The World's Best Labels and Studios

We finished the last article explaining how Pixar was on the lookout for new markets following the relatively poor sales of it’s computers.  John Lasseter, in charge of the new animation department, began to produce work for several outside projects, including Terminator 2, Tropicana and Listerine and gradually Pixar began to make a name for itself as a producer of high quality animation.

Pixar was still travelling a rocky financial road though, and in 1990 the hardware division was sold off to Vicom Systems, splitting the medical imaging side from the animation side.  The animation branch, still under the control and ownership of Steve Jobs, did retain their relationship with Walt Disney and it was this partnership which saved it in the end.  Still losing money despite contract work, it wasn’t until Disney undertook to distribute Pixar’s Toy Story at Christmas 1995 that Jobs decided to stick with Pixar rather than sell it.  The enormous box-office success of Toy Story ensured that Pixar had turned the corner.

The relationship with Disney has not always been a happy one and Pixar appears to have felt that the relationship was a little one-sided.  Throughout the production of Toy Story 2, and The Incredibles, among others, the two companies continually tried to come to contractual agreements suitable to both parties but repeatedly failed, although they seem to have managed to release films on a movie by movie basis.

Ultimately, in 2006, Disney bought Pixar for an incredible $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.  This meant that Jobs, a 50.1% shareholder in Pixar, suddenly became Disney’s largest individual shareholder.  The terms of the takeover ensured that Pixar retained its name and staff and became a separate entity within the Disney corporation.

Pixar’s future is therefore assured and the quality of it’s animation ensures it is something of a money-making machine.  Awards have been numerous, including 26 Oscars, 7 Golden Globes and 3 Grammies.  All of Pixar’s films are among the fifty highest grossing animated films of all time and Toy Story 3 alone has raked in more than $1 billion worldwide.

Part Three of Elstree then and we’ve already covered Clarendon Road Studios and the studio which eventually bore the name Elstree.  This post is about some of the smaller studios in the areas but which nevertheless we still think of as part of the Elstree group.

Station Road Studios

We’ll start with Station Road Studios, a site which was built in 1928 by Whitehall Films Ltd but which consisted of only one stage.  After Whitehall was wound up in 1930, the site sat empty for five years until Julius Hagen, of Twickenham Studios, took it over and renamed the premises JH Studios.  JH Studios lasted barely seven years before financial problems forced a sell on to MP productions.

Post-war, J. Arthur Rank acquired the site and began to make religious films under the Gate Studios name.  In 1957, production ceased completely when the cinema screen manufacturer, Harkness Screens, took over the site and retained ownership until 2004.  The site is now a housing development renamed Gate Studios.

Station Road/Gate Studios

British and Dominion Studios

British and Dominion were a reasonably substantial player in the early days of British film production and they were involved in Elstree also, albeit in a small way.  The company acquired three sound stages from British International Pictures Ltd in 1930 at their Elstree site but these were estroyed in a fire in 1936.

Following the fire, British and Dominion moved production to Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire and invested in Pinewood Studios there.

Elstree Way Studios, Borehamwood

Another of the studios carrying the Elstree name, this was a large studio built by Amalgamated Studios Ltd between 1935 and 1937.  Increasing costs ensured a sell out to J. Arthur Rank who sold it on again in 1944 to Metro Goldwyn Mayor (MGM).  MGM expanded the facility to include seven studios but eventually left the site in 1970 to join EMI at their nearby Shenley Rd facility.  The site was subsequently redeveloped for commercial and housing uses.

Danziger Studios, Elstree

Constructed by the Danziger Brothers in 1956, it never made any money when in use as a television production venue and closed in 1962.

Millenium Studios, Elstree

The most recent development, this studio was constructed in 1993 for film and television production purposes.  It relocated to Bedfordshire in 2010 and continues production at that location.

We mentioned in the previous article how the name Elstree refers to the entire area occupied by seven film and television studios.  However, since 2000 there has been one studio actually known as Elstree.

The story of this particular studio however starts way back in 1925 when British National Pictures Ltd bought fifty acres of land near Borehamwood.  Two film stage were constructed to facilitate the production and release of Madame Pompadour in 1927.  The first British movie featuring sound – Blackmail – was produced there in 1929 and by the early 1930s ownership of the studio, which now featured six ‘sound’ stages had transferred to two separate owners, the Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd (ABPC) and the British and Dominion Films Corporation.  Both organisation controlled three stages each.

The studio largely avoided being requisitioned by the government during the Second World War and post-war, Warner Brothers effectively took over ABPC Ltd, upgrading the studios before producing Man on the Run and The Hasty Heart in 1948.  In 1968, Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) took over the site and it became the EMI Studios.  After the parent company merged with Thorn Electrical Industries, the company (and the studios) became known as Thorn EMI in 1979.

The studio never really fitted in with Thorn’s ambitions and the studio was sold on again in 1986 to the Herron-Cannon group.  Despite the problems facing the group at this time, all three of the original Star Wars films were produced here, as well as the first three Indiana Jones films.  In 1988 ownership transferred to the property group, Brent Walker Ltd, who began to sell off bits of the studio.  Local alarm bells were raised and a campaign got underway which ended with the purchase of the studio by Hertsmere Borough Council in 1996.  The studio finally gained its current name in 2000 when a management company called Elstree Film & Television Studios Ltd.

Filming resumed shortly afterwards with much of the production of blockbusters such as the new Star Wars trio taking place there.  It’s also the home of British television programmes such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Big Brother.

Elstree Studios is, like Pinewood Studios, one of the iconic names in British film history.  Elstree actually refers to seven different television and movie studios locates in Hertfordshire, a county just to the North of London and an ideal spot in which to locate a business such as this.  Borehamwood is now the biggest town in the area but at the time of studio development, Elstree was the larger, hence the reference to Elstree Studios.  The different studios are:

British and Dominion Studios

Clarendon Road Studios

Danziger Studios

Elstree Studios

Elstree Way Studios

Millenium Studios

Station Road Studios.

Although listed above in alphabetical order, we’ll discuss each in the order in which they were built, the first being the Clarendon Film Company.

Clarendon Film Company

The Clarendon Film Company was developed in 1914 by the Neptune Film Company.  To begin with it features just a ‘dark stage’.  That is a windowless room entirely lit by artificial light – in 1914 it was gas powered.  Ownership changed to the Ideal Film Company in 1917 and remained that way until 1924 when activity at the site ceased.

The studio was purchased by the German, Ludwig Blattner, in 1928 and the gas powered lighting was replaced by mains electricity.  Audio technology was also upgraded.  In 1936, Joe Rock Productions acquired the site and began to expand the facilities, adding four new stages.  Director Michael Powell made his first feature film The Edge of the World during this period in 1937.

Movie Poster

Ownership of the studio moved on again in 1939 and this time it was bought by British National Films Ltd.  Like other studios in wartime however, much of the available production facilities were used for government purposes, propaganda films and the like.

Associated Television acquired the site in 1962 and shows such as The Muppets and The Saint were produced there.  During television license re-negotiations in the early 1980s, the Independent Broadcasting Authority required that more of their shows were produced in the Midlands and away from London.  Production at the facility was scaled down considerably and the BBC bought it in 1984, mainly for the production of their new soap opera, Eastenders, which was due to air the following year.  The BBC still owns the site today.

When looking for the oldest studio, or the most famous studio, or perhaps the studio which has been responsible for most of our favourite films we naturally turn inward towards our own country.  Brits may look to Pinewood and James Bond, Indians to Bollywood and Americans to Hollywood but we’re not the only film-making countries in the world.

Russia has several of the oldest film studios – if not in the world – then at least in Europe so

The Original Mosfilm Logo

why are we not more aware of them?  The obvious answer is that films made in the Russian language just do not travel well to English speaking countries but is this really true? We’re probably aware of more Russian films than we think.

Mosfilm is the studio we’re going to look at today and up until around 1990 it has produced more than 3000 films.  Based in Moscow, it was founded in 1920 by Alexandr Khanzhonkov and ready for production by 1923.  Its first film was On The Wings Skyward, completed in the same year and directed by Boris Mikhin.

In 1926 Sergei Eisenstein produced must what still rank as one of Mosfilm’s most famous films ever.  It was the silent movie The Battleship Potemkin and any fan or student of film will be aware of the significance of this production.  It’s based on true events and deals with the rebellion on-board the Potemkin by the crew against the officers representing the Tsarist regime.  Made in 1905 it was a stunning piece of anti-Tsarist propoganda and includes some famous and influential scenes – most notably the massacre of Odessan civilians by Tsarist soldiers on a the infamous staircase.  Here’s a clip:

Mosfilm has a filmography to long to list here but it has produced several version of Russian classics.  War and Peace was produced by Sergei Bondarchuk in 1968 and won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

It’s still a prolific producer of films nowadays and also includes all the pre- and post-production facilities necessary to complete films on-site.

In our previous article we’d just about reached the post-Second World War period after describing how during the previous decade and the rise to prominence of Ghandi and Indian nationalism films had mostly been about one of two subjects.  They either reflected the struggle for independence or they offered the viewer a world of escapism.  A prime example of the independence genre was R. S. D. Choudhury’s Wrath (1930) which features Indian actors playing Indian leaders.  It was banned at the time by the Raj.

Independence eventually came of course in 1947 and partition brought with it it’s own set of problems (aside from the violence which accompanied it).  Several prominent studios ended up in what would become Pakistan and the centre of the Indian Film Industry gravitated towards Southern India.

Thousands of films were produced in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and this period came to be known as the golden age of Indian cinema.  There’s very little point listing these films as they’re available in many other locations but the most notable ones are Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957), Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955).  Check out this clip from Mother India:

New movements in the genre were appearing constantly and probably the most notable originated in Bengal in the 1940s and it would later be termed neo-realism and eventually Indian New Wave.  Examples of this period are Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946) and Bimal Roy’s Two Acres of Land (1953).  However the most famous set of films from this movement is The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, made between 1955 and 1959.  The first part of the trilogy – Pather Panchall – won prizes at many international film festivals and in turn led to a resurgence in confidence within India regarding their abilities.  This in turn translated into more government finance and support for the already prolific industry.  In fact The Apu Trilogy is regarded as influential films not just in India but around the world for the coming-of-age subject matter.

Part Three follows…

The Shaw Brothers are probably the most famous name in Honk Kong movie making.  Originally of Chinese origin two of the brothers, Runme and Run Run, started their connection with the cinema trade by opening film theatres in Singapore from 1924 onwards.  The company was called The Shaw Organisation and is still operational today.  At one time they owned cinemas and related businesses throughout South-East Asia but now they are confined to Singapore once again.

The movie studio was founded in Hong Kong in1930 and was known firstly as South Sea Film and then later the Shaw Brothers Studio.  In 1934 the studio released Hong Kong’s first film with sound entitled “Platinum Dragon”.  As mentioned earlier the Shaw Brothers had by this time expanded their cinema operations around Asia and this gave them an ideal distribution method for their films.  They also developed amusement parks and other attractions in those countries to which they had expanded.

The second world war brought an end to film production as the Japanese had invaded almost every country in which they operated and requisitioned the various cinemas and production facilities to produce propaganda films.  Once the war was over it was back to business as usual and films began to be produced at a prolific rate.  The studio’s first internationally recognised success was ‘The Kingdom and the Beauty’ in 1958 and in to the 1960s the films were coming thick and fast.  Made without sound and then dubbed into various languages afterwards, at one point a film was finished every nine days.

The Kingdom and the Beauty (1958) with commentary

In the 1970s various actors from the Peking Opera School were featured in films with small parts and these are recognisable names – Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and of course Jackie Chan, the latter now a global superstar.

In 1983 Shaw Brothers studio ceased production in the face of competition, particularly Golden Harvest, and concentrated on their TV production. Twelve years later they returned to the world of film production with releases such as Hero (1997) and Drunken Monkey (2002).  The Shaw Studios recently completed an expansion of their facilities in Hong Kong to become one of the global leaders in movie post-production.

Dreamworks Pictures, also commonly known as Dreamworks Movies is a relatively young studio, begun as recently as 1994.  It’s notable as the personal project of Stephen Spielberg (producer, director, writer), Jeffrey Katzenberg (producer and one-time chairman of Walt Disney) and David Geffen (record and film producer and philanthropist).

The project was kick started by Katzenberg’s resignation from his role at Disney.  He was introduced to Spielberg and together with David Geffen they each invested $33 million in the project.  The major investor though was Paul Allen, one of Microsoft’s original founders, who put $500 million into the new company.  He had no artistic input into the company but was probably attracted by the names involved, especially Spielberg.  It’s really only possible to make educated guesses about why the three moguls wanted to take on the project.  Most likely Spielberg wanted to run his own artistically creative studio while Katzenberg wanted to poke Disney in the eye and compete in the world of animation.  Meanwhile Geffen, a workaholic had recently recovered from cancer and was looking for a new project.

One of the concepts behind Dreamworks was the notion of bringing together various industries in one package – film producing, television producing, record producing and a way into the fledging internet industry.  It has to be said that the whole thing almost worked.  In the first ten or so years the studio produced several massively successful hits, particularly animations, including Shrek (2001), Antz (1998) and Madagascar (2005).  Unfortunately it also missed the mark with one or two productions, most notably Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) which nearly bankrupted the studio.

So how could a company which had already had financial success almost fall over with one unsuccessful movie?  Perhaps the company was set up on a dream, a hope that the reputation of it’s owners would see them through without a proper strategy.

In the end though, everyone made some money.  The original owners sold their stakes to various parties and parts of the studio were spun off – for example Dreamworks Interactive was sold to Electronic Arts.  Spielberg is still involved but not as an owner.  Dreamworks still exists now as a going concern with different owners (Paul Allen still has a stake) but the name retains some of the magic of the early days.

We finished the last article talking about two of the most iconic British film series ever, the Carry On films and the James Bond films.  James Bond films are of course still in production today and it’s the highest grossing film series ever.

For this post our narrative moves into the 1980s and the continuation of the 007 series with For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View To A Kill (1985), The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989).  1984 saw the reconstruction of the 007 stage which had first been built in 1977 but which subsequently burnt down.  It was destroyed again in  2006 but rebuilt once again.  1982 also saw the production of one of the most famous music videos of all time – the feature length version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall.  You can check out the cinematic trailer below:

The album was actually made in 1979 but the idea for the film had always been there even though production had to wait for three years.  Originally it was intended to be scenes from the live stage shows with cartoonist Gerald Scarfe’s idiosyncratic animations added but eventually a genuine script was written, based on lead singer Roger Waters own experiences.  Scarfe’s animation was retained and the film explores the subject of alienation in post-war Britain.

James Bond remained in action throughout the 1990s with Goldeneye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and The World is not Enough (1999).  It also saw the production of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket in 1987 and this was notable for the American director’s preference to film in the United Kingdom, particularly at Pinewood.

The turn of the century brought three new 007 films – Die Another Day (2002), Casino

Project Pinewood

Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008), the final two being Daniel Craig’s first outings.  In 2007 Pinewood studios announced the plans for Project Pinewood, an enormous development nearby which would see built, among other things, recreations of many different worldwide locations and street scenes.  Currently the planning application has been rejected and Pinewood are appealing against that decision.