Latest Update 27 August 2010 Jonathan Stuart-Brown for SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.
Our bottomline is keeping Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios as is, keeping the greenbelt in Iver Heath South Bucks as is, and expanding sound stages (which attract the $100 million to $300 million Hollywood budgets) around The UK. Ideally minimum four in in every county in The UK. We also want state of the art film sets across the UK on ex-industrial land which will give UK film production and tourism an unbeatable edge while regenerating towns and cities and creating jobs in every county.
Sound stages are glorified factory warehouses. If they are not near you, Hollywood will not be investing in your city or town. The UK can within five years have a £25 billion annual inward investment in our film, TV, tourism, film theme park, merchandising and gaming industry. We can have 250 000 people working in the film industry and film theme park industry. But it involves building sound stages and fantastic sets around The UK on ex-industrial land. Ideally we put The Pinewood Studios brand or at least The Elstree brand on these new sound stages in each region.
Elstree – in a town with under 90 000 people - invested in 6 sound stages and has Hollywood finance coming out their ears. Elstree is fully booked for two years, desparate to expand and starting to get other private sector investment and jobs in very many fields magnetised to their town. Other towns could and should copy them.
Elstree in the 70s inspired a young local boy who literally lived next door. As he became a teenager, he got a job as a runner getting coffee for Oliver Reed, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg and the cast of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Who was he ? Simon Cowell of ‘American Pop Idol’, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, and the ‘X Factor’. Living next to Elstree Studios sound stages inspired Simon Cowell to try showbiz and has employed very many people as a result and earned hundreds of millions for The UK, let alone the pleasure it has given the nation and the world. This type of inspiration needs to be spread around The UK. If Simon Cowell had lived fifty miles from a sound stage, then it is probable he would not have entered showbiz. It is a ‘who you know or who you get to know business’. There is no reason why everyone in The UK should not have a chance in their own county to get to know someone who can get them on the ladder to go as far as their talent, courage and work ethic will take them. Sound stages in every county will achieve this.
We expressly want this Government to grab the chance to build the genius vision Big and Bold around The UK to create a £25 billion annual film, tv, tourism, film theme parks, merchandising and gaming industry paying taxes and employing 250 000 people. We want to put on ex-industrial land sets for Venice, Paris, ancient Rome, Amsterdam, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the White House, Paris with Eifel Tower, The Pyramids, space ships, sci-fi, etc. Whether it is called Pinewood is a thing we are increasingly flexible about, but ideally it will be. Some significant shareholders at Pinewood Shepperton plc are open to exploring this along with very many of the regular freelance staff who spend most of their careers on movie productions made at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios.
The ebbs and flows of Pinewood Shepperton plc are alas a thing we have to monitor every trading minute. So far every prediction we have made has proved 100% accurate. The cold fact is that whoever buys Pinewood Shepperton shares decides the fate of 34 out of 44 of Britain’s sound stages, and moreover it has all the very big ones which other countries will not have for two years.
We want The UK to be a one-stop shop of a country to film any film or TV project in any language….cheaper and faster but higher quality. This with the sound stages and skill base will attract in the film and TV budgets from every Continent in the world.
The only place it can not and should not be built is on greenbelt land -especially in the South East – double especially on the greenbelt firewall around The M25 which is designed to contain London from growing out towards Oxford, Bournemouth and Brighton. Ironically this is precisely where Pinewood Shepperton plc Board and one very determined shareholder are determined against all sense to build it…even if failure drives the 34 Pinewood Shepperton sound stages outside of The UK. Well of course if your game plan is to tear down the greenbelt barrier to London stretching to Bournemouth and Oxford, concreting over things like The New Forest to build houses and earn over £200 billion, well then there is a sinistre logic to the scheme. Of course you need to cloak this asset strip and threat to Oxford University colleges and The Royal Dorset Yacht Club in the terms of, it is vital for The UK Film Industry to get the first 100 acre greenbelt thin end of the wedge. We exist to say this is nonsense. It is the last thing the UK film industry needs and indeed would diminish not bless the movie industry which we can have, should have, and would even in brutal economics be paying around £10 billion tax a year to Chancellor George Osborne to pay for schools, hospitals, firemen, disabled care workers and police to keep our streets safe.
By now you may have heard or read that exactly as we predicted two years ago that Pinewood Studios has failed to get planning permission to expand on sacrosanct greenbelt land in South Buckinghamshire. It was Pinewood Shepperton PLC Board and not us, who said that this expansion was vital for The British Film Industry. In fact they spent well over £10 million pounds emphasising the message and it was announced as a done deal from 2007 over 20 times on The BBC and national media. But of course it was not.
The Board has gone to Appeal and Public Inquiry in 2011 at great expense while the biggest shareholder Crystal Amber has publically called for The Chairman and other directors to go immediately. The truth is that no-one, repeat no-one knows who will be running Pinewood Shepperton plc next year…and it is unlikely by 2012 to be someone who has any interest in film making based in Britain.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/apr/23/micheal-grade-itv
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/fall-from-grace-of-michael-grades-itv-1637720.html
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/pinewood-shareholders-back-board-ftimes-6b4a49cd8928.html
The present desperate greenbelt expansion Appeal is vigorously opposed by the residents three miles around Pinewood Studios and we urge anyone to visit to see how toxic is the atmosphere. The Board’s British interest argument is fatally undermined by this Board sellings the 75 year brandname heritage to Canadian, Malaysian and German companies to use for their film sound stages which will transfer over 40 000 film jobs outside of Britain. Negotiations in Shanghai last week do not speak well either for British based film manufacturing jobs.
The merger of Pinewood-Shepperton-Teddington which created a monopoly after 60 years healthy competition was said to be so Britain could compete with these countries’ studios viz getting big Hollywood budgets. Now the British based studios are prevented from competing with them.
This monoply should normally be vetted by The Competition Commission and Gisela Stuart MP wrote to the then Business Minister Peter Mandelson asking him to do so. He was too busy writing his memoirs. A monopoly is only allowed if it is in the British national interest (so drug companies might get one so they focus on quality not selling pills cheaply in a price war to make extra profit) . Increasingly this monopoly looks like it is only serving the Malaysian, Canadian and German film industry while trying to prevent The UK competing for big Hollywood film budgets here from 2012.
The UK Film Council and all the other film quangos should be opposing all this with all their might and URGENTLY SOUNDING THE ALARM but instead are cheerleading for the greenbelt expansion….while keeping their head in the sand at very expensive lunches on the tax payer. The UKFC opposed building film sound stages outside of a cosy south-east cartel. Thus we only at their peak had 36 000 people employed in the film industry whereas an expansion of sound stages to each region would let us have 250 000.
The film quangos should resign and volountarily disband in shame, but instead they cling to 6 figure fatcat non-jobs in an era of public cuts in which nurses,doctors,police, firemen will lose their jobs. They should be sounding the alarm that Pinewood and Shepperton 75 year history and the magnet of their 34 sound stages for Hollywood investment of over £1 billion a year in The UK is on the point of being sold off for houses, property, car parks, warehouses, supermarket distribution centres, whatever makes the most commercial sense given their location. The film work is going abroad WITH or WITHOUT planning permission to build houses on greenbelt land.
The Government Business Minister Vince Cable, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Creative Industries Minister Ed Vaizey should intervene now…and axe the film quango non-jobs. In fact Jeremy Hunt has axed The UKFC but not for 18 months and they plan a scorched earth policy. Building a UK Film Industry was never their aim.
Can asset strippers seeking to sell Pinewood and Shepperton land really do this ? All thanks to The UK Film Council, they can sell off the British Film Industry crown jewels.
Put aside the present shareholders, let us say ASSET STRIPERS ARE US decide to offer to buy the shares from the present owners. The owners of over 60% of shares are themselves plcs.
Simple reality in a plc in which shares are freely traded is that any offer to buy all the shares must be recommended or not by The Board to shareholders. Company law, the fiduciary duty, and the duty of care to behave in a reasonable non-negligent manner mean that if the price is high enough, that The Board must recommend it. There are many asset strippers we know of who would gladly buy Pinewood and Shepperton NOT for the film making factory facilities but other commercial use. So even if this Board and all the shareholders are indeed the most noble of men, then no guarantee by anyone can be 100% sure. If an offer is made to buy, they have legal duties which may compel them to sell. Any Board in a plc has a duty to make the best profit and longterm shareholder value for their shareholders. Whether Pinewood Shepperton plc should be a plc is a good question and one The UKFC should have made The Government ask. Pinewood Shepperton has only been a plc since 2004. The plc has no legal duty to make films nor facilitate film making on its lands.
In a plc the Chairman can be sacked overnight. So his promises mean zip. A CEO or manager can be sacked quicker than a soccer manager. The shares can be sold in 24 hours and new owners call all the shots.
We anticipate that the expansion on greenbelt for houses in Iver Heath is defeated and The Public Inquiry will confirm this. In fact if Richard Bernstein of Crystal Amber gets over 50% of shares and/or axes The Chairman, then we think he will pull the plug on it within 24 hours. Pinewood Shepperton has already lost THREE years profits in chasing this futile quest. The South-East greenbelt is safe. It was an unrequited love. A doomed romance.
The true hero, the rest of The UK regions wait in the wings. We know Pinewood Studios will love us and be very happy with us. We will conquer the world together. That is if The Government urgently intervenes and stops Pinewood and Shepperton being sold…and stops it expanding the brand in other countries such as Malaysia and China.
This present (but soon to be axed) Pinewood Shepperton Board has rebuffed all overtures from the regions to expand there no matter what land or monies are offered. Many of the shareholders and probable next Board have different ideas. They do not automatically sneeze at free lands, regeneration millions, other sweeteners on offer. They see the business case and new revenue streams such as merchandising.
Pinewood and Shepperton Studios can expand into The Midlands, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Wales, etc on the massive landbanks available for regeneration. They can build sound stages (the one pre-requisite of Hollywood investment of $100 million dollar movies) in any part of The UK which does not have them. These need about 2-3 acres per sound stage and they look like most factory warehouses. Ideally you start with 10 acres and build 4, or you get 20 acres and build 6.
The rising star, the lesson to The UK is Elstree in Borehamwood. It has six sound stages for rent and is block booked by Hollywood for two years with the likes of $120 million Sherlock Holmes 2 which will employ a huge number of local people on freelance contracts…from electricians, chippies, security, painters, drivers I.T. to actors and cameramen . The private sector investment in all business fields tiny Hertsmere is booming as a result. Five hotels are opening. The film industry magnetises businesses which want to be near them and ride on the free marketing media profile they bring.
Gisela Stuart MP has tried to negotiate with Pinewood Studios (Pinewood Shepperton PLC) about expanding inside The UK, to Birmingham and The West Midlands, but they are hostile as it spoils their plans to move jobs outside The UK while selling off the land value of the present sites with the sky high London values.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/27/pinewood-studios-green-belt
Her very experienced view is that they will probably not get planning permission and should be working on a British Plan B…which they refuse to do…their Plan B does not include Britain.
They are now moving the jobs to Malaysia, but spinning that it is a good thing. 99% of technicians and 95% of British based actors will not be employed in projects they quietly move to Canada (such as the latest Daniel Craig movie), Malaysia and next up China. The negotiations in Shanghai last week seemed to go well. Well for China but not British based jobs.
We salute other countries, we wish them well, but our duty is to defend British based film making and British based jobs. We welcome the world and their actors to film here, provided they use British based crews and at least some of our British based actors.
Read more at:
and
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010218.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-13364-pinewood-studios-homes-bid-rejected/
TITANIC 2, THE SEQUEL April 14 2012.
Just when they thought the party was getting into full swing, The British Film Industry is about to hit an iceberg.
SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.com urge The Government to intervene to rescue The British Film Industry which is on the brink of a sudden, spectacular and unexpected collapse similar to The Titanic on April 14 1912. Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios can cease to exist as film studios based in Britain by April 14 2012 after they failed to obtain a vital planning permission on October 21 2009 and deliberately SPURNED a viable British based Plan B for an expansion they claim is “vital” and of “national significance”.
These asset strippers are off to Malaysia and China…cheap land, cheap labour.
SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.com urge The Government to draw up urgent contingency plans to intervene if need be to rescue British based film manufacturing. The buildings are 75 years old and both could and should get protected status SO they can not be sold off as houses or car parks.
SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.com urge The Government to help facilitate building 400 sound stages around The UK starting in the centre, The Heart of England. They can also regenerate the nation and make it more beautiful, more inspiring, more brilliant than ever by taking the Pinewood Studios genius world class expansion plan to ex-industrial sites in The West Midlands, Wales, South-West, North, East Anglia, Scotland and all around in The UK regions thus creating over 250 000 jobs.
http://www.projectpinewood.com/video.asp and http://www.projectpinewood.com/benefits.asp and
http://www.projectpinewood.com/B_Creative.asp and
http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/projectpinewood/overview/index.html
You start in the centre. You start where there have been more than 100 000 private sector jobs lost in the last decade. You start in The West Midlands. This will bring realistic hope of a dynamic future to the West Midland region of sky high manufacturing skill, huge unemployment and abundance of ex-industrial land ideal to rescue Pinewood Studios. It will reduce dramatically the cost of public purse welfare benefits and the huge economic costs to the tax payer (police, NHS, social services) of problems associated with longterm unemployment. This film factory infrastructure can legitimately and easily be financed out of The Lottery Fund. In fact this is a much better use of The Lottery Money as it creates longterm infrastructure which can create jobs and monies until the Second Coming.
Other savings can be made by axing the fat cat bureaucratic film quangos and regional screen commissions. It is SOUND STAGES which bring in the Hollywood investment…much more than tax credits.
SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.com urge The Government and all parties to commit to build unique film factory manufacturing infrastructure out from The West Midlands mothership in a ten year plan to have minimum 15 acre sites (bigger than the size of Elstree Studios) from Cornwall to Scotland, and West Wales to East Anglia so that every county has them. Every county can then pitch for Hollywood blockbuster contracts. Most towns are bigger than Elstree Studios, every county has a spare 15 acres.
This is to capture over 50% of all film and TV production finance in the world (£25 billion annually) in every language and to create over 250 000 jobs.
In any event the Pinewood Studios, Shepperton Studios, Teddington Studios, Ealing Studios and Elstree Studios in The South East can quickly be linked in a unique national integrated film factory infrastructure to Media City http://www.mediacityuk.co.uk/ and BBC Manchester in The North West and The BBC major expansion planned for Cardiff (home of drama productions such as Dr Who).
Just as the first factories in the Industrial Revolution, then canals, then railways, then bridges and then motorways each in turn gave Britain an infrastructure lead over other nations, so this is the new infrastructure lead which can bring in inward investment and export products the world wishes to buy.
SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.com urge the Government to intervene in this crisis, create real jobs, increase UK prestige and kudos, invest in a real future which can even be the NEETs solution.
SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY.com urge The Government to use the monopoly legislation to prevent the global brand names Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios leaving The UK. They and their 75 year history need to be confined to British based manufacturing providing British based employment and not relocated to The Far East (China and Malaysia).
Pinewood Shepperton PLC is staying in profit now mainly due to BBC contracts for programmes such as “the Apprentice”, “Dragon’s Den”, ”New Tricks”, “Jonathan Creek”, “Lily Allen and Friends”, ”Ricky Gervais’ EXTRAS” and two dozen other TV shows including quiz shows. No-one can dispute the high quality of production BUT a Government wishing to dictate terms can point out that these are listed as being part of the 50% quota of TV programmes OUTSIDE The M25 and the BBC promise to film 50% of its programmes in the regions by 2015. Please look at the map and then see if this is what they had in mind by OUTSIDE The M25 to give the rest of The UK a fair chance.
Now Pinewood Studios proposed EXPANSION and future EXPANSIONS relocated to The West Midlands, or even Kent and High Wycombe, OR even Llangollen, Exeter, Chester, Bournemouth or Bath, or even Ipswich, Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon, Telford, Sunderland or Hull, Dundee, Cowdenbeath, Shetland or Ffestiniog, Sheffield, Barnsley, Derby, Nottingham, Birkenhead, WELL then this is clearly outside the M25. We would wish the Government to draw up plans to have a minimum 15 acre film and TV facility in EVERY county in The UK…and preferably with the Pinewood Studios brand on it. Local access to national infrastructure plugged into Hollywood Finance.
By the way what is at present on The Pebble Mill site which was BBC Birmingham, the second biggest TV production centre in The UK and one of the biggest in Europe, for over 30 years ? Turned to gravel because of clerical error ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mill_Studios
Axed because of an error in The BBC Accounts ? This is a matter we think The Attorney General and Justice Minister should call The Fraud Squad in to fully investigate given that very many tens of millions were involved, and The BBC refuses to let the National Audit Office have unfettered access to its accounts. It certainly means West Midland licence fee payers are only getting 15% of their money spent in their region while 85% subsidises BBC employment and fat cat boss six figure salaries, millions on taxes, many more millions on £2000 lunches in London. London licence fees only pay for 20% of the employment created by The BBC in London. The destruction of regional media infrastructure by The BBC has led to national newspapers and magazines withdrawing staff from the regions and centralising everything in London. Private sector investors in all businesses now want MEDIA JUICE for new businesses…free marketing and publicity ONLY easy access to and networking with media can bring. So for example Birmingham has lost not only The BBC Pebble Mill but straight after 61 000 private sector jobs. Only one private sector job in 10 is being created in The West Midlands for 10 in London or near Pinewood Studios in South Bucks.
The Government is now being advised to let Birmingham, The West Midlands and many other UK cities and regions just have officially DE-TROITIFICATION. To have mass evacuation and movement to the south-east. Every greenbelt including The New Forest and all of Wiltshire and Oxfordshire will have to be concreted over to house them destroying the south-east beauty and quality of life.
http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/?p=682
http://www.centreforcities.org/assets/files/10-06-07%20Private%20Sector%20Cities%20web.pdf
Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell and many Northern Cities need to see what De-troitification looks like first hand. In Detroit over 1 million people have left, houses sell for $1, only the drug gangs are hiring, people leave at the rate of 1000 a week, and still among those left there is 30% unemployment. It is the debt capital and murder capital of The USA.
However, an antidote to this in the UK is building the original vision in Project Pinewood bigger and bolder around the regions. Jobs, tourism, film glamour, inspiration, regeneration, strong stable communities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mill_Studios
We are Save the British Film Industry and we are not averse to saving access to British TV production at the same time NOR of saving the whole UK economically, culturally, artistically and socially. This is a noble campaign.
It is for God and for others to save it spiritually and morally.
Having said that – ss the stakes get ever higher with real consequences depending on the outcome, we sincerely welcome your prayers.
Jonathan Stuart-Brown
www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com
A very good case and a well rounded argument. I hope the government shows its support for something that will regenerate the region.
NOTE BEFORE COMMENT FROM Mr Andrew M Smith of Pinewood Board.
This comment was made before the October 21 refusal of planning permission for the ONLY site in The UK which could provide the economic and creative cluster benefits based on all the infrastructure being in the south-east.
Our whole raison d’etre is to spread the infrastructure around The UK and stop giving more food to a grossly fat person (the south-east) which is even screaming please do not give us more food (refusal of planning permission on October 21).
They said that all the infrastructure was in New York so no-one would move to a desert 3000 miles away. THEY DID MOVE TO HOLLYWOOD. Creative cluster or what ? We are only seeking a 95 mile relocation of the expansion with interim 15 acre sites up The M40. We get a few creative clusters and magnetise the creativity of the world. By November 15 Birmingham will have a bid to Pinewood addressing the bottomline of Pinewood Shepperton PLC (costs and guaranteed profit which compare well with previous years). We also aim to prove that by the time that it is built, the creative cluster will be there.
Mr Smith’s comment from a few weeks ago now follows:
…………………………………………….
(written before planning permission refused)
I want to clarify the proposals for Project Pinewood and the reasons why the location adjacent to Pinewood Studios is the only location on which this development and its benefits can be achieved.
The Save the British Film Industry.com states that Pinewood and Shepperton Studios will cease to exist should they not achieve planning permission for redevelopment known as Project Pinewood. On the basis of this, they urge support for moving Pinewood Studios’ expansion plan to the Midlands.
An outline planning application has been made to South Bucks District Council for a living and working community for the creative industries, comprising streetscapes for outdoor filming, known as Project Pinewood. Project Pinewood will accommodate residential units (including affordable housing), commercial and community uses, including educational and vocational training facilities to create a cluster for the creative industries, on a site adjacent to Pinewood Studios.
The proposal expands the existing film and television infrastructure at Pinewood Studios. It will provide valuable facilities for training and education, both mainstream and vocational, and provide space for creative industry businesses, linked to Pinewood Studios, to form the first purpose-built cluster for the UK creative industries. Project Pinewood will also provide landscaped areas within and surrounding the built development, for recreational use, filming and ecological enhancement. Importantly, it will meet one of the Government’s objectives, to make Britain a world recognised creative industries hub, outlined in the DCMS report ‘Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy’ (2008).
Project Pinewood will be a living and working community, establishing a creative cluster for both the screen and associated creative industries. Through the design and architecture of its streetscapes, replicating European and American locations, Project Pinewood will offer a unique facility adjacent to Pinewood Studios for shooting film and television and for other forms of video and photography such as electronic games, fashion and advertising.
In the preparation of the planning application for Pinewood Studios, alternative sites were considered, in accordance with planning guidance related to development in the Green Belt. However, the most important aspect in achieving the benefits of Project Pinewood is the complementary relationship between Project Pinewood and Pinewood Studios and the resulting creative cluster and the broad range of benefits this will generate.
The proximity of Project Pinewood to Pinewood Studios is essential to its success. It will enable producers to move between indoor and outdoor shooting incurring minimal cost, and it will give immediate access to a skilled workforce and the existing physical and technical infrastructure and services available at Pinewood Studios. It therefore makes best use of land by minimising duplication of facilities and has sustainability benefits by minimising the need to travel when making films and television productions.
The proposed Screen Crafts Academy (SCA) will provide specialist training for the creative industries. It is proposed that this will be operated as a satellite facility to the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in Beaconsfield. It will extend the NFTS and Skillset’s Screen Craft Academies training programmes and help ensure the UK’s long established international reputation for providing the very best of film and programme making craft skills.
The SCA will offer one year foundation degrees in 20 craft assistant roles. It will dovetail with existing undergraduate and graduate screen media education and the Creative and Media Diplomas introduced in the autumn 2008 in secondary schools. The SCA could target to train some 120 or more students a year.
The SCA will be located within the core of Project Pinewood and will provide a significant opportunity for knowledge transfer between Pinewood Studios and the creative industries cluster. By being physically located next to Pinewood Studios, Project Pinewood can add to the existing wealth of expertise, infrastructure and skills. To remove Pinewood away from Pinewood Studios would undermine their cumulative value and tarnish the competitive edge that they can deliver for the creative industries and the UK economy.
Pinewood Studios has built up its reputation over 73 years. It is internationally renowned for providing high quality facilities in one location and delivering high quality films over many decades. This reputation and success cannot be achieved overnight, even with high investment. Over this time, Pinewood Studios have become home to an extensive range of creative businesses. Evidence shows that a strong skill base of craftsmen exists in the areas serving the Studios. Again, this cannot be recreated or replicated elsewhere.
The combination of Project Pinewood and Pinewood Studios takes advantage of economies of scale which makes this proposal deliverable in this location. If Pinewood Studios fails to exploit the benefits it enjoys, it is clear that other countries will respond to this opportunity. The expansion on the proposed site, adjacent to Pinewood Studios, provides the optimal location for Project Pinewood, the benefits of which could not be created elsewhere.
You may like to know that we have received the backing for Project Pinewood from industry figures such as Sir Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, Callum McDougall, Lord Puttnam and Iain Smith. We have received backing for Project Pinewood from Screen South, the South East Media Network, Skillset, First Light, the National Film and Television School, BAFTA, the Cinema Exhibitors Associations, the UK Film Council, Film London, the Musicians Union, Women in Film and Television, British Screen Advisory Council, British Centre of the International Theatre Institute, RSA Films, Bentley Productions, Fujifilm, Chawton Wood Films, Hartswood Films, Framestore, BECTU, Production Guild of Great Britain, Channel 4, SEEDA and the CBI to name but a few.
Project Pinewood is being funded by the Company. Total costs incurred from inception to 30 June 2009 in relation to the planning application were £4.0m. The detailed proposal for Project Pinewood is imaginative, visionary and well thought through. Project Pinewood builds upon the ambition to become the European hub for creativity and will ensure continuing success and future growth of our creative industries.
Project Pinewood, together with Pinewood Studios, will ensure that the UK remains an attractive place to make films at a time when it is facing increasing international competition.
Andrew M. Smith
Group Director Corporate Affairs
I would like to know when Britain is going to be back in British hands again? It is beyond belief the way British Brands are led out of the county and country. I wish the real British people become patriotic and fight for their real British Assets.
Ines,
We post your comment ON THE BASIS you meant absolutely no racism towards any British citizen and you reference to “real British people” is in fact to to those who want a South-East Only club extended to the whole of The UK.
We stand for British based jobs in the film industry for British based workers. In fact this can create within Britain an even greater international mix on film sets and in film factories.
It will cause many more British based workers to be employed.
The vision of Save The British Film Industry is a 15 acre minimum film factory with sound stage site in every county in the UK, ideally each called Pinewood Studios.
Our vision is to invite in film financiers of the world and actors in every language to make their movie and TV productions within the UK (and Ireland) based on unique infrastructure, cost, quality. We stress that our support is from every ethnic group within The UK and we thank http://www.webmirer.co.uk for designing this website. For the record, the owner of Webmirer is a Hindu. We have received huge support from Sikh and from Muslim British patriots who see Britain as one family NOT a South-East only club regarding opportunities and essential infrastructure.
We assume you meant this Ines, and on this basis your comment is warmly welcome.
Well done Jon. Such an obvious solution, it would be mad not to move here. Next move is national news!
Yes, I must agree! It is time that the Midlands began see some of the action! We have such great talent in this region and we should all be supporting this brilliant effort to bring Pinewood here!
Well done Jonathan and others! You really seem to be maker tracks
Andrew Walker
Black Country Cinema
blackcountrycinema@hotmail.co.uk
blackcountrycinema.wordpress.com
Manjeet and Andrew, your encouragement both in the early days and now has been outstanding. Literally outstanding. A big thankyou also to Kaz Mohammed for his daily help with logistics, planning and morale. Thanks as ever to Amit at
http://www.webmirer.co.uk
Lindsay Doyle, Satnam Rana, Nadine Towell, Colin Roobottom, Phil Upton, and all the others for The BBC Midlands Today and BBC Radio WM coverage. Thankyou to Central TV News. Thankyou to Jonny Greatrex at the Sunday Mercury. Thankyou to the staff of Variety in Hollywood still the best publication on the whole planet http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010218.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=pinewood+studios
especially to Bobbie Whiteman. A huge thankyou to Adrian Goldberg of the Stirrer and his TalkSport Radio audience, and the brilliant national show last night. The biggest thankyou to BBc Radio Berkshire for the coverage today and as ever a giant thankyou to BBC News Economics Hugh Pym and all The MPs most especially Gisela Stuart MP. We also thank Charlotte at St Modwens, The Longbridge developers, Donovan Campbell, Mayor of Walsall John O’Hare, and Connie and Patrick, Anne and Karen, Amal and Anne, Gerard and Clare , all the guys on
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=515888&page=16
especially Ian Wood, Jon, Simon, Rob, Mikey, and
…there are far too many to list who are working to pull this all together. A huge thankyou to Ronnie Lamb.
Jonathan Stuart-Brown
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com
We further wish to thank Matthew Bott for his eloquent and brilliant lobbying of MPs and the website MI6, Mark McDonagh, Grady McLean, …thanks guys.
Jonathan Stuart-Brown
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com
Mr. Smith above explains why it is necessary to combine Project Pinewood with the Studios. Nobody reacts.
Charles,
This is an old comment from Andrew Smith.
As part of our new policy of trust, debate and negotiation we are posting any and all of Andrew Smith’s comments unedited.
See here:
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2009/10/birmingham-need-to-wow-the-pinewood-studio-board-and-the-numbers-better-add-up/
The new position is that Gisela Stuart MP (alas in Washinton this week) is organising a Birmingham bid based on guaranteeing greater profit for his Board, shareholders and greater job security for his existing employees.
The post is ALSO up for two reasons:
1. We now have reason to believe ONLY = first choice
or even = was our first choice.
2. If the numbers stack up then we are a business and the longer we stay in business the more films we make and work we provide.
3. Mr Smith has genuine concern that NOWHERE else in The UK has the infrastructure to give him the creative cluster and the economic cost savings he needs. However, we think that the cash we have, the bid Gisela Stuart MP is putting together and the time it will take to build (construction) will cause a relocation to tick all Mr Smith’s boxes. We know how very many people in London wish to relocate out but can not as their work is there. We know how many people worldwide wish to relocate to greater creative work and opportunities but London is far too expensive an option to start up in.
MOREOVER the bottomline is that the site described as THE ONLY OPTION on October 16 was closed as an option on October 21.
Please see here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/27/pinewood-studios-green-belt
A lot of people want us to provide another option. We live in fast changing times.
Gisela Stuart MP is trying to organise a big roundtable to settle a West Midland bid. This will be at the NEC in Birmingham next week sometime but as Gisela is in Washington, it is still on a date to be fixed. We aim to present a bid by November 15 guaranteeing more profit to Pinewood and more job security for staff at the existing sites in Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington………………and a much greater creative cluster than Mr Smith ever dreamed in the original vision but extended to Birmingham, the West Midlands and Black Country, then around The UK.
BY THE WAY I WILL SAY PRIVATELY YOU WERE RIGHT. THANKYOU.
Jonathan
Birmingham hurry! Bond 23 start shooting end of next year!
Jonathan, what about Valleywood-Dragon Studios? I cann’t find it on the web?
Charles forgive my delay in getting onto this. If I have not in a few days, please prompt me.
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/01/east-enders-joining-coronation-street-with-james-bond-sherlock-holmes-batman-all-to-be-filmed-in-same-place-all-roads-lead-to-pinewood-studios-owner-john-whittaker/
You cannot keep asking the goverment to baily out the film industry everytime there is a recession or the American do not come, also the film industry know world wide.
where the producer can work somewhere cheaper in the world that is what they are going to do.
I have been working in the film industry as projectionist for the last 28 years working in films studios, location and cinema. I have seen a big change from the technology side. Which will make the filming of a film a lot easier.
Stephen,
Thankyou but you miss the point.
Pinewood has been bailed out, subsidised by public purse and by the BBC for decades. But it does not need to be.
We are looking for a robust £25 billion a year private sector UK film making infrastructure
along with additional tourism and merchandising and gaming. One which pays taxes.
The Government has on its hands mass land banks across The UK, some well over 400 acres, and if derelict they inspire crime….and public cost.
It has mass unemployment and its focus on banks, bombs and a little pharamaceuticals is a bust model to pay off the national debt.
The film industry has always gravitated to where land is plentiful and cheap, and where skill base and work ethic high and wages low.
In the 1930s this was in the land west of and north of a much smaller London. They could not afford lands in the industrial West Midlands (then the world leader), North West and parts of Wales, Scotland, etc
Now the situation is reversed.
Lands just north and west of London are far too high for sane film makers to make films as opposed to market them.
Lands across the UK are plentiful and derelict while skill base FAR FAR higher than the south east, labour costs much much cheaper.
The quangocracy around film making defends the south-east only infrastructure to defend their own non-jobs from the public purse.
Moreover, they exclude most of the south-east from the party.
In the 1960-76 period British pop and rock artists had over 40% of global market BECAUSE the infrastructure was in place to find the musical talent across The UK. 90% was from outside London and less talent per capita found in London.
Moreover, the infrastructure which launched The Beatles no longer exists outside of London so they would now be working in call centres or diversity liasion counsellors.
The infrastructure for films HAS NEVER existed outside a very tiny part of the South East, and as there is no factory to hire or precedent, the regional risk capital investors (who set up laundrettes, restaurants, fast food places, car washes) do not put their money into films. It is only critical mass which creates a private sector business model such as Hollywood. All others depend on public subsidy except in India.
The London film industry has never attracted even third class business talent, although it does have some first class creative talent. Well under 10% of the UK first class creative talent but hey it is a start.
The real business talent and over 90% of creative talent is excluded.
Do you want a £25 billion annual business in The UK or not ?
The reputation of these large studios is without doubt superb and they represent the history of the British film industry but they are not the British film industry..
The future of the larger independent movie studios was always going to be in doubt as they are basically “dry hire” facilities – and can all too often be competed with by anyone with an airfield or some old factory units and who fancy a stab at the movie business…people who don’t have the same costs and don’t necessarily need to be in the movie business next week….and they need little experience as the movie is more or less just renting space..
Even with diversification into TV and space rental to supplier companies, it was inevitable that the only way to change these real estate intensive elements of the big studios ( the sound stages ) was for these businesses to become more involved in the multiple-margin model – where the studio doesn’t simply rent the stage area but gets involved in supplying the people, equipment, lighting, power, and facilities – thus increasing the available margins per square foot..
The model needed to change… This is how the TV studios, graphics studios and post production studios work.
In order for the large studios to do with without upsetting the applecart culturally was to invest in the supplier companies, locking them in on rental agreement to be at your studio but also making a margin even if they lit the production at the guy down the roads’ studio… surely the only way to grow the business – dry hire is too volatile and if your a big studio especially so… feast or famine
The only other option was grow and grow and grow and grow…
With a huge amount of valuable real estate and a huge utilization to fill – what is the value of a major studio’s space versus an old factory when even at the major studios your movie production will bring in most of its resources from outside companies.
And so the model of a UK movie studio was always going to be the used car lot at ridiculous discount rates, or bigger studios getting bigger and not stopping..
And even with a thriving independent production resource wherever its located, is that a film industry ? I argue not.. A film industry is built on product – product that is encouraged and protected and valued and most importantly of all invested in – in the longer term not just immediate box office…or selling out to Hollywood as soon as its off the blocks..
To make this sort of investment attractive surely must be the key…
and perhaps to go back to a model of where studios and production entities have a more direct relationship than simply as independent facility providers..
Meanwhile… “Planning permission in a Green Belt…”
How Alex Korda managed to obtain planning permission in a Green Belt (!) for his Denham Studios… and how Pinewood saved him…
http://www.britmovie.co.uk/studios/Denham-Studios
Steve Gunn,
My english is not so good but I think you describe the situation that was not profitable in the past. Or am I wrong?
Holland has no film industry (and no World Cup) but England does, I thought!
I think, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Charles, the return on investment for simply “dry hire” or “4-wall hire” has never been high against the value of the space it occupies, and the higher the land value the harder it is to make that investment make sense. This has been true for any independent studios
And movie businesses is unique ( against TV or Sound Studios ) in that it primarily hires out space not production facilities..
And with no shortage of space to make movies now, including old factories and airfields etc how can the big studios package the value of their space to compete at increasing rates in to offset the land value….- thats the issue and has been the issue for a long time ..
The question is does the culture of movie studios change to become Studios, where they own production facilities and services and they tie them in, making their offering much more than just space… or they invest in productions and thus become less independent..
But whats been very clear for a number of years is that the old model was going to find it harder and harder to survive, especially ones that occupy prime land.
Steve,
You seem to be on the ball.
The key to Pinewood in Iver Heath just West of London AND Shepperton in London is that its land is as PRIME as it comes. Add the 2012 Olympics – try booking a hotel room for this month – and you see that it can make more money from non-film factory hire than continuing with it. The solution ideally is co-invest in films made there, but no-one among The Board or shareholders is up for this.
So they try to get houses on greenbelt as a shortterm fix, and this is now in Public Inquiry. If they got it, the same problem still exists…PRIME LAND able to make £1 billion and more rather than profits of £4 million a year.
So they try franchaising the brandname to non-Uk countries which should cut off overnight any UK taxpayer and Lottery subsidies if the Government wake up to them exporting jobs.
The key is regional expansion of sound stages and lavish must-see sets, tourism, merchandising, gaming.
The high visibility of studios/factories and the quality of sets WILL get Dragon’s Den type entrepreneurs to put monies into productions.
Volume of production (hits and misses) produced Hollywood.
People now invest in shops, restaurants, hotels, laundrettes, products, golf courses, ice cream vans, McDonald’s franchaises, pizza taleaways, bowling alleys ..even dare I say it OCADO which is seeking another £400 million in a floatation. If these same people see, feel, touch, get comfortable with the concept of risking money on productions THEN they will finance them.
The British Film Industry does not lack the talent in The UK…it has lacked the business brains and the numpties who lose inherited monies put off the real investors who will emerge if the studio facilities are visible and BUSINESS accessible and understandable.
Simple formula…Great idea, great story, actors and crew to make it below price X, sell it to shops (cinemas or DVD or TV) for more than X. Film markets where buyer meets seller make it easier.
If the producer gets a great publicity and marketing pre-sale to shops, it is easier.
If the producer agrees a profit share with shops, then the marketing and publicity need to hook the audience…customers…and keep them coming back with more friends.
If The producer can get toys, video games, merchandising as bonus money..fantastic.
Not much different to designing and marketing and distributing a car…except films are one-off creations with a three year shelf life UNLESS you get a sequel and franchaise.
The key is know what the customers want…deliver it on budget and on time..as in any business.
Here The UK business dunces have failed…and the public funded stuff just pleases the quango panel of three NOT the public who avoid watching the films.
Know what the public wants.
The more the studio facilities are spread around The Uk, the more this will happen.
These guys deserve encouragement
http://www.mancattan.co.uk/
http://omarimccarthy.blogspot.com/
http://omarimccarthy.blogspot.com/2010/08/save-british-film-industry-identity_12.html
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/07/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead-save-the-british-film-industry-kill-the-uk-film-council/