A selection of films illustrating different aspects of film making and screening, both amateur and professional.
Guests walk from the railway station across the fields to the new studios of British Instructional Films. The company made a wide range of educational films for classroom use, and was already famed for its scientific film series ‘Secrets of Nature’. The studio also produced feature films, and from 1931 was the home of British International Pictures.
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Film making courses provided essential training for amateurs and some subsequently became professionals. After the scenes of this course at Belstead House, the three films made by the participants are shown, ending with a creepy drama.
Film appreciation with a sense of humour. This is one of many films in the archive shot by Don Chipperfield of Ipswich, and it includes all the playful clichés about early cinema and the film fanatic. The Edwardian film projector is now preserved (and occasionally used) in the film archive.
An instructional film for the amateur film maker using 8mm film who might be trying to improve their family and personal films, or working with others in a cine club.
The film begins with a brief survey of cinemas closing due to the competition from television. The final day of the Norvic was filmed by David Cleveland, later founder of the East Anglian Film Archive, who was working there at the time.
The Go-Between is one of the most celebrated films made on location in the East of England region, based on a evocative novel specifically set in Norfolk. Filmed and interviewed by Anglia Television, director Joseph Losey and actors Julie Christie and Margaret Leighton would have pleased local viewers with their enthusiasm for the county.
David Tate, a professional film projectionist, enjoyed presenting small film shows for local groups and societies, bringing the heavy projectors, loudspeakers, screen and film in his car. For many people, the small local film show was their introduction to film, and these shows included a wider range of film than the mainstream cinema.