The Elstree Project: capturing the rich history of Hertfordshire’s film studios
Film heritage expert Howard Berry is giving voice to the untold stories behind Hertfordshire’s global film and television legacy.
Despite its pivotal role in global film and television, Hertfordshire’s cinematic heritage is often overlooked – and frequently mistaken for Hollywood. Yet nestled within the county are the studios of Elstree, Borehamwood and Leavesden, which have quietly powered some of the most iconic productions of the 20th and 21st centuries, most recently Barbie, Paddington in Peru and Wicked.
Although Hertfordshire is firmly established as a major production hub, many are unaware of the scale of its achievements. At one point in the 1980s, six of the ten highest-grossing films of all time – the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies – had been made in Elstree. As local film historian Paul Welsh MBE once put it: “Elstree, a little town in Hertfordshire, had outpaced Hollywood and the rest of the world. That’s a hell of a legacy.”
Telling the stories behind the screen
That legacy is being preserved by Howard Berry, principal lecturer and head of post-production for film and television at the University of Hertfordshire. Through The Elstree Project, part oral history, part academic research, Howard has recorded 78 interviews and counting, capturing the behind-the-scenes stories of everyone from Steven Spielberg, Barbara Windsor and Sir Roger Moore, to camera operators, set designers and sound technicians.
A key aim is to raise the profile of what has been – and continues to be – achieved by the British film industry. We’re appallingly bad at shouting about how good we are. Many people assume these films were made in Hollywood. But ask the Americans why they worked here, and they’ll tell you – it was because the crews were the best in the world.
Howard Berry,
Principal lecturer and Head of Post-Production for Film and Television
Launched in 2010, with a focus on Stanley Kubrick’s ties to the area, the project has grown into a wide-ranging chronicle of the eight studios that have operated in Elstree over the past 100 years. From the artistry of painting Darth Vader’s costume to the intricacies of the cinematography in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Berry’s team, including students from the University’s School of Creative Arts, has created a vivid mosaic of stories from Britain’s film history.
Among Howard’s fondest memories is interviewing Brian Blessed – or rather, being entertained by him. “I asked my first question an hour in,” he laughs. Spielberg, too, was “an absolute gem”. “He talked about how, until he came to Elstree, he’d never seen such amazing fake rocks,” Howard recalls. “But it was a serious point – the pride and quality of British craftmanship kept him coming back.”
A living archive for the next century
With Elstree Studios’ centenary in 2025, Howard aims to reach 100 interviews and make the archive publicly accessible via a dedicated website, with searchable transcripts and licensing options. He is also working to digitally preserve key studio sites, starting with a 360° virtual tour of BBC Elstree Centre before parts of it are redeveloped.
This work is being supported by the Hertfordshire Film Office, Screen Hertfordshire, a new venture to promote Herts as a world-leading filmmaking destination, and the University’s Heritage Hub.
Howard has also stepped into the spotlight himself. His debut feature documentary Her Name Was Moviola, co-created with legendary editor Walter Murch (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now), was shot at Elstree and explores the history of the Moviola – the analogue editing machine used on nearly every major Hollywood film from the 1920s to 1990s. The film earned a four-star review in The Guardian, with award nominations from both the American Cinema Editors and Royal Television Society East.
Learn more about the Elstree Project.
It all started with the Elstree Project. Walter and I connected through an interview about filming Return to Oz, and the idea grew from there. It’s wonderful when these stories lead to new stories. Meeting incredible people and sharing their stories. The joy of hearing something unscripted, unfiltered by PR – that’s increasingly rare. And really valuable.
Howard Berry,
Principal lecturer and Head of Post-Production for Film and Television
Howard Berry
Head of Post-Production for Film and Television
I am Principal Lecturer and Head of Post-Production for the Film and Television degrees in the School of Creative Arts, where I am also the Programme Leader for the Post-Graduate Film Production programme - comprising the MA Film Production and MA Screenwriting degrees.
My area of teaching specialism is in editing, archiving and workflow, colour correction and grading, motion graphics, encoding and finishing. For my teaching I won the 2011 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Tutor of the Year and came Highly Commended in the area of Excellence in Partnerships with Others in 2013.
My research interests are film heritage, the production methodolgies of Stanley Kubrick, Elstree and Borehamwood's film studios, and film editing and its workflows and methods. I am a consultant to the Kubrick Estate and Warner Bros, and I am currently working on a new documentary film with acclaimed film editor Walter Murch, to document the use and craft of the Moviola film editing machine.