''Unlocking Film Heritage'' (UFH) was one of the biggest

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

digitisation DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer- ...

projects ever undertaken and it encompassed the

BFI National Archive The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the N ...

together with national and regional

audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service prov ...

archival An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

institution Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

s in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Between 2013–2017 around 10,000 titles, capturing 120 years of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

on film, were digitised and made free-to-access in a variety of ways. Many archival clips can be watched for free online via BFI Player.

Unlocking Film Heritage (UFH)

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

(BFI) feared that the UK’s audiovisual heritage was in danger of being stranded in the analogue domain and forever inaccessible to the people of Britain. So they made a five year plan – ''Film Forever: Supporting UK Film 2012–2017'' in order to remedy this. BFI consulted and collaborated with commercial facilities, national and regional archives as well as commercial rights holders to establish, harmonise and document technical standards and requirements for preservation and access. Aided by National Lottery funding, the ''Unlocking Film Heritage Digitisation Fund'' was launched in 2013. The goal of the programme was to ensure that researchers, film-makers, outreach programmes and the general public easier can access the British

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...

. In order to achieve this investments were done in preservation, digitisation and interpretation of audiovisual archival material. The content of the material spans from urban architecture to rural landscapes, from festivals to schools, from local people to famous visitors etc. Around 10,000 titles were digitised and have been documented within the BFI collections information

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

and the majority are free-to-watch as part of ''Britain on Film'' and other themed collections on ''BFI Player'', a webpage developed for within the project. Public access was extended further through

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

, theatrical,

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

and home entertainment releases on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

. The UFH project was one of the largest and most complex archive preservation projects undertaken in UK and it won the award for ''Best Archive Preservation Project'' at the FIAT/IFTA (

International Federation of Television Archives The Fédération Internationale des Archives de Télévision - International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA) is a worldwide association of institutions, commercial companies and individuals managing or with a special interest in a ...

) world conference in Warsaw 2016. A jury of international experts were impressed by the highly collaborative nature of the UFH project, where expertise and commercial service providers from all of UK nations and regions participated. They jury also praised the new technologies and processes invented and used, where the aim was not only to care for the archival collections but also to make them accessible to a digitally connected world.

Participants in the UFH project

The following organisations participated in the project;

East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA)

This regional film archive was one of the first in UK, established in the 1970s as a repository for the regions audiovisual heritage. More than 150 hours of archive film footage from EAFA was made available during the UFH project. The content depicts

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

life and includes scenes from ''Cromer and Caister'' in the 1930s, a visit by

George Formby George Formby, (born George Hoy Booth; 26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961) was an English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian who became known to a worldwide audience through his films of the 1930s and 1940s. On stage, screen and record he s ...

to the region in 1949, actress

Joyce Grenfell Joyce Irene Grenfell OBE (''née'' Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer. She was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo s ...

King’s Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, nor ...

in 1961, the ''K Shoe factory'' workers protest of 1976 and the

Singing Postman Allan Francis Smethurst (19 November 1927 – 22 December 2000), aka The Singing Postman was an English folk singer and postman. He is best known for his self-penned novelty song, "Hev Yew Gotta Loight, Boy?", which earned him an Ivor Novello Awa ...

Imperial War Museums (IWM)

London's Screen Archives (LSA)

Media Archive for Central England (MACE)

National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales (NSSAW)

NSSAW (part of

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million boo ...

) holds a film collection of over 5 million feet of film that represents Welsh culture and life in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

from the late 19th Century through to the 21st Century. Over 700 titles were made available free online during the UFH project. There are

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...

advertisements Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

, commercial and

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

films including: a phantom train ride through

Conwy railway station Conwy railway station serves the town of Conwy, Wales, and is located on the Crewe railway station, Crewe to Holyhead North Wales Coast Line. There are through services to Chester railway station, Chester via Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Prestatyn and Fl ...

(1898), an athletics and horse racing event at the Cardiff Stadium (1911), the

Marquis of Anglesey Marquess of Anglesey ( cy, Ardalydd Môn) is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, second in command to the Duke of Wellington. The Marques ...

's children playing with their nannies (1922),

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

with his pet dogs ( 1929), ''Men Against Death'' (1933), a restoration of the first

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

feature film: ''Y Chwarelwr'' (''The Quarryman'') (1935), agricultural shows around Wales from the 1940s,

majorettes A majorette is a baton twirler whose twirling performance is often accompanied by dance, movement, or gymnastics; they are primarily associated with marching bands during parades. Majorettes can also spin knives, fire knives, flags, light-up ba ...

at various carnivals in the

Dulais Valley The Dulais Valley, one of the South Wales Valleys, is traversed by the River Dulais in southwest Wales north of the town of Neath, Wales. Settlements in the valley include Crynant, Seven Sisters, Banwen, and Dyffryn Cellwen, which are served ...

from the 1950s to 1970s, ''

Tiger Bay Tiger Bay ( cy, Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is re ...

and the Rainbow Club'' (1960), ''

Tryweryn The Tryweryn is a river in the north of Wales which starts at Llyn Tryweryn in the Snowdonia National Park and after joins the river Dee at Bala. One of the main tributaries of the Dee, it was dammed in 1965 to form Llyn Celyn, drowning th ...

– The Story of a Valley'' (1969) and an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

winning documentary on

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

(1962).

North West Film Archive (NWFA)

Northern Ireland Screen (NIS)

Northern Ireland Screen worked together a host of organisations including

National Museums Northern Ireland National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) (formerly ''National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland'') is a museum service in Northern Ireland, consisting of the Ulster American Folk Park, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Ulster M ...

, UTV,

Tourism NI Tourism Northern Ireland, also known as Tourism NI, is a non-departmental public body of the Department for the Economy. Its primary objective is to promote Northern Ireland as a tourist destination to domestic tourists, from within Northern Irel ...

and the

Irish Film Archive The Irish Film Archive is part of the Irish Film Institute (formed in 1943, incorporated in 1945) the body charged with the promotion and preservation of film culture in Ireland. It collects, preserves and makes accessible Ireland's moving imag ...

. About 200 pieces of cine film was digitised and preserved through the project.

Scotland's Moving Image Archive (SMIA)

Screen Archive South East (SASE)

SASE contributed with about 400 films and material is a mixture of publicity films, amateur films, local news films, films originally designed as

public records Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the optio ...

, industrial films, advertisements, short fiction and

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA)

Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA)

WFSA contributed with about 80 films and the material is a mixture of publicity films, amateur films, local news films, films originally designed as public records, industrial films, advertisements, short fiction and animation.

Yorkshire Film Archive (YFA) / North East Film Archive (NEFA)

In 2012 NEFA merged with the Yorkshire Film Archive.

References

{{reflist

External links

Explore archive films for free with the BFI player.

Britain on Film - Explore the map and discover 1000s of films from around the UK for free.

BFI’s YouTube channel.

East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA)London's Screen Archives (LSA)

North East Film Archive (NEFA)Scotland's Moving Image Archive (SMIA)Screen Archive South East (SASE)Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA)Yorkshire Film Archive (YFA)
Cultural heritage Online archives of the United Kingdom Projects established in 2013 Projects in Europe