The more things change, the more they stay the same. Confusion reigns over the future of the British film industry. So what’s new?
Culture minister Ed Vaizey has announced that the British Film Institute has been given the responsibility for financing or rather helping to finance British movies. He’s even given them more money to play with but it doesn’t yet seem clear how the money is to be spent.
In the press announcement Ed seems to be suggesting that the BFI needs to make more films that the public wants to see. Films like Harry Potter. But, Harry Potter although British in spirit, British in cast, production and subject matter is unfortunately very American and totally Hollywood when it comes to money. The profits flow one way – straight back to Tinsel Town.
It is good news that the BFI will have more money to spread around. The production budget is currently £27 million and will rise to £43 million by 2014. The money is coming from the lottery but it is still nowhere near enough to fund a single Harry Potter style extravaganza.
Instead the money will be used to seed smaller UK movies and hopefully will make it easier for producers to persuade funding partners to come on board.
BBC Films have also been told that their films, movies like Made In Dagenham, have to be more popularist in their tastes which is all well and good – all film-makers want people to see their work – but how do you know what will be a hit and what won’t. If you knew that there would never be a flop. No-one sets out to lose the shirt off their back.
I am all in favour of British films appealing to a wider audience but it is not the films that need to change, British film-makers already make a wide range of movies, but the cinemas need to embrace a more diverse audience.
Not everyone wants to be force-fed a diet of overblown blockbusters. Some people like more thoughtful films or films that perhaps don’t always have a happy ending or maybe challenge our perceptions of the world.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Films, like audiences need to be varied. We don’t all like the same thing and we don’t want to keep seeing the same films over and over again.
What we need now is for the BFI to invest in the future of British film in all its forms. We need a film industry that reflects all facets of Britain – past and present. We need a film industry that is popular but one that is also intelligent. A film industry that says something about us and the way we are.
