The British film industry: blog tasks

 Factsheet #132: British Film

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

Whether the film is created in Britain, made with British people and funded with British money. 

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

British film as a production context also tends to be varied but idiosyncratic to the story being told within the film. A films production context is the conditions under which the film has been made. For instance 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 independent production context films tend to have low budgets, character rather than spectacle driven stories and a heavier reliance on word of mouth and viral advertising.

3) When did the James Bond franchise start?

The 1960s brought about the start of the James Bond franchise as well as a greater involvement of American money and talent, as well as an upsurge in experimentation that fell along with the shifting cultural norms of the 1960s.

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

The British film industry in the 1970s was dominated by the subject of censorship that continued into the video nasties banning of the 1980s. The 1980s also saw a dramatic decline in American investment in British film that did not increase again until the 1990s.

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 1950s 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

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

If a film does not qualify as a co-production, it must pass the British Film Institute’s Cultural Test in order to be defined 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

B - Cultural Contribution

C - Cultural Hubs

D - Cultural Practitioners

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.

Attack the block financing = 

Domestic Box Office	$1,024,175	Details
International Box Office	$5,435,008	Details
Worldwide Box Office	$6,459,183

Cultural test = 31 points

Sweeny financing = 

Domestic Box Office	$26,345	Details
International Box Office	$7,974,021	Details
Worldwide Box Office	$8,000,366

We need to talk about Kevin = 

Domestic Box Office	$1,738,692	Details
International Box Office	$9,026,591	Details
Worldwide Box Office	$10,765,283

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.

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?

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.

The UK film industry’s second option is to attempt to make low budget films targeted at a niche, British audience.

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

I believe the second option would be the best this is because 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.