The British Film Industry - Part 3

The British Film Industry

1.     Why do you think 3D takings went down when the number and variety of 3D films increased in 2011?

·      28 films in 2010 increased to 47 in a year’s time – more options means more people go and see different films.

·      The more people get used to films in 3D, the less likely they are to go and see them as often – “the novelty wears off”.

2.     Where do you think these films end up being shown?

·      Small Art House cinemas and independent film festivals around the UK and or on DVD.

3.     Why do you think there are more people going to the cinema mid-week? Who are more likely to attend the cinema outside of opening weekends?

·      The people who are outside the age range that most films nowadays are aimed at (15-24) are more likely to attend the cinema during the week as there are many young people that go out on the weekends.

·      Lots of films premiere on the weekend, as they know that many young people will go out with their friends on either Saturday or Sunday.

·      Orange Wednesday’s – if you are a member of Orange, then you get cheaper tickets on a Wednesday. Many offers can attract people as they get to save money.

·      Many older citizens are more likely to go to the cinema mid-week as it allows them to stay away from many younger adults who attend on the weekend.

4.     Why do you think there has been a decline in DVD sales in the last few years?

·      More people are likely to watch films on the Internet nowadays as it saves them time and money.

·      Lots of people subscribe to Love film and or Netflix, where they can watch almost every film available instead of paying for a DVD copy. They can pay monthly, which is easier for the consumers as it can come directly from their wages.

·      Illegal streaming sites have started becoming more prominent as people can watch any film for no money at all – DVD prices going down as a result.

5.     Summarise what has remained the same about the UK film market over the last ten years and what has changed dramatically?

·      There have been far more Multiplex cinemas (Odeon) opened in the last Ten years, meaning more places to go and watch films on the big screen. However there have been a large amount of screens around the UK in the last decade.

·      The number of movies shown in 2002 (369) has increased at a fairly slow rate to 558 in 2011 – more films shown.

·      Many more digital screens have been made. Unlike in 2002 when only four screen were digital.

·      Smartphone and tablet ownership is on the rise – more places to watch movies other than on the television or in the cinema.

·      Broadband speed increase – easier to watch films on tablets and Smartphone’s.

6.     How does film production in the UK seem to be very different from the Hollywood model of large, powerful studios?

·      In the 70’s and 80’s, British film industry became increasingly reliant on Hollywood funding.

·      Many UK film production companies are actually subsidiaries of American film companies. Warner Bro’s is a subsidiary of the American Company, Time Warner.

·      BBC and Film 4 films are an important source of funding for the British Cinema companies – they invest into films that eventually make it onto the big screen.

·      Doesn’t have the financial backing that the US film industry has.

7.     What is the benefit to a film producer of their film being branded as British? What is it about ‘Britishness’ that is attractive to investors from outside the UK? What is it about ‘Britishness’ that makes it easy for Hollywood studios to dominate our film market?

·      Britain produces many good Actors and Directors and we are a respected country in the film industry – good thing for film producers?

·      Britain could be seen as an untapped film department as London for example has rarely been used in films apart from recently.

·      Many people in Britain go to the cinema every year and so film companies outside Britain see this as a chance to get their name recognized.

·      Many British companies are owned by larger American companies and so they, “claw back a chunk of the box office profits” – much of the money that is made is not even seen by the British companies.  

8.     How many of these could be considered British films? How many of them are co-productions where the majority of money leaves the country? What does this say about the scale of the UK film industry?

·      Four of them can be considered as being truly British, The King’s Speech, The Inbetweeners, Horrid Henry: the movie and Jane Eyre.

·      16 of the top 20 UK films released in 2011 are co-productions that involve other countries, such as USA and Germany.

·      Other countries dominate the UK film industry, especially America who is involved in almost every film apart from 4 of the films.

9.     Which one of these two films recently released in the UK do you think is a BBC co-production and why?

·      (they both seem to be a BBC co-production)

10. Why do you think the Coalition government decided to close down the UKFC?

·      UKFC, “ploughed £160m of Lottery money into more than 900 productions” – a lot of money and some of the productions were awful.

·      “Cronyism, arrogance and waste” – UKFC has been accused of these words – better for the government to get rid of them.

·      The UKFC was throwing the publics money away – into the art houses – angering the public, which is certainly a bad thing for the government.

11. Do you think the UK film industry needs a body like the UKFC/BFI? Why?

·      Yes I think the UK film industry needs a body like BFI as films make an extremely important contribution to the British economy. – The film industry needs a company like BFI to support it.

·      However, the film industry could do without them as in the case of the UKFC, they were often taking the publics money and investing it into film projects that were not very successful.