student and amateur works. It comprises an exceptional collection
of silent films, including the largest collection of 1920s British
titles in the world and extensive holdings of material by major
early producers. It is valuable not just as a record of the development
of film production in Britain since its beginnings but also for
its reflection of the different modes of film circulation in this
country. The unrivalled collection of "quota quickies"
illustrates the effects of government intervention in the film
industry in the 1930s and we hold censor cuts and alternative
edits of films made for different markets where available.
The main area of weakness in the collection
in terms of feature holdings is from the late 1950s onwards, when
the Archive did not focus on current collecting.
Much of the material we do have from this period
is well-worn and colour-faded. While the 1930s are relatively
well covered, there are still important omissions, as highlighted
by the "Missing Believed Lost" project set up in 1992.
Holdings of British Avant-Garde, experimental film and video art
are also weak.
Despite agreements built into Film Council funding
contracts it has also proved difficult to acquire current production
materials, especially shorts. There is currently no provision
for research into, or acquisition of, "born digital"
material. The collection is currently under-represented in terms
of films of specific interest to certain UK minority groups.
2. NON-FICTION
FILM
The collection of approximately 100,000 titles
broadly traces the history of the use of the moving image in non-fictional
settings and for non-fiction purposes. As well as its place within
British moving image culture, the collection forms a powerful
record of contemporary life and events, from the end of the nineteenth
century to the present. The collection also includes public record
material as defined in the Public Records Act 1958, held on behalf
of the National Archives.
Relative strengths in terms of subject matter
include such subjects as national identity, industry, location,
transport, gender, sport, leisure and arts, and science, medicine
and natural history. It is particularly strong in areas such as
newsreel and the documentary tradition from 1930-60.
The collection ranges from the earliest British
film known to survive: Birt Acres' record of the 1895 Derby at
Epsom, to documentaries made by students at the National Film
and Television School for their graduations.
The work of British Transport Films, and that
sponsored by the National Coal Board—collections held almost
in their entirety—well illustrate the dual function of the
non-fiction collections. Both are products of important public
sector film sponsors, and provide rich records of the activities
and impact of two of the most important nationalised industries
in the UK. Similarly, early films by Mitchell and Kenyon provide
a unique record of Edwardian Britain but have also prompted a
re-evaluation of the place of non-fiction in early film.
Weaknesses in the collection have arisen largely
because collecting is essentially opportunistic. The lack of funds
for the purchase of new titles inevitably results in gaps in the
collection and imbalances in subject coverage. Dependence on donation
over purchase has also meant that in many cases we do not hold
the quality preservation materials we require.
More generally, the collection inevitably reflects
the availability of certain types of materials, for example, a
huge proportion of Britain's early film heritage is believed lost.
Even in areas of relative strength there are many gaps. Holdings
of works by major filmmakers, such as Paul Rotha are not complete
either in terms of titles held, or in terms of preservation materials
of sufficient quality. Major areas and collections of both filmic
and wider cultural significance are either poorly covered—such
as film and video activism, cultural diversity, and amateur filmmaking—or
are in private hands. In certain areas there are significant gaps,
most notably feature length, theatrically-released documentaries
recording popular culture (concert tours, artists' biographies,
benefit tours, etc) dating from the 1970s to the present day,
and examples of non-TV broadcast video "home entertainment"
such as health and fitness, transport, sport and home improvement.
Other categories such as advertising, educational
and training film and video, and amateur production are sampled
ratherthan collected comprehensively, but the sampling is much
less adequate in some cases than others. Of particular note, there
is effectively no "born digital" or purely network-distributed
content in the collection, despite non-broadcast production being
increasingly associated with these technologies.
Materials are held on film, videotape and other
media including digital formats.
3. TELEVISION
The collection currently consists of approximately
575,000 titles and comprises mainly material recorded, off air,
as the viewer saw it. Transmission material is also held.
The shape of the collection has been determined
by statutory responsibility, first under the auspices of the Independent
Television Commission and now OFCOM, for the archiving of a proportion
of the output of ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The BBC is responsible
for archiving its own material, although BBC 1 and 2 have been
recorded continuously, for access purposes, since 1990, and BBC
3 and 4 since their inception.
The collection is representative of broadcast
terrestrial television output in the UK, with emphasis on British
or British-related productions, but including material representing
the regional and cultural diversity of the nation as a whole,
and is especially strong on commercial terrestrial broadcasts
from 1985.
As well as the recorded material, significant
collections of transmitted programming donated by broadcasters
include the Rediffusion Collection—Rediffusion was the earliest
ITV contractor—and the related This Week and Jack Hylton
Collections. The other main donated collections are those on obsolete
video formats, including material on 2" and 1" analogue
videotape during the sixties, seventies and early eighties by
the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
Through an agreement with the PRU (Parliamentary
Recording Unit) we also house the videotape recordings of the
two houses of Parliament and the various committees, together
with audio records that pre-date the use of video.
The main weaknesses in the collection lie in
the gap between the decline in the use of 2" videotapes from
1980 and the start of our off-air recording operation in 1985;
representation of ITV regional programming 1985-93 is poor and
we do not currently collect any material broadcast solely on satellite
or cable channels.
The collection is mostly on videotape, though
much of the earlier material is held on film or telerecordings
with a large number of viewing copies on VHS.
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