Collections inside JISC MediaHub
Amber Films
Documentaries and feature films from a remarkable film-making collective established in the north-east of England in 1968. Of interest to students, teachers and researchers in the fields of media studies and of UK political and social history in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The Amber Film Collective was established in 1968 when a group studying at the Regent Street Polytechnic met and subsequently moved to the north-east of England with the declared aim of documenting working-class communities in the region. It was therefore one of the first independent, regional co-operatives deliberately set up to operate outside the mainstream metro-centric film industry and is also one of the few remaining survivors of the workshop movement still producing films today.
Amber aims to work collaboratively with the local communities to produce a film and photographic record that gives them a genuine voice, ideally to produce some permutation of film, photographic exhibition and book.
Over the past 36 years Amber has produced a body of work of remarkable integrity that not only draws on the social realism that is so much part of the British documentary tradition but also uses an imaginative aesthetic approach.
The collection consists of both documentaries and feature films and will be of interest not only to media studies departments, but also to all those interested in the political and social history of Britain in the last 30 years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.
Subjects covered in their films range through shipbuilding (Launch), mining and the miners' strike (News from Durham, Where are We Going and The Scar), local and national politics (T Dan Smith and the Privatisation Series), the process of change in local communities and industries (Maybe, Byker, Quayside, Glass Works, Last Shift and Sea Coal), issues relating to nuclear energy (Can't Beat It Alone), and fishing (In Fading Light).
Their most recent feature, Like Father, deals with the impact of social, political and industrial change on a single family over three generations, while the most recent documentary, 'We Did it together. So Why Do I Feel So Alone?', is part of a peer education project using the stories of four young women to portray the difficulties and the realities of being a teenager with a baby.
A brief history by the Amber Production Team of Amber's development since its foundation in 1968, written for Media Online Focus (pdf file, 892 kb).
"The Interface of Documentary and Fiction: The Amber Film Workshop and Regional Documentary Practice", Jack Newsinger, Journal of British Cinema and Television, Vol. 6, No. 3: 387-406.
For more information about Amber Films, please go to the Amber Films website.
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Anglia Television Library
Two series: "Who Were the British?" (1965) and "The Lost Centuries" (1968): The first covers the history and impact of the Romans in Britain. The second covers the Post-Roman rise of Christianity and the later influence of the Islamic Empires through to the Renaissance.
The two series, 'Who Were the British' (1965) and 'The Lost Centuries' (1968), have been endorsed by both the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) and the Council for British Archaeology/BUFVC Audio-Visual Working Party (made up of senior UK academics and a range of senior archaeology film producers).
The two series are seen as reflecting the change in methodologies and approaches in archaeological discourse and they are also important for the study of the portrayal of archaeology on television. Like many programmes from the period, they have been unseen for many years.
'Who Were the British?' covers in particular the history and the impact of the Romans in Britain. 'The Lost Centuries' covers post-Roman Europe from the rise of Christianity and the influence of the later Islamic empires through to the beginning of the Renaissance. The series also explores Anglo-Saxon Britain and the expansion of the Vikings from Scandinavia into Britain.
Anglia Television played a leading role in the development of archaeology programmes, producing series with the input of eminent professors and experts of the time, in these two cases Dr Brian Hope Taylor.
For more information on Anglia Television please go to the Anglia website
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
AP Archive
A unrivalled collection of news footage, including Associated Press, ABC News, and Sky News (launched 1989). APâs coverage includes the Arab-Israeli conflict, the 2003 War in Iraq, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, conflict in the Balkans, US Presidents Bush, Reagan, and Clinton, Nelson Mandela, and many more.
Biochemical Society
A substantial selection of films from the Biochemical Society Archive, charting the development of biochemistry in the later 20th century through the experiences of some of the subject's most celebrated practitioners.
The Biochemical Society Archive films chart the development of biochemistry in the later 20th century through the experiences of some of the subject's most celebrated practitioners. Interviewees include Professor Patricia Clarke, Sir John Cornforth, Dr Dorothy Hodgkin, Sir James Lovelock, Professor Alfred Neuberger, Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgy and Lord Alexander Todd.
The material consists mainly of extended interviews, where appropriate illustrated with photographs, diagrams etc, ranging in style and often including personal memories as well as detailed descriptions of concepts and research. It also includes lectures such as H.A.Krebs's Nobel lecture, given in Miami on "The History of the Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle".
The collection is a unique resource, of great value to all the biochemical sciences, molecular sciences, and the history and philosophy of science. They also inform the social and political history of the 20th century and are supplemented in some cases by biographies of scientists and relevant lectures.
The material has been selected with advice from the collection's curator, John Lagnado, who has also checked the metadata.
Overview of the collection (PDF file, 224 kb), written by specialist cataloguer Jim Ballantyne for Media Online Focus.
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
British Paramount News
Paramount is actually British Paramount News, another cinema newsreel. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Paramount Pictures Inc. It began UK operations in 1931 and closed on 10 February 1957. Its release schedule was the same as Gaumont British and the other British cinema newsreels (new issues twice a week).
Channel 4 News
Television news from the British station Channel 4, including regular lunchtime and early evening programmes as well as scheduled and unscheduled specials.
- Channel 4 Lunchtime News.
- The only lunchtime news programme News broadcast on Channel 4. Regular weekday broadcasts began in 2003.
- Channel 4 Early Evening News.
- The only evening news programme broadcast by the channel. It has occupied the same slot (7pm) since it was first broadcast on 2 November 1982. The programme originally was broadcast as a 50 minute edition on four evenings each week (Monday to Thursday), with the Friday edition reduced in length to 30 minutes. Channel 4 News was not originally broadcast at weekends. Its first regular Saturday news programme was broadcast on 2 January 1999 and its first regular Sunday news programme was aired a year later on 2 January 2000. All Channel 4 news programmes are produced for the channel by ITN and have been since the very beginning.
- Channel 4 News Special.
- These are special news programmes. They are either scheduled - dealing in depth with a single major news story, such as the background to a high-profile criminal trial that is broadcast once trial verdicts have been announced and broadcasting restrictions have been lifted - or unscheduled "open-enders" that report major news events as they are happening - for example, the 7 July 2005 bombings in London.
Channel 5 News
Television news from the British station Channel 5, including regular lunchtime, early evening and evening programmes.
- Channel 5 Lunchtime News.
- This is a lunchtime news bulletin broadcast on Channel 5.
- Channel 5 Early Evening News.
- This was a news bulletin broadcast on Channel 5 at around 5pm or 5.30pm.
- Channel 5 Flagship.
- This was considered to be the major Channel 5 news programme of the day. From the channel's launch in 1997 until the end of 2004 ITN was the channel's news provider. The "flagship" bulletin was aired at various times between 7.00 and 8.30 pm.
Culverhouse Classical Music
Over 50 hours of copyright-free classical music and associated scores, covering much of the core repertoire plus rarer pieces from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Adaptation and manipulation permitted.
The Culverhouse Classical Music Collection comprises over 50 hours of copyright-free classical music, covering much of the core repertoire plus rarer pieces from the 17th to the 20th centuries. It is licensed from Brian Culverhouse, who, after 20 years at EMI, has been an independent record producer for 30 years, working with many famous performers.
For ease of use, the music is available in small pieces, such as movements, and some associated scores are also available.
Users are permitted to extract sections for delivery in VLEs or on disc, relieving pressure on hard-pressed libraries, allowing staff and students to download and burn customised CDs while librarians will be able to replace any that go missing.
As a repository of musical examples, the Culverhouse Classical Music Collection is a boon to music teaching at all levels. However the really innovative aspect of the licence agreement is that it allows manipulation of the files.
Using their preferred software, users are permitted to repurpose the wav files, including stretching or compressing the music, looping user-defined sections, and altering the pitch as well as using any future software developments.
The files can also be used to accompany film clips, although please note that permission should be obtained from the film owners beforehand.
For listening on personal media players users should download the m4a files.
Preview of the Culverhouse collection, written by John Riley for Media Online Focus (PDF file, 892 kb).
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Educational and Television Films Ltd
100 hours of films from the political Left from around the world, including the USSR, China, Eastern Europe, Chile and Cuba.
The ETV collection is unique in that it is the largest collection of productions from the former Soviet Union, Communist China, the European Eastern block, Chile and Cuba, which survives in Western Europe. It is the legacy of the work of Stanley Forman, one of the leading figures in the Communist Party of Great Britain.
In addition to documentary footage on, for example, the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, Nazi Germany, the Vietnam war, Tibet and Beirut, the collection also includes a number of Soviet, Czech and Bulgarian feature films.
The material will be of interest to lecturers and students in both Higher and Further Education and will be particularly useful in the disciplines of military, political and social history, the history of science, war studies, media studies, music and the performing arts, and the study of propaganda.
Zoe Moore's introduction to the ETV collection, written for Media Online Focus. (PDF file, 340 kb)
Professor Ian Christie's review of the ETV collection, written for Media Online Focus. (PDF file, 600 kb)
Overview of the second selection of 50 hours of ETV films written by John Riley (Assistant to the Head of Content, MAAS) for Media Online Focus (PDF file, 336 kb)
The ETV collection has recently been acquired by the British Film Institute and is held at the National Film and Television Archive. For more information please go to British Film Institute's information about the ETV collection.
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Films of Scotland
Documentary films on all aspects of Scotland. A selection of 50 hours.
One of the most coherent local and national film collections in the UK, Films of Scotland charts the changing face of Scotland from the 1930s to 1982.
All the films were made under the auspices of the Films of Scotland Committee, which had a brief to sponsor films to promote Scotland's social, cultural and industrial attributes, both nationally and internationally.
In collaboration with Scottish Screen Film Archive, most of the 155 Films of Scotland titles ever produced are available, including all seven films made for the Empire Exhibition in 1938, as well as a selection of the films made between 1955 and 1982; topics covered range across industry, agriculture, fishing, the work of Scottish artists and writers, architecture, tourism, urban redevelopment and Scottish music and dancing.
The material is relevant to both HE and FE courses and will be useful in art and art history, media studies, social, economic and industrial history, architectural history, cultural studies, sociology, environmental studies, and ethnographic, literary, and music studies.
Those wishing to carry out further research should note that the Scottish Screen Film Archive holds an archive of supporting documentation, including correspondence, draft and final scripts, music cue sheets, still photographs, marketing materials, programme booklets and awards certificates, distribution details and the administrative records of the Committee that commissioned the productions.
Overview of the collection written by Janet McBain, Curator Scottish Screen, for Media Online Focus. (PDF file, 340 kb)
Overview of the collection written by Duncan Petrie, University of Exeter. (PDF file, 100 kb)
For more information on the Films of Scotland collection and Scottish Screen please go to the Scottish Screen Website.
Associated materials and documentation from the Films of Scotland collection can be found at the SCRAN web site.
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Gaumont British News
A cinema newsreel that ran from 1934 until 1959.
A cinema newsreel that was launched in 1934. It was released in bi-weekly editions which continued until the end of January 1959. The newsreel frequently comprised a series of short film stories, with regular short-story compendiums introduced under the title of "Our Roving Camera Reports". During the 1930s individual issues ran for around 9-10 minutes each. However, this running times for individual issues fell to around 8 minutes in the second world war due to restrictions on the amount of film stock available. There were a few exceptions when longer reels were permitted: most notably the two editions released immediately following D-Day, which were permitted to reach double length.
As costs mounted and the threat from television developed individual Gaumont British News issues running times diminished further, averaging about 6 minutes or so at the time of the Suez invasion in November 1956. The last edition was released on 29 January 1959 and it was swiftly replaced in cinemas by the cine magazine, Look At Life. There was nothing in its last edition that recorded its closure. JISC MediaHub contains every available edition held in the Reuters news film archive.
Gaumont Graphic Newsreel
A silent cinema newsreel launched in 1910, also available with sound from the late 1920s. Ran until 1934.
A silent cinema newsreel. Originally French-owned, the company launched a British silent cinema newsreel in 1910. The British arm of the company was sold to British film interests in the early 1920s. From the advent of sound cinema in the late 1920s the newsreel appeared in both silent and sound versions. The silent newsreel finally ceased production in 1934, giving way to the production company's sound newsreel, Gaumont British News. JISC MediaHub contains the entire remaining Gaumont Graphic newsreel archive.
Getty (moving images)
8,000 clips covering cultural, social, and political issues, including images from over 35 separate collections.
Getty has drawn on hundreds of thousands of high-quality downloadable footage clips, to depict the people, the places and the events that have shaped the world as we know it today. The source collections, used to provide news, sports, personalities, lifestyle, wildlife, locations, cultures, politics and more, include Archive Films and Image Bank Films, plus Discovery Footage Source (wildlife, nature, science and technology), AFP News (news footage from over 2,900 journalists across the globe) and many others.
Getty (still images)
Nearly 12,000 images of political, cultural, and social history, covering the major events of recent world history.
GovEd Communications (Francesco Troina)
15,000 images by Francesco Troina, mainly covering architecture, design, engineering, media and travel and tourism.
Imperial War Museum (films)
A substantial selection of films from one of the most important moving image resources for the study of the major conflicts in which Britain was involved in the 20th Century. A selection of 50 hours.
The IWM film and video collection is recognised as one of the most important moving image resources for the study of all aspects of the major conflicts in which Britain was involved in the 20th Century. This selection from their holdings consists mainly of British official films, but there are also titles from the USSR and the USA. The material spans the First and Second World Wars, post-war reconstruction, Cold War and Civil Defence films, and, most recently, videotape from the United Nations Television Campaign in the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 1996.
Relevant to both FE and HE, subjects covered include military, political, social history, defence and war studies, American studies, colonial and post-colonial studies, women's studies, media studies, cultural studies, international relations, town and country development, art, literacy and the uses of propaganda.
For more information on holdings and educational events at the Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archive please go to the Imperial War Museum Website
Overview of the collection written by Dr Toby Haggith, IWM Public Services Officer and Film Programmer, for Media Online Focus. (PDF file, 780 kb)
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Imperial War Museum (images)
Images from the Imperial War Museum including art from both World Wars and a unique collection of proclamations.
This comprises three collections: Art of First World War; Art of the Second World War, and a unique collection of proclamations. All the main figures of British art in the twentieth century are represented, from academic painters, like John Singer Sargent and William Orpen, to leading progressive artists, such as Paul Nash, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Stanley Spencer. The proclamations collection is drawn from around 33,000 paper items from the First and Second World Wars, conveying official instructions and statements at home and abroad during wartime, conveying powerfully the civilian wartime experience of officialdom.
ITN
6,300 clips focusing on UK news coverage: the Minersâ Strike, the Thatcher era, John Major, and Tony Blair, right up to the present day. The ITN collection includes (from 1989) the Sky News archive.
ITN Clip Reel
A collection of clip reels, which are tapes comprising themed news footage that has been prepared by ITN Archive staff, for quick reference by ITN news teams and others to use.
ITN Collections
ITN collections were produced by ITN Archive producers primarily as footage sales tools.
These are compendia of news footage about events, personalities and other themes that is is known to be sought after. The copyright in the news footage featured is usually owned exclusively by ITN or Reuters, although very occasionally a small amount of footage owned by other copyright holders might be included as well (it is always clearly marked). In some cases the news packages (prepared stories) featured may be different to their broadcast versions. However, the ITN source database that provides the detailed descriptions of each collection, plus linkages to fuller records is not always clear where this has happened.
ITN Non-released
A collection of news stories prepared for ITN, which were never broadcast.
Sometimes, prepared stories only reached ITN after the moment scheduled for their transmission had passed and, being a perishable commodity, they were immediately consigned to the archive. This practice was comparable to that followed by the cinema newsreels, which frequently prepared stories that were never released, for instance British Paramount News story about an anti-Suez rally, organised by the Labour party, that took place on Sunday 4 November 1956.
ITN Open-ender
Television broadcasts covering major events, live, as the news unfolded.
There have only been a few such examples: 1997 (the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales), 2001 (9/11 - the attack on the World Trade Centre, and other sites), 31 March 2002 (the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother), 7 July 2005 (the bombings of three London Underground trains and a London bus). The project has, as far as possible, digitised all of the open ender programmes prepared by ITN and broadcast on ITV network and Channel 4. The open enders broadcast by Channel 5 prior to the end of 2004 have also been digitised. It will therefore be possible for users to witness and study in real time how the news of those events unfolded.
ITN Reports
Programmes from the ITN Reports series of special news reports.
The first edition included a report by Sandy Gall about foreign mercenaries who were fighting in the Congo civil war. There are interviews with several, including one young South African who was killed days after the interview was filmed.
ITN Reports was not, however, transmitted throughout the ITV network at the same time, or on the same day, and this presented problems for the production team who had to produce a programme that would remain "fresh" for several days. Indeed, two regional ITV companies (Ulster TV and Channel TV) did not broadcast the first half-dozen editions; and Channel ceased to broadcast it at all after 24 March 1965, preferring instead to broadcast Roving Report repeats.
Published television schedules reveal that early editions were transmitted at various times throughout the ITV network. Those programmes were transmitted on four separate days during the week; and only by the 20th edition (31 March 1965) had the programme settled into a relatively stable slot, although after a few weeks Rediffusion, the ITV company that operated the London weekday franchise, broadcast the programme at 6.30 pm whereas the other ITV regional companies transmitted it after 11pm.
The programme's fluid transmission schedule was considered by ITN's then Editor-in-Chief, (Sir) Geoffrey Cox, to be a major weakness. He summed this up in the following terms, "today's hot news is tomorrow's cold turkey."
The last edition of the programme under the ITN Reports name (issue number 59, Review of the Year, 1965) was transmitted on 29 December 1965 (at 6.31 pm in London and at 11.17 pm in the ITV regions)
ITN Rushes
A collection of rushes, the raw unedited footage that is supplied by the camera operators.
ITN Specials
Special news programs, usually scheduled and dealing in depth with a single major news story.
These are special news programmes. They were usually scheduled and dealt in depth with a single major news story, such as the background to a high-profile criminal trial, a royal visit of a landmark technological event (for example, the first live transatlantic television signals received at Goonhilly Down via the Telstar communications satellite, or the Apollo XI moon landing).
ITV News
Television news from the British station ITV. Included lunchtime, early and late evening programmes; news flashes.
- ITV Lunchtime News (national news)
- This is a lunchtime news bulletin that was broadcast on ITV. Digitised scripts are available from JISC MediaHub .
- ITV Early Evening News (national news)
- This was a news bulletin that was broadcast during the early evening on ITV (most often between 5pm and 7pm). Digitised scripts are available from JISC MediaHub .
- ITV Late Evening News (national news)
- The ITV Late Evening News is considered by many to be the main daily news bulletin produced for ITV by ITN. Broadcast times have varied throughout ITN's history. Until 1967 the programme was broadcast at 8.55 pm, 9.30 pm and 9 O'clock. On 3 July 1967 ITN's flagship news programme, News At Ten was first broadcast; the programme remained a constant feature of the weekday television schedule for the next 32 years, with the final edition being transmitted on 5 March 1999. Since that date ITV News, as the programme has latterly been branded, has been called Nightly News and, more recently, ITV News At Ten. Broadcast times have varied from 10pm through until 11.30 pm. Scheduled weekend bulletin times within this time slice have been more variable thought ITN's history. Digitised scripts are available from JISC MediaHub .
- ITV Newsflash
- News flashes were the equivalent to rolling news programmes' "breaking news". They were occasions when either scheduled television programmes, or advertisements were interrupted by a very short major news story. There were over 690 news flashes broadcast between January 1956 and December 1978. Newsflashes were broadcast on over 500 separate days within the 22 year period covered by the digitised scripts. There were over 100 occasions when two or more news flashes were broadcast in a single day, although they did not necessarily cover successive developments in a single story. (See, for instance, 10 March 1964 when newsflashes about several different stories all broadcast on the same day.) There were 10 days in that period when five or more newsflashes were broadcast. The day on which the greatest number of newsflashes were transmitted was 20 August 1968, when eleven were aired. It was the day when Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia. Newsflashes about the deteriorating health of Sir Winston Churchill between 15 and 23 January 1965.
IWF Knowledge and Media GmbH
A wide selection of material from one of the leading science film institutes in the world, based in Germany. A series of highlight extracts from the collection's complete films is available, each one complete in itself and showing a single process or phenomenon, together with a growing list of complete films from the collection.
Based in Germany, the IWF is one of the leading science film institutes in the world. It has been working since the late 1940s on behalf of academic researchers to create audio-visual recordings of physical phenomena in nature and technology, the biological sciences, and ethnographic customs and processes in culture and society. Please note that the soundtrack of a small number of films in the collection is in German.
The IWF collection is of interest to students of biomedical science and life sciences, zoology, botany, anthropology, chemistry, environmental science, genetics, oceanography, chemistry, physics, physical sciences, mathematics, ethnography and geology.
Michael Niehaus has written an introduction to the IWF collection for Media Online Focus (PDF file, 460 kb)
For more information on the IWF collection please visit the IWF web site.
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Films from this collection can be included in learning and teaching objects deposited in Jorum, the UK national repository for learning and teaching objects. This permission does not apply to any other collections in the JISC MediaHub service
Logic Lane
A series of films tracing the development of philosophy at Oxford University from the 1930s to the early 1970s, featuring eminent figures such as Sir Alfred Ayer, Bernard Williams, Iris Murdoch and Sir Isaiah Berlin. A collection of 6 titles amounting to just under six hours.
A series of six films made by Professor Michael Chanan while at Oxford, the first of which (Logic Lane) traces the development of philosophy at Oxford University from the 1930s to the early 1970s. The rest of the series uses conversations between pairs of philosophers as its basic format and features many eminent scholars including Sir Alfred Ayer, Bernard Williams, Iris Murdoch, Sir Isaiah Berlin, David Pears, Stuart Hampshire and Gilbert Ryle. The films provide a cross section of their views on many issues, including, ethics, freedom and determinism, philosophy and science, linguistic theory and the philosophy of mind.
The material will obviously be useful to students of philosophy, but will also be of interest to students of psychology, aesthetics and cultural theory, and language and literature.
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Performance Shakespeare
A collection of 11 productions and documentaries from Channel 4 Learning that will complement, inform and support the study of English literature, media, theatre, the performing arts and creative industries.
The modern versions of Macbeth and Twelfth Night provide new insights into the plays and seek to challenge assumptions about Shakespeare's work, while the documentaries investigate the process of producing the plays in the theatre, for television or in the community.
Behind the Scenes at the RSC
Two 25-minute documentaries provide a behind-the-scenes look at theatre craft and production, featuring productions of Measure for Measure, The Spanish Tragedy, Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest.
Macbeth
Channel 4 Learning specially commissioned this version of Macbeth that provides a fresh angle on the play. Directed by Michael Bogdanov and produced by Sue Pritchard, the play is removed from its historical context and made more filmic to demonstrate that the central narrative is not only timeless but as strong and exciting as any modern drama.
- Shakespeare and his Theatre
- A two-programme series providing valuable insights into Shakespeare's life and times and the theatre of his day.
- Shakespeare's Half Hours
- The programme shows a selection of highlights demonstrating important stages in the evolution of four London schools' contributions to the Shakespeare School Drama Festival. Each of the schools' shows is seen at similar points of development. A variety of dramatic approaches are presented, applied to a range of scenes, both intimate and ensemble.
- Twelfth Night
- Tim Supple directs a highly cinematic version of Twelfth Night.. By transforming Viola and Sebastian into refugees and placing them in a modern Illyria, Supple highlights the continuing relevance of Shakespeare's work.
- The Making of Twelfth Night
- Four 25-minute documentaries exploring the production of Channel 4 Learning's Twelfth Night, from initial idea to finished film. Packed with insights into film production, the series shows how Twelfth Night inspires a young, talented and multi-cultural team of film-makers and actors.
Other Shakespeare performances:
The Sheffield University Learning Media Unit contains two further Shakespeare performance titles:
Channel 4 Learning also offers the following online resources relating to this collection:
Programmes as Broadcast (PAB)
A collection of news programmes, as they were broadcast on television.
These were selected mainly according to sampling criteria that were approved by the Newsfilm Online project's Advisory Board. The only real exceptions to this were 9/11 and 7/7 when the project digitised the whole news coverage to show how the news broke on those days and how the stories developed, as facts sometimes replaced speculation and confusion. So, you may have within the ITV News collection, News AT Ten PABs, News AT Five PABs, etc., and within the Channel 4 News collection, Channel 4 News PABs, etc.
The project team and their ITN colleagues discovered several complete PAB-equivalent off-air recordings of bulletins that had been made before the advent of PABs. The earliest discovered was dated 12 February 1956 and appeared to have been recorded on film for use in a trade technical exhibition. The soundtrack for that recording includes the programme director's instructions (recorded on the studio talk-back channel).
PYMCA
5,900 images of contemporary youth culture. These images provide powerful documentation of changing fashions and lifestyles of young people, depicted at their finest (and worst).
Reporting 66-67
A collection of news reports from the series_ Reporting '66_ and Reporting '67
- Reporting '66
- There was one special edition ("The way to Braybrook Street"), which was transmitted throughout the ITV network on 12 December 1966. The programme dealt with the murders of three London policemen on 12 August 1966. There had been a nationwide hunt for one of the killers, Harry Roberts, who was subsequently caught after more than two months on the run. The three people accused of the murders were tried at the Old Bailey in London and were all given long prison sentences. The programme, which was transmitted on the night that the trial had concluded, focussed on Harry Roberts, and includes interviews with a former partner and his mother.
- Reporting '67
- Two separate editions of issue number 20 were transmitted: the ITV regions, except London, received a programme that concentrated on the A6 murder, for which James Hanratty had been convicted and executed, and it included an interview with Peter Alphon , who claimed that he and not Hanratty had committed the murder. There was also a live interview with the jurist Lord Russell of Liverpool. The London-only edition was broadcast a day later (at 6.33pm) and it comprised stories about the hunt for Hitler's deputy, Martin Borman, and Sweden's plans to change overnight from driving on the left-hand side of the road (as in the UK) to driving on the right-hand side of the road.
Reuters News
Reuters footage is the television news footage shot by its television news teams that operate world-wide. The news footage is shot for sale to broadcasters and film makers.
Roving Report
Programmes from a weekly series of news reports broadcast on the British station ITV from 1957 until 1964.
Each weekday in the mid-1950s there was in the UK a television transmission break lasting from 6-7 pm. This was the so- called "toddlers' truce", which was intended to help parents put their children to bed. It was scrapped at the start of 1957. Both BBC and ITV sped to fill the gap with programmes: the BBC created TONIGHT, a news magazine that was broadcast every weekday night, initially from 6.05 to 6.45 pm. ITV's response was ROVING REPORT. Richard Lindley, in his book about ITN (And Finally?) wrote that ITV was "just as unprepared to fill the gap as they would turn out to be decades later when they got rid of NEWS AT TEN". Roving Report was created to provide "armchair ticket to anywhere in the world". The programme continued as a weekly series from 19 March 1957 until November 1964; and 381 individual programmes were produced. At its most popular it reportedly gained audiences of around 6 million. The programme soon started taking significant audiences from its BBC rival.
Being broadcast during the early evening meant that the programme never commanded resources that would help it attain the stature of more heavyweight current affairs programmes broadcast by both networks.
Interesting programmes:
- The first programme was filed by Robin Day from Bermuda on the eve of an Anglo-American Summit Conference. It looked at Anglo-American relations after the Suez debacle four months previous. Day interviewed Senator Hubert Humphrey and Sugar Ray Robinson (apparently in the boxing ring). Sadly it appears that a complete version no longer exists.
- Lena Looks at London. Producer / reporter Michael Barsley took a Danish student around London. An odd feature of his interviews is that they were always always shot mute and he always reported what he was told. Interviewees' voices were never recorded.
- Munich Merry go round 1962
- Germany in NATO [Connell]
- Canary
- Costa Brava
- Billancourt: Renault and collaboration - Claude Bourdet
Royal Geographical Society
The achievements and experiences of nineteenth and early twentieth century travellers and geographers are translated through the photographs, watercolours, sketches, maps and artefacts they brought back to the Royal Geographical Society, and still held in the RGS archives.
The RGS has provided some of the most haunting and valuable images from its archives of over half a million items, including unique photos of Captain Scott at the South Pole in 1912, Ernest Shackleton, sketches of the Victoria Falls by David Livingstone, and the last known photograph of Mallory and Irvine before they set off to reach the summit of Everest. The explorers were never seen again.
Royal Mail Film Classics
One of the finest British collections of documentary, public information, animation and industrial film, covering subjects ranging across transport and communications in Britain and abroad, the Home Front during the Second World War, British industries from fishing to mining, the nation's health - and developments in the Post Office service itself. A selection of 16 hours.
Founded in 1933 as successor to the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit and headed by John Grierson in the role of Film Officer, the GPO Film Unit produced one of the finest British collections of documentary, public information, animation and industrial film ever to come from a single UK source, spanning much of the 20th Century.
The GPO Film Unit provided a temporary home to many of the best-known names in the British documentary movement, including Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Basil Wright, Harry Watt, Edgar Anstey, Arthur Elton and John Taylor, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren. The Unit remained in existence throughout the 1930s and survived into the early years of the Second World War, when it became the Crown Film Unit.
The collection includes classics such as Nightmail (1936), which perhaps best exemplifies how British industry supported leading artists in the pre-television age, drawing as it does on the combined talents of Basil Wright and Harry Watt, alongside WH Auden, Benjamin Britten, John Grierson and Stuart Legg.
Despite the fact that the GPO Film Unit was set up to produce fully-funded sponsored films, the film-makers found space to develop and experiment within these constraints. Films such as Housing Problems, Workers and Jobs and Coal Face focus on some of the social issues facing a rapidly changing Britain in the 1930s, while Len Lye's Colour Box is unashamedly experimental and only very nominally an advertisement for the GPO's parcel post.
The collection covers subjects ranging across transport and communications in Britain and abroad; the home front during the Second World War, British industries, from fishing to mining, the nation's health - and developments in the Post Office service itself. Watch an introduction from the British Film Institute to the work of the GPO Film Unit, presented by Derek Jacobi:
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Sheffield University Learning Media Unit
Medicine, statistics, law, chemistry, archaeology, and the performing arts. A selection of 47 hours.
Sheffield University Learning Media Unit is one of the largest university production units in the UK. The collection covers a wide range of subjects and programmes, and will be useful right across the academic subject range, including medicine, bio-medical science, chemistry, life sciences, biology, sociology, environmental and earth sciences, archaeology, music, law, geology, civil engineering, English language and the performing arts.
More information on University of Sheffield Learning Media Unit
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
St George's Hospital Medical School
These films reflect the production and teaching needs of one of the leading medical schools in the UK. A selection of nine hours.
The collection of 19 films from St George's Hospital Medical School Academic Services reflects the teaching needs of one of the leading medical schools in the UK.
The collection covers subjects in the clinical-medical and biomedical fields, as well as aspects of current medical practice, including examination techniques, case studies on specific illnesses and operations, guides on diagnosis, and training on doctor-patient interaction.
The material is aimed at medical and biomedical undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Overview of the collection written by David Cleverly, Director of Academic Services St George's Hospital Medical School, for Media Online Focus. (PDF file, 432 kb)
These notes written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
The North Highland College (Johnston Collection)
The Johnston Collection of photographs, from the North Highland College.
The Johnston Collection is a historic photographic collection of national and European significance dating from as early as 1840. The Johnston family were amongst the earliest pioneers of photography, and their work spans almost a hundred and forty year period between around 1840 and 1979. Working in and around the Caithness and Sutherland areas, their subject matter ranged from general Highland life, through the fishing industry, working women, politics, architecture, and general portraiture, all of it of considerable historic value. The last remaining member of the Johnston dynasty still resides in Wick, and it is he who donated the collection to its current guardians.
University of Brighton Design Archives
Material from the University of Brighton Design Archives, including images of exhibitions, posters, products, and retail space design dating from 1945 to 1985.
The collection comprises four separate components:
- British exhibitions (800 images) â a rich visual record of British post-war exhibitions in the post-war period, including the Festival of Britain; national celebrations such as the 1953 Coronation; and the interiors of the Commonwealth Institute.
- Posters (500 images) â images of artwork and printed posters advertising a wide range of services, products and events throughout the post-war years, in Britain and internationally.
- Product Design (700 images) â by including location data for each image, this collection will help create a map of British manufacturing (much of which is long gone), and includes rare sets of images relating to manufacturing processes: furniture; glass; printed textiles.
- Retail and Domestic Spaces (300 images) â the changing face of British retail from shop fascias, interiors, signage and display, alongside domestic interiors from the 1930s to the end of the century.
Visnews
Visnews was a news film agency. Its camera crews and reporters, many of whom were based in the company's overseas bureaux, shot the footage that covered the globe from a series of Under that name the television news agency was jointly owned by BBC and Reuters. It was founded in 1962 and absorbed the news film agency BCINA (The British and Commonwealth International NewsFilm Agency). The BBC sold its interest to Reuters in 1993. name used by Reuters Television.
Wellcome Film
450+ titles dating from 1912 onwards, covering all aspects of medicine, healthcare provision and practice in the UK from the Moving Image and Sound Collection in the Wellcome Library. Includes Wellcome Audio, a recently digitised collection of sound recordings which are now available via JISC MediaHub and Wellcome Library's online resources.
Wellcome Film provides access to films and videos which were previously only available to view onsite at the Wellcome Library's premises. Researchers, educators, students and browsers are able to witness the evolution of medicine and health over the past 100 years and engage with the use of film as a communication tool in the medical sciences.
The core collection consists of about 60 © Wellcome Trust titles that were made by the corporate arm of the organisation, in the guise of the Wellcome Foundation. The earliest footage is of archaeological digs in the Sudan, at Jebel Moya, featuring the founder, Sir Henry Wellcome himself (A day at Gebel Moya, season 1912-13), as well as more jaunty corporate fare about the business of running a pharmaceutical company (Looking Around, The Story of the Wellcome Foundation).
Many of the films were originally made for professional audiences such as doctors, surgeons, nurses and students of medicine, so be prepared for some "hands-on" footage of clinical procedures and actual operations. Some of the material urinary procedures are available to medical students only.
Wellcome Audio includes just over 30 separate recordings and they form part of the wider landscape relating to the evolution of medicine and health over the past 100 years with audio being a significant communication tool within medical science. Examples within the collection are medical sounds used in the diagnosis of heart abnormalities and various lectures captured for professional audiences. Surprises in the collection include a recording of Florence Nightingale's 1890 appeal on behalf of the veterans of Balaclava (a practice session as well as the official version) and a recording in Italian of musical therapy for the treatment of the bite of a tarantula.
Content is also freely available under Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licences via the Wellcome Library site (see link below).
