The Moving Picture Company: innovators and early adopters of british video post-production

Lists

Caston, Emily ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8618-5648 (2024) The Moving Picture Company: innovators and early adopters of british video post-production. Open Screens, 6 (3). pp. 1-25.

Preview

PDF (PDF/A)
The Moving Picture Company- innovators and early adopters of british video post-production.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (610kB) | Preview

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.16995/OS.18039

Abstract

The UK’s postproduction industry is, according to professional trade association Screen Alliance (2019), lacking in research and suffers from being regarded as separate to VFX rather than the larger industry within which the VFX sector is rooted. This article examines the history of the British VFX industry through a case study analysis of the Moving Picture Company (MPC), founded in 1970, adding a video postproduction division in 1974. The analysis is conducted through an in-depth semi-structured analysis of MPC’s founder, Mike Luckwell. In 1983, Luckwell executed a reverse takeover of Carlton, retaining overall control of MPC and acting as the managing director of Carlton until 1986. The article demonstrates that MPC operated across the supply chains for advertising, film and television, initially drawing R&D funding from the advertising industry, and latterly features. The author suggests that historians have a role to play within contemporary policy-facing research by contributing detailed analysis of supply chains and hidden labour through qualitative interviews and archival analysis. Further research into the R&D role of screen advertising is recommended.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.16995/OS.18039
Keywords:	Postproduction, screen industries, VFX, oral history, technological innovation.
Subjects:	Film and television > Filmmaking Film and television > Screen studies
Depositing User:	Mary Blomley
Date Deposited:	28 Mar 2025 12:23
Last Modified:	31 Mar 2025 11:08
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/13391

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item

References

Bell, M 2021. ‘I owe it to those women to own it’: Women, Media Production and Intergenerational Dialogue through Oral History. Journal of British Cinema and Television 18(4): 518–537.

Blondheim, M 2012. Narrating the History of Media Technologies: Pitfalls and Prospects. In: Bailey M Narrating Media History, London: Routledge. pp. 212–228.

Bloore, P 2009. Redefining the Film Value Chain. UK Film Council. https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/redefining-the-independent-film-value-chain.pdf.

Briggs, A and Burke, P 2009. A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. Cambridge: Polity.

British Film Institute. 2021, 2018. Screen Reports. https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/reports/uk-screen-sector-economy.

Caston, E 2017. ‘The First Cut is the Deepest’ Excerpts from a Focus Group on Editing Music Videos, with Explanatory Historical and Theoretical Notes. Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, 11(1): 99–118.

Caston, E 2019. The Pioneers Get Shot: Music Video, Independent Production and Cultural Hierarchy in Britain. Journal of British Cinema and Television 16 (4): 545–570. http://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2019.0498.

Caston, E 2020. British Music Videos 1966–2016: Genre, Authenticity and Art. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Caston, E 2022. The Screen Advertising Production Industry: SIC Codes and Screen Industries Mapping. Media Industries, 9(1). http://doi.org/10.3998/mij.100

Caston, E 2024. Taste, Enthusiasm and Hard Work: a Script for Success. An interview with Lizie Gower. New Vistas 10(2). http://doi.org/10.36828/newvistas.263

Chibnall, S and McFarlane, B 2011. The British ‘B’ Film. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Crittenden, R 2003. Film and Video Editing. 1st edn. Oxfordshire: Taylor and Francis.

Curran, J 2002. Media and Power. Abingdon: Routledge.

Dams, T 2013. Interview: Double Negative’s Alex Hope. Televisual. 27th March. https://www.televisual.com/news/interview-double-negative-s-alex-hope_bid-439/.

Darlow, M 2004. Independents Struggle: The Programme Makers who took on the TV Establishment. London: Quartet Books.

Dawson, A and Holmes, SP 2012. ‘Help to Preserve the Real Story of Our Cinema and Television Industries’: The BECTU History Project and the Construction of British Media History, 1986–2010. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 32(3): 435–448.

Doyle, G, Paterson, R and Barr, K 2021. From Minnows to Sharks. In Doyle et al Television Production in Transition: Independence, Scale, Sustainability and the Digital Challenge. Cham: Springer. pp. 53–74.

Garrett, J 1986. Commercial Production. In Henry B British Television Advertising: the First 30 Years. London: Century Benham. pp. 383–403.

Gladwell, M 2002. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Boston MA: Little Brown.

Hall, N and Ellis J 2020. Hands On Media History: A New Methodology in The Humanities and Social Sciences. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.

Howie, N 2016. Interview conducted by Emily Caston. London: Lipsynch, 1st December.

Kearns, T 2015. Interview conducted by Emily Caston. London: British Film Institute Stephen Street, 26 the November.

Kleinman, D 2022. Interview conducted by Emily Caston. Zoom, 2nd March.

Larkin, G 2018. Postproduction and the Invisible Revolution of Filmmaking: From the Silent Era to Synchronized Sound. Abingdon: Routledge.

Lee, D 2018. Independent Television Production in the UK: From Cottage Industry to Big Business. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Luckwell, M 2023. Interview conducted by Emily Caston. London: Mike Luckwell’s private residence, 28th September.

More O’Ferrell, L 2023. Interview conducted by Emily Caston. London: Lewis More O’Ferrell’s private residence, 1st August.

OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2023. Competition and Innovation, Part I: a theoretical perspective. 14 June. https://one.oecd.org/document/DAF/COMP(2023)2/en/pdf.

Paterson, R 2020. Music Video and Commercials Production in the UK Screen Industries: An Overlooked Dynamo of Innovation and Success. Alphaville (19): 178–183. DOI: http://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.19.15

Perkins, R and Stollery M 2019. British Film Editors. 1st edn. London: Bloomsbury.

Perks, R 2015. Interviewing in Business and Corporate Environments: Benefits and Challenges. In: Perks R and Thomson The Oral History Reader. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 281–296.

Portelli, A 2015. What Makes Oral History Different. In: Perks R and Thomson The Oral History Reader. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. Originally published in 1979. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315671833-4

Potter, I 2008. The Rise and Rise of the Independents: A Television History. Guerilla Books.

Pratt, AC 2023. Film Making as a Creative Ecosystem: The Case of Soho in London. In Tarek E Virani Global Creative Ecosystems: A Critical Understanding of Sustainable Creative and Cultural Production. Cham: Springer. pp. 21–38.

Pratt, AC and Gornostaeva, G 2009. The Governance of Innovation in the Film and Television Industry: A Case Study of London, UK. In Pratt AC and Jeffcutt P Creativity, Innovation and the Cultural Economy. Abingdon: Routledge. pp 119–136.

Ritchie, DA 2014. Doing Oral History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rogers, E 1962. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press (2003 fifth edition).

Russell, P and Taylor, JP eds 2019. Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Post-War Britain. London: Bloomsbury.

Schumpeter, J 1942. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Harper and Brothers.

Screen Alliance. 2019. The Economic Value of Postproduction. https://www.ukscreenalliance.co.uk/subpages/the-economic-value-of-Postproduction/.

Shopes, L 2015. Editing Oral History for Publication. In: Perks R and Thomson The Oral History Reader. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 470–489.

Soho Then 2019. Episode 2: Film and Cinema. The Photographers Gallery. Podcast Series produced by Clare Lynch. Available online: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/photography-culture/soho-then-ep-2-film-cinema.

Street, S 2019. Colour Films in Britain: The Negotiation of Innovation 1900–1955. London: Bloomsbury.

Street, S, Johnston, KM, Frith, P and Rickards, C 2021. Colour Films in Britain: The Eastmancolor Revolution. London: Bloomsbury.

Thomson, A 2011. Memory and Remembering. In: Ritchie, DA The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 77–95.

UK Film Council. 2003. Postproduction in the UK. https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/uk-film-council-Postproduction-in-the-uk.pdf.

Waston, I. 2022. The Mill Absorbs MPC. Campaign. January 13th. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mill-absorbs-mpc-advertising-create-global-studio-network/1737450.

Tools

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)

The University of West London

The Moving Picture Company: innovators and early adopters of british video post-production

Abstract

Downloads

Actions (login required)

Menu