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113-458: Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath , England. It is approximately 18 miles (29 km) west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to television programmes, commercials, and pop promos, including the James Bond and Carry On film franchises. Pinewood Studios

226-408: A boom barrier and explain the purpose of their visit to a security guard . The sound stage is the central component of a studio lot. Most studios have several; small studios may have as few as one, and large studios have as many as 20 to 30. Movie studios also provide office space for studio executives and production companies, and makeup rooms and rehearsal rooms for talent. If space allows,

339-557: A "mini-Name"). The report also drew attention to the danger of conflicts of interest . The liability of the individual Names was unlimited, and thus all their personal wealth and assets were at risk. During the 1970s, a number of issues arose which were to have significant influence on the course of the Society. The first was the tax structure in the UK: for a time, capital gains were taxed at up to 40 per cent (nil on gilts ); earned income

452-403: A castle, a UK canal, Chinatown and a London street market built. In addition it will also be used as residential housing, with the proposed creative community, expected to be in the region of 2000 and 2250, being integrated with the film locations. Following consultations with the local community the plans changed to reflect the community's opinions and suggestions. However, the planning application

565-739: A film studio. Boot based designs for the studio complex on the latest ideas being employed by film studios in Hollywood , California. Boot named the new studio Pinewood because "of the number of trees which grow there and because it seemed to suggest something of the American film centre in its second syllable". Construction began in December of that year, with a new stage completed every three weeks. The studios were finished nine months later, having cost £1 million (approx. £85.8 million at 2023 prices). Five stages were initially completed and there

678-656: A growing proportion of Hollywood movie revenue, with approximately 70% of total movie revenue coming from international ticket sales; and the Chinese domestic box-office revenue is projected to outpace those of US in 2020. The growth of film studios and filmmaking outside of Hollywood and the US has produced popular international film studio locations such as Hollywood North ( Vancouver and Toronto in Canada ), Bollywood ( Mumbai , India ), and Nollywood ( Lagos , Nigeria ). As

791-772: A highly capable marine underwriter, to assume approximately 80 per cent of the market's asbestos exposure on his well-supported syndicates 317/661 in 1982. In 1985, under Lloyd's three-year accounting rule, auditors kept Outhwaite's 1982 year open, citing concerns over asbestos and pollution liability losses. These eventually ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. After many years of litigation, Outhwaite retired to Guernsey and died on 20 November 2021. Another asbestosis-hit operation, Pulbrook syndicates 90/334, had taken out reinsurance in 1981 on its general liability business with Merrett syndicate 418; however, in 1990 Stephen Merrett (who by now controlled Pulbrook) won an arbitration ruling to void that arrangement due to non-disclosure of

904-578: A huge hole in Lloyd's loss-payment reserves, which was initially not recognised and then not acknowledged. Second, by the end of the decade, almost all of the market agreements, such as the Joint Hull Agreement, which were effectively cartels mandating minimum terms, had been abandoned under pressure of competition. Third, new specialised policies had arisen which had the effect of concentrating risk: these included "run-off" policies, under which

1017-452: A joint venture in the US with Pinewood Atlanta Studios . In 2009, Pinewood and Shepperton received a BAFTA Award for their Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. The Pinewood Studios Group was subject to a hostile takeover approach in 2011. Manchester-based The Peel Group acquired a 73% stake, but Warren James Jewellers retained a 27% stake, so preventing a full takeover. In 2012 Financial Services Authority considered cancelling

1130-462: A loss of £3.5 million, mainly due to big budget flops. One of the largest of these had been Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), which was originally budgeted at £250,000, but which eventually cost £1,278,000 (the equivalent of £60.2 million in 2023). The Doctor film series, produced by Betty Box and directed by Ralph Thomas , began with Doctor in the House (1954), the most successful film at

1243-497: A meeting place for people of all types of maritime occupations, who would make bets on which ships would make it back to port. Soon, the captains of ships that were suggested to fail to return were betting against the return of other ships. It was the start of Lloyd's insurance. During this time, the coffee house was also frequented by mariners involved in the slave trade . Historian Eric Williams noted that "Lloyd's, like other insurance companies, insured slaves and slave ships , and

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1356-433: A movie studio has usually been housed on a "studio lot." Physically, a studio lot is a secure compound enclosed by a tall perimeter wall. This is necessary to protect filmmaking operations from unwanted interference from paparazzi and crazed fans of leading movie stars . Movement in and out of the studio lot is normally limited to specific gates (often capped with grand decorative arches), where visitors must stop at

1469-526: A new building at 1 Lime Street (where it remains today), the British government commissioned Sir Patrick Neill to report on the standard of investor protection available at Lloyd's. His report was produced in 1987 and made a large number of recommendations, but was never implemented in full. It has long been normal for one Lloyd's syndicate to reinsure another, but when Piper Alpha , a North Sea oil rig, exploded on 6 July 1988 causing an initial $ 1.4bn loss,

1582-921: A prolific period of Pinewood and British film history, with Pinewood following the studios adopting the "unit system", an American industry practice. That enabled several pictures to be filmed simultaneously and, ultimately, Pinewood achieved the highest output of any studio in the world. During the Second World War , Pinewood was requisitioned, and the Crown Film Unit , No. 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit , Royal Air Force Film Production Unit , and Polish Air Force Film Unit were based there. The Crown Film Unit completed many classic wartime documentaries, and Roy Boulting 's Desert Victory , Humphrey Jennings ' Fires Were Started , Coastal Command and Pat Jackson 's Western Approaches (all 1943) were filmed there during that period. As well its use by

1695-453: A purpose-built security entrance 500 m (1,600 ft) further along the road) also features in My Week with Marilyn (2011) when Eddie Redmayne greets Judi Dench . This film also contains many shots of the dressing-room corridors in the main make-up block. Heatherden Hall (converted to production offices) has appeared in several films: it was made to look fire-damaged and derelict for

1808-441: A result, a great many Names whose syndicates wrote long-tail liability at Lloyd's faced significant financial loss or ruin by the late 1980s to mid-1990s. It was alleged that in the early 1980s some Lloyd's officials began a recruitment programme to enroll new Names to help capitalise Lloyd's prior to the expected onslaught of APH claims. This allegation became known as "recruit to dilute": in other words, recruit more Names to dilute

1921-515: A shortfall in funds, brought about by financial overspends the previous year, Rank did not have enough money to market The Red Shoes sufficiently at first in the US, but it became Rank's biggest earner up to that point, grossing over £1 million by 1951 (the equivalent of £34.9 million in 2023 terms). In the same year, John Davis was appointed managing director. By the following year, Rank had run up an overdraft of £16 million (the equivalent of £612 million in 2023), and announced

2034-788: A studio may have an outside backlot . Finally, there is a studio "commissary", which is the traditional term in the movie industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria . In addition to these basic components, the largest film studios are full-service enterprises offering the entire range of production and post-production services necessary to create a motion picture, including costumes, props, cameras, sound recording, crafts, sets, lighting, special effects , cutting, editing, mixing, scoring, automated dialogue replacement (ADR), re-recording, and foley . Independent suppliers of all these services and more (e.g., photographic processing labs) are often found in clusters in close proximity to film studios. Nitrate film , manufactured until 1951,

2147-474: A third mutual link which includes the "Central Fund" and which is under the control of the Council of Lloyd's. In 2023 there were 78 syndicates managed by 51 "managing agencies" that collectively wrote £52.1bn of gross premiums on risks placed by 381 registered brokers. Around half of Lloyd's premiums emanate from North America and around one quarter from Europe. Direct insurance represents roughly two-thirds of

2260-533: A total of eight generally recognized major studios. United Artists, although its controlling partners owned not one but two production studios during the Golden Age, had an often-tenuous hold on the title of major and operated mainly as a backer and distributor of independently produced films. Smaller studios operated simultaneously with the majors. These included operations such as Republic Pictures , active from 1935, which produced films that occasionally matched

2373-654: A tram tour of the backlot where films such as Psycho and Back to the Future were once shot. In fall 2019, movie mogul Tyler Perry opened Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta . The studio lot is claimed to be larger than any movie-studio lot in Hollywood. In the 1980s and 1990s, as the cost of professional 16mm film equipment decreased, along with the emergence of non-film innovations such as S-VHS and Mini-DV cameras, many young filmmakers began to make films outside

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2486-467: Is also credited for introducing the now widely used "excess of loss" reinsurance protection for insurers following the San Francisco quake. Heath had become an underwriting member of Lloyd's in 1880, upon reaching the minimum age of 21, on J. S. Burrows' syndicate. Within a year he was underwriting for himself on a three-man syndicate; in 1883 he also opened a brokerage business. In 1885, he wrote

2599-419: Is asbestosis/ mesothelioma claims under employers' liability or workers' compensation policies. An employee at an industrial plant may have been exposed to asbestos in the 1960s, fallen ill 20 years later and claimed compensation from his former employer in the 1990s. The employer would report a claim to the insurance company that wrote the policy in the 1960s. However, because the insurer did not fully understand

2712-429: Is credited for first identifying this issue and creating the first "large syndicate", initially of 12 capacity providers. By the 1880s Marten's syndicate had outgrown many of the major insurance companies outside Lloyd's. On 18 April 1906, a major earthquake and resulting fires destroyed over 80 per cent of the city of San Francisco . This event was to have a profound influence on building practices, risk modelling and

2825-538: Is one of the sponsors for the short film competition "Enter the Pitch," also known as the Pitch, which launched in 2009. The Pitch is an online short film pitching competition that invites film makers to submit a project that takes inspiration from any story, character, or theme in the Bible . The top ten finalists are invited to Pinewood Studios, where they pitch their film to a panel of industry professionals. The person giving

2938-414: Is predominantly general insurance and reinsurance, although a small amount of term life insurance is written. The market has its roots in marine insurance and was founded by Edward Lloyd at his coffee-house on Tower Street in c. 1689. It is thus one of the oldest insurance companies in the world. Today, it has a dedicated building on Lime Street which is Grade I listed . Traditionally business

3051-469: Is transacted at each syndicate's "box" in the underwriting room within the building, with the policy document being known as a "slip", but in recent years it has become increasingly common for business to be conducted remotely and electronically. The market's motto is Fidentia , Latin for "confidence", and it is closely associated with the Latin phrase uberrima fides , or "utmost good faith", representing

3164-578: The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, also went into the spiral. Some of the leading LMX reinsurers at the time that suffered serious spiral losses included the numerous syndicates managed by the Gooda Walker agency, Devonshire syndicate 216, Rose Thomson Young 255, R. J. Bromley 475, and Patrick Fagan's already challenged Feltrim syndicates 540 and 542. Gooda Walker syndicate 298 became the first fatal casualty, with 13,500 policies being exposed to

3277-503: The 1918 flu epidemic by Los Angeles compared to other American cities reduced the number of cases there and resulted in a faster recovery, contributing to the increasing dominance of Hollywood over New York City. The Big 5 By the mid-1920s, the evolution of a handful of American production companies into wealthy motion picture industry conglomerates that owned their own studios, distribution divisions , and theaters , and contracted with performers and other filmmaking personnel led to

3390-580: The Board of Trade . The first film director to use the facilities was Herbert Wilcox , completing London Melody (1937) featuring Anna Neagle (his wife), portions of which had already been filmed at British and Dominions Imperial Studios in Elstree, before a fire there halted production. The first film to be made entirely at Pinewood was Talk of the Devil (1936), directed by Carol Reed . There followed

3503-530: The Equitas arrangement in the late 1990s and transferred to National Indemnity Company in two stages in 2007 and 2009. Residual funds in Lioncover were later distributed to surviving PCW Names or donated to the Lloyd's Charities Trust. Lioncover was voluntarily dissolved in 2014. Lloyd's also faced action from Names on C. J. Warrilow's syndicate 553, which had chronically exceeded its underwriting capacity in

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3616-468: The Gulf of Mexico coastlines, costing the market over £50 million. The catastrophe halted the capital that hitherto had been pouring into Lloyd's, and twice as many members left between 1965 and 1968 as had left over the prior eight years. It was soon realised that the membership of the Society, which had been largely made up of market participants, was too small in relation to the market's capitalisation and

3729-530: The Hollywood area was Nestor Studios , opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley . In the same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in places such as Culver City , Burbank , and what would soon become known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley . The stronger early public health response to

3842-708: The Underwater Stage , and an Exterior Tank backed with a green screen measuring 73 m (240 ft)x18 m (59 ft). In November 2007, Pinewood announced a £200m expansion plan, known as Project Pinewood. If would have included replicas of streetscapes and zones replicating locations from the UK, Europe and the USA. Planned zones include a college campus, Amsterdam, modern European housing, Venice, Lake Como, Paris, an Amphitheatre, Prague, West coast American housing, warehousing and downtown New York sets, Chicago, Vienna,

3955-470: The 1912 "Loss Book" is on display in the Lloyd's building. The society moved into its first owned, dedicated building in 1928. It was located at 12 Leadenhall Street and had been designed by Sir Edwin Cooper . In 1965 Lloyd's wrote the first satellite insurance policy, covering Intelsat I in pre-launch. Later that year, when Lloyd's had around 6,000 members on 300 syndicates, Hurricane Betsy struck

4068-400: The 1970s, the number of passive investors dwarfed the number of underwriters working in the market. The third issue related to a serious of losses as a result of scandal. During the decade a number of scandals had come to light, including the collapse of F. H. "Tim" Sasse's non-marine syndicate 762, which had issued large fire insurance claims that had highlighted both the lack of regulation and

4181-653: The Edison company in 1912. The pioneering Thanhouser movie studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser . The company produced and released 1,086 movies between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world. In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California . Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film;

4294-403: The Lloyd's Act 1871 and subsequent Acts of Parliament . It operates as a partially-mutualised marketplace within which multiple financial backers, grouped in syndicates , come together to pool and spread risk . These underwriters , or "members", are a collection of both corporations and private individuals, the latter being traditionally known as "Names". The business underwritten at Lloyd's

4407-506: The Lloyd's Act of 1982 which further redefined the structure of the business and was designed to give external Names, introduced in response to the Cromer report, a say in the running of the business through a new governing Council. The main purpose of the 1982 Act was to separate the ownership of the managing agents of the underwriting syndicates from the ownership of the brokering houses (which acted as intermediaries, not as underwriters), with

4520-427: The Lloyd's marine market, was expelled under suspicions but later acquitted of criminal charges. His name remained tarnished and he did not return to the market, retiring to run his Oxfordshire farm until his death in 2017 aged 87. A greater debacle arose when Peter Cameron-Webb and Peter Dixon, of PCW Underwriting Agencies, allegedly defrauded their business of some $ 60m through rigged reinsurance transactions and fled to

4633-514: The Piper Alpha disaster alone and its 1989 account producing a 650 per cent loss on capacity; Feltrim followed with a 550 per cent loss on capacity. Roy Bromley, underwriter of syndicate 475, later committed suicide after being dismissed by his Board and reportedly becoming distressed at his operation's mounting losses. Not all excess of loss writers succumbed to the LMX spiral; in fact the spiral

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4746-1103: The Roof (1971), Sleuth (1972), The Day of the Jackal (1973), Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), Alien (1979), and the James Bond films Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Four James Bond movies, For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), and The Living Daylights (1987), among several other large productions, such as Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), Superman III (1983), Krull (1983), Legend (1985), Aliens (1986), Stanley Kubrick 's Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Tim Burton 's Batman (1989), were all produced at Pinewood. The 1990s saw large-scale productions, such as Alien 3 (1992), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and The World Is Not Enough (1999) produced at

4859-455: The Studios second largest stage at 2,800 m (30,139 sq ft). Pinewood Studios paid tribute to Richard Attenborough 's body of work by naming a purpose-built film and television stage after him. The Richard Attenborough Stage has an area of 2,800 m (30,139 sq ft). In his absence because of illness, Lord Puttnam and Pinewood chairman Lord Grade officially unveiled

4972-721: The United States would be located south of Atlanta at a complex consisting of 280 ha (690 acres) in Fayette County, Georgia . Pinewood Atlanta is a joint venture between Pinewood and River's Rock LLC, an independently managed trust of the Cathy family , founders of the Chick-fil-A fast-food chain. In August 2019, Pinewood sold their shares in the Atlanta location. The studio officially ended its relationship with

5085-420: The United States, never to return. The emergence of fraud at PCW was the first in a series of events that led to the resignation of Lloyd's chairman Sir Peter Green in 1983. Lloyd's was later forced to make a settlement with the roughly 3,000 Names on the various PCW syndicates involved and to reinsure their liabilities into a new syndicate, number 9001, in turn reinsured by a unique vehicle named Lioncover, which

5198-472: The agreement to create the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed there. In 1934, building tycoon Charles Boot (1874–1945) bought the land and turned it into a country club . The ballroom was converted into a restaurant and many of the bedrooms became furnished suites. In 1935, millionaire flour magnate J. Arthur Rank (1888–1972) went into partnership with Boot and they transformed the estate into

5311-710: The ancient woodland Burnham Beeches and Black Park to Pinewood (as well as to Shepperton and Bray studios) made Burnham Beeches a desirable filming location for productions being filmed at Pinewood. Burnham Beeches was used for Robin Hood Prince of Thieves , First Knight , Goldfinger , The Princess Bride and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , Fahrenheit 451 at Black Park. The studios announced in April 2013 that its first film production facility in

5424-672: The armed forces, the Royal Mint and Lloyd's of London were installed on sound stages at Pinewood, and were open for business for the duration of the war. The Company of Youth , the Rank Organisation acting school, which launched several film careers, was founded in 1945. The next year, Pinewood re-opened for (non-war-related) business. Two significant films produced at Pinewood were released within two months of each other in 1948: Oliver Twist , directed by David Lean , and Powell and Pressburger 's The Red Shoes . Due to

5537-501: The beginning of the year in which the business was written) before "closing" the year for accounting purposes and declaring a result. To calculate the profit or loss, reserves were set aside for future claims payments, for claims that had already been notified but not yet paid, as well as estimated amounts for claims that had been incurred but not reported (IBNR). This estimation is difficult and can be inaccurate; in particular, long-tail liability policies tend to produce claims long after

5650-566: The best pitch wins an apprenticeship with industry professionals and is mentored on how to turn their pitch into a short film. The inaugural Pitch winner was Simeon Lumgair's Derelict (2009); the most recent as of 2020 was Oneikeh Campbell's Five Thousand Stars (2020). Film studio There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not entertainment companies or motion picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space. In 1893, Thomas Edison built

5763-686: The best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles . Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company , based in New York City, controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. Early movie producers relocated to Southern California to escape patent enforcement, thanks to more lenient local courts and physical distance from company detectives and mob allies. (Edison's patents expired in 1913.) The first movie studio in

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5876-526: The box-office of its year in Great Britain. All of the Doctor films, running until 1970, were shot at Pinewood. The Carry On franchise began in 1958, produced on behalf of Rank by Peter Rogers (who was married to Box), and directed by Gerald Thomas (brother of Ralph). The Norman Wisdom comedies, the last of which was released in 1966, were also filmed at the facility. During the 1960s Pinewood

5989-730: The children's film The Amazing Mr Blunden (1972) and also appeared as the Indian residence of Governor Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in Carry On Up the Khyber (1969). The studios have acres of backlots where large sets have been built, from castles to whole villages including the Baker Street set built for Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Godric's Hollow from the Harry Potter film series . The proximity of

6102-667: The death of Edward Lloyd in 1713, when the participating members of the insurance arrangement formed a committee and underwriter John Julius Angerstein acquired two rooms at the Royal Exchange in Cornhill for "The Society of Lloyd's". In July 1803, the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund was established by a group of Lloyd's underwriters. The Royal Exchange was destroyed by fire in 1838, forcing Lloyd's into temporary offices at South Sea House , Threadneedle Street . The Royal Exchange

6215-516: The development of a new film and television studio facility in Iskandar Malaysia . Construction began towards the end of 2010, with completion expected by the end of 2012. The facilities being built as part of the studio complex include 9,300 m (100,000 sq ft) of film stages, ranging from 1,400 m (15,000 sq ft) to 2,800 m (30,000 sq ft). The first two at 1,400 m (15,000 sq ft) while

6328-687: The early 1980s and failed to adequately reinsure the huge quantity of risks it was taking on. The solution was to create a new company in 1990 into which these liabilities could be reinsured in order to relieve the Warrilow Names. This entity was named Centrewrite Ltd and in 1993 it assumed Warrilow's 1985 and prior years' liabilities, separately also offering "estate protection plans" (EPPs) for resigned Names. Tens of thousands of Lloyd's Names bought these reinsurance policies. Centrewrite still exists today but has not written any EPPs since 2011 and conducts little other business; its most recent transaction

6441-478: The expansion plans. The Chief Executive of the studios, Ivan Dunleavy, said he expected to appeal against the latest decision to the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles , who rejected the previous application, a year earlier. On 19 June 2014 it was reported that Pinewood Studios had received approval to go ahead with the multimillion-pound expansion plans which would see it rival Hollywood film sets. Pinewood Studios

6554-470: The explosion on Piper Alpha. Unexpectedly large legal awards in US courts for punitive damages led to substantial claims on asbestos , pollution and health hazard (APH) policies, some dating as far back as the 1940s. Many of these policies were open-peril policies, meaning that they covered any claim not specifically excluded. Other policies (called standard, or broad) only cover stated perils, such as fire. The classic example of "long-tail" insurance risks

6667-466: The extent of asbestos exposure, leaving the Pulbrook Names without cover for their losses of £100,000 each on average. Even earlier, in 1974, the underwriter of R. W. Sturge syndicate 210, Ralph Rokeby-Johnson, who specialised in American industrial risks, bought "stop-loss" reinsurance from Fireman's Fund and Kemper Insurance in the US on Sturge's pre-1969 exposures that were accumulating into

6780-479: The federal government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court , which ruled that the vertically integrated structure of the movie industry constituted an illegal monopoly . This decision, reached after twelve years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system and Hollywood's "Golden Age". By the 1950s, the physical components of a typical movie studio had become standardized. Since then,

6893-729: The film industry had once hoped—movie studios were increasingly being used to produce programming for the burgeoning medium. Some midsize film companies, such as Republic Pictures , eventually sold their studios to TV production concerns , which were eventually bought by larger studios, such as the American Broadcasting Company which was purchased by Disney in 1996. With the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games , television stations , broadcast syndication , television , theme parks , home video and publishing , they have become multi-national corporations. International markets account for

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7006-629: The first fire reinsurance contract, reinsuring the Hand in Hand Insurance Company and marking the start of Heath's push to diversify the market into "non-marine" business. He also wrote Lloyd's first burglary insurance policy, its first "all risks" jewellery policy and invented "jewellers' block" cover. Later, during World War I he offered air-raid insurance, protecting against the risk of German strategic bombing . The subsequent Lloyd's Act 1911 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 5 . c. lxii) set out

7119-527: The first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria , a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange , New Jersey , and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The first film serial , What Happened to Mary , was released by

7232-549: The fraudulent losses. The Names (few in number for such large losses) took legal action and ultimately paid only £6.25m of c. £15m of Den-Har claims under the 1976 year, leaving the Corporation of Lloyd's to pay the remainder. The Corporation also paid the near £7m loss for 1977. Lloyd's banned Sasse from the market for life in 1985; he died on 28 February 1987. Sasse had also been one of 57 underwriters on other syndicates that wrote loss-making "computer leasing" policies in

7345-406: The gilt or other bond cum dividend and buying it back ex-dividend , thus forfeiting the interest income in exchange for a tax-free capital gain. Syndicate funds were also moved offshore (which later created problems through fraud and self-dealing). Because Lloyd's was a tax shelter as well as an insurance market, the second issue affecting it was an increase in its external membership: by the end of

7458-460: The insurance industry. Lloyd's losses from the earthquake and fires were substantial, even though the writing of insurance business overseas was viewed with some wariness at the time. While some insurance companies were denying claims for fire damage under their earthquake policies or vice versa , one of Lloyd's leading underwriters, Cuthbert Heath , famously instructed his San Francisco agent to "pay all of our policy-holders in full, irrespective of

7571-624: The lack of legal powers of the Committee of Lloyd's (as it was then) to manage the Society. The collapse of the Sasse syndicate came after it wrote a "binding authority" in 1975 that delegated underwriting authority to Florida-based expatriate Dennis Harrison to write property and fire risks through his Den-Har Underwriters agency, even though Den-Har was not an approved Lloyd's coverholder (a fact noticed neither by Sasse nor Lloyd's Non-Marine Association). Den-Har had suspected Mafia links and many of

7684-481: The late 1970s. These claims ultimately ran above $ 450m, wiping out more than half the entire market's profit in a single year. Problems also developed out of the Oakley Vaughan agency run by brothers Edward and Charles St George, which had written far more business than its capacity allowed in order to invest premium to take advantage of high interest rates. By writing swathes of business regardless of whether

7797-467: The liability of previous underwriting years would be transferred to the current year, and "time and distance" policies, whereby reserves would be used to buy a guarantee of future income. In 1980, Sir Henry Fisher was commissioned by the Council of Lloyd's to produce the foundation for a new Lloyd's Act. The recommendations of his report addressed the "democratic deficit" and the lack of regulatory muscle. Fisher, working with Richard Southwell QC, drafted

7910-427: The liability that they personally and their syndicates had subscribed to. Also, numerous underwriters of long-tail non-marine business, concerned at their exposures to the impending asbestosis crisis, had sought to reinsure their liabilities with other carriers. Approximately 20 syndicates, including Lloyd's deputy chairman Murray Lawrence's, paid millions of pounds in premiums to Richard H. M. Outhwaite, then considered

8023-682: The location in October 2020 with the renaming of the studio to Trilith. Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios is a studio complex located at a 20 ha (49 acres) site in Iskandar Puteri , Johor, managed by The Pinewood Studios Group. It targets the Asia-Pacific region. Pinewood Shepperton plc entered into a strategic agreement with Khazanah Nasional Berhad , the investment holding arm of the Government of Malaysia in connection with

8136-412: The losses. When the huge extent of asbestosis losses came to light in the early 1990s, for the first time in Lloyd's history large numbers of members either were unable to pay the claims or refused, many alleging that they were the victims of fraud, misrepresentation, and/or negligence. The opaque system of accounting at Lloyd's made it difficult, if not impossible, for many Names to understand the extent of

8249-468: The members of syndicate '1' in 1985 reinsured the future claim liabilities for members of syndicate '1' in 1984. The membership might be the same, or it might have changed. In this manner, liability for past losses could be transferred year after year until it reached the current syndicate. A member joining a syndicate with a long history of such transactions could – and often did – pick up liability for losses on policies written decades previously. As long as

8362-577: The nature of the future risk back in the 1960s, it and its reinsurers would not have properly priced or reserved for it. In the case of Lloyd's, this resulted in the bankruptcy of thousands of individual investors who indemnified general liability policies written from the 1940s to the mid-1970s for companies with exposure to asbestosis claims. A group of Names mounted a legal case as the Names Against Lloyd's of London, where they attempted to prove fraud among those brokers who had involved them in

8475-467: The objective of removing conflicts of interest. Immediately after the passing of the 1982 Act, evidence came to light and internal disciplinary proceedings were commenced against a number of underwriters who had allegedly siphoned money from their syndicates to their own accounts. These individuals included a deputy chairman of Lloyd's and some of its leading underwriters. Successful marine underwriter Ian Posgate , who at one point had written 20 per cent of

8588-460: The other two at 1,900 m (20,000 sq ft). The biggest stage at 2,800 m (30,000 sq ft) will have a water tank for productions that require work on or under water.[1] There are 2 TV studios, each at 1,100 m (12,000 sq ft). In July 2019, Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios was rebranded to Iskandar Malaysia Studios and the affiliation with Pinewood Shepperton plc ended. Pinewood's water filming facilities include

8701-412: The policies are written. The reserve for future claims liabilities was set aside in an unusual way. The syndicate bought a RITC policy to pay any future claims; the premium was equal to the amount of the reserve. This transaction allowed the year to be closed, and the syndicate's profit or loss declared. The reinsurer was always another Lloyd's syndicate(s), often the succeeding year of the same syndicate:

8814-531: The practice had become so widespread that the underwriters in Lime Street initially had no idea how extensive their exposure was: the loss was passed around in what became known as the London market excess of loss (LMX) "spiral" and claim values escalated out of control. The rig's operator, Occidental Petroleum , bought a direct insurance policy from Lloyd's underwriters, who then passed part of their shares of

8927-555: The premiums were adequate, the St Georges left their Names with serious losses. Lloyd's had commissioned investigations into Oakley Vaughan, but investigators were denied access to the books and relied only on reassurances that the agency was profitable. Arising simultaneously with these developments were wider issues: first, in the US, an ever-widening interpretation by the courts of insurance coverage in relation to workers' compensation for asbestosis -related claims, which created

9040-670: The premiums written, mostly covering property and casualty ( liability ), while the remaining one-third was reinsurance. The market began in Lloyd's Coffee House , owned by Edward Lloyd, on Tower Street in the City of London . The first reference to it can be traced to the London Gazette in 1688. The establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants, and ship-owners, and Lloyd catered to them with reliable shipping news. The coffee house soon became recognised as an ideal place for obtaining marine insurance. The shop evolved into

9153-471: The relationship between underwriters and brokers. Having survived multiple scandals and significant challenges through the second half of the 20th century, most notably the asbestosis losses which engulfed the market, Lloyd's today promotes its strong financial "chain of security" available to promptly pay all valid claims. As of 31 December 2022 this chain consists of £72.1 billion of syndicate-level assets, £34.1bn of members' "funds at Lloyd's" and £6.1bn in

9266-467: The reserves had been accurately estimated, and the appropriate RITC premium paid every year, then all would have been well, but in many cases this had not been possible: no-one could have predicted the surge in APH losses. Therefore, the amounts of money transferred from earlier years by successive RITC premiums to cover these losses were grossly insufficient, and the current members had to pay the shortfall. As

9379-441: The risk on to other syndicates via reinsurance. Those reinsurers then in turn reinsured part of the risk out to other reinsurance underwriters within Lloyd's (known as "retrocessionaires"), and so on. Consequently, many syndicates, especially those writing a large amount of excess of loss reinsurance, became exposed to the same claim multiple times through multiple layers in the spiral. Other catastrophes, including Hurricane Hugo and

9492-450: The risks that it was taking on. Lloyd's response was to commission a secret internal inquiry in 1968, headed by Lord Cromer , a former Governor of the Bank of England . This report advocated the widening of membership to non-market participants, including non-British subjects and then women, and the reduction of the onerous capitalisation requirements (thus creating a minor investor known as

9605-475: The risks written were rigged: typically dilapidated buildings in slums such as New York 's south Bronx , which soon burned down after being insured for large sums. Once the three-year Lloyd's accounting period passed, the 110 Names on syndicate 762 were told they faced substantial losses, from mostly fraudulent claims. Sasse's reinsurer, the Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil (IRB), refused to pay its share of

9718-504: The scale and ambition of the larger studio, and Monogram Pictures , which specialized in series and genre releases. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National, the minor studios filled the demand for B movies and are sometimes collectively referred to as Poverty Row . The Big Five's ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , Walt Disney , Hal Roach , and Walter Wanger . In 1948,

9831-466: The society's objectives, which include the promotion of its members' interests and the collection and dissemination of information. A year later in April 1912 Lloyd's suffered perhaps its most famous loss: the sinking of the Titanic . It was insured for £1 million, which represented 20 per cent of the entire market's capacity, making it the largest marine risk ever insured. The record of its sinking in

9944-668: The sometimes confusing equation of studio with production company in industry slang. Five large companies: RKO Radio Pictures , 20th Century Fox , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came to be known as the Big Five, the majors, or the Studios in trade publications such as Variety , and their management structures and practices collectively came to be known as the studio system . The Little 3 Although they owned few or no theaters to guarantee sales of their films, Universal Pictures , Columbia Pictures , and United Artists also fell under these rubrics, making

10057-473: The stage on 23 April 2012. Opposite it, is a post-production block named in honour of Stanley Kubrick . The studio also has two specialist TV studios, named TV One and TV Two, complete with integral galleries, TV studio floors, TV lighting grids and SD or HD facilities. Both studios stand at just under 835 m (8,988 sq ft). Pinewood is situated on the old estate of Heatherden Hall which still stands today. The mansion, its gardens and other parts of

10170-736: The stock market listing because nearly all the shares are held by two groups. In June 2016, five new stages and 10 new workshops were opened at Pinewood. In 2019, the Walt Disney Studios announced a 10-year lease of most of the Pinewood Studios in September 2019, to start in 2020. The 007 Stage was originally built for the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and featured one of the largest water tanks in Europe. The stage

10283-578: The studio system. Filmmakers and producers such as Mike Judge , Adam Sandler , Jim Jarmusch , Robert Rodriguez , Steven Soderbergh , Quentin Tarantino , Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater made films that pushed boundaries in ways the studios were then reluctant to do. In response to these films, many distributed by mini-studios like Miramax , the majors created their own in-house mini-studios meant to focus on edgier, independent content. Focus Features

10396-503: The studios have been used in various productions over the years. Peeping Tom (1960) shows people driving out through the main gate and has various shots in the studios (showing things behind the camera), offices and corridors. Return to the Edge of the World (1978) includes shots of director Michael Powell driving into the studio. The main gate (no longer used due to the construction of

10509-601: The studios increased in size they began to rely on production companies like J. J. Abrams ' Bad Robot to handle many of the creative and physical production details of their feature films. Instead, the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for their films (generally made by their affiliated production companies). With the decreasing cost of CGI and visual effects , many studios sold large chunks of their once-massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles

10622-641: The studios which kept Pinewood operating. The Rank Group owned the studio until 2001, when it sold Pinewood for £62 million to a group led by Michael Grade and Ivan Dunleavy and financed by private equity group 3i , who held an 80% stake. The purchase of Shepperton Studios from a consortium headed by Ridley and Tony Scott , gave rise to the Pinewood Group , eventually comprising Pinewood Studios, Shepperton Studios, Teddington Studios , Pinewood Toronto Studios , Pinewood Indomina Studios , Pinewood Studio Berlin, Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios , and

10735-430: The terms of their policies". The prompt and full payment of all claims helped to cement Lloyd's reputation for reliable claim payments and as an important trading partner for US brokers and policyholders. It was estimated that around 90 per cent of the damage to the city was caused by the resultant fires and as such, since 1906 "fire following earthquake" has generally been a specified insured peril under most policies. Heath

10848-406: The underwriting syndicates. It may not be immediately clear how current members of current Lloyd's syndicates, which accept business one year at a time, could be liable to pay historical claims. This came about as a result of the Lloyd's accounting practice known as reinsurance to close (RITC). A member "joined" a syndicate for one calendar year only, known as the "annual venture". At the end of

10961-408: The year, the syndicate as an ongoing trading entity was effectively disbanded. However, usually the syndicate re-formed for the next calendar year with the same identifying number and more or less the same membership. Since claims can take time to be reported and then paid, the profit or loss for each syndicate took time to realise. The practice at Lloyd's was to wait three years (that is, 36 months from

11074-429: Was built on the estate of Heatherden Hall , a large Victorian country house which was purchased by Canadian financier, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Chiswick , Lt. Col. Grant Morden (1880–1932). He added refinements such as a ballroom, a Victorian-style Turkish bath , and an indoor squash court. Due to its seclusion, it was used as a discreet meeting place for high-ranking politicians and diplomats;

11187-406: Was built on the stage. As well as the 007 Stage, which is the largest stage at any of the studios under The Pinewood Studios Group at 5,500 m (59,202 sq ft), the studio has fifteen other stages ranging from just 160 m (1,722 sq ft), to cater for productions of all sizes. One of those studios, the T Stage, is a specialist stage for both television and film productions and

11300-454: Was created by Universal Pictures and Fox Searchlight was created by 20th Century Fox for this purpose. Lloyd%27s of London Lloyd's of London , generally known simply as Lloyd's , is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London , England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body governed by

11413-547: Was destroyed by fire in 1984; it was rebuilt four months later and renamed Albert R. Broccoli 's 007 Stage in time for filming to commence on A View to a Kill . Another fire on 30 July 2006 seriously damaged the stage, causing the roof to partly collapse. Construction of a new stage began on 18 September and was completed in under six months. Since then, the stage has accommodated large productions including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), Quantum of Solace (2008). The whole fishing village from Mamma Mia! (2008)

11526-435: Was highly flammable, and sets and backlots were and still are very flammable, which is why film studios built in the early-to-mid 20th century have water towers to facilitate firefighting . Water towers "somewhat inexplicably" evolved into "a most potent symbol ... of movie studios in general." Halfway through the 1950s, with television proving to be a lucrative enterprise not destined to disappear any time soon—as many in

11639-527: Was in 2013 when it assumed the 2001 liabilities of the life syndicate 1171. It also reinsured the 1997–1999 years of Crowe syndicate 1204 and the 1999–2001 years of Cotesworth syndicate 535. In 2012 the Crowe and Cotesworth liabilities (then valued at just over £17m) were novated to Riverstone (a Fairfax company) meaning minimal liabilities remain in Centrewrite today. In 1986, the year Lloyd's moved into

11752-515: Was no longer solely dependent on the Rank Organisation to fill its stages. "Renters" (producers hiring the sound stages for a film-by-film agreement) were using half of the stages as Pinewood turned into a four walls facility. The James Bond franchise began at Pinewood with the Terence Young directed Dr. No (1962), and has continued to be based at the studios since then. J. Arthur Rank (by then Lord Rank) retired as chairman in 1962 and

11865-399: Was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, which was among the largest and most famous of the studio lots. In most cases, portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions. Some studios offer tours of their backlots , while Universal Pictures allows visitors to its adjacent Universal Studios Hollywood theme park to take

11978-589: Was provision for an enclosed water tank capable of holding 65,000 imperial gallons (300,000 L), which is still in use. In the years that followed, he also undertook further work on both the Pinewood Film Studios and the Denham Film Studios , both of which had by then become a part of the newly-formed Rank Organisation . On 30 September 1936, the studio complex was officially opened by Dr Leslie Burgin , Parliamentary Secretary to

12091-496: Was rebuilt by 1844, but many of Lloyd's early records were lost in the blaze. In 1871, the first Lloyd's Act was passed in Parliament which gave the business a sound legal footing. Around that time, it was unusual for a Lloyd's syndicate to have more than five or six backers; this lack of underwriting capacity meant Lloyd's was losing many of the larger risks to rival insurance companies. A marine underwriter named Frederick Marten

12204-489: Was rejected by South Bucks District Council in October 2009, following a opposition campaign by local residents, who formed a "Stop Project Pinewood" group. Pinewood appealed against the decision and a public inquiry commenced on 5 April 2011 and on 20 January 2012, it was announced that the appeal had been turned down. On 15 May 2013, local councillors in South Buckinghamshire rejected a pared down version of

12317-427: Was relatively confined to a minority of such syndicates. Among the prominent reinsurers that remained profitable throughout the spiral were C. F. Palmer syndicate 314, M. H. Cockell 269/570 and D. P. Mann 435, while G. S. Christensen 958 reported only a slight loss in 1989 but healthy profits in 1990 and 1991. The early to mid-1990s saw the continuation of Lloyd's most traumatic period in its history that had begun with

12430-608: Was set up as a Lloyd's subsidiary insurance company. Lioncover assumed the liabilities of PCW as well as the associated WMD and Richard Beckett underwriting agencies in 1987. In 1988 it also assumed the 1967–1969 liabilities of syndicates 2 and 49. Dixon and Cameron-Webb remained at large in the US; Cameron-Webb reportedly died in 2004 in a nursing home in California and Dixon became a real estate agent in Florida; he died in 2017. Lioncover's PCW liabilities were reinsured as part of

12543-471: Was succeeded by John Davis, who had begun to move the Rank Organisation away from mass film production and towards more profitable and less risky businesses such as bingo and holidays. During the 1970s Pinewood studios were being used more for television programmes, including ITC Entertainment 's UFO (1970), The Persuaders! (1971), starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore , and Space: 1999 (1975–1977). Major films shot at Pinewood included Fiddler on

12656-447: Was taxed in the top bracket at 83 per cent, and investment income in the top bracket at 98 per cent. Lloyd's income counted as earned income, even for Names who did not work at Lloyd's, and this heavily influenced the direction of underwriting: in short, it was desirable for syndicates to make a (small) underwriting loss but a (larger) investment gain. The investment gain was typically achieved by " bond washing" or "gilt stripping": selling

12769-466: Was vitally interested in legal decisions as to what constituted 'natural death' and 'perils of the sea'". Lloyd's obtained a monopoly on maritime insurance related to the slave trade and maintained it until the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Just after Christmas 1691, the small club of marine insurance underwriters relocated to No. 16 Lombard Street ; a blue plaque on the site commemorates this. This arrangement carried on until 1773, long after

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