The British film industry: blog tasks

 1) Write a one-sentence definition of what makes a film British.

What makes a film British is if the people making the film are British, is it funded from within Britain, are the cast British, is the film’s subject matter about Britain or British culture.

2) What is the difference between a Hollywood production context and production context of a British film?

The Hollywood production context means that most films made by Hollywood studios have high budgets, a heavy reliance on celebrities both in the cast and crew and spectacle driven stories. Whereas, the production context of a British film production context does not have as many clearly defined characteristics.British films can be large budget, high concept films such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Brothers, 2010) and Skyfall (MGM, 2012) or they can be character driven, small budgeted films such as Kill List (Optimum Releasing, 2011) or This is England (Optimum Releasing, 2006). What could be considered to be recurring characteristics of the British film production context are that films made within the British production context will in some way reflect British culture, films such as The King’s Speech (Momentum Pictures, 2010) and Son of Rambow (Optimum Releasing, 2007) have varying degrees of involvement from Hollywood or other outside agencies however they are both inherently British in their subject matter. films can be large budget, high concept films such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Brothers, 2010) and Skyfall (MGM, 2012) or they can be character driven, small budgeted films such as Kill List (Optimum Releasing, 2011) or This is England (Optimum Releasing, 2006). What could be considered to be recurring characteristics of the British film production context are that films made within the British production context will in some way reflect British culture, films such as The King’s Speech (Momentum Pictures, 2010) and Son of Rambow (Optimum Releasing, 2007) have varying degrees of involvement from Hollywood or other outside agencies however they are both inherently British in their subject matter. 

3) When did the James Bond franchise start?

The James Bond franchise started with Fleming's novel Dr. No (1958) was adapted for film by the British movie production company Eon Productions in 1962. Directed by Irish filmmaker Terence Young and starring Scottish-born actor Sean Connery as Bond, Dr. No launched one of the most successful film franchises in history.

4) In terms of film censorship and graphic content, what began to change in British film in the 1970's and 1980's?

The 1970's sees a rise in British Films of sexual content, both the act of sex and sex linked to violence with films like A Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros, 1971) coming under a lot of scrutiny. The 1980's see the rise of videos and the ‘video nasty’s scare where film making was becoming more accessible and more extreme content was being created and finding its way to Britain.Complex female characters in film have appeared in early British Film, however these were always seen as extraordinary. Women have largely suffered in line with the current attitude towards women of the day with a gradual shift and awareness of an inequality towards women gaining ground from the 1980's onwards. 

5) What groups are often represented in British film? Give examples of films these groups feature in.

Issues such as class, politics, social change and education are some of the many issues that British film has explored throughout its history. Many of the representations of different groups within British film focus and change according to these issues, for instance if we take the representation of youth in British films. This became a topic of increasing importance from the 1950's onwards and has seen an evolution in some parts of the representation as well as a persistent consistency in the way some films portray young people, especially in the British Horror Film. For example if we look at the way youth is portrayed in a very singular way in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros., 1971), the focus is on violence, anti-establishment and a compulsion to act in an anarchic way. This is echoed through British Cinema and into current films such as Eden Lake (Rollercoaster Films, 2008), where we see a similar, (if not less fantastical) set of values being given to the youthful antagonists of the film. Both play into the stereotype that youth are rule breaking rebels that tend towards the violent, however neither sets of characters have all that much depth and are used by the films as McGuffins to allow the storytellers to, in the case of Eden Lake be the source of the horror and threat and in the case of A Clockwork Orange allow of the social commentary or censorship and repression.

6) What does the Factsheet suggest might be the audience appeal of British film?

The main characteristics that can be identified as appealing to a native British audience would include; the actors, British actors tend to be clearly identifiable as British and will often be associated with a particular genre of British film, for example Hugh Grant having an association with British romantic comedies.

Factsheet #100: British film industry

To complete our introduction to the British film industry, we need a little more background to the industries context.

Find Media Factsheet #100 on the British film industry. You can find it on the same link as above. Read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British?

The Cultural Test is divided into four sections and a film must score at least 16 out of a possible 31 points to be classified as British.

A - Cultural Context

A1 The film is set in the UK 4 points

A2 The lead characters are British citizens or residents 4 points

A3 The film is based on British subject matter or underlying material 4 points

A4 The original dialogue is recorded in mainly the English language 4 points

B - Cultural Contribution

B The film represents or reflects a diverse British culture, heritage or creativity 4 points

C - Cultural Hubs

C1 British studio and/or location shooting, visual effects or special effects 2 points

C2 British music recording, audio post-production or picture post-production 1 point

D - Cultural Practitioners

D1 British director 1 point

D2 British scriptwriter 1 point

D3 British producer 1 point

D4 British composer 1 point

D5 British lead actors 1 point

D6 Majority of cast are British 1 point

D7 British key staff (lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer etc.) 1 point

D8 Majority of crew are British 1 point

2) Complete the task on the Factsheet - choose three of the films listed and research them to work out what they score on the cultural test: The Sweeney (2012), Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

The Sweeney (dir. Love, 2012)

A - Cultural Context

A1 The film is set in the UK 4 points

A2 The lead characters are British citizens or residents 4 points

A4 The original dialogue is recorded in mainly the English language 4 points

C - Cultural Hubs

C1 British studio and/or location shooting, visual effects or special effects 2 points

C2 British music recording, audio post-production or picture post-production 1 point

D - Cultural Practitioners

D1 British director 1 points

D2 British scriptwriter 1 point

D3 British producer 1 point

D4 British composer 1 point

D5 British lead actors 1 point

D6 Majority of cast are British 1 point

D7 British key staff (lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer etc.) 1 point

D8 Majority of crew are British 1 point

Total Score: 23

Attack the Block (dir. Cornish, 2011)

A - Cultural Context

A1 The film is set in the UK 4 points

A2 The lead characters are British citizens or residents 4 points

A4 The original dialogue is recorded in mainly the English language 4 points

B - Cultural Contribution

B The film represents or reflects a diverse British culture, heritage or creativity 4 points

C - Cultural Hubs

C1 British studio and/or location shooting, visual effects or special effects 2 points

C2 British music recording, audio post-production or picture post-production 1 point

D - Cultural Practitioners

D1 British director 1 point

D2 British scriptwriter 1 point

D3 British producer 1 point

D4 British composer 1 point

D5 British lead actors 1 point

D6 Majority of cast are British 1 point

D7 British key staff (lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer etc.) 1 point

D8 Majority of crew are British 1 point

Total Score: 27

Skyfall (dir. Mendes, 2012)

A - Cultural Context

A1 The film is set in the UK 4 points

A2 The lead characters are British citizens or residents 4 points

A4 The original dialogue is recorded in mainly the English language 4 points

B - Cultural Contribution

B The film represents or reflects a diverse British culture, heritage or creativity 4 points

C - Cultural Hubs

C1 British studio and/or location shooting, visual effects or special effects 2 points

D - Cultural Practitioners

D1 British director 1 point

D2 British scriptwriter 1 point

D5 British lead actors 1 point

D6 Majority of cast are British 1 point

D7 British key staff (lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer etc.) 1 point

Total Score: 23

3) What is the main problem for the British film industry?

Historically, the British film industry has been production led rather than distribution led. This means that many UK films are made but, in order to get the film exhibited, the filmmakers have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the film to a distribution company. Once sold, all revenue from cinema screenings, DVD and Blu-ray sales, plus sales to television companies, are lost. Even a highly successful British film is not necessarily making money that will be reinvested in British filmmaking.

4) What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

• outstanding creative skills of practitioners

Directors like Richard Curtis have made films, such as Love Actually (2003), which have grossed billions of dollars worldwide and intellectual property, such as J. K Rowling’s Harry Potter books, have also enabled British film production companies to be involved in the production of financially successful franchises.

• outstanding facilities

British studios, camera companies and digital post-production houses all attract investment from filmmakers around the world, especially the USA.

The British film industry has several strengths that make it the third biggest film industry in the world. British films take 5% of world box-office takings, which is extraordinary for such a small nation.

5) What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

Option 1
Firstly, British filmmakers could choose to rely upon co-productions with American studios to keep the industry afloat. However, the drawback would be that much of what makes the film British may be lost, such as regional accents and dialects or cultural and political references. Since these features would make no sense to an audience outside of Britain, it is unlikely that an American company involved in a co-production would approve of them.

Option 2

The UK film industry’s second option is to attempt to make low budget films targeted at a niche, British audience. Though the production costs will have to be lower and box-office taking and profits will necessarily be lower too, the filmmakers will be able to retain what it is that makes British films so distinctive without compromise.

6) In your opinion, which of these two options would best safeguard the future of the British film industry?

In my opinion, I say that the second option is more likely to be better as compared to option 1 it's heavily based on relying on America and even though the UK is a small island we can still make a lot of money in the box office even if our films are not as big budget and got A-lister actors like in Hollywood films. For example the film 'I , Daniel Blake' which was directed by Ken Loach gave such a overpowering and important message even though it was all made in the UK with a low budget with no famous actors at all in the movie and yet it was a massive hit in the box office and it was all filmed and made in the UK with no help from America. This and so many other great examples of films shows that us as a small island can do big and remarkable things and that we shouldn't just give way and let the Americans take hold of our filmmaking and distribution when we are more than capable of doing it ourselves.