This is an immersive audio-visual performance piece that was written and directed by Christopher Thomas Allen, especially for the British Film Institute’s first-ever Luminous fundraising gala event in London, October in 2013. The piece animates and illustrates a monolog that imparts to the audience the cultural importance of film and the central role of the BFI’s in its preservation and its continued funding and support for new voices.
The studio worked closely with the BFI’s head curator Robin Baker to select a cross-section of the archive’s gems and gathered a long list of contemporary examples of British talent on screen, that took us from the beginning of filmmaking right up to the releases that graced the London Film Festival that year. The creative production involved several location shoots at the BFI archive in Berkhamsted, where we documented their restoration processes and the cavernous acetate vaults that hold thousands of feet of our history on film.
The resulting seven-minute piece was a truly special part of the night and was only ever performed once. This multi-screen, video-mapped audio-visual art work contained excerpts from over 140 different film titles and unfolded around the room across five separate projections. We were fortunate to have had the leading UK actor Idris Elba feature in it,. We filmed him performing the script written by Christopher Thomas Allen in a studio, then carefully edited this narrative along with all the films we collaged together into a single work as a finale to the event, with a specially composed live musical score by Jude Greenaway and the Urban Soul Orchestra.
This project is one we are particularly proud of, both in terms of its form and content, it is a pioneering immersive work that transported the audience through the sights and sound of cinema while contemplating its very form and social meaning philosophically.
PROJECT CREDITS:
| Creative Director: | Christopher Thomas Allen |
| Producer: | Alice Ceresole |
| Technical Directors: | Pete Wallace & Brenden Clark @ Insight Lighting |
| Architectural Mapping: | Stuart Mcalister & Simon Risbridger |
| Editors: | Christopher Thomas Allen, Dave Baum & Jai Rafferty |
| Research Editor: | Helen Omand |
| Animation: | Pete Wallace, Dave Baum & Mark Bailey |
| Camera: | Christopher Thomas Allen, Tim Cowie, James Price & Jai Rafferty |
| Lighting: | Felix Ollerearnshaw @ Insight Lighting |
| Camera Assistant: | Jack Armitage |
| Makeup: | Sandra Bermingham |
| Custom Software: | Joe Catchpole |
| Music Composer: | Jude Greenaway & Urban Soul Orchestra |
| Live Musicians: | Urban Soul Orchestra |
| Writer: | Christopher Thomas Allen |
| Actor: | Idris Elba |
| Line Producer: | Annie Kwan |
| Assistant Producer: | Maddie Yuille |
| Locations: | BFI National Archives Berkhamstead & Apiary Studios |
| Live Performers: | |
| Violins: | Stephen Hussey & Ruth Elder |
| Viola: | Una Palliser |
| Cello: | Kwesi Edman |
| Harp: | Patrizia Meier |
Special thanks to Tina Temple Morris, Anna Dudina, Nathalie Morris & Scott Starck at the BFI National Archives.
