The British Film Industry: Institutional Context

Institutional Context

1) The cultural test is a 'gateway' to accessing the UK film tax relief and this is also included as one of the cafeterias used to apply for the BFI film fund. To apply for a cultural test there must be one film production company that is officially registered with Companies House. The film production must be set up before film making begins and have responsibility for all aspect of the film making process as well as pre-production.  The test is divided in to 4 sections and a film must score at least 16 out of 31 points (which are available) in order for the film to be classified as British.
This is how they rank the films via points:

2)

The Sweeney:

Financing: £3,000,000
Location: London (4 points)
Characters: Protagonists are British (4 points)
Language of dialogue: English (6 points)
Use of British creativity: 4 points
British subject matter: 4 points
Practitioners: 7 points
Cultural centre: 2 points

Attack The Block:

Financing: $8,000,000
Location: London (4 points)
British subject matter: (0 points)
Characters: British (4 points)
Language of dialogue: English dialogue used (6 points)
Use of British creativity: Black ethnicity used (4 points)
Practitioners: 7 points
Cultural centre: 2 points

The King's Speech:

Financing: £15,000,000
Location: London (4 points)
British subject matter: (4 points)
Characters: British (4 points)
Language: English (6 points)
Use of British creativity:
Practitioners: 7 points
Cultural centre: 2 points

Skyfall:

Financing: £200,000,000
Location: London (4 points)
British subject matter: 4 points
Characters: British (4 points)
Language: English dialogue (6 points)
Practitioners: 5 points
Cultural centre: 2 points

3) The main problem that the British film industry is facing is that it is production led and not rather than distribution led. This means that the film makers will have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the rights to a distribution company. Once the film has been sold, all revenue from cinema screenings, DVD/Blu-ray and even sales to television companies are lost. British film industry is often described as a 'cottage as in, it is small- scale and cannot compete with 'factory industries' of the Hollywood based studios. In addition, British film industry employ fewer than 10 people so it is clear that it cannot compete with large-scale American film production companies. 

4)

The Film Export Fund

• This is a fund for film makers whose films have been selected to be screened in film festivals. Film festivals are an important way of making distributors notice the availability of new and fresh films. The fund is built to to help reduce the financial risk for distributors.

Outstanding facilities

• The use of British studios, digital post production houses and camera companies all aim to attract investment from film makers around the world.

Outstanding skills of practitioners

• Films such as 'Harry Potter' have enabled British film production companies to be involved in the production of financially successful franchises.

5) The two options for the British film industry

• British film makers could chose to rely upon American studios , however much the factors that make a British film British may be lost as a result of this. 
• Attempt to make low budget films that aim to attract a niche, British audience. This option can lead to gaining lower profits due to its position in the market- niche market.  Moreover, sale of distribution rights could also mean profits are delivered back into the UK film industry. 

6)

I think that the first option "ability to rely upon American studios" would be the best route for the British film industry. This is because majority of the UK audience wouldn't severely matter whether a movie was considered 'British' or not. In fact, there would be a small amount of people who would think opposite. The factors of making a movie British doesn't play a significant role in the audiences mind as they are there to enjoy the entertainment and this factor isn't thought about often. As a result, the drawback to the first option isn't as significant to the overall UK audience. In addition, the help and use of having partnerships with American film studios helps to make the film more of a success. Films such as Harry Potter is a story that is based in England and is written by a British female author. The use of the American distributor; Warner Brothers helped the film to claim more fame and attraction than it did before. The use of having an American studio to rely upon can have great impact on audiences than the material did before the partnership came into place.