Twelve
months after the Film Council got to work in
earnest, the press has been looking into the
changes that have been going on in the filmmaking
world. At least one press analyst has concluded,
albeit cautiously, that the Film Council has
started off the right way.
That
makes a change!
Sections
of the press castigated the Film Council in
the wake of Cannes, with its leaner than usual
British entry, naturally overlooking the success
of the short fiction Daddy’s Girl
taking the Special Jury Prize. The Sunday Express
has produced a more balanced account, with a
revelation that the Film Council changes are
raising Gallic eyebrows from across the channel,
who are observing the current Brit scene with
a certain degree of chagrin.
With
the first fruits of Film Council Premiere fund
investment due shortly on the nation’s
cinema screens, in the shape of Mike Bassett,
England Football Manager, with Ricky Tomlinson
in the title role, the Scottish Sunday Express
analyst Hugh Fraser has been examining the current
account of Britain’s film industry. Northern
Exposure has been delving into his analysis…….
Courting
At The Pictures
Fraser
says the 1997 Labour government wasted no time
in courting the film industry, with the David
Puttnams and the Alan Parkers popping in and
out of 10 Downing Street in a flurry of consultation.
It launched discussion that became the Film
Council, with £120 million invested in British
film production since 1994, with Chancellor
Gordon Brown enhancing tax breaks available
for film investment.
Although
the new investment helped produce notable successes,
from the Full Monty to Billy Elliot,
the much heralded renaissance of the British
film industry has proved something of a false
dawn, Fraser maintains.Too many British films
have been shoddy, under-budgeted, with dull
unimaginative plots, so as he puts it, they
have rightly disappeared without trace.
The
total return from Lottery-funded films has been
just £10 million pounds, Fraser points out,
which begs the question, why has money ostensibly
for good causes been channelled into commercial
flops?
Tim
Levy, CEO of the Future Film Group of film financiers
says "Some people in the industry are high
profile and their support for a government counts
for a lot. Lottery money for films has too often
been allowed to make for cheap politics."
Not
So Big At The Box Office
Fraser
then points up some British successes in the
industry, with one hugely successful company,
Working Title, chalking up box office returns
anyone would envy, but otherwise the independent
sector is a plethora of small companies and
one-man bands, big on ambition, not so big at
the box office. Against that, Fraser admits
that British film technicians are among the
best in the world. And, he concedes, that pool
of expertise, the English language and generous
tax breaks are what bring American producers
to Britain to make films like Star Wars.
According
to Fraser, everyone in the industry would like
to see more Lottery money used to back more
world-class production companies in the Working
Title mould. But he maintains there is some
hope, with important changes in the way the
money is spent since the formation of the Film
Council. When the Arts Council held the pot,
its remit was to back artistic films that otherwise
would not be made, whereas the Film Council
is able to invest in more commercial films,
with the Premiere Fund having £30 million to
distribute over three years. It is a strategy
that is not without critics, though they largely
remain quiet, not wanting to offend a powerful
investor, but it does result in Britain having
a public body that competes with commercial
companies to make film investments that would
probably be secured anyway.
Enter
The Usual Suspects
Some
light is shed on this scenario by the Premier
Fund manager, film producer Robert Jones who
in 1996 made the double-Oscar winning The
Usual Suspects. He counters; "In this
country we make too sharp a distinction between
art and commerce. Our aim is to make films that
satisfy both criteria." First fruit of
the new policy is Mike Bassett; a "mockumentary"
about the trials and tribulations of an England
football manager, made in the style of cult
production Spinal Tap which did a similar
exposure job on heavy metal bands.
"The
Film Council becomes involved in a film at a
very early stage," says Jones, "when
it is still touch-and-go as to whether they
will ever see the light of day. What we have
in this country is a production culture, not
a development culture. Films often go into production
far too early, before they are ready to be shot.
That’s because it is relatively easy to
get production money and relatively difficult
to get development cash. Private sector investors
will be reluctant to put money into film scripts
because the chances are that they will never
see the light of day and all their investment
will be lost."
French
Envy
The
Film Council’s Development Fund is currently
investing £15million over three years into script
development, which the industry has welcomed.
"That is a considerable sum of money,"
says Bertrand Moullier, head of film at the
Prioducers Alliance for Cinema and Television.
"No other public agency in Europe puts
as much money into scripts. Even France is looking
enviously at the Development Fund as an example
of a bold, far-sighted policy."
Winding
up his analysis, Fraser concludes that Britain’s
film industry has more money available than
before, but the snag is the shortage of good
scripts. His final conclusion is that a development
fund for early stage scripts is the best chance
of redressing the flaws of the system.
