Ealing Studios

Ealing Studios

Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world,[1] and the current stages were opened for the use of sound in 1931. It is best known for a series of classic films produced in the post-WWII years, including Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Ladykillers (1955). The BBC owned and filmed at the Studios for forty years from 1955 until 1995. Since 2000, Ealing Studios has resumed releasing films under its own name, including the revived St Trinian's franchise. In more recent times, films shot here include The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) and Shaun of the Dead (2004), as well as The Theory of Everything (2014), The Imitation Game (2014) and Burnt (2015). Interior scenes of the British period drama television series Downton Abbey were shot in Stage 2 of the studios. The Met Film School London operates on the site.

History

Early years

The site was first occupied by Will Barker Studios from 1902.[2] From 1929 it was acquired by theatre producer Basil Dean, who founded Associated Talking Pictures Ltd. He was joined on the management level by Stephen Courtauld and Reginald Baker. In 1931 they built Ealing Studios, transferring all production there in December of that year. When Dean left in 1938 to be replaced by Michael Balcon from MGM, about 60 films had been made at the studios. Balcon discontinued the ATP name and began to issue films under the Ealing Studios name. In 1944, the company was taken over by the Rank Organisation.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ealing produced many comedies with stars such as Gracie Fields, George Formby, Stanley Holloway and Will Hay, who had established their reputations in other spheres of entertainment. The company was also instrumental in the use of documentary film-makers to make more realistic war films. These included Went the Day Well? (1942), The Foreman Went to France (1942), Undercover (1943), and San Demetrio London (1943). In 1945, the studio made its influential chiller compendium Dead of Night.

In the post-war period, the company embarked on a series of comedies which became the studio's hallmark. These were often lightly satirical and were seen to reflect aspects of British character and society. The first was Hue and Cry (1947) and the last Barnacle Bill (1956).

The best remembered Ealing films were produced between 1948 and 1955: Whisky Galore! (1949), Passport to Pimlico (1949), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953), The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Ladykillers (1955) are now seen as classics of British cinema.

1955 to 1995

The BBC bought the studios in 1955, though productions bearing the Ealing name continued to be made at the MGM British Studios at Borehamwood for two years. The BBC based its Film Department at the studios; and at its peak 56 film crews used the studios as a base for location filming of dramas, documentaries and other programmes; shot on 16mm and occasionally 35mm film.[3] There were also over 50 cutting rooms working on every genre except News and Current Affairs. Many great programmes came out of Ealing from Alistair Cooke's America edited by Alan Tyrer to Z-Cars edited by Shelia Tomlinson and many others and Cathy Come Home edited by Roy Watts, assisted by Roger Waugh. These programmes had massive post production support, viewing theatres, transfer suites, dubbing theatre, maintenance; all these staff and the film crews made up what was fondly known as the TFS Family. In the 1980s, the BBC developed and expanded the use of electronic PSC (Portable Single Camera) location equipment and the use of 16mm film on location gradually reduced. The BBC also used the studio facilities at Ealing for filmed inserts where the electronic studio could not be used, such as for the excavation site in Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59), The White Rabbit (TV mini-series, 1967), Colditz (1972–74) and the communal sequences in Porridge (1974–77). Programmes wholly shot on film were made there also, such as Alice in Wonderland (1966), The Singing Detective (1986) and Fortunes of War (1987).

The BBC had preview theatres to run 16mm sepmag film and 35mm. The 16mm machines were Bauer and the 35mm projectors Kalee 21.The projection area was a long room (open plan) with projectors serving theatres E -J. There was a separate projection room in the same area for theatre K, which was 35mm. There was also a dubbing theatre B, where 16mm productions would be dubbed, and film dispatch and sound transfer suites, where the quarter-inch tape from Nagra tape machines would be transferred to 16mm magnetic. Film previews ran rushes, cutting copies, synch rushes, answer prints and transmission prints before going to telecine.

With the BBC seeking to reduce costs and in particular studios a decision was taken to sell Ealing Studios on the open market. Although a sale was agreed with BBRK the BBC inserted a buy-back clause so that in the event that BBRK (for whatever reasons) put the site up for sale then the BBC would have first option to purchase. BBRK found it necessary to sell the site and the BBC repurchased the site and sold it on for £1.00 to the National Film and Television School, (NFTS).

1995 to present

In 1995 the studios were purchased by the NFTS and yet again in mid-2000 by a consortium led by Fragile Films' Uri Fruchtmann and Barnaby Thompson, Harry Handelsman and John Kao, with a view to reviving the fortunes of the studio. Handelsman's Manhattan Loft Corporation redeveloped the 3.8 acre site to include the existing Grade II listed sound stages. The studio has since begun to produce theatrical films again, such as Lucky Break (2001), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), and Valiant (2005). Shaun of the Dead and 2005 horror film The Descent were both shot on the lot. In 2007, Ealing revived the St Trinian's franchise and the first film took over £12 million at the UK Box Office, making it the 4th most successful British independent film of all time. St. Trinian's, The Legend of Fritton's Gold was released in December 2009 and took over £7 million at the UK Box Office. Between these, Ealing released Easy Virtue (2008), directed by Stephan Elliott and Dorian Gray (2009), directed by Oliver Parker. Ealing Studios is also home to the Met Film School London, which has a purposely built film school on the lot and use of the studios. ITV drama Downton Abbey shot the kitchen and servants' quarters on stages 3A and 3B.

Ealing Studios films

Basil Dean era

Michael Balcon era

Documentaries

  • All Hands (1940)
  • Dangerous Comment (1940)
  • Food for Thought (1940)
  • Now You're Talking (1940)
  • Salvage with a Smile (1940)
  • Sea Fort (1940)
  • Guest of Honour (1941)
  • Yellow Caesar (1941)
  • Young Veterans (1941)
  • Find, Fix and Strike (1942)
  • Go to Blazes (1942)
  • Raid on France (1942) (adapted from Next of Kin)
  • Greek Testament (1943)
  • Return of the Vikings (1944)
  • Man – One Family (1946)

BBC TV productions

Later films

Independent TV

Music videos

See also

References

  1. ↑ History Archived 26 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine.. Ealingstudios.com, accessed 22 June 2011
  2. ↑ http://knowledgeoflondon.com/movies/ealing.html
  3. ↑ "A History of the BBC's Film Department", by David Martin (1983).

Coordinates: 51°30′32″N 0°18′26″W / 51.509016°N 0.307258°W / 51.509016; -0.307258

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