From the studio: On the abolition of the UK Film Council

The UK Film Council, it’s been announced, is to be abolished.  That’s a little bit stunning.

We don’t have the historical context to make a proper analysis of what the UKFC has done in its 10 years.  But here’s how it’s affected us since we started composing for film.

• From Screen South, our regional UKFC branch, we had moral support and introductions to filmmakers – both at home and when we visited Cannes in 2008.
• We worked on four films which had full or completion funding from UKFC – one of which premiered at Venice, two with festival premieres this year.
• We got a place on an excellent year-long training programme, part-funded by UKFC, on convergence and digital media.

We never got a big blob of cash – it was always understood that working on UKFC-funded things would be low-budget, no-budget or token payment only.  And we paid for our training too.

But we invested our time and money because in return we got to know people, and we got to work on music for ambitious, entrepreneurial projects – properly cast, designed, shot, edited and directed, exactly the experience we needed to get our heads around the industry.

There’s waste in any organisation; and we’d occasionally hear that UKFC would encourage some questionable creative decisions.

But funders always influence the final cut, whether they’re giving you private or public money – and UKFC has badged lots of work that people view as a success, including features like Bend It Like Beckham, In The Loop and This Is England.

Through Screen South, it gave us non-Londoners a leg up – contributing to the Electric Palace cinema, the Shot By The Sea film festival, a two-day regional film & TV conference in Hastings, and shorts like David Jackson’s The Last Breath, which is still getting selected for film festivals two years after it was made.

UKFC never provided all of a film’s budget – people always had to raise money elsewhere, and often had to prove themselves by getting a film almost complete before it would contribute.  This all helped to foster a real entrepreneurial spirit.

In the light of today’s decision, these are our questions for the Department for Culture, Media & Sport:

• How do you intend to equal or better the UKFC’s record of grossing £5 at the worldwide box office for every £1 it invested in film?
• Who will support films that are outside the mainstream, but have the potential to document and become part of our cultural heritage?
• How will you create a more transparent and accountable sign of the activity of a public body than the UKFC logo appearing on feature films watched by millions?

And finally:

• For someone who is in the position today that we were in three years ago – outside London/Manchester, no money, no connections, great potential – who should they now approach for advice on and introductions to the film industry?

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