Periodic Reporting for period 4 - STUDIOTEC (Film Studios: Infrastructure, Culture, Innovation in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, 1930-60.)
Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-02-28
Context
Between 1930 and 1960, the European film industry flourished in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. However, a knowledge gap exists on the factors that affected the sector due to war circumstances and post-war events, which included political changes, the labour movement, and the introduction of new technologies. The EU funded STUDIOTEC project suggests a new methodology based on the comparison of empirical data and transnational processes. The project has studied film studios as both artistic and entrepreneurial structures and has evaluated how the transnational movement affected creative acts. The research was based on interconnected issues including the studio’s infrastructures, artistic creativity, the role of politics, the economy and labour relations.
Objective
This project investigated film studios across four major European production sites: Britain, France, Germany and Italy, 1930-60. During these years studios were transformed as they responded to challenges including wartime disruptions, post-war fragmentation, movement of labour and the introduction of new technologies. While these countries have attracted their own historical literatures, this project proposed for the first time their comparative analysis from the perspective of film studio tectonics, cultures and practices. The project was underpinned by the idea of tectonics as a metaphorical way into understanding the studios’ multiple, stratified, shifting experiences as architectural spaces, diverse working environments and locations for innovation. The study of film studios has been dominated by the centralized Hollywood ‘system’, and local studio histories are typified by discrete, linear and undertheorized approaches. This project proposed a more dynamic materialist methodology, linking empirical data with comparative, transnational developments which occurred during a major period of change within the four key production sites. Using historical research and a range of spatial analysis, 3D and VR tools, the project has created new understandings of how the collaborative and material environments of studio spaces and technologies shaped film production and cultures.
Between 1930 and 1960, the European film industry flourished in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. However, a knowledge gap exists on the factors that affected the sector due to war circumstances and post-war events, which included political changes, the labour movement, and the introduction of new technologies. The EU funded STUDIOTEC project suggests a new methodology based on the comparison of empirical data and transnational processes. The project has studied film studios as both artistic and entrepreneurial structures and has evaluated how the transnational movement affected creative acts. The research was based on interconnected issues including the studio’s infrastructures, artistic creativity, the role of politics, the economy and labour relations.
Objective
This project investigated film studios across four major European production sites: Britain, France, Germany and Italy, 1930-60. During these years studios were transformed as they responded to challenges including wartime disruptions, post-war fragmentation, movement of labour and the introduction of new technologies. While these countries have attracted their own historical literatures, this project proposed for the first time their comparative analysis from the perspective of film studio tectonics, cultures and practices. The project was underpinned by the idea of tectonics as a metaphorical way into understanding the studios’ multiple, stratified, shifting experiences as architectural spaces, diverse working environments and locations for innovation. The study of film studios has been dominated by the centralized Hollywood ‘system’, and local studio histories are typified by discrete, linear and undertheorized approaches. This project proposed a more dynamic materialist methodology, linking empirical data with comparative, transnational developments which occurred during a major period of change within the four key production sites. Using historical research and a range of spatial analysis, 3D and VR tools, the project has created new understandings of how the collaborative and material environments of studio spaces and technologies shaped film production and cultures.
Year 1: Research agendas, timelines and working practices were established following successful recruitment of four excellent PDRs. The PI established a regular set of meetings for the entire team. During lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic this was an essential means of keeping the team connected. We held regular team seminars concentrating on themes. The project’s website was established and blog posts were published monthly. Most research undertaken during this period used online sources, mainly due to the impact of Covid 19 restricting travel. Researchers were able to visit archives once travel restrictions were lifted. The database profile was set up as using Zotero to log references shared by the whole team. An assessment of available photographic and other visual sources was undertaken, generating much new knowledge.
Year 2: Primary research was conducted in archives. Three articles were accepted for publication and team member Morgan Lefeuvre published a prize-winning book based on her PhD research. The team delivered papers to two online international conferences. The VR work was accelerated following recruitment of a designer/researcher, Amy Stone). Workshop 1: Studio Architectures: Vistas and Visions was held as a virtual event in September 2020 when all team members delivered working papers for discussion and with invited external academics as respondents. This event was a significant milestone since it provided an opportunity for extensive debate of Studio Architectures, one of the project’s major themes, as well as establishing a strategic context for the team’s research.
Year 3: A contract was signed with Bloomsbury/British Film Institute for a team co-authored book containing the project's main results. A number of results were achieved, including the identification of previously unknown levels of transnational collaboration between film industries and studios, as well as continuities in methods and personnel during key periods. The visual information, combined with the VR work, advanced a visual and spatial understanding of the studios' architectures and physical locations. The team produced publications which chart the new directions for studio studies represented by the project. Conference papers and research seminars disseminated the results and archives were visited. Workshop 2: focussed on the VR work, featuring external experts and presentations.
Year 4: Archival research continued. A major international conference on Film Studios, held at the Watershed, Bristol was organised. It attracted scholars from all over the world, and the VR experience was demonstrated. The team presented papers at conferences, wrote blog posts for the website and several journal articles were published. The PI published a monograph on 'Pinewood Studios: Anatomy of a Film Studio in Post-war Britain'. The researchers working on France discovered papers on the Pagnol Studios, uncovering new documentation on how they operated, as well as a collection of photographs. These have added immensely to knowledge of studios outside Paris. The VR work was completed and the files made available via the University of Bristol's Data Repository.
Year 5: The team's co-authored book was completed and accepted by the publisher. It showcases many new discoveries about European film studios, and how they differed from Hollywood's. The extent of transnational collaboration between countries is an important theme, as well as how the studios functioned as workplace communities. In addition, new insights into studio architecture, and their status as industrial archaeology represent to the project's major achievements. The team continued to give conference papers and publish journal articles. The project was disseminated in venues outside of academia, including to the Cambridge Museum of Technology, the Watershed, Bristol, the British Film Institute and at VR and technology festivals.
Year 2: Primary research was conducted in archives. Three articles were accepted for publication and team member Morgan Lefeuvre published a prize-winning book based on her PhD research. The team delivered papers to two online international conferences. The VR work was accelerated following recruitment of a designer/researcher, Amy Stone). Workshop 1: Studio Architectures: Vistas and Visions was held as a virtual event in September 2020 when all team members delivered working papers for discussion and with invited external academics as respondents. This event was a significant milestone since it provided an opportunity for extensive debate of Studio Architectures, one of the project’s major themes, as well as establishing a strategic context for the team’s research.
Year 3: A contract was signed with Bloomsbury/British Film Institute for a team co-authored book containing the project's main results. A number of results were achieved, including the identification of previously unknown levels of transnational collaboration between film industries and studios, as well as continuities in methods and personnel during key periods. The visual information, combined with the VR work, advanced a visual and spatial understanding of the studios' architectures and physical locations. The team produced publications which chart the new directions for studio studies represented by the project. Conference papers and research seminars disseminated the results and archives were visited. Workshop 2: focussed on the VR work, featuring external experts and presentations.
Year 4: Archival research continued. A major international conference on Film Studios, held at the Watershed, Bristol was organised. It attracted scholars from all over the world, and the VR experience was demonstrated. The team presented papers at conferences, wrote blog posts for the website and several journal articles were published. The PI published a monograph on 'Pinewood Studios: Anatomy of a Film Studio in Post-war Britain'. The researchers working on France discovered papers on the Pagnol Studios, uncovering new documentation on how they operated, as well as a collection of photographs. These have added immensely to knowledge of studios outside Paris. The VR work was completed and the files made available via the University of Bristol's Data Repository.
Year 5: The team's co-authored book was completed and accepted by the publisher. It showcases many new discoveries about European film studios, and how they differed from Hollywood's. The extent of transnational collaboration between countries is an important theme, as well as how the studios functioned as workplace communities. In addition, new insights into studio architecture, and their status as industrial archaeology represent to the project's major achievements. The team continued to give conference papers and publish journal articles. The project was disseminated in venues outside of academia, including to the Cambridge Museum of Technology, the Watershed, Bristol, the British Film Institute and at VR and technology festivals.
The project's comparative design produced its most innovative results. Work relating to VR, visualisations and using 3-D models has enhanced the scope of the historical research. The project's results are: the addition of many new perspectives generated from archival research and in creating a unique VR studios experience. The team has disseminated results at many seminars, international conferences and events. The project held three workshops and an international conference on Film Studios was held in Bristol in June 2023. The project's website included a virtual exhibition showcasing the many curious and fascinating examples of visual documentation we found in the archives. The project’s conceptual and methodological design was followed closely to create our unique VR experience. This was an important interdisciplinary collaboration between the project's technologists and historians. Professor Sarah Street (the PI) published a single-authored book on 'Pinewood Studios: Anatomy of a Film Studio in Post-war Britain', and a 180,000 words Open Access book, co-authored by the PI and seven team members will be published in January 2026. The project’s application of materialist, interdisciplinary approaches has so far produced 21 journal articles/book chapters; a further six are forthcoming.