Inside the Archive #51: a Graveyard Shift and Frankenstein day in Derby
Learn more about our latest public research event and an Inside the Archive trip to Derby.
Graveyard Shift: a Halloween special
It was the spookiest month of the year, and the graveyard shift took over the BFI Reuben Library to lay to rest the most eerie and terrifying of all ghouls — a lack of copyright data.
To celebrate Halloween, this public research event focused on filmmakers from the BFI’s horror holdings, and invited attendees to find their correct death dates via obituaries, tribute websites, and occasionally actual gravestones. From there, we updated over 130 records in our Persons and Institutions database. This activity will inform our copyright understanding for over 4,000 moving image works.
One of the best things about delving into these records are the names we find during our searches. A couple of favourites this time round included a page for prize-winning budgies from the Budgerigar Society 2019 (this came up when searching for Brian Tilston Humphries) and the suspiciously fake-sounding name Barré Lyndon, who was in fact a real British playwright and screenwriter.
As ever, an enormous thank you to BFI Reuben Library and Our Screen Heritage colleagues, and to the members of the public who very kindly gave their time.
- Jennifer Macmillan, Collections Systems Specialist and Iris Mathieson, Digital Media Specialist (Our Screen Heritage).
Inside the Archive goes to Derby
Following a successful launch in Folkestone a few week’s back, our new Inside the Archive exhibition ventured to QUAD in Derby. Our visit coincided with their Frankenstein day, where the cinema celebrated Mary Shelley’s timeless creation and the release of Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation with a day of screenings and activities.
As a spooky contribution, we provided a selection of images from Terence Fisher’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). In these publicity stills preserved by the BFI National Archive — we see Lee transforming into the monster (courtesy of make-up artist Phil Leakey’s steady hand) and posing behind the scenes in full costume. It was great to see more people engage with the exhibition and learn about the sheer variety of materials within our collections.
- Molly Petter, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator (Our Screen Heritage).
The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.