Save The British Film Industry.Com

JEREMY HUNT TO ANNOUNCE FUTURE OF UK PUBLIC PURSE FILM FUNDING THIS WEEK BUT ALAS HE WILL NOT BE PUTTING IT INTO THE SOUND STAGES AND SETS WHICH CAN CREATE 250 000 JOBS AND A £25 BILLION A YEAR INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN.

Jonathan Stuart-Brown for SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY

The rumours will soon  be made official.

The British Film Institute  is to take over the UK Film Council’s role handing out lottery funds to film makers (or as The UK Film Council saw it TO HAND OUT THE PUBLIC MONEY TO ITS OWN BOARD MEMBERS).

The UK Film Council flopped in the fattest decade for film profits in history.  The UK market share  which was entirely because of the success of Hollywood blockbusters – which between 2000 and 2010 had few choices other than the physical facilities at Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios -  only succeeded in PR but then it was run by PR people. 

There was no grassroots support for it and fewer than 20  people turned up for its official protest march in London on August 28 !  The media missed that and just bought the bogus PR  petition which collapsed as people realised how useless UKFC really was.

The BFI will dole out £15million Lottery Money a year  to film makers – some of whom may be new faces such as the next Ridley or Tony Scott.  They do not need to do much to improve matters despite UKFC PR.

However, they are clueless viz mass job creation and a £25 billion a year industry. The monies need to go into physical infrastructure to magnetise inward investment. Sound stages built in every region in The UK.

The   Arts Council handle some of the administration which holds out some hope it will go into infrastructure in the regions which is the key to a 250 000 strong workforce and £25 billion annual inward investment.

At least we will have some honesty now…Film London will take over the council’s role in promoting investment in West and North London (UKFC was supposed to promote it in The UK but only promoted it in West London).

Film London will be UKFC mark 2 but as The Culture Secretary and Creative Industries Minister seem determined to squander the chance to create 250 000 jobs in The UK, why not at least keep a few thousand in London.

Film London are just as remote, inexcusably rude, indifferent to the UK outside of their office, as was The UK Film Council.

Despite this, because of the physical studios at Pinewood, Shepperton, Elstree and Leavsden, there will be many films made in the UK which will employ many in the south-east and be seen all over the world.

Of course if and when Pinewood and Shepperton Studios are sold off by the shareholders for property prices, then the BFI, Film London and Arts Council will be seen to be dancing on a non-existent pinhead. Utterly irrelevant to the real reason The UK has any film jobs (at least utterly irrelevant to why the south-east does).

Meanwhile police, nurses, doctors, ambulancemen, firemen, disabled care workers, lecturers, teachers, lose their jobs.

 The film industry with Lottery Money spent -as it was originally intended – on sound stages and state of the art sets across The UK could pay for the police, nurses, doctors, firemen, disabled care workers.

Instead we will have ever more useless, clueless, lazy, ANIMAL FARM film quango bureaucrats (with 14 offices across the UK) eating at The Ivy Restaurant in London while doing nothing to solve the problem and also putting out false PR stats to bambouzle the public and media.

Jonathan Stuart-Brown

www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com