The UK film industry AS film

To understand the outline of the UK film industry as it stands.

DEFINING A BRITISH FILM

There are various different 'official' ways of categorising British film. The British Film Institute divides films into the following categories:

 Category A: films made with British money, personnel and resources.

 Category B: films co-funded with money from Britain and from foreign

investment, but the majority of finance, cultural content and personnel are British.

 Category C: films with mostly foreign (but non USA) investment and a

small British input, either financially or creatively. 

Category D: films made in the UK with (usually) British cultural content, but financed fully or partly by American companies.

 Category E: American films with some British involvement.

Key ideas to be aware of:

UK does not have as much money as the USA

Production companies are not often part of bigger companies and therefore there is not the same vertical integration

UK often relies on USA distribution The budgets are a lot smaller Marketing strategies are a lot smaller The UK FILM COUNCIL is being scrapped

UK film council BBC films

Film four Working title films

BFI

Current UK FILM INDUSTRY

Celador FilmsCelador

Vertigo films (production and distribution)

Marv films

BFI- Charitable company which aims to support and promote film

Uk film council- Lottery funded, aims to help produce and distribute UK film (has a fund of 15 mil)

BBFC- British board of film classification Working title- UK based film company which falls under the

parent company of Universal BBC films- Part of the BBC which produces and co produces

UK FILM Film four- Part of channel 4- Produces and has the ability to

distribute film through its own channel. Marv films-Owned by Matthew Vaughn- star dust, layer

cake, kick ass Vertigo films – production and distribution company

Public funding for film in the UK by source

• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); • Other central government departments; • The governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; • The National Lottery; • Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC); • BBC Films; • Film4; • The European Union. Public funding for film is estimated to have been £256 million in the financial year 2008/09,

slightly down on the £261 million in 2007/08.

The largest single source of public funding was the UK film tax relief, which provided £110 million in 2008/09, 43% of the total.

The second-largest source was the National Lottery (£45.9 million, 18% of the total) and the third-largest was the DCMS grant-in-aid to the UK Film Council and National Film and Television School (£31.2 million, 12% of the total).

The National and Regional Development Agencies provided £17.1 million, BBC Films £12.7 million and Film4 £8.2 million.

The European Union contributed £8.5 million, of which £3.9 million (£11.5 million in 2007/08) came from the MEDIA Programme.

Genre of UK and UK independent film releases

Looking at the genres of UK films and UK independent films released in 2009 we see similar rankings to those for all films released for percentages of releases by genre, but differences in share of box office by genre (Figures 4.1 and 4.2). Comedy, drama and documentary occupied the top three places for numbers of releases for UK, UK independent and all film releases.

For all releases comedy was clearly the genre with the greatest proportion of releases while for both UK and UK independent films drama was the top genre. However, when looking at box office by genre, there are notable differences between the three categories.

For all films, comedy was the top earning genre (20% of the total box office for all films), while the box office success of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Slumdog Millionaire made fantasy (with 30% of the total box office for UK films) the highest earning category for UK films, and drama (45% of the box office for UK independent films) the highest earning genre for UK independent films. Comedy accounted for 12% of the box office for UK films and 18% of the box office for UK independent films.

For all films, drama and fantasy accounted for 7% and 6% of the total box office respectively. Avatar’s record breaking box office gross contributed to the science fiction genre taking 12% of the total box office for all films, whereas science fiction films accounted for only 0.7% of the total box office for UK films and 1.4% of the total box office for UK independent films (Tables 4.1, 4.4 and 4.5).

TASK

Task- Pick 2-3 of the films on the right and identify to what extent it is a British film (use the previous categories to help you.)

Once you have completed that, pick on of the studios and research its recent and current films

Identify if it is in any joint productions.

Tuesday L.O To understand case studies which

show the UK film industry comparability to the US

Studio Films

Working title films Paul, Nanny Mc phee, A serious man, green zone, the boat that rocked. Hot fuzz, shaun of the dead

BBC films Street dance 3D, Brighton rock, west is west , Anita and me, billy elliot

Film four Never let me go (fox searchlight pictures) the lovely bones, nowhere boy, four lions

Marv films Layer cake, kick ass, star dust

Vertigo The firm, the cove, monsters, street dance

Case studies

Slumdog millionaire- 15 MILLION British production companies Film 4

and Celador Celador ask for help from the US Fox

searchlight with distribution costs (Marketing and actually getting it into the cinema) but Warner independent offered them $5million to win the rights.

UK PRODUCED USA distribution

In August 2007, Warner independent pictures acquired the North American rights and Pathe the international rights to distribute Slumdog Millionaire theatrically.

Warner Independent Pictures was shut down All of its projects being transferred to it’s parent studio

Warner bros . They doubted the commercial prospects of Slumdog

Millionaire and suggested that it would go straight on to DVD

Warner Bros. entered into a pact with Fox searchlight pictures to share distribution of the film, with Fox Searchlight buying 50% of Warner Bros.'s interest in the movie and handling U.S. distribution.

Street dance 3D

Production of vertigo films with BBC FILMS 1.5 MILLION Awarded a grant from the film council of

£500,000 Universal studios Vertigo films (Evidence of vertical integration on

a smaller scale)

UK production UK distribution

USA distribution with another company

Harry Brown

Marv films –estimated $7 million Co production -UK film council Distributed UK- Lions gate Distributed USA- Samuel Goldwyn films

Tormented

BBC films working with a new production company forward films which has only so far produced two films Distribution – Warner bros for the UK and France

Paramount Vantage for the US Budget £700,000

The role of the star

What famous British stars are you aware of?

Considering our last lessons based on star theory- what British actors would you consider Stars?

Kate Winslet Daniel Craig Kiera Knightly Colin Firth Ian Mckellan Antony Hopkins Ewan McGregor Hugh Grant

Task

Pick two UK actors- Identify the current films that they

have been in Identify what level the films they

appear in would be (UK OR USA) Identify what you think their appeal

would be for the audience?

Task –Skill set

http://www.skillset.org/film/business/#

Task

Find two USA films and two UK films (one from working title) and compare:

Production Budget Distribution exhibition(where and number of screens) Use of stars Genre Target age

Task

In pairs and with my support, plan out how you would answer the following question using US examples, UK examples and the case study material.

  1. Study Item A of the resource material, which includes: - the home page of a fan website for the American star Will Ferrell - table showing UK and US box office takings for two films starring Will Ferrell released in 2006 - poster for one of these films; front cover of a magazine for one of these films. Using this material as a starting point, and drawing on your own case studies, answer the following question:   What are some of the reasons for the popularity of US produced films for UK audiences? [40]     or     2. Study Item B of the resource material, which includes: - press release: purchase of the Warner Village cinema chain by Vue in 2003 - programme for a thirteen screen Vue multiplex in Manchester (week in March, 2007) - blog extract: 'Is Cinema Dead?' Using this material as a starting point, and drawing on your own case studies, answer the following question: Are the attractions of going to a cinema today sufficiently strong to compete against other ways in which we can now watch films?

Example of question Study the items in Part A of the

resource material, which include:

– a website article about Hannah Montana and its target audience

– a table showing cinema-going by age

– the cover of an X-Men comic, a film poster and information from a news item

Use this material, together with your own studies, to answer the following question:

What are some of the key factors which influence the kinds of film that get made today?