Earlier this week, Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the British film industry, calling for a tighter focus on producing films with more mainstream appeal.
During a visit to Pinewood Studios on Wednesday, Cameron suggested that he intends to re-balance the industry’s national lottery funding in favour of independent films with greater mainstream potential. Already successful film companies will receive greater support from the government, whilst unknown and unproven film-makers will be given less funding and support for their projects. In a statement on the Number 10 website, Cameron said; “Our role, and that of the BFI, should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions. Just as the British Film Commission has played a crucial role in attracting the biggest and best international studios to produce their films here, so we must incentivise UK producers to chase new markets both here and overseas.”
Whilst this is an understandable and relatively sensible move from an economic standpoint, I can't help but feel that this may have a negative impact on the cultural value of British cinema. The scheme looks set to make it harder for up and coming film makers to break into an already difficult industry, and potentially sideline promising independent projects in favour of more commercially viable ventures. And inevitably, it's hard to gauge what is going to be commercially successful ahead of time, so it begs to question how they’re actually going to qualify films with mainstream potential.
I often find myself critical of mainstream movies, as they frequently pump out another action film packed with CGI, explosions and guns, often at the expense of good narrative, or another puerile comedy which makes me laugh less than a funeral. But amidst this quagmire of cinematic drudgery, there stand exemplars of the film industry; the films that inspired me to act, to write, and generally coaxed me into the world of media as a whole. It’s these films that capture the hearts and minds of their viewing audience, and sometimes are the ones that really go on to achieve surprising success in mainstream cinema.
The King's Speech, for example, turned out to be one of 2011's best dramas, picking up countless awards. It's a film about one of our former monarchs as he struggles to overcome his speech impediment. That’s it. On paper, it sounds unremittingly dull, but in reality it’s a brilliant drama and a huge success, grossing upwards of £250 million. If someone had sent me a synopsis of the plot several years ago and told me it was going to be a huge blockbuster, I wouldn’t have believed them... Maybe if Bertie had used his voice as a sonic weapon to defeat an empire, a la Dune, then maybe it would have sounded more fitting for the Hollywood market! Don’t get me wrong, though, The King’s Speech is more than deserving of it’s great success and adulation, but it still strikes me as an unlikely hit for the commercial market. Could the production of films like this be overlooked after the re-balance?
Another unexpected success is The Artist. Who could have anticipated that a black and white silent film could garner any form of attention in the modern 3D, surround sound obsessions of contemporary cinema?! Although this is a French film and not quite pertinent to the UK Film Council, it is again a prime example of how something unexpected and brilliant can grab the attention of the modern industry.
However, the government’s film policy review isn't necessarily the death knell for the culturally rewarding film market. Although more attention will be given to those that the UK Film Council deem to have a greater potential for success, the indie market and the up and coming cinematographers will still receive a relative degree of support, just not as much as before.
Maybe this re-balance will prove to be a success, helping produce more British films to rival Hollywood's finest, but there's an equal chance that this will mean films with more originality and artistic merit will be sidelined in favour of something which sounds more likely to sell. But is it really possible to gauge what films will sell or not, and is commercialisation really the way to go when it comes to film making? As Ken Loach argued in his rebuttal to Cameron’s proposition, film makers measure themselves based on creativity and originality, not as entrepreneurs.
Hopefully this re-balance won’t have an adverse effect on the quality of British films, and will serve to bolster the industry, continuing to produce more original and engaging pieces of cinema. Maybe after the success of Margaret Thatcher’s biopic, The Iron Lady, this means my screenplay of Cameron’s career - He’s Just Not That Into EU - stands a chance of getting produced!
But whilst Cameron’s proposing the film industry should focus on producing more successful films, perhaps he also needs to address bankers to make wiser investments and call for a more mainstream government that focuses on producing successful policies! But we all know how likely that is...
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