Media Studies AS: A British Independent Film and Television Production Company

Case Study (#2)

Ealing Studios

Ealing Studios located in Ealing Green, West London is a television and film production company which was originally occupied by Will Barker Studios courtesy of Will Barker who was operating on the site in 1902. It is the oldest film studio in the world as the home to the great Ealing comedies which is still in production producing films since the 1930's. The company is the only independent British studio to develop, finance and produce feature films for international distribution. In 1929 it was acquired by theatre producer Basil Dean's Associated Talking Pictures where he started building stages there which opened up in 1931 making films under the name of ATP (Associated Talking Pictures) from 1933. The "Golden Era" of Ealing Studios had begun in 1938 when Michael Balcon joined Dean in his position as Head of Production, however by the end of 1938 Dean had left and Michael Balcon had taken on the full role of Head of Production within the company, by then about 60 films had been made by the studios. Balcon discontinued the ATP name and began issuing films under the Ealing Studios name once again.

The studios produced on average around five or six feature films a year, but also made short films and documentaries and by the time the war broke out in 1939 Ealing Studios was already known for producing films which had a "cosy Britishness" aspect to them. In 1944 the company was taken over by the Rank Organisation which was a British entertainment company. Balcon stayed at Ealing Studios throughout the war years and into the post-war period receiving a knighthood for his services in 1948; however in 1957 he had left after the BBC bought the Studios in 1955. They spent the next 2 years creating television productions from Ealing Studios such as Fortunes of War, Colditz and The Singing Detective. However in 1957 Ealing Studios had closed down because it had struggled for a couple of years from about 1954, this was due to it producing mediocre films and then good films, this was a result of television taking it's toll on the whole industry; because of the new techniques and European styles it made the Ealing products look old-fashioned.

Up until the closure of the company Ealing Studios had produced a variety of films which were based on the war or comedy, some of these included:-

The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Secret People (1952) The Ladykillers (1955)

With a lot of the films being made during the Second World War many of the characters created during this period were not created to necessarily reflect real individuals during this time but rather those who could be seen as being role models of this period. It was important to not only show those in the armed forces and government agencies as heroic in carrying out their duty to Britain but to also show those on the home front; for example, miners, factory workers, firemen and postmistresses as an equal act of heroism who held the society together and retained everything good about Britain until the troops came home.

In 1995 Ealing Studios were reopened and the BBC sold them to the National Film and Television School, throughout this time the Studios were used as a training facility by the school, they were then bought for £10 million by Barnaby Thompson, Uri Fruchtmann, Harry Handelsman and John Kao who shared the view of reviving the fortunes of the studios. In June 2001, permission was granted to develop the Ealing Studios site into a next generation studio for television, digital and traditional filmmaking companies. Together they aimed to rebuild the Studios with the vision of bringing films, technology and property expertise together in order to revive and continue the great quality of past productions made by Ealing Studios.

Under new direction Ealing Studios has started producing some of the country's greatest films; The Importance of Being Earnest released in 2002 was the first production to be made under the Ealing Studios banner since 1959. In 2005, Ealing Studios secured £1.2 million of development funding from the UK Film Council for it's own films. Other films which have been made under the Ealing Studios name include Shaun of The Dead, Alien Autopsy, Imagine Me & You, Easy Virtue, I Want Candy, St Trinian's and Valiant which was released in 2005 which went on to be the year's highest grossing independent film in the UK.

Shaun of the Dead (2004) Imagine Me & You (2005)