Blog

Film Studios: Histories, Evolution, Innovation, Futures

Film Studios conference in Bristol, June 2023 programme…

Creating Miniature Worlds

Sarah Street on the amazing miniature worlds constructed in studios…

‘Philippa’ arrives at Pinewood

Richard Farmer on an exciting sartorial innovation at Pinewood…

Film Studios conference Bristol

Call for Papers for our conference at the Watershed, Bristol, 5-7 June 1923…

Breakfast at Cinecittàs: Italy’s Glocal Studio Tours

Carla Mereu Keating on when Italy’s studios opened their doors…

Touring the French studios

Morgan Lefeuvre on when French studios opened their doors…

Southall studio at war

Richard Farmer on how Southall became a skating rink…

‘Who wouldn’t want to have a peek?’ Studio Tours in Britain and Germany

Sarah Street and Eleanor Halsall delve into when British and German studios opened their doors…

The studio as star: Teddington

Richard Farmer on how Teddington was used for a variety of ingenious film sets…

The rats have eaten my set!’ Letters from a German film architect in 1930s India

Eleanor Halsall on German technicians at The Bombay Talkies…

Workers of the Studios Unite!

Read all about how studio workers organised to improve working conditions…

Green for Danger: Pinewood’s first post-war film

Sarah Street on the first film shot at Pinewood after the war…

‘Where are the British Shirley Temples?’ The employment of children in British film studios

Richard Farmer on the employment of children in British studios…

Filmkinder: Children in German films

Eleanor Halsall on child actors in German films and studios…

British film studios and the 1947 fuel crisis

Richard Farmer on the impact of the 1947 fuel crisis and harsh winter on British studios…

A State of ‘Agreeable Disorder’: Temporary Film Studios in Post-war Italy

Catherine O’Rawe on Italy’s temporary studios in the post-war years…

Studios in the Festive Season

Enjoy a bumper blog on how studios celebrated the festive season…

Locating studio workers: Notes on Italy’s gendered film labour

Carla Mereu Keating on film labour in Italian film studios…

Britain’s temporary post-war studios

Richard Farmer on ingenious approaches to filming away from main studios in Britain…

The Pinewood Merry-Go-Round studio magazine

Sarah Street on a rare surviving British studio magazine…

Women behind the scenes in German cinema

Eleanor Halsall on women’s employment in German studios…

Colonies de vacances (holiday camps) for the children of French cinema employees

Sue Harris on getting a breath of fresh air in summertime…

Silence, ça tourne! The first sound shootings in French studios

Morgan Lefeuvre on the bizarre and often funny atmosphere of the first sound shootings in French studios…

Supporting feature: tubular scaffolding

Richard Farmer on how tubular scaffolding was a key innovation in British studios…

The Austro-German Connection: Italy’s Transnational Films and the UK

Carla Mereu Keating on attempts to establish a new commercial route for Italian films in the UK…

STUDIOTEC goes to SCMS

Read about our two panels at the SCMS conference 2021…

Cricket and British Studios

Richard Farmer reports on cricket teams and matches and the studios…

Black Narcissus and Pinewood

‘Film in Focus’ post by Sarah Street on filming Black Narcissus at Pinewood Studios…

Exit, pursued by a bear: Animals in film studios

Richard Farmer, Eleanor Halsall and Carla Mereu-Keating investigate the use of animals in British, German and Italian film studios…

Scruffy: Canine Star of British Studios

Richard Farmer and Sarah Street herald ‘Scruffy’, a lesser-known, adorable star of 1930s British cinema…

Waiting in the Studios

Morgan Lefeuvre discusses how working in French studios involved many hours of waiting around for things to happen…

Studio Architectures: Vistas and Visions

The STUDIOTEC team’s first workshop report on architectures and geographies…

Conversations about Studios

Sarah Street takes part in audio cast about new book on studios…

Making Italian cinema great again (and again): Founding ceremonies and inaugurations of Italy’s film studios (and their politics)

Carla Mereu Keating discusses key features of how Italy’s studios were founded and inaugurated, focussing on Cines, Cinecittà and Dinocittà…