Will Barker (director)

William George Barker (18 January 1868, in Cheshunt – 6 November 1951, in Wimbledon)[1] was a British film producer, director, cinematographer, and entrepreneur who took film-making in Britain from a low budget form of novel entertainment to the heights of lavishly-produced epics that were matched only by Hollywood for quality and style [citation needed].

In 1901 he started a business at 50 Gray's Inn Road, Holborn for the purposes of making moving pictures on a hand cranked Lumiere camera, which had bought a few years before and then showing the resulting films to the public -for a fee.

[2] Having left Warwick he set up Barker Motion Photography Limited in December 1909 at Number 1 Soho Square, Westminster, London.

Therefore, the original stages were built with very tall glass walls and roofs to make the most of the available light whilst keeping out the British weather.

One was the restrictive practises of the new Motion Picture Patents Company, which prevented English films from being shown to audiences in America.

As more and more frames were lost due to multiple re-splicing and general damage, so the action would unexpectedly jump forward whilst the film was being watched.

The first problem he attempted to rectify by travelling to America to voice his support at the International Projecting and Producing Company (IPPC) meeting of February 1909.

Samuelson, persuaded Barker to make what became another very important British film: Sixty Years a Queen (1913) about the life of Victoria.

Cast: Blanche Forsythe, Mrs. Lytton, J. Hastings Batson, Jack Brunswick, Gilbert Esmond, Fred Paul, Roy Travers, E. Story Gofton, Rolf Leslie.