Secrets of Nature

Last updated

Secrets of Nature was a British short black-and-white documentary film series, consisting of 144 films produced between 1922 and 1933 by British Instructional Films, which filmmaker, historian and critic Paul Rotha described in 1930 as "the sheet anchor of the British film industry". [1] [2] A second series of films from the same team, under the title Secrets of Life and backed by Gaumont-British, followed between 1934 and 1947. [3]

Contents

History

The Secrets of Nature series was initiated in 1922 by Harry Bruce Woolfe, a former film distributor who had established himself with successful dramatised documentaries of the First World War, such as Zeebrugge and Mons, prior to setting up British Instructional Films in 1919 with the ambition of creating popular informational films. He recruited F. Percy Smith, who had established himself alongside fellow film pioneer F. Martin Duncan on the Urban Science series for Charles Urban before the war, to head up the series. Woolfe and Smith were joined by Natural History Museum curator W. P. Pycraft, ornithologist Edgar Chance, bird photographer Walter Higham, naturalist Charles Head, fellow Charles Urban Trading Company alumni H. M. Lomas of A Trip through British North Borneo (1907), and Woolfe's old friend, ornithologist and natural history cinematography pioneer Oliver G. Pike, who had established himself before the war with In Birdland (1907) and St Kilda, its People and its Birds (1908). He also obtained assistance from the entomologist Harold Maxwell-Lefroy.

In 1929 former schoolteacher Agnes Mary Field, who had joined British Instructional Films in 1926 as its education manager and quickly learned all aspects of film production, took over from Percy Smith as editor of the series, in order to give him more time to concentrate on his photography, and lead the series into the sound era.

Films

The Cuckoo's Secret

A 1922 British 17-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced by British ornithologist Edgar Chance and shot by nature documentary pioneer Oliver G. Pike, featuring the nesting habits of the common cuckoo, which changed public perception of how the birds reproduce. Chance asked local children to watch nests around Pound Green Common so he could work out the ones the cuckoo was most likely to visit next and thus instruct Pike as to where to position his cameras to catch the best shots. The resulting footage provided the first documented proof that the birds lay their eggs directly in the nests of the species they parasitise, rather than laying them on the ground and carrying them to the nest, and inaugurated the new film series. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [4] [5] [6]

The Battle of the Ants

A 1922 British 12-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, directed and shot by Geoffrey Barkas, featuring the conflict between two colonies of wood ants joined by a piece of tiber laid across a moat at a zoological garden. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [7]

Fathoms Deep Beneath the Sea

A 1922 British 13-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, shot by H. M. Lomas and edited by W. P. Pycraft, featuring Conger, octopus, wrasse, starfish, John Dory, pipefish, shrimp, prawn, sea robin and spider crab filmed at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [8]

Skilled Insect Artisans

A 1922 British 9-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, directed by Edgar Chance, featuring the life cycles of the ailanthus silkmoth and the red admiral butterfly, which according to Adam Dodd of BFI Screenonline was made at the time rayon was emerging as a man-made alternative to natural silk and anthropomorphised the insects in terms of their behavioural resemblance to human activities. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [9]

The Sparrow-Hawk

A 1922 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced and shot by Charles W. R. Knight and edited by W. P. Pycraft, featuring the life-cycle of the Eurasian sparrowhawk. [10]

The White Owl

A 1922 British 12-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, compiled by W. P. Pycraft and shot by Oliver G. Pike, featuring a mother barn owl nicknamed Strix. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [11]

Busy Bees

A 1926 British 11-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring bumble bee, mason bee and leafcutter bee. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [12]

Floral Co-operative Societies

A 1927 British 12-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, directed and shot by F. Percy Smith, featuring the sexual elements of pollination in dandelion, globe thistle, daisy, cornflower, carline thistle and everlastings. The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [13]

The Plants of the Pantry

A 1927 British 13-minute short black-and-white silent documentary film, directed and shot by F. Percy Smith, featuring stop motion photography, micro-cinematography and animated sequences of mould, growing on household food such as cheese, spreading in flower-like patterns described by Total Film as "hypnotic, like a living lava lamp pulsing across the screen." "This extraordinary work of art and science, beautifully entwined," is described by Luke McKernan of The Bioscope, "as close to that of avant garde animators of the period as it is to the plain exposition of science lecture." The film was included on the 2010 BFI DVD Secrets of Nature: Pioneering Natural History Films. [2] [14] [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Cardiff</span> British cinematographer, director and photographer (1914–2009)

Jack Cardiff was a British cinematographer, film and television director, and photographer. His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor, to filmmaking more than half a century later.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1903 film) 1903 British film by Cecil Hepworth

Alice in Wonderland is a 1903 British silent fantasy film directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. Only one copy of the original film is known to exist. The British Film Institute (BFI) partially restored the movie and its original film tinting and released it in 2010. According to BFI, the original film ran about 12 minutes; the restoration runs 9 minutes and 35 seconds. At the beginning of the restoration, it states that this is the first movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was filmed mostly at Port Meadow in Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nature documentary</span> Documentary genre

A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's natural habitat, but often including footage of trained and captive animals, too. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series which is distributed across the world.

<i>Rough Sea at Dover</i> 1896 British film

Rough Sea at Dover is an 1895 British short black-and-white silent film, shot by Birt Acres.

<i>The Miller and the Sweep</i> 1897 film by George Albert Smith

The Miller and the Sweep is a 1898 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a miller carrying a bag of flour fighting with a chimney sweep carrying a bag of soot in front of a windmill, before a crowd comes and chases them away. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was one of the first films made by G.A. Smith, shortly after he first acquired a camera," and is also, "one of the earliest films to show a clear awareness of its visual impact when projected."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver G. Pike</span> British naturalist

Oliver Gregory Pike, FZS, FRPS. was a British naturalist, wildlife photographer, author and early nature documentary pioneer, specialising in the study of bird life. "His claim to significance," according to Bryony Dixon of BFI Screenonline, "lies in the groundbreaking techniques he developed to capture animals in their natural habitats and in the fact that he passed this knowledge on."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Chance</span> British businessman, ornithologist and oologist (1881-1955)

Edgar Percival Chance (1881–1955) was a British businessman, ornithologist and oologist who amassed a collection of 25,000 birds' eggs. He is noted for his pioneering studies on the parasitic breeding behaviour of the common cuckoo.

<i>Spiders on a Web</i> 1900 British film

Spiders on a Web is a 1900 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a single shot close-up of two spiders trapped in an enclosure. The film is, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "less formally ambitious" than the director's "groundbreaking multiple close-up study Grandma's Reading Glass (1900), made the same year, but is nonetheless, "one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography, predating Percy Smith's insect studies by a decade."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. Percy Smith</span>

Frank Percy Smith was a British naturalist and early nature documentary pioneer, who explored time-lapse photography, microphotography, microcinematography, underwater cinematography and animation.

<i>Yarmouth Fishing Boats Leaving Harbour</i> 1896 British film

Yarmouth Fishing Boats Leaving Harbour is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, directed by Birt Acres, featuring a fleet of fishing smacks leaving the harbour at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK.

<i>An Otter Study</i> 1912 British film

An Otter Study is a 1912 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced by Kineto, featuring an otter in its natural habitat, including groundbreaking footage of underwater hunting scenes. The film provided a novel treatment of the creature, which had previously appeared on film only as the victim of hunt films, with the unique underwater footage, shot by a cameraman behind glass in a tank concealed on the bed of the river in the opening scene, and a concluding scene, excised from the surviving print, in which it escapes the hunters. It was long thought lost until footage from a 1920s Visual Education re-release of the film, re-edited under the supervision of Professor J Arthur Thomson of Aberdeen University's Natural History Department, was rediscovered.

<i>The Biter Bit</i> 1900 British film by James Bamforth

The Biter Bit is an 1899 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, produced by Bamforth & Co Ltd, featuring a boy playing a practical joke on a gardener by grasping his hose to stop the water flow and then letting go when the gardener looks down it to check. The film "is an English remake" of Auguste and Louis Lumière's L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "providing a good illustration of how early film production companies cheerfully plagiarised each other's work" with "a few minor differences between, most notably a rather greater sense of space and depth in the Bamforth version" and "three distinct planes to the action". It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is used in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.

<i>Comic Costume Race</i> 1896 British film by Robert W. Paul

Comic Costume Race is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring comic costume scramble at the Music Hall Sports on 14 July 1896 at Herne Hill, London. The music hall sports day was an annual charity event consisting of other events such as egg and spoon races and three-legged races. The film is the best surviving pictorial record of the Music Hall Sports. It is not known who the race participants are.

<i>Tommy Atkins in the Park</i> 1898 film by Robert W. Paul

Tommy Atkins in the Park is an 1898 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring a couple courting in a park who are forced to use desperate measures to get rid of a stout matron who interrupts them. The film was a remake of Alfred Moul's The Soldier's Courtship (1896). It is included on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908 and a clip is featured in Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.

<i>Army Life; or, How Soldiers Are Made: Mounted Infantry</i> 1900 British silent short film by Robert W. Paul

Army Life; or, How Soldiers Are Made: Mounted Infantry is a 1900 British short black-and-white silent propaganda actuality film, directed by Robert W. Paul, featuring the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment riding over a plain. The film, which premiered on 18 September 1900 at the Alhambra Theatre in London, England, "is all that appears to remain of one of R.W. Paul's most ambitious projects," which, according to Micahael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "had it survived in a more complete form," "would undoubtedly be considered one of the most important precursors of the modern documentary."

British Instructional Films was a British film production company which operated between 1919 and 1932. The company's name is often abbreviated to BIF.

Variety in Sepia is a television Variety special that was filmed live on 7 October 1947 at the RadiOlympia Theatre, Alexandra Palace, London, and was aired on BBC TV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes Mary Field</span> English film producer and director

Agnes Mary Field was an English film producer and director, particularly associated with documentary, educational, and children's films.

<i>The Tempest</i> (1908 film) 1908 British film

The Tempest is a 1908 British-made silent film directed by film pioneer Percy Stow who specialised in trick photography.

References

  1. ↑ Dixon, Bryony. "Secrets of Nature (1922–33)". BFI Screenonlinee. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Unveiling the Secrets of Nature". The Bioscope. 19 July 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  3. ↑ Secrets of Nature website
  4. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: The Cuckoo's Secret (1922)". wildfilmhistory.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  5. ↑ Dixon, Bryony. "Cuckoo's Secret, The (1922)". BFI Screenonlinee. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  6. ↑ Babbidge, Clare (9 January 2009). "Birdwatcher gave 1922 cuckoo clue". BBC News, West Midlands. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  7. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: The Battle of the Ants". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  8. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: Fathoms Deep Beneath the Sea". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 9 September 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  9. ↑ Dodd, Adam. "Skilled Insect Artisans (1922)". BFI Screenonlinee. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  10. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: The Sparrow-Hawk (1922)". wildfilmhistory.org. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  11. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: The White Owl". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  12. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: Busy Bees". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  13. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: Floral Co-operative Societies". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  14. ↑ "Secrets of Nature". Total Film. Archived from the original on 24 September 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  15. ↑ "Secrets of Nature: The Plants of the Pantry". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.