The Team

The Elstree Project is founded and directed by Howard Berry, supported by specialist collaborators, photographers, filmmakers, students and technical staff.

Since 2010, many people have contributed their time, expertise and enthusiasm to help us record and share the history of Elstree and Borehamwood’s eight film and television studio sites. Their combined work enables the Project to preserve not only the stories of the people who worked there, but also the buildings, technologies and production practices that made the studios internationally significant.

Howard Berry

Founder and Director

Howard Berry is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, film editor and Reader in Film Heritage Practice at the University of Hertfordshire. He founded The Elstree Project in 2010 and has directed its research, interviews, films, exhibitions and public events ever since.

Howard is recognised as the Official Historian of Elstree Studios and of Hertsmere’s film and television studios. He is also a professional consultant on Stanley Kubrick’s work to Warner Bros, the Kubrick Estate and the Stanley Kubrick Film Archive.

Through The Elstree Project, Howard has filmed more than 80 oral-history interviews with actors, filmmakers, technicians, craftspeople and studio staff. His research has contributed to books, exhibitions, broadcasts and documentary films, and has been presented at organisations including the National Portrait Gallery, the Design Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York and the Frankfurt Film Museum.

His documentary Her Name Was Moviola, made with Walter Murch, was nominated for Best Edited Documentary Feature at the 2025 American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards and won the Royal Television Society East Award for Best Craft Editing. His other films include Staircases to Nowhere: Making Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and From Borehamwood to Hollywood: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Elstree.

Alongside his historical and filmmaking work, Howard has taught film production and post-production in higher education for more than twenty years. He leads the postgraduate Film Production programmes at the University of Hertfordshire and creates opportunities for students to gain experience working on Project interviews, films and heritage activities.

Kevin Jon Davies

Documentary Filmmaker, Author and Collaborator

Kevin Jon Davies is a documentary filmmaker, author and lecturer whose extensive career has focused on the people and creative processes behind film, television and radio.

He is particularly known for his work documenting the many forms of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He directed the BBC documentary Thirty Years in the TARDIS and has produced and directed numerous behind-the-scenes and making-of documentaries featuring the casts and crews of celebrated film and television productions.

Kevin’s archive research also informed his book 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams, which became a Sunday Times number-one bestseller in 2023.

Kevin brings considerable documentary experience, archival knowledge and enthusiasm for British film and television history to The Elstree Project.

Ila Desai

Photographer

Ila Desai is an acclaimed photographer known for her documentary approach to live events, cultural activity and behind-the-scenes work.

She has photographed clients and projects across film, music, arts, culture and heritage. Ila documented the launch of The Elstree Project and has continued to record interviews, events and important moments in the Project’s development.

Her work with us has included the reunion of cast and crew from The Shining and the photographic documentation of BBC Elstree Centre. Her images form an important visual record of the Project and of the studio community we seek to preserve.

Student Crews

Students and graduates from the University of Hertfordshire’s film and television programmes have made an invaluable contribution to The Elstree Project.

Working alongside Howard and other experienced practitioners, students have helped to film interviews, record events and create documentary material. These opportunities allow emerging filmmakers to work in professional studio environments, develop practical production skills and hear first-hand accounts of the films and television programmes that inspired them.

We are proud that the Project not only preserves the experiences of previous generations, but also shares their knowledge with the filmmakers of the future.

Technical Support

The Project has benefited greatly from the technical knowledge and practical support of colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire.

We particularly acknowledge Paul Roberts and Matthew Welch, together with the staff of the equipment loan store and the film and television technical team, whose expertise has supported our interviews, productions and research activities.

The Beginnings of The Elstree Project

The Project began in 2010 under the title Kubrick Visions, an initial research project created by Howard Berry and his University of Hertfordshire colleague G. D. Jayalakshmi, with the assistance of the Kubrick Estate.

The first interviews recorded members of Stanley Kubrick’s family and crew. The research soon expanded through collaboration with Elstree Screen Heritage, leading to further interviews with people who had worked with Kubrick and across the wider Elstree and Borehamwood studio community.

Between 2010 and 2016, Howard and Elstree Screen Heritage worked in formal partnership to develop The Elstree Project. We gratefully acknowledge the expertise, knowledge and access provided during those formative years by Paul Welsh MBE and Elstree Screen Heritage.

We have also welcomed guest interviewers, including Roberto Perrone and Morris Bright MBE.

With Thanks

The Elstree Project gratefully acknowledges the studios, organisations and individuals whose support has made its work possible.

We thank BBC Elstree Centre and Elstree Studios for granting access to their sites and for their continuing support. We also acknowledge the assistance of Warner Bros, StudioCanal, the Kubrick Estate and the University of Hertfordshire.

Most importantly, we thank every person who has shared their memories with us, and every crew member, colleague, student and supporter who has helped those stories to be recorded and preserved.

In Memory of Paul Welsh MBE

We remember with gratitude Paul Welsh MBE, whose knowledge, connections and commitment to Elstree’s film and television heritage played an important part in the early development of The Elstree Project.