Raymond Spottiswoode

Raymond Spottiswoode (1913 – 18 August 1970) was a British film theorist, documentary filmmaker, producer and technical specialist. He was the father of film director Roger Spottiswoode and worked in documentary filmmaking, film technology and stereoscopic cinema.

Career

Spottiswoode spent three years in England working with John Grierson's original documentary production group and subsequently worked with commercial film companies. He later spent six years in the Canadian film industry, first as a producer and subsequently as a technical supervisor with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The NFB maintains an official record of Spottiswoode as a director in its collection. From 1945 to 1948, Spottiswoode wrote, directed and produced documentary films in the United States.

He later became involved in stereoscopic filmmaking and film technology. He worked on three-dimensional film production for the Festival of Britain and was involved in technical research concerning stereoscopic cinematography.

In 1958, Spottiswoode became director of the Film Centre in London. He also taught at universities in Britain and the United States and continued his work in film technology and stereoscopic cinema.

Film theory

Spottiswoode wrote several books on cinema, including A Grammar of the Film and Film and Its Techniques. His writing examined film language, editing, cinematography and other technical and aesthetic aspects of filmmaking.

Film and Its Techniques was reviewed by film theorist Rudolf Arnheim in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism in 1951.

Spottiswoode's A Grammar of the Film was also influential among later filmmakers. Cinematographer and visual-effects artist Richard Edlund recalled that the book was the only book on cinema available to him at a U.S. Navy base in Japan and became his introduction to film theory. Edlund particularly recalled its discussion of editing and the use of juxtaposed images to construct meaning.

Filmography

Death

Spottiswoode died on 18 August 1970.