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UK Film Council

I don't get the point in axing it, they're saying the £15m will still be available and the tax breaks, so what exactly are they saving by axing the council?
 
I always thought the British film industry was stronger than that. It sounds a lot like Canada, in that respect: a ton of big-budget blockbusters are shot here (Hollywood North and all), but there's usually only a couple of truly good Canadian movies in any given year, sadly.
 
^Unfortunately it's incredibly difficult to get distributed, there seems to be no shortage of people able to get films made, but the cinemas are hard to get in to unless you've got a Hollywood distributor on board.
 
Rii said:
How it works is the government decrees that (say) 15% of all the films shown to the public in cinemas are indigenous. Cinema owners - to retain their licenses - must show that, each year, 15% of their screen time has been devoted to British films.
Click to expand...
And here's how it won't work ... After a (hopefully) profitable day show the latest foreign movie, the cinema owner locks up for the night and goes home, soon after a timer click over and on a very small screen a old British movie appears for three or four hours. No one actual sees it.

The owner has satisfied the letter of the law, he doesn't lose any money during his "prime time" showing a un-profitable movie, everyone's happy.
 
T'Girl said:
Rii said:
How it works is the government decrees that (say) 15% of all the films shown to the public in cinemas are indigenous. Cinema owners - to retain their licenses - must show that, each year, 15% of their screen time has been devoted to British films.
Click to expand...
And here's how it won't work ... After a (hopefully) profitable day show the latest foreign movie, the cinema owner locks up for the night and goes home, soon after a timer click over and on a very small screen a old British movie appears for three or four hours. No one actual sees it.

The owner has satisfied the letter of the law, he doesn't lose any money during his "prime time" showing a un-profitable movie, everyone's happy.
Click to expand...

Except for the part where it apparently works everywhere else it's been tried, and did work for the UK in the past. Also (I omitted the relevant section from the article) television in the UK is apparently subject to a mandated minimum ratio of domestic:foreign content right now. And, well, British television is a thriving industry and British film is not. Coincidence?
 
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British film is not thriving with the label 'British' but there are lots of films being made here. The government will regret this decision because it's attacking something that people actually feel quite strongly about. Get rid of 100,000 civil servants and they'll tut a bit and complain about the fact that house prices have crashed again. Take away the complete pittance they were offering to the film industry and the mouse will roar. You know the government were in deep shit when the Film Council wheeled in Clint Eastwood.
 
95% of the population will never have heard of the Film Council and will not mourn its absence. The few who have vote left anyway, so it hardly matters. :D

Anyway I do agree with Deckerd's point about lottery funding being treated as government funding, but this has been going on almost since its inception; it's essentially treated as a petty cash box by all governments. Better that than actual taxpayers money being spent though.
 
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