How can we make British film boom?

Success story: when Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady the Brits bask in the glow of Hollywood royalty embracing their stories

Geoffrey Macnab

10 April 2012

For more than 80 years, British politicians have been agonising over just how to "fix" the British film industry. They're at it again. Next week sees the publication of the latest Government Film Policy Review, this one put together under the chairmanship of former Labour culture secretary Lord (Chris) Smith.

According to the BBC, the report is expected to recommend that the Brits should back more "mainstream" movies. Prime Minister David Cameron was at Pinewood Studios earlier this week to tub-thump on behalf of British cinema. In advance of his trip, he said that the Government's role was to "help UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions".

Cameron's remarks reflect the vexed relationship that politicians have always had with cinema. Is it art or is it industry? On the one hand, the "creative industries" (with film at the forefront) are now said to account for seven per cent of GDP. Film generates a huge amount of inward investment, especially when the pound is weak and the Government is rolling over on its back to provide incentives for the Hollywood studios to come to Pinewood and Shepperton.

When Steven Spielberg shoots War Horse ("my first British film" as he calls it) or Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, the Brits bask in the glow of Hollywood royalty embracing their stories. Film (the politicians know) creates employment. It can boost tourism and put the nation's goods and culture in the "international shop window". In terms of goodwill generated toward Britain, Harry Potter has achieved as much as any of the country's diplomats, even if the Hogwarts sagas were paid for by Warner Bros.

On the other, there is a lingering suspicion in Government of the (British) people who actually make the films. Certainly, very few of them vote Tory - a fact that culture minister Ed Vaizey was quick to acknowledge when he visited the Cannes Festival last year. "Long hairs and characters in corduroy" is how the artists and directors used to be described by the trade press in the 1940s. It isn't so different today, when the industry remains full of small production companies - "basically one-man bands, operating around Soho [with] no capitalisation [who] stagger from project to project," as the former UK Film Council chief executive John Woodward once described the landscape. Memories at the Treasury haven't altogether faded either of the "sale and leaseback" era a decade ago, when British film was the vehicle of choice for canny accountants trying to help high net worth clients with tax deferral and - it was often said - tax avoidance.

Another problem politicians struggle with is that film is creatively led. Each new movie is a prototype - and you can't mass-manufacture prototypes (or, if you can, nobody in Britain has yet discovered how).

Mike Leigh, one of our greatest directors, was keeping a dignified silence in response to the outrageous and idiotic remark that an unnamed BBC source made, suggesting his career will be "over" in the brave new commercial world that the new report will usher in. Leigh has been nominated for Oscars and won the Palme d'Or and Golden Lion. What's more, some of his films have made money. A film policy that tried to freeze him out would be preposterous on every level.

So just how might the Government help producers in their ongoing quest to make "the successful British film"?

Invest in more lowish-budget comedies for domestic consumption
From George Formby in the 1930s to Norman Wisdom after the Second World War and, now, The Inbetweeners, the Brits have excelled at making lowish-budget comedies that can recoup their costs in Britain alone. The downside here is that the critics often hate them (remember The Sex Lives of the Potato Men). When the bile pours on to the reviews pages, the all-important opening weekend box-office figures are likely to plummet. There are several duds for every hit and you risk ending up with an industry that is both goofy and utterly parochial.

Nationalise the cinemas AND regulate the distributors
This is the Ken Loach option. He has called on the Government to "challenge the multiplexes" and "create a chain of independent cinemas programmed by people who like films". It is not a strategy likely to appeal to Cameron. Nonetheless, you don't need to share Loach's politics to accept that British distributors currently receive the lowest rentals from the exhibitors (the cinema owners) of anyone in Europe. These distributors are the ones who have to help British film find screens. Distribution itself is controlled by foreign-owned companies - not all of them American. The King's Speech was released by Canadian-owned Momentum. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was released by French-owned StudioCanal. The net result is that the profits from the UK's most successful films are often being funnelled abroad.

Look to Europe and learn the art of co-production
Films are self-evidently very expensive to make. When it comes to clawing together budgets, our European neighbours are very much more willing to work with each other than we are. The Treasury is understandably wary about foreign producers taking advantage of tax credits put in place for the British but, as matters stand, we are among the least desirable co-production partners in Europe. One way to reverse this would be for the British to rejoin Eurimages, the Council of Europe
Co-production and Distribution Fund that the Brits left in 1996. "Too much corruption and horse trading" was the excuse given then but the UK industry now looks increasingly isolated.

Nurture British stars
From Carey Mulligan to Michael Fassbender, and Daniel Craig to Keira Knightley, British cinema is currently awash in them - and they're still one of the main reasons why people go to see movies. However, creating a "star system" isn't straightforward. A key definition of a star is someone who is extremely highly paid. Most British productions can't afford them, which is why they end up starring in US movies. Maybe the Government could copy the example of the Rank Organisation, which set up a "Charm School" in Highbury in the 1940s to groom stars of the future. The "Charm School" students (who included Christopher Lee and Diana Dors) were taught about posture and elocution, made to walk around with books on their heads, sent to open village fêtes and given bit parts in Rank movies. This could be just the regime to turn the most unlikely wannabes such as Peaches Geldof and Agyness Deyn into bona fide movie idols.

Allow the producers to hold on to the profits
Invariably, cash-strapped British producers need to sign away all their rights just to get movies made. This means they rarely benefit, even when their films are hits. Reward them for success and they might actually be able to start building "sustainable" businesses (the long-term "holy grail" of government film policy.)

Invest in auteurs. Today's arthouse director may make tomorrow's blockbusters
It's often forgotten that Ridley Scott's debut feature, The Duellists, was an arthouse film made with government money and that Christopher Nolan's first film, Following (1998), was an esoteric, experimental affair made on a tiny budget. If government policy is focused entirely on supporting "commercial" filmmaking and neglects the task of identifying visionary new talent, the UK industry will soon wither anyway. The likes of Steve McQueen, Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold - and their younger equivalents - will be frozen out and so will much of the originality in British filmmaking.

Take film education seriously
It's easy to scoff at media studies courses and the idea of students putting their feet up and watching movies. Nonetheless, as producer Don Boyd puts it, "Film now is as important as English Literature was when it was introduced and became part of the curriculum. It's not just a question of preparing people for a trade. It is way beyond that." If the British film industry is really going to blossom, film needs to be taken seriously in the classroom.

Cut down on the paperwork
On even the lowest-budget British movies, there will be hundreds of legal documents. If filmmakers and producers were able to concentrate on the creative side of their business instead of having to learn legal and accountancy skills on the hoof, they might make better films.

Bring the broadcasters onside
If you want to make a film in Britain, there are only a few places you can go for finance. The British Film Institute (which holds the Lottery purse strings), the BBC and Channel 4 are foremost among them. It's a three-legged stool. That's why many are calling on BSkyB either to invest directly in British production or to show more British fare on the Sky Movie channels.

Of course, whatever the reaction to next week's report, one prediction can safely be made. This won't be the last time that the Government tinkers with, and tries to mend, the British film industry. Nor is Smith's review likely to discover the magic ingredients that make a successful British film.

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