Save The British Film Industry.Com

Happy New Year. Peace, Joy, Health, Happiness, Success, Bliss, Prosperity to all, especially Pinewood Shepperton PLC Board, shareholders and staff.  We want Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios to really prosper and reach new heights employing far more people and making even better films.  Our firm view is that the correct path is to expand around The UK  and not to expand outside The EU.

Pinewood Shepperton PLC Board has 180 degree opposite policy. They want to expand in every Continent except The EU, and not in Britain except a house property development on greenbelt land in Iver Heath South Bucks (which has failed and will fail again on Appeal, the expense of  which may bankrupt the company).

Last year Pinewood Studios pulled out all the PR stunts. They gave themselves a BAFTA, got The BBC to puff up their British flag image and their  PR handouts, with the honourable exception of James Murray at The Sunday Express,  were printed unedited by the national media in Britain.

Why is Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios so trusted ? Why the uncritical media ?

Well from the 1930s to 2002, they were run by passionate British patriots and super-passionate film makers. People who invested all their money into film making.  These people believed in British based film making. They believed in it at any cost. For example Charles Boot and then J Arthur Rank who founded Pinewood Studios in the 1930s wanted to make Christian films and truly great inspirational  stories to uplift humanity and morality.  Shepperton Studios was until 2002 owned by The Scott brothers who personally directed (and often produced with their own money) Gladiator, Top Gun, Alien, Crimson Tide, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Black Rain, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner etc

They would sell their homes, cars and watches to make movies and especially to keep British based film-making going.

However, since 2002 the Pinewood Shepperton PLC Board and shareholders have no such pedigree.

They are a property company looking to maximise profit for shareholders (who at the moment are property developers and asset managers).  Alas they have shown no acumen at making significant profit (or at present almost any profit)  from the fattest film years the film industry has seen.

Their super cautious no risk business model has led to well…low reward and unsettled shareholders and feeble share price.

They merely RENT OUT the factory facilities to film financiers (usually Hollywood Studios) and increasingly TV (mostly BBC). These financiers hire the British based staff (ie all those in the credits at the end of movies made at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios) and thus they do not appear on Pinewood and Shepperton books.

So Pinewood Studios premises saw films made there which earned a mere £2.5 billion worth of cinema ticket sales in 2008, but the plc made a puny £40 million turnover of which little was profit. The turnover will be much less this year (even though the productions made there continued to be huge box-office and of magnificent standard).

Sherlock Holmes was superb. Please go and see it. This is Pinewood Studios and British based film workers at their best. If Avatar had not come out at the same time, then Sherlock Holmes might have made treble the money. As it is, it has made over $300 million in under two weeks….and if you have not seen it, go see it. It is amazingly good.

At the same time, Pinewood Studios has lost all goodwill in its own backyard by the relentless drive to get the greenbelt housing development in Iver Heath. Houses for miles around display STOP PROJECT PINEWOOD posters. Until recently, Pinewood Studios was loved by its neighbours. Now it is distrusted.

Pinewood Studios has lostsome of  its industry reputation for always delivering and being a safe pair of hands after the failure to get planning permission on October 21 2009. Slowly people are noting this plc has always underperformed The Ftse 100 and is valued at £60 million now when it was valued at £97 million in 2002.

In 2009 Pinewood Shepperton PLC Board was repeatedly offered a huge lifeline by The Government and especially by The West Midlands. This lifeline was repeatedly spurned.

It can still lead to Pinewood Studios expanding into every region and every county in The UK  (assisted by UK Government, regional funds and EU money) while at the same time gaining state of the art factory facilities to blow away where AVATAR was made.

The big plus is merchandising revenue. This will accelerate as Pinewood Studios gains a visible UK presence. Even in Iver Heath, you will never find it unless a local villager chooses to help you.

Pinewood Studios can also look to have sets double in down times as theme parks.

The West Midlands, led by Gisela Stuart MP was especially keen to roll down the Red Carpet.

Pinewood Studios Board chose to urinate on it.

Meanwhile “patriotic”, “utterly trustworthy” Pinewood Studios has announced it is expanding in Malaysia (creating 3000 jobs) on cheap land with lower labour costs, and has already sent Daniel Craig’s latest movie to its new  Toronto, Canada, Studio. It has let The Sunday Telegraph know that China is next.

Sherlock Holmes 2 could be made in Canada, Malaysia, even China. The biggest difference will be in the credits and those employed. China and Malaysia will not be handing out many work permits to foreigners.

But hey…Pinewood Shepperton is a plc and can do what it likes.

Well maybe not so fast with that thinking.

It is a monopoly which has evaded The Competition Commission scrutiny.

It has gained one third of its income from TV productions (mainly BBC which is public purse) based on being TECHNICALLY outside The M25 (where 50% of British TV must be made following the 2003 Communications Act).

It is depending on The Government to steamroll through its greenbelt Appeal (and £500 million pot of gold in housing development revenue).

It gets huge public purse subsidy (Skillset, Screen Commission, BBC revenue,etc).

The Government have a Department of Business, AND  Ministry of Culture and Media AND Parliamentary Select Committee on Media and Culture Competition Commission.

It is possible that Pinewood Shepperton PLC might now get the robust sceptical scrutiny which other businesses get rather than just see their PR printed without edit.

It is also a good question: will the next 007 James Bond movie be made in Britain or outside The EU ?

Will Pinewood Studios Board examine all British based options with friends and a most benign Government OR will it pursue its non-British expansion AND greenbelt grab ?

If not, then it can only expect to lose its greatest asset; 100% British public and national media support.

Jonathan Stuart-Brown

www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com