11 Jan 2012

The King’s Speech II: the future of British film?

As David Cameron recommends funding “commercially successful pictures”, Channel 4 News speaks to independent directors about the impact this would have on British cinema.

'The King's Speech II': the future of British film? (getty)

A tale of domestic violence set in a charity shop, in which one of the main characters has a drinking problem. A teenager with no acting experience stars in a kitchen-sink drama set in a London council estate.

Neither of these summaries sounds particularly appealing. And yet both Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur and Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank were lauded as brilliant examples of British cinema over the last few years.

Read more on Matthew Cain's blog: Should the British film industry reel in cash?

Both were also funded by the UK Film Council – now merged with the BFI. But following David Cameron’s comments at Pinewood film studio that public funding should go towards “mainstream” hits, the filmmaking community is venting anger, and concern that this kind of film – critically acclaimed, but not making a box-office hit – will be less likely to receive funding in the future.

Mr Cameron’s comments come ahead of the findings of a review into film policy to be released next week, that will provide recommendations for how the British film industry should be funded.

My worry is whether what Cameron’s been saying today about making films in the model of the King’s Speech, will be at the expense of smaller films. If you’re going to put public money into cinema, you have to be prepared to take a risk. Dave Calhoun, Time Out film editor

Downing Street has told us to expect the review to say that lottery funding should reward financial success and “incentivise” UK film-makers to deliver commercial success. The prime minister said that the aim of the government should be to support “commercially successful pictures”.

Commercial success: how to

The problem with this, said Ben Wheatley, director of the award-winning Down Terrace and the critically acclaimed Kill List, is that it is impossible to know what will be popular with film lovers or critics.

“In retrospect, it’s very easy to say what’s successful and what’s not. But I don’t think anyone can predict anything,” he told Channel 4 News.

Down Terrace, a comically dark crime thriller, won the Raindance Award at the 2009 British Independent Film Awards.

“But we were perfectly prepared for it to be a massive hit, or a massive flop – we didn’t know either way,” said Mr Wheatley.

“Everyone would be filmmakers if it was easy to make money.”

One recent example of this is the unexpected success of The Inbetweeners Movie, which made £45m at the box office by November last year.

“If you look at the history of TV series being made into films, it hasn’t been very successful – look at Are you being served? or Boys in blue,” said the director. “But the Inbetweeners was a massive hit. Does that mean that all TV shows should now be made into films?”

Suggestions for #fundablefilms from tweeters on twitter:

@sizemore Withnail and I Robot
@sizemore We Need To Talk About Kevin’s Ability To Turn Into A CGI Robot
@RupertMyers Indiana Jones and the Carpark of the Crystal Meth
@valmcdermid The Iron Ladyboy
@Discuss_Cinema The Iron Slumdog’s Speech, Actually.
@LondonFilmFan Tyrannosaur vs Godzilla
@robbiereviews THE INBETWEENERS GO TO HOGWARTS
@Jook A Room for Romeo and Juliet
@damkitching Harry Potter and The Sausage Roll
@mo_ali Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’s Speech
@paulmartinovic GI Jane Eyre
@robbiereviews Pride and Prejudice 2: 2 Proud and 2 Prejudiced

The funding factor

What many filmmakers are worried about is that securing funding – public or private – is already incredibly difficult. Trying to prove commercial viability will be yet another hurdle in the long road towards the holy grail of financial investment.

As technology evolves, it is possible to make a good film with a small amount of money, and many acclaimed films are made with a few thousand, rather than hundreds of thousands, of pounds.

If you chase trends, something will be old by the time you get round to making it. You really have to make the films you want to make, when you want to make them. Miles Watts, MilesTone Films

Down Terrace was made in eight days with £6,000 – it was Mr Wheatley’s first feature film, and he knew it would be difficult to get funders on board, so decided to limit production costs and do it himself. Black Pond is another example – shot in two weeks in one of the director’s parents’ houses, it nonetheless received rave reviews.

But independent filmmakers argue this does not mean that their films should not get investment.

“If you just keep making the same kind of film, the industry doesn’t evolve,” Miles Watts, from York-based independent film production company MilesTone Films told Channel 4 News. “[Cameron’s comments] just steam roll over the whole gamut of creativity and variety.

“If you chase trends, something will be old by the time you get round to making it. You really have to make the films you want to make, when you want to make them.”

Taking risks

The film industry contributes an estimated £4.2bn to the UK economy each year. Last year’s success story was The King’s Speech, which hit the record for the highest grossing independent British film of all time, and received four Oscars.

But while it is common sense to invest in money spinners, the film council needs to take risks, said Dave Calhoun, film editor at Time Out.

“My worry is whether what Cameron’s been saying today about making films in the model of the King’s Speech, will be at the expense of smaller films,” he told Channel 4 News. “If you’re going to put public money into cinema, you have to be prepared to take a risk.”

Between January and October last year, British films topped the box office charts for 20 weeks, and many within the industry argue that this has only been made possible by nurturing a healthy variety of directors and filmmakers.

“I thought the film council has got a lot better in the last three or four years,” Mr Calhoun told Channel 4 News. “It funded The King’s Speech, and established filmmakers like Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, as well as people who have never made films before, like former Turner prize winner Gillian Wearing’s Self Made.”

What filmmakers and the government both want to know is the billion dollar formula to a commercially and critically successful film. But regardless of next week’s film policy report, it is something that will remain the great unknown.

In the meantime, as for what the public wants, Ben Wheatley has some advice. “We know they watch a lot of EastEnders,” he said, adding: “If it’s good, and if it’s stories about things that people will relate to, they’ll watch it.”