Ever Wondered Why Pencils( and the Datebook) are Always Yellow?
The 60th BFI London Film Festival
This is an event that has been increasing its profile with a huge and diverse selection of films and by the attendance of so many top stars. It is yet another opportunity to promote London as the international capital of the arts. An indication of its popularity is the nearly 20 per cent increase in audience attendance, more venues were used across the capital and there was even the impressive new Embankment Garden Cinema constructed specially for this event. It is important to pay tribute to the BFI’ s partnership with American Express and also to Premier PR for promoting it so successfully.
Last year the theme that the Festival emphasised was the role of women in film in a timely drive to give more important roles to women in a male-dominated industry and this included a Gender in Media symposium. This year it was diversity with the emphasis on how best to increase the number of black actors who appear in British films as well as the stories which feature them alongside a three month Black Star season celebrating black talent at the BFI. At the Black Star symposium, the actor David Oyelowo said the problem would not be properly addressed until there were persons of colour among the top decision makers of the industry. Research by the BFI showed that over the last decade black actors had important roles in only 13 per cent of British films and no named roles at all in nearly 60 per cent. This year’ s BFI Fellowship went to the noted black British Director Steve McQueen whose successes include 12 Years a Slave and Hunger.
British Director Steve McQueen receiving his award.
There were several Galas where some of the most important films were shown. These included Damien Chazelle’ s enchanting love letter to Hollywood, La La Land, Denis Villeneuve’ s fascinating Arrival, Andrea Arnold’ s exuberant road movie American Honey, Tom Ford’ s mesmerizing Nocturnal Animals and Nate Parker’ s powerful and controversial The Birth of a Nation. A United Kingdom, a story of a famous interracial African romance, opened the Festival; Ben Wheatley’ s Free Fire closed it.
The Festival also included an awards ceremony at Banqueting House; LFF Connects, a series of talks about the industry and its future, and Screen Talks given by noted actors and directors. Much credit must go to the Chief Executive of the BFI, Amanda Nevill, and to Clare Stewart, the Festival Director, for its scale. This, involving showing over 240 feature films from over 70 countries in 15 cinemas in 12 days, is only matched by, judging from what I saw and heard, the remarkably high standard it maintained throughout.
Ever Wondered Why Pencils( and the Datebook) are Always Yellow?
Pencils have been painted yellow ever since the late 19th Century, with good reason! During this era, the best graphite in the world came from China. American pencil makers wanted their customers to know that their pencils contained Chinese graphite, so they painted them yellow.
Chinese culture associated the colour yellow with royalty and respect. Thus American manufacturers chose the bright yellow to communicate this“ regal” feeling and link with China. The rest, as they say, is history.
The legend of the yellow pencil inspired much more than just the pencils, however. It’ s also the origin of the
Datebook yellow. The Datebook began as a reference for charities to check which dates were free from fundraising events.
We chose an eye-catching, bright colour to freshen up the publication – and because we were a‘ calendar of events’ bright yellow was the natural choice. The hue was inspired by the bright yellow pencils people historically would have used to write appointments in their datebooks. In those days there were no iPads, laptops or mobile phones with diaries – everyone had a datebook, and everyone had a yellow pencil.
THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK 29