About the Materials

Stills
The still photographs used on the website have been selected from the unique collection of nearly 7 million photographs and illustrations from over 80,000 films and TV programmes, held by BFI Stills, Posters and Designs. (SPD).They are a selection of publicity stills, production shots and portraits, capturing scenes behind, as well as in front of, the camera.

Designs
The set and costume designs selected for the website, as well as examples of storyboarding and sketches, are also from collections in SPD.

Press books
The pressbooks used on the website have been selected from a collection of over 25,000 items of cinema publicity and ephemera held by Special Collections in the BFI National Library. Press or campaign books were produced by film distributors to prompt cinema managers in the exploitation of their product. They included a variety of promotional ideas such as fashion stories and tie-ins, recipes, competitions and quizzes, press stories, profiles of cast and crew, credits, plot synopses, illustrations, details of posters and other advertising aids, and merchandising. Where we have more than one press book for a film, they are displayed in separate folders.

Scripts
The script extracts are taken from the collection of over 20,000 unpublished scripts held by Special Collections in the BFI National Library, ranging from plot outlines to release scripts. Many of the scripts held by the BFI have notable additions such as production stills, annotations, autographs, sketches, plans or costume sketches. Wherever possible, the extracts used on the website have been chosen to complement the video clips.

Production material
The production material used on the website has been selected from the BFI Special Collections of personal and company papers, donated by production personnel. It illustrates the kinds of material which document the film production process, such as set plans, shooting schedules and make-up charts.

Correspondence
Production material can also include letters written between directors, actors, writers and technicians.

Video clips
The film extracts are taken from material held by the BFI National Archive.

MFB reviews
The Monthly Film Bulletin (MFB) was first published by the BFI in 1934, when it included a section on educational films, as well as the entertainment films selected from the releases in London and the regions each month, and reviewed by a panel of impartial writers. It was a journal of record which endured until 1991, when its sister publication, the quarterly Sight and Sound (first published in 1932 as a 'review of modern aids to learning'), became monthly and took over the reviewing role.

Credits
The film credits are taken from the, bfi Film & TV Database (BID).