Who Killed the UK Film Council?

by Sebastian Doggart

The main reason I left England and moved to Los Angeles ten years ago was the dire state of the British film industry in which I was pursuing a career as a writer and director. Jobs were scarce and funding for new movies was fraught with bureaucratic obstacles. If you wanted training and didn’t get into the National Film and Television School, as happened to me, you’d have to teach yourself.

That was 2000, the year that the Labour government created the UK Film Council “to stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture.” That body has since gone on to train hundreds of film-makers, and to help produce over 900 movies. Watching these pictures almost persuaded me to return to Blighty – fine dramas like This is England and The Last King of Scotland; witty comedies like Bend it Like Beckham and Happy-Go-Lucky; terrific documentaries like Man on Wire; and ground-breaking works of film art like The Arbor.

So it was with some amazement that I read on July 25th last year that the incoming Liberal-Conservative coalition government was abolishing the UK Film Council (UKFC) and had no plans to replace it.

Since then, a tragi-comedy has unfolded in the British film community that has inspired me to do detailed detective work both for this extended post, and for a screenplay that I am hoping will one day become my Four Weddings and a Funeral.

To read the full story...click on the title...

New Film Industry Case Studies for 2010 - Brighton Rock (2010) d. Rowan Joffe

Brighton Rock

Click on the links below to help find information to put together into a personal case study of this new film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233192/

http://www.brightonrockmovie.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/brighton_rock

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/awards?awardid=16478

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/16022/Brighton-Rock-starts-shooting

http://www.optimumreleasing.com/press/?id=1372

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/mods-and-rockers-return-to-brighton-for-optimum-effect-1776406.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/brighton-rock-the-movie/sixties-brighton-rock-helen-mirren-sam-riley

Sony profit down 8.6% in third quarter

Even the biggest studios are feeling the pinch...


Revenues fall in TV, film and music divisions despite rise in digital music sales and box office success of The Social Network.


Film studio Sony Pictures reported a 26.7% fall in sales to ¥149bn, a 20% decrease in US dollars to $1.8bn, with operating income collapsing by 66.7% to ¥4.7bn or $58m.


Click on the title to find out why?