48
|
ISSUE 2 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
The founding father of the British documentary filmmovement,
John Grierson, played a central role in establishing the Shell Film
Unit over 80 years ago. Today the Unit continues to push the
boundaries of innovation and creativity. Here is their story
rierson was clearly
setting the pace in
Britain’s nascent
documentary film
industry when Shell
asked him to draw
up a strategy for
using film as an educational and
entertaining public relations tool.
The Shell Film Unit was set up
within months of Grierson
reporting back in October 1932. In
the decades that followed, Shell
went on to produce hundreds of
informative and entertaining films
that have been enjoyed by many
millions of people and have won
scores of international awards.
Far from being commercials, the
films were intended to inform and
entertain, using a mix of live action
and animations to explain complex
technologies to a wide audience.
Shell film makers consciously
avoided overt branding; they aimed
to fuel public interest in the
mechanical marvels of the age, and
to show how people around the
world could overcome health, food
and transport challenges.
“The name of Shell is confined to
the credits and the symbol on the
end,” Sir Arthur Elton, one of the
early leaders of the Unit, wrote in
an article for
Film User
magazine in
1956.
DETACHMENT
“This detachment has served Shell
companies well, for today Shell
films are a part of the curriculum of
schools all over the world. They
have been adopted by scores of
universities and are used by
international, national and
government institutions
everywhere,” Elton wrote.
This approach of avoiding hard
sell and strongly branded content
continues today.
The Unit was closed down when
World War II broke out, but within
a month the team had been called
back to work for the British
government, producing films
mainly for the armed services.
The post-war period saw Shell
branch out into international film-
making, producing a series of multi
award-winning films about issues
such as hunger, deforestation, air
and water pollution, as well as
films about problems associated
with pest control, particularly the
malaria-spreading mosquito and
the crop-destroying locust.
G
SHELL
ONFILM
The
approach
of avoiding
hard sell
and
strongly
branded
content
continues
today
“
”
www.shell.com
