I wanted to express my support for the UK Film Council s valuable work in the British Film Industry and how it has helped young and established talent succeed.
The government’s recent announcement to scrap the agency as a whole comes as a shock because the film industry and leading film professionals were not given an opportunity to provide a solution to improve the UKFC, reduce its cost, and increase its benefit to British filmmaking.
Why is the UKFC so important?
It is Britain s only national film agency where people from the Scottish Highlands to Devon can turn to in order to find funding, support and direction for filmmaking and training. It effectively centralizes the core of the British Film Industry for the first time, and has given direction to film production from inception to delivery.
What will happen without it?
There will be a gap in the British Film Industry that will affect the next generation of young talent and established pros, who will have to find alternative means to apply for funding.
It is likely that national lottery funding will be made available to the film industry through existing organizations such as the BBC but without a national film agency to handle the complexity of film financing and green lighting projects will be like starting from scratch for any new department.
What could be made better?
There are always areas that can be improved in any organization. The British film industry is diverse involving many crafts and skills. To properly understand the needs of the industry requires the right questions to be asked. How do we get a film financed? What makes a project good? Can this be a commercial success? How can I get more on set work? I am a writer looking to get my script made but I need a director?
There are of course many more examples. Film school graduates will also want a direction to take in order to get their films off the ground. To be competitive internationally requires guidance and training. A skill set can come naturally, but sometimes it s the business aspect that is alien to some, if not most of us. How do we really make a commercial success when we are educated only on how to make a film? Can a national agency guide our projects toward a domestic or international cinema release?
A new agency or an improved UKFC should therefore provide a service that nurtures talent, creates commercial successes and appropriates film financing to projects that inspire and educate people.
How can you get involved?
You can join the Save the UK Film Council group ,which now has over 20,000 members since Monday, and sign the petition. Also check out the official website.
Thanks so much for reading.
Jonathan Stuart-Brow
August 1, 2010
Having lobbied hard to get rid of The UK Film Council, those of us at Save The British Film Industry have obviously been celebrating all week and congratulating the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
For there to be a British Film Industry, there needs to be sound stages built around The UK. Ideally at least 4 in every county. Hollywood $50 million to $300 million productions can only go where sound stages are. For those who do not know, they are glorified warehouses, more normally found in The Midlands and The North YET curiously sound stages are confined to a very very small 200 acres in the area of west London, and just North and West of London. The Uk Film Industry fought tooth and nail to ensure not one penny of Lottery money was spent on building sound stages outside of this small 200 acre zone..thus guaranteeing a UK film industry could not arise. They did spend £300 000 a year on their ground rent. They did employ 75 people on £70 000 to £150 000 who often had several other jobs. But sound stages, post-production facilities, nope. If these existed across The UK, then many more entrepreneurs who invest in fast food franchaises, laundrettes, restaurants, shops, etc will take the risk and hire them to try their luck at film making for profit. It was the volume of risk taking entrepreneurs which created Hollywood, and they then built sound stages, before selling them for houses, and forever thereafter seeking to rent them elsewhere such as Pinewood, Shepperton, Elstree.
Now the MD of Elstree earns a fraction of the salary of the average UKFC employee, yet he has delivered two years of block booking of Elstree sound stages by Hollywood Studios creating lots of UK based film jobs. Why is only little Hertsmere Council, owner of Elstree, wise about sound stages ? Why did The UKFC not educate people outside West London that they are the essential infrastructure of a real industry ? Now UKFC is gone, and hopefully certain very very high paid, huge expenses Regional screen Commissions with them, the sound stages can get built and UK film making enter a true golden age.
We urge people not to sign any Petition to save UKFC fatcat jobs. It has nothing to do with The UK Film Industry, indeed it was the enemy of most people making films in Britain.
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/07…