Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider atEaling Green in westLondon, England.Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world,[1] and the current stages were opened for the use of sound in 1931.
It is best known for a series ofclassic films produced in the post-WWII years, includingSaraband for Dead Lovers (1948),Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949),Passport to Pimlico (1949),The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), andThe Ladykillers (1955). TheBBC owned and filmed at the Studios for forty years from 1955 until 1995.
Since 2000, Ealing Studios has resumed releasing films under its own name, including the revivedSt Trinian's franchise. In more recent times, films shot there includeThe Importance of Being Earnest (2002) andShaun of the Dead (2004), as well asThe Theory of Everything (2014),The Imitation Game (2014),Burnt (2015) andDevs (2020). Interior scenes of the Britishperiod drama television seriesDownton Abbey were shot in Stage 2 of the studios. TheMet Film School London operates on the site.
The site was first occupied byWill Barker Studios from 1902.[2] From 1929, it was acquired by theatre producerBasil Dean, who founded Associated Talking Pictures Ltd. He was joined on the management level byStephen Courtauld andReginald Baker. In 1931, they built Ealing Studios, transferring all production there in December of that year. When Dean left in 1938 to be replaced byMichael Balcon from MGM, about 60 films had been made at the studios. Balcon discontinued the ATP name and began to issue films under the Ealing Studios name. In 1944, the company was taken over by theRank Organisation.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the facility as ATP and then Ealing Studios produced many comedies with stars such asGracie Fields,George Formby,Stanley Holloway andWill Hay, who had established their reputations in other spheres of entertainment. The company was also instrumental in the use of documentary film-makers to make more realistic war films. These includedWent the Day Well? (1942),The Foreman Went to France (1942),Undercover (1943), andSan Demetrio London (1943). In 1945, the studio made its chiller compendiumDead of Night.
In the post-war period, the company embarked on a series ofcomedies which became the studio's hallmark. These were often lightly satirical and were seen to reflect aspects of British character and society. The first wasHue and Cry (1947) and the lastBarnacle Bill (1956).
The best remembered Ealing films were produced between 1948 and 1955:Whisky Galore! (1949),Passport to Pimlico (1949),Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949),The Lavender Hill Mob (1951),The Man in the White Suit (1951),The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953),The Cruel Sea (1953) andThe Ladykillers (1955) are all regarded as classics of British cinema.
TheBBC bought the studios on Ealing Green in 1955, for £300,000,[3] though productions bearing the Ealing name continued to be made at theMGM British Studios at Borehamwood for two years.[4]
Balcon later said of the MGM-Ealing partnership "Personally it was a happy relationship. But I do wish I had realised at the outset how absolutely vital it is to make films with mass appeal in America - by which I don't mean lowering standards but rather finding the right subjects."[5]
In 1958,Associated British Picture Corporation acquired Ealing’s parent company, Associated Talking Pictures, together with its extensive film library. The BBC based its Film Department at the studios; and at its peak 56 film crews used the studios as a base for location filming of dramas, documentaries and other programmes; shot on 16 mm and occasionally 35 mm film.[6] Led by a director, these crews usually consisted of a Lighting Cameraman, a camera assistant, a lighting technician (known as a 'spark'), and a sound recordist. Initially these crews were equipped with Arriflex ST cameras and EMI L2 quarter inch tape recorders that had to be tethered to one another with a physical sync cable to ensure the picture and sound ran in lock. In later years, Eclair NPR cameras replaced the Arriflex machines and Nagra tape recorders replaced the EMI units. The Nagras made use of 'crystal sync', a system that provided synchronisation between the camera and the tape recorder remotely, removing the need for a physical cable. There were also over 50 cutting rooms, equipped with Steenbeck editing tables, working on every genre except News and Current Affairs.[7] The editing suites came complete with movable film trim bins and Acmade Pic-Syncs (picture synchronisers) for synchronising the film and sound rushes, and working with the edited cutting copy. The latter was especially useful when splitting the sound track(s) and adding additional effects, atmospheres, music and commentary tracks in readiness for film dubbing.
Many programmes came out of Ealing fromAlistair Cooke'sAmerica edited by Alan Tyrer and photographed by Kenneth MacMillan toZ-Cars edited by Shelia Tomlinson and many others andCathy Come Home edited by Roy Watts, assisted by Roger Waugh. These programmes had post production support, viewing theatres, transfer suites, dubbing theatre, maintenance; all these staff and the film crews made up what was fondly known as the TFS Family.
It was not unknown for major international film stars to visit the studios during BBC Television days. Shortly afterThe Eagle Has Landed (1976) was released in London on 31 March 1977,[8] Michael Caine was present at the studios during his promotional tour for the film. Apart from the regular production staff and technicians involved with filming the associated interview, at his table in the studio canteen he was surrounded by a large entourage of followers during the obligatory break period.
In the 1980s, the BBC developed and expanded the use of electronic PSC (Portable Single Camera) location equipment and the use of 16 mm film on location gradually declined. The BBC also used the studio facilities at Ealing for filmed inserts where an electronic studio could not be used, such as for the excavation site inQuatermass and the Pit (1958–59),The White Rabbit (TV mini-series, 1967),Colditz (1972–74) and the communal sequences inPorridge (1974–77). Programmes wholly shot on film were made there also, such asAlice in Wonderland (1966),The Singing Detective (1986),Portrait of a Marriage (1986), andFortunes of War (1987).
The BBC had preview theatres to run 16 mmsepmag film and 35 mm. The 16 mm machines were Bauer and the 35 mm projectors Kalee 21. The projection area was a long room (open plan) with projectors serving theatres E -J. There was a separate projection room in the same area for theatre K, which was 35 mm. There was also a dubbing theatre B, where 16 mm productions would be dubbed, and film dispatch and sound transfer suites, where the quarter-inch tape from Nagra tape machines would be transferred to 16 mm magnetic film. Film previews ran rushes, cutting copies, synch rushes, answer prints and transmission prints before going to telecine.
Television Film Studios was also the home before, during and after 1977, of the BBC TV Film Technical & Training Section run by the Senior Assistant, Training, Frank A. Brown. Courses were based in a lecture room at the studios, typically lasting 6 weeks, and comprised both theoretical training, with extensive information-sheet documentation being provided, plus day excursions for practical experience sessions to film cutting rooms, a film dubbing theatre and the Rank Film Laboratories at Denham (where a considerable quantity of BBC TV film programme content was processed and printed). The courses provided instruction to trainees, culminating in a written theory test, with each either being tailored to film photography, film sound or film editing skills for incoming trainees in these departments. The BBC Engineering Training Department, for training in video work and all aspects where a detailed knowledge of electronics is essential, has, alternatively, been based atWood Norton Hall, Evesham.
With the BBC seeking to reduce costs and in particular studio facilities, a decision was taken to sell Ealing Studios on the open market. In 1993, a sale,[9] for 6 million pounds,[10] was agreed withBBRK Group Limited,[10] a group of special effects businesses,[11] chaired by David Malcolm Bill,[12] a former advertising art director.[13]
The BBC had inserted a buy-back clause so that, in the event that BBRK put the site up for sale, the BBC would have first option to purchase.[14][10][15] In 1992, BBRK acquired the studios and, in 1994, the National Film and Television School then bought them.[16][17]
In mid-2000, the studios were sold again to a consortium led by Fragile Films' Uri Fruchtmann and Barnaby Thompson,Harry Handelsman andJohn Kao, with an intention to revive the fortunes of the studio. Handelsman's Manhattan Loft Corporation redeveloped the 3.8-acre site to include the existing Grade II listed sound stages. The studio has since begun to produce theatrical films again, such asLucky Break (2001),The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), andValiant (2005).Shaun of the Dead and horror filmThe Descent (2005) were both shot on the lot.
In 2007, Ealing revived theSt Trinian's franchise, the second film,St. Trinian's, The Legend of Fritton's Gold was released in December 2009 and took over £7 million at the UK Box Office. Between these, Ealing releasedEasy Virtue (2008), directed byStephan Elliott andDorian Gray (2009), directed by Oliver Parker.
Ealing Studios is used by the Met Film School London, which has a purpose-built film school on the lot and use of the studios. ITV dramaDownton Abbey filmed the kitchen and servants' quarters on stages 3A and 3B.[citation needed]The studio is also home toThe Imaginarium, a production company and studio specializing inperformance-capture, founded byAndy Serkis andJonathan Cavendish.
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