Learning on Screen - The British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council

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Learning on Screen - The British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC) is a representative body promoting the production, study and use of moving image, sound and related media for learning and research. It is a company limited by guarantee, with charity status, serving schools, colleges and post compulsory education interests in the UK.

Contents

History

Founded in 1948 as the British Universities Film Council, the BUFC was established by a group of academic staff from various subject disciplines across the arts, humanities and sciences. In the 1960s the BUFC was allocated core funding from government as a grant-in-aid body of the British Film Institute (BFI). In 1982 the Council left the BFI with the remit to engage with UK higher education, changed its title to British Universities Film & Video Council and obtained recurrent core grant direct from the Department for Education and Science. In the early 1990s, with the re-organisation of UK higher education funding, the BUFVC's PES line was moved to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and was paid over via The Open University. Since 2015, the BUFVC became known as Learning on Screen.

Governance

Learning on Screen is governed by a board of Trustees who are, largely, elected from the membership.

Learning on Screen has a small staff team and is based in offices in central London. A not-for-profit independent organisation, Learning on Screen is mainly funded by membership fees and subscriptions.

Learning on Screen's Services and Databases

Learning on Screen offers a range of specialist services and aims to know more about moving image and sound content, its meaning, context and scholarly value, than any other UK-based educational body. Some of Learning on Screen's services are delivered online worldwide without charge, whereas other services are only offered under authenticated access to users in the UK or to staff in Learning on Screen member institutions.

At the heart of Learning on Screen is a specialist Information Service. This is the source of much of Learning on Screen's information which is published online. Learning on Screen's termly magazine ViewFinder. [1]

The main online databases/online resources currently delivered by Learning on Screen are:

TRILT–Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching which offers the best online information describing broadcast content received from over 500 channels of radio and television and delivered in the UK since 1923. The service currently carries some 36 million records and accumulates data at a rate of 1.3 million records per year. Data is delivered 10 days in advance of transmission and TRILT offers a customisable alert service for users. Users from UK licensed educational establishments which are Learning on Screen members, may also order copies of programmes on DVD or CD post-transmission. [2] (under authenticated access only). You may also try the Demonstration version, which is in open access.

The Researcher's Guide to Screen Heritage is an online directory to UK archives and collections of artefacts relating to the history of moving image and sound. This resource is delivered in open access. [3]

News On Screen contains the world's leading resource for the study of newsreels and cinemagazines. The British Universities Newsreel Database (BUND) carries information on more than 180,000 cinema newsreel stories released into British cinemas between 1911 and 1979. This resource is delivered in open access. [4]

Three large-scale online resources, which are archive collections of Independent Local Radio recordings, are delivered to bona fide users in UK higher and further education in collaboration with Bournemouth University. [5]

Learning on Screen Television and Radio Services

Learning on Screen Off-Air Recording Back-Up Service - Learning on Screen records and retains, under licence and copyright exception, some 44,000 hours per year of UK television and radio content. Nearly two decades of these recordings are held from June 1998 onwards. The channels recorded are: BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three (up to February 2016, when it moved online, and recorded again when it returned to terrestrial in February 2022), BBC Four, ITV, Channel 4, More4 and Five, Sky News and BBC News 24. BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra are also now recorded and retained. Copies may only be supplied to staff in subscribing member institutions which also hold an Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence. [6]

BoB (Box of Broadcasts) this is a shared online service for universities and colleges in the UK which also have current ERA licences. It offers staff and students the opportunity to record and retain streamed copies of programmes (and extracts from programmes) in their own personal online play-lists. It is a form of scholarly 'see it again/hear it again' service which retains programme copies as long as the users require them to be retained (unlike most broadcasters' equivalent online services which retain copies for a relatively short time only). As of July 2022 it contained over 3 million broadcasts. [7]

TV Times Index (TVTip) provides a unique searchable index to the London edition of the TVTimes, the listings magazine for ITV broadcasts, from September 1955 to March 1985. TVTiP allows users to search for programmes, production staff and performers. It contains approximately 250,000 records.

This Week was a leading ITV current affairs series, running from January 1956 to December 1992. From 1978 to 1986 it was known as TVEye. The This Week database is a record of the entire production history of the series. It has been enhanced by the contributions of expert researchers and information shared with the project by FremantleMedia and used with their permission. This Week is accessed via the Learning on Screen website and is authenticated by Athens jointly with the TV Times Project database (TVTiP). It is free at point of access to all staff and students in further and higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and to Learning on Screen members.

News on Screen

Learning on Screen is responsible for the world's leading resource for the study of newsreels and cinemagazines, at the heard of which is a central database holding over 180,000 records. Associated with these records are 80,000 downloadable documents offered as PDFs taken from original documentation (scripts, running orders, dope sheets and ephemera) from the original news production files. Additionally, the database can be used to access some 40,000 British Pathe newsreel items online. The BUND also carries information on content delivered as Cinemagazines - longer form single subject items included in British cinema programmes and some which were only shown to overseas audiences. This resource is delivered open access as part of the News On Screen section of the website. [4]

Learning on Screen has also published several books related to this area including Yesterday's News: The British Cinema Newsreel Reader (2002, ISBN   0-901299-73-1) edited by Luke Mckernan; Filming History: The memoirs of John Turner, newsreel cameraman (2001, ISBN   0-901299-72-3) and Projecting Britain: The Guide to British Cinemagazines (2008, ISBN   978-0-901299-78-9) edited by Emily Crosby and Linda Kaye.

Shakespeare in Film, Television, Radio and Online

BUFVC Shake cover.jpg

One of Learning on Screen's main educational resources is its International Database of Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio. This authoritative online database of Shakespeare-related content is continually growing and is international in scope. It holds over 9,600 records dating from the 1890s to the present day. [8] Learning on Screen has also published two books on the subject: As You Like It: Audiovisual Shakespeare ( ISBN   0901299634) edited by Cathy Grant (1992) and Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio: The Researcher's Guide ( ISBN   978 0901299796) edited by Olwen Terris, Eve-Marie Oesterlen and Luke McKernan (2009).

Learning on Screen Publishing

Learning on Screen publishes the termly journal ViewFinder' online. [1]

Learning on Screen Events

Annually, Learning on Screen holds the Learning on Screen Awards. [9] Learning on Screen also organises a range of courses on need-to-know topics for university staff and researchers. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cymbeline</i> Play by William Shakespeare

Cymbeline, also known as The Tragedie of Cymbeline or Cymbeline, King of Britain, is a play by William Shakespeare set in Ancient Britain and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early historical Celtic British King Cunobeline. Although it is listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance or even a comedy. Like Othello and The Winter's Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newsreel</span> Form of short documentary film, containing news stories

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, information, and entertainment for millions of moviegoers. Newsreels were typically exhibited preceding a feature film, but there were also dedicated newsreel theaters in many major cities in the 1930s and ’40s, and some large city cinemas also included a smaller theaterette where newsreels were screened continuously throughout the day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clive Swift</span> English actor and songwriter (1936–2019)

Clive Walter Swift was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for his role as Richard Bucket in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. He played many other television and film roles.

<i>Television Newsreel</i>

Television Newsreel is a British television programme, the first regular news programme to be made in the UK. Produced by the BBC and screened on the BBC Television Service from 1948 to 1954 at 7.30 pm, it adapted the traditional cinema newsreel form for the television audience, covering news and current affairs stories as well as quirkier 'human interest' items, sports and cultural events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Walter</span> British actress (born 1950)

Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. She has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and received an Olivier Award, and nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, Walter was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.

Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its collection of news film and movies is fully digitised and available online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Westbrook (actor)</span> English actor (1922–1989)

John Aubrey Westbrook was an English actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Darbyshire</span> English actor

Michael Darbyshire was an English actor of stage and screen. He is perhaps best known for his role as Hubert Davenport, the Victorian ghost, in the long running BBC TV children's comedy series Rentaghost.

Mary Barbara Jefford, OBE was a British actress, best known for her theatrical performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic and the National Theatre and her role as Molly Bloom in the 1967 film of James Joyce's Ulysses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Europe by Satellite</span> European television information service

Europe by Satellite (EbS) is the TV information service of the European Union which includes 2 TV channels: EbS and EbS+. Managed by the European Commission, it broadcasts images coming from all EU Institutions like the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Central Bank, the European Committee of the Regions, and the European Court of Justice.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth has been screened numerous times, featuring many of the biggest names from stage, film, and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Gwillim</span> English actor

Jack William Frederick Gwillim was an English character actor.

Radio Newsreel is a news programme produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation between 1940 and 1988. The 15-minute programme, which was eventually broadcast four times a day on the BBC World Service with a daily broadcast on the BBC Light Programme, was composed of recorded dispatches from correspondents in the field, live and recorded actuality and such other features, borrowed from the format of the cinema newsreel, as interviews with people currently in the news.

William Alexander Paterson known professionally as Bill Alexander is a British theatre director who is best known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and as artistic director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He currently works as a freelance, internationally as a theatre director and most recently as a director of BBC Radio 4 drama.

Peter Richard Gunton Hopkinson (1920–2007) was a British film-maker and director. A Second World War combat cameraman, and documentary director, reporter and writer, he also worked at Denham Studios in the heyday of British cinema. He was a member of The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Peter Hopkinson died on 28 June 2007, aged 87. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and two stepsons.

In 1982, the BBC broadcast a made-for-television adaptation of An Inspector Calls based on the 1945 J. B. Priestley play of the same title and directed by Michael Simpson. It starred Bernard Hepton as Inspector Goole, with the younger Birlings played by Sarah Berger, and David Sibley as Eric. It also starred Nigel Davenport as Arthur Birling and Margaret Tyzack as Sybil Birling. Simon Ward played Gerald Croft, Sheila's fiancé, and the part of the maid Edna was acted by Jean Leppard.

E-Theses Online Service (EThOS) is a bibliographic database and union catalogue of electronic theses provided by the British Library, the National Library of the United Kingdom. As of February 2022 EThOS provides access to over 500,000 doctoral theses awarded by over 140 UK higher education institutions, with around 3,000 new thesis records added every month.

The British Entertainment History Project (BEHP) records and preserves interviews with the men and women who have worked in British film, television, radio and theatre industries over the last 100 years "to ensure that their lives and experiences are preserved for future generations".

Bill Homewood is an English television and stage actor and singer. He worked on several BBC Children's television series in the 1970s and 1980s, and was subsequently known for his work in the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the West End, on tour, and his recordings of audiobooks. He is also a published poet.

References

  1. 1 2 "Viewfinder Magazine · Learning on Screen". learningonscreen.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  2. "TRILT · TRILT – Broadcast Listings · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  3. "Researcher's Guide to Screen Heritage · Archives & Footage · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "News on Screen · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  5. "Independent Radio · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  6. "Off-Air Service · Learning on Screen". learningonscreen.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  7. "Home · BoB". learningonscreen.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  8. "Shakespeare · Shakespeare on Screen · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  9. "Learning on Screen Awards · Learning on Screen". learningonscreen.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  10. "Training Courses · Learning on Screen". learningonscreen.ac.uk. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.