British film industry

  • The very first motion picture camera patented in the WORLD.. was patented in England by French-born Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince in 1888.

  • Period: to

    Brittish film industry

  • Prince boarded a train at Dijon bound for Paris with his motion picture camera and films. He never arrived in Paris. No trace of Prince OR his motion picture camera were EVER found. The mystery was never solved.2 fragments of film is all that has survived

  • Their first screening was at the London headquarters of the Royal Photographic Society,

  • The first showing outside of London was by Birt Acres at Cardiff Town Hall on May 5, 1896. The first commercial showing of a film that they produced was the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race which was shown at Earl's Court

  • World War I brought the UK film industry almost to a halt.

  • After the war there was no money left for home production.

  • This continued on a downward trend until production stopped

  • Parliment passed a bill limting the ammount over seas films coming in

  • Oscar Deutsch buildt up the Odeon chain of cinemas.

  • during world war 2 the film industry slowed again creating only 60 films a year compaired to the avarge of 220 before the war

  • restrictions on the US studios soon had US studios looking at the UK as a production ground

  • British production turning to more television production and branching into more special effects studios for major US studios like Superman, Star Wars and the James Bond series

  • By th 1990's British production has increased with such hits as Trainspotting, Brassed Off, Elizabeth, The Full Monty