{spotlight} feature reports

The Truth About Youth Report on UK Film Finance Summit, 2008

This year’s UK Film Finance Summit took place in the City of London against a backdrop of a global financial crisis and an Olympic medal winners’ homecoming parade, yet still provided a surprisingly upbeat and encouraging assessment of the state of U.K. film production in 2008.

This could be viewed as a mixture of blind optimism or the judicious choice speakers - combining those with a vested interest in spreading a positive message (politicians and media) alongside those who have produced exceptional work out of unlikely raw materials in recent years.

In the former category, shadow Culture spokesman, Jeremy Hunt, offered a version of the UK film industry under a Conservative government, which to all intents and purposes looks much the same as it does at present (“we want to encourage stability”) with a crowd pleasing if caveat packed promise to increase funding via. the National Lottery - but only after the 2012 Olympics.

Interestingly, it was not only Hunt, but the vast majority of speakers who acknowledged the success of the government’s tax credit scheme, a recurring crumb of comfort. Jonathan Olsberg offered an assessment of the benefits of filming abroad in various production hot zones, but the most inspiring content came in the form not of the politicians, lawyers and financiers, but the filmmakers themselves.

In the latter camp, Barnaby Spurrier (Tomboy Films), Mark Herbert (Warp) and Richard Jobson made the most telling contributions. Spurrier spoke of the relationship between the corporate world and filmmakers, admitting that the successful relationship he had enjoyed with Eurostar when making Shane Meadows’ ‘Somers Town’ was a one-off.

By his account, the company viewed the film as a piece of public art which they had commissioned, and were not seeking to gain commercial advantage. Unfortunately, the message was that as filmmakers rely increasingly on big companies to help them, such no strings attached largesse (to the tune of nearly £600 000) is unlikely to be commonplace.

Nevertheless, it remains an encouraging example to those pursuing an unconventional, maverick path both in terms of business models and creative ideas. Likewise, Warp seem adept sourcing (public) funding while working with visionaries like Meadows and Chris Morris. Similarly, Jobson seems able to turn his energy and vision into surprisingly credible and viable propositions..

If anyone seemed to be floundering and searching for answers here, it was not the filmmakers but the financiers and commissioners.

A panel of the former (Prescience, Bank of Ireland and Limelight) tried unconvincingly to claim that the credit crunch would have little impact on the film industry. Couched with caveats about ‘security,’ ‘only working with the strongest producers’ and ‘banks not being interested in lower budget films,’ their message seemed to be that there would be a mid-market squeeze when it comes to funding from commercial lenders and the private sector.

While this revelation hardly came as a surprise, the closing session with representatives of Film 4, BBC Films and the UK Film Council seemed the most downbeat. John Woodward (UKFC) spoke of ‘liquidity problems’ in the industry and ‘the next few years being tough.’ If he thought that any of the answers were likely to come from his fellow panelists - he was mistaken. Like Hunt, they offered a melange of sound bites, taking evasive measures when asked even remotely probing questions, a measure of their own uncertainty.

If there was an overriding message from the summit, it was that the most creative producers, writers and directors will nearly always find a way of financing and realising their work, regardless of prevailing economic circumstances. That everyone else (first timers and low budget operators in particular) will find it a struggle is hardly a revelation, regardless of the climate.

John Williamson, The Truth About Youth. October 2008

BLACK CAMEL REPORT FOR UK Film Finance Summit

After an extremely successful and encouraging week spent at MipCom where I held a series of very fruitful meetings, my day at the UK Film Finance summit continued this positive trend, as I attending some great panels and built on some important existing relationships and was left with a feeling of great optimism.

While these events are very expensive, it was made less so with my half price independent producers fee and I certainly felt that I got my money’s worth. The coverage and range of topics was varied and the analyses were certainly in depth, and naturally in these financially difficult times the panels spent a great deal of time discussing how the downturn may or may not affect the future of the film industry.

Whilst Tory Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt outlined what his party’s plans for tax incentives and investment in the industry would be, should they be elected, Paul Brett of the Prescience Fund, Ian Hutchison of the Bank of Ireland, Ivan McTaggart of the Film and Media Funds, who I also met spoke to about our current slate of projects, gave a thorough and candid overview of the state of the industry and discussed what possible ramifications the decrease in risky investments and the popping of the private equity bubble, may have on the industry.

However, while the global financial crisis certainly makes things appear bleak on the surface, there was certainly room for optimism with an emphasis on the sustainability of talent and how new business models and internet distribution can breathe further life into the industry, a point emphasised by Ivan McTaggart as he encouraged us to target niche audiences, and spoken about at length my Mark Herbert of WarpX, who I met and discussed our project Legacy with, which WarpX are currently looking at. Of course the shift towards digital distribution is already well underway but these panels were extremely helpful to me gaining a further understanding of the possibilities of this revolution, as well as providing me with a great deal of inspiration.

As at the Berlin market, there was an excellent panel on the analyses on hot zones on where new tax incentives are attractive, there was an interesting panel by Tim Johnson of SJ Berwin on streamlining film finance structures, as well as a panel encouraging a more commercial approach to filmmaking and taking audience shares into consideration when developing projects, which underlined a lot of the lessons we learned on Outpost. This panel also allowed me to talk once more with one of the speakers, Andrew Orr, Managing Director of the Independent Film Company, about Steve Barker’s next project, Blood Makes Noise which I have been in frequent e-mail communication with him about of late.

All in all the UK Film Finance summit was an excellent event which left one with a feeling of optimism in the face of difficult external forces, due to the variety of insightful and in depth panels. It gave me an excellent opportunity to increase my understanding of the current market place as well as allowing me to make some important new contacts and well as firming up those I already had in place, and as result it has made decisions about the future path of Black Camel Pictures that little more clear.

Arabella Croft. Black Camel Pictures, October 2008

<< Back to 'Feature Reports' index.