McAuley Film Studies

1. In terms of subject matter, financing, and production, how is a film defined as a 'British Film'? (p276-8 of the AS level text book will help you with this, but you should consider other possible definitions, especially given that the UK Film Council was abolished last year).

2. What different types of financing and distribution of films is available in the UK? (The Film Industry Pack is very useful for this, but again the situation is constantly changing so you should check for the most up-to-date information

3. What types of British films do British audiences see?

4. What restrictions are there to British audiences seeing British films?

5. How does the success (or otherwise) of British films in Britain compare with their success in overseas markets? 

6. Should the 'success' of British films be measured only in terms of box office receipts? What other measures might there be, and again, is there any difference between Britain itself and the rest of the world in how 'successful' British films are on these other measures?

As far as British Film is concerned, he is most significant for his involvement of ‘public service’ film making. Much of his early work was with the government agency the Empire Marketing Board,promoting British trade (and cultural values) throughout the British Empire. Perhaps his most famous work was produced while he was head of the film unit at the General Post Office (GPO), especially the film Night Mail which featured a celebrated poetic narration written by W H Audenand narrated by Grierson himself.

However, Grierson is not really a film ‘director’ in the sense in which that term is now usually understood. Indeed the only film for which he is credited as director is the 1929 film Drifters which appeared on the same bill as Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin,  and reflected Grierson’s interest inModernism. Grierson’s role was more often akin to that of a producer in the modern sense.

Indeed, the documentary movement took a collaborative approach to filmmaking, often with no single director being credited, and with those involved sometimes taking multiple roles, both within and between projects. In 1937 Grierson resigned from the GPO to join Film Centre, “an advisory and coordinating body for the documentary film movement” Both in Britain, and later, during the second world war, in Canada, Grierson was involved in the production of films that are often regarded as propoganda. However the work produced by the documentary movement is often seen as not only having cinematic interest and value in its own right, but also as having a significant influence on the Social Realism movement that dominated more 'mainstream' British cinema from the 1940's.