Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence


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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Prepared 25 June 2007