Identify which collection your research needs
Screencraft includes filmmakers’ papers, scripts, posters, designs, animation drawings and other related material. These are different from the archive’s moving-image collections. A project about a film’s production design may depend on paper or design items even when the finished film is readily available. Work out whether the missing evidence is the film itself or material about its creation.
Read the temporary update before making plans
The BFI’s current Screencraft page says research access is temporarily closed until May 2027 as part of a collections project, and that appointments cannot be booked during the closure. Its ordinary appointment information remains further down the page, so read the service update first. Old normal-hours instructions are not evidence that access is currently operating.
Check the specified alternative holdings
The page identifies some material available through the BFI Reuben Library, including digitised stills and some microfiche pressbooks. It advises checking whether a particular pressbook is available. That is a possible alternative for specified items, not a promise that the entire Screencraft collection is replicated elsewhere. Prepare the catalogue reference and ask about the actual material your project needs.
Adjust the research sequence honestly
Use available published sources or permitted alternative holdings for the part of the project they can support, and note which primary items remain unexamined. Do not describe an unavailable production file as personally consulted. Recheck the service update before a future visit; a planned reopening month is not an individual booking confirmation or a guarantee that every item will be immediately accessible.
Questions, answered
Can I book the ordinary Screencraft appointment during the stated closure?
The current page says appointments cannot be booked during the closure.
Does the closure automatically stop every moving-image research service?
No. The page distinguishes Screencraft from moving-image collections.