The future for film has already been written
Much of the discussion around digital change for film gives the impression we are caught in a hurricane, whipped up by the impossible pace of innovation. And yet a striking feature of the current climate is how many of the fundamentals of production and distribution have settled into clear patterns.
The task now is to use unprecedented potential for exposure to create and extend the value of content
Low-cost tools to make films and send them out into the world are available so widely that the term ‘commoditisation’ has already become a cliché.
When we talk about ‘new media’, we are referring to technologies that have been around for more than a decade. That’s why it is pointless to talk about whether online film will ever take off -the future has already been written.
The task now is how we can reach and build audiences and use that unprecedented potential for exposure to create and extend the value of content. The key to a digital future resides in the relationship with audiences.
In a congested marketplace where competition for audiences is fragmented over multiple new platforms, games, online activities, TV and real life, the film industry must find new avenues to make films available easily and to engage with future audiences in more meaningful ways.
This changed dynamic is challenging. Every area of the media, from newspapers to music, learned the hard way that their businesses had changed fundamentally. That change may have been enabled by technology but it was unequivocally the result of customer behaviour.
Power to the Pixel’s starting position is that there is no point fighting the inevitable, and we need to grasp the opportunities. Through digital innovation, a vastly increased number of people now have the power to create, distribute and engage with film.
The rapid growth of social media has created a new audience which is no longer made up of passive viewers of media -they are active creators, collaborators, distributors and even financiers.
As audiences access stories through different media platforms and devices, we’re beginning to see new possibilities for storytelling as films are no longer bound to 90-minute formats. Film as we know it is beginning to transform.
Alongside the huge success of innovative interactive Studio campaigns for The Matrix, The Dark Knight and Watchmen, we are beginning to see a new generation of independent film-makers and producers use multiple platforms to tell their stories, engage with millions and build new types of businesses.
In 2003, director Peter Greenaway prophesied: “If the cinema intends to survive, it has to make a pact and a relationship with concepts of interactivity and it has to see itself as only part of a multimedia cultural adventure.” Many of today’s frustrations in the industry come from an understandable but essentially futile attempt to make digital change just an extension of the current business.
Power to the Pixel has a different starting point. Because it sees a future based around audiences and the value derived from engaging with them, it can take a practical point of view: it brings together the very best ideas from those who are making real advances in business and content creation. And in its conference, workshops and the groundbreaking Pixel Pitch section, it looks to turn digital into today’s business.
Power to the pixel: cross-media film forum
- Purpose: A meeting place for the film community and key digital innovators who are developing new models of storytelling, financing and distribution across multiple platforms
- Who attends? Some 400-600 international delegates covering film and new media.
- What happens? Cutting-edge conference, workshops, networking
- receptions, screenings, think tanks and cross-media pitching sessions.
- Pixel Pitch Platform for the best international cross-media film projects. Selected projects compete for the $10,000 Babelgum Pixel Pitch Award.
- When and where: The Times BFI London Film Festival, 14-16 October at BFI Southbank and the Royal Society of Arts.
- What are the benefits? Meet the leading international experts, financiers and creators of film in a digital era.
http://www.screendaily.com/5004727.article
UK Film Minister Arrives in Hollywood
Film Minister Ed Vaizey has arrived in LA to promote the UK to the US film industry with the hope of boosting inward investment.
Joined by Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission they will meet with senior representatives from LA's top studios and production companies over two days. The Film Minister will also be a special guest at the LA BAFTA's annual Britannia Awards.
With the recent announcement of the UK film tax relief being extended until at least 2015, the trip aims to boost inward investment, stimulate growth and further develop relationships between the US and UK to increase the number of American productions shooting in the UK.
Vaizey explained the trip was "an important opportunity to meet with the studios who invest over $1 billion a year in the British film industry." During his time in LA, Vaizey will also be able to personally observe the thriving US film industry ahead of the publication of a comprehensive film policy review, due shortly.
Wootton is in LA representing the BFC, the national body responsible for attracting, encouraging and supporting the production of international feature films in the UK.
He said: "LA is hugely important to us and it is fantastic Ed Vaizey is able to promote what the UK has to offer, from our excellent facilities to the unrivalled experience of our crew and of course, the tax relief which helps make the UK a cost effective option".
The UK is home to world-class talent, in front and behind the camera, state of the art facilities and fantastic locations. Productions which have recently shot in the UK with support from the BFC include Snow White and the Huntsman starring Charlize Theron, Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Killer, Gravity starring George Clooney, Ridley Scott's Prometheus, World War Z starring Brad Pitt, while the 23rd Bond film, Skyfall, is currently in production.
Where next for the British film industry?
Posted by Pam Cook - 05 March 2011 09:23
The body that funded The King's Speech is being axed and the BFI library is under threat.
The culture minister Ed Vaizey's November 2010 announcement of the coalition government's plans for the future of the UK film industry heralded "the new BFI". Following the abolition of the UK Film Council (UKFC) in April 2011, the restructured British Film Institute, guardian of the nation's moving-image culture since 1933, would become the new strategic body overseeing the development of British cinema, in partnership with Film London and the Regional Screen Agencies in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. As Vaizey said, the BFI would change fundamentally as it became the lead body for British film.
The BFI responded with a proposal for "a new film era in the UK". This involves adapting to the current financial environment by prioritising core BFI activities, "those that audiences most value". In addition to incorporating staff from the axed UKFC, the BFI is faced with a 15 per cent budget cut that requires efficiency savings, including job cuts. Key features of the "new era" proposals are a large-scale digitisation programme, necessitating investment in new skills; the removal of the BFI library and reading room from the institute's Stephen Street premises to BFI Southbank; and the establishment of a bespoke study centre for academics and researchers in Berkhamsted. In tandem, there will be a drive to reduce overheads, boost new business and increase fundraising income.
As details of the plans emerged, alarm bells rang about the effects of the cost-cutting measures on the BFI national library, a world-class collection of print materials on the moving image and the gateway to UK film culture and history. The BFI library is used by a broad range of people, but historically higher education has been its primary market and this has underpinned the development of moving-image education in this country. Academics, researchers and students from across the globe rely on central London access to its materials and the support of its specialist staff. The relocation plans involve moving substantial amounts of the library collections to the Berkhamsted storage centre and the reorientation of the library reading room to the general public as part of the BFI's audience development programme. The opening up of the BFI to the wider public is admirable -- but in the context of the coalition government's draconian cuts to the higher education sector and the devastating impact on the arts and humanities, the plans for the BFI library appear to be a retrograde step, with fewer staff operating a curtailed service. This would represent a serious threat to film and television studies research and education world-wide.
A group of senior academics mounted a campaign to keep the library collections together and accessible, and set up a petition to gather public support. The comments from signatories testify to the high regard in which the library and its staff are held by a large international community of users, and the value placed on its accessibility. Despite BFI assurances that the library service will benefit from the relocation plans, many questions remain: about space and storage availability at the Southbank site; about the timescale and costs of the digitisation programme; and about the impact of staff cuts on the library service. It's clear that the library is not a priority and is unlikely to be improved by the proposals.
There is more at stake than convenience. It's shameful that one of the most prestigious and valuable library collections in the world, the repository of our national film culture, should be struggling for survival. A new era for British cinema without the infrastructure of ideas, research, critical analysis and knowledge held by the BFI national library, disseminated by education at every level, is unthinkable.
What is wrong with the British Film Industry?
Top British directors, actors and actresses tend not to film in the UK.
The reason why directors and producers choose to film away from the UK is because of the easy funding, affordable labour and the best studio facilities.
Foreign producers believe that the UK isn’t an appealing place to film.
"It's very hard to do something now in the UK," says Hans De Weers, the Oscar-winning Dutch producer of Antonia's Line. "The system is OK if you are fully shooting in the UK, but otherwise it is hardly interesting."
In April, Britain's flagship studios Pinewood-Shepperton announced a 26 per cent fall in pre-tax profits in 2007, to $10.58m (£5.3m).
The number of films being made in Britain has fallen to the lowest level since at least 2003. The number of films made was down from 87 in 2009 to 79 in 2010. Total films made in Britain, including Hollywood productions and co-productions, fell from 150 to 128 last year.
Similarly, overall production spend is down by 22% to £176m. In 2003, the median budget for a British film was £2.9m. That is down to £1.2m and appears to be falling further.
Many British people watch their films on TV: eight out of 10 of all viewings, are on the television, while cinema now accounts for a mere 4% of viewings.
UK Producer says Hollywood better than British film industry
Acting unions criticise IMDb in age row
Two US acting unions have criticised movie website IMDb over its policy of giving actor's ages and dates of birth.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) said the site was "facilitating age discrimination".
They claim actors are losing work because of details published on site.
It comes after a US actress sued Amazon, which owns the Internet Movie Database, for more than $1m (£621,000) after it posted her age.
The unnamed actress claims the website misused her legal date of birth after she signed up to the IMDbPro service in 2008. She believes revealing her age could lose her acting opportunities.
In a joint statement, the unions said: "An actor's actual age is irrelevant to casting. What matters is the age range that an actor can portray.
"For the entire history of professional acting, this has been true but that reality has been upended by the development of IMDb as an industry standard used in casting offices across America."
'Take responsibility'
The unions said IMDb publishes the dates of birth of thousands of actors "without their consent, most of them not celebrities but rank-and-file actors whose names are unknown to the general public".
"When their actual ages then become known to casting personnel, the 10+ year age range that many of them can portray suddenly shrinks, and so do their opportunities to work," they added.
SAG and AFTRA said IMDb had the power to "remove the temptation for employers to engage in age discrimination", saying the site had to "step up and take responsibility for the harm it has caused".
A spokesman for Equity, the UK's acting union, said it agreed with their US counterparts.
"The important element in this case is the playing range of an actor, not their actual age.
"It is a well-established practice in casting that actors provide their playing age and Equity supports SAG and AFTRA's view that IMDb's use of a performer's actual age could lead to age discrimination."
A spokesperson for Amazon was not available for comment.
Tinker Tailor, Shame and Tyrannosaur lead Bifa nods
Gary Oldman has been nominated for best actor for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
King's Speech scoops indie awards
Bonham Carter to get indie honour
King's Speech leads film awards
Three films including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy have tied for the most nods at this year's British Independent Film Awards (Bifa).
Shame and Tyrannosaur join the spy thriller with seven nominations each.
The releases will compete against each other in the best British film, director, actor and supporting actor or actress categories.
We Need to Talk About Kevin and Kill List garnered six nominations each.
Nominations for best actor include Brendan Gleeson for The Guard, Michael Fassbender for Shame, Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Peter Mullan for Tyrannosaur and Neil Maskell for Kill List.
Rebecca Hall (The Awakening) will compete with Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) and Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) for the best actress award.
The best supporting actor and actress shortlists include Vanessa Redgrave, Carey Mulligan, Kathy Burke, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Wim Wenders 3D dance film Pina, about the late choreographer Pina Bausch, is nominated in the foreign independent film category, along with Animal Kingdom, Drive, A Separation and The Skin I Live In.
Special prizes, including the Richard Harris Award recognising an actor's outstanding contribution to British film, will be announced at a later date.
Other awards, including prizes for best screenplay, documentary, British short and promising newcomer, will be handed out at a London ceremony on 4 December.
Winners will be decided by a jury of professionals from the British film industry including broadcaster Edith Bowman, actor David Thewlis and Screen Daily editor Mike Goodridge.
YouTube launches online movie rental service in the UK
Google-owned site will offer UK film fans online rental of blockbusters including The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs
Josh Halliday
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 October 2011 14.38 BST
YouTube is to offer movies including The Dark Knight for rental in the UK. Photograph: AP
YouTube has launched its movie rental service in the UK with thousands of blockbusters including The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs.
Film fans in the UK can now rent new releases for £3.49 and older titles for between £2.49 and £3.49 from YouTube.
The move puts the Google-owned site in direct competition with Amazon's LoveFilm, which claims some 1.6 million customers in the UK and Europe. LoveFilm makes new releases available to non-members for between £2.49 and £3.49 a film.
Viewers will be given a 30-day window to watch their film on YouTube, and 48 hours once they have started viewing it.
YouTube has signed UK-specific deals with Hollywood film companies including Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Universal and Lionsgate. The website has also signed deals with Revolver Entertainment, the British studio behind Talihina Sky: The story of Kings of Leon, and Metrodome.
The UK becomes only the third market where YouTube has launched its movie rental business, after the US and Canada.
YouTube launched its US video-on-demand service in May as part of its shift away from short, low-quality clips that made the site so popular. YouTube is by far the busiest video website online, with more than 100 million unique monthly viewers, according to figures released by web metrics firm Nielsen in June.
The launch of the UK movie rental service follows longstanding deals with broadcasters, including Channel 4 and Channel 5, who make their programmes available on the site.
Patrick Walker, senior director of content partnerships for YouTube in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "We're happy to be working with partners of all sizes to bring more content to YouTube users.
"In addition to clips, user-created and long-form TV content our British users know and love, now movie lovers can find full-length feature films on YouTube in the UK."
MTV's digital domination
Net takes online tools to new levels
By HILLARY ATKIN
The MTV Video Music Awards broadcast connected millions of viewers to artists and each other via social networking.
During the broadcast of the MTV Video Music Awards last month, viewers at home could pinpoint the tweeters in the crowd like a top spy.
MTV has always been a leader in promoting social media around its top shows, giving viewers the newest digital tools to connect with each other and with talent.
At the Aug. 28 VMA's the network launched WatchWith, an iPhone and iPad app that, among other features, gave users the ability to view the kudocast through multiple camera angles, share clips across their social network and even send congratulatory messages to the winners.
It's all in service to help the network leverage the power of social connections and integrate advertisers to offer them more value.
Best of all, a new feature this year that provided a virtual map of the Nokia Theater's seating chart, and enabled viewers to see when a particular celebrity was tweeting.
The objective was to provide an additive, fan-activated, cross-platform experience that amplified and complemented the main stage viewing on television, according to Kristin Frank, GM of MTV Digital. She says MTV shattered digital records across the board:
• Twittter confirms that the VMAs were the most tweeted-about award show ever with 10 million @MTV #VMA-related tweets during the East Coast airing;
• MTV.com saw nearly 2 million visitors (up 33% from last year);
• MTV Digital saw 2 million streams generated online, and on tablets and mobile devices;
• MTV's mobile site scored its biggest day ever, including 2.7 million mobile views on Sunday and 4.8 million on Monday, up a whopping 172%.
The record of 8,868 tweets per second was reached when Beyonce rubbed her pregnant tummy after her performance.
The network's Twitter Tracker, which was sponsored by Verizon, let viewers measure the popularity of presenters and performers over the course of the night, as images of them shrunk and grew according to how often they were mentioned on Twitter -- this visualization tool was first used by MTV in 2009, the year that Kanye West (in)famously interrupted Taylor Swift's award acceptance speech.
This year's new map feature allowed users to view photos taken by MTV during the preshow and main show and see how quickly and where the images were spread virally via Twitter.
"You could browse all the clips and toggle between them and live streams and then access the Twitter Tracker from the same interface," says Michael Scogin, VP of MTV Mobile. "WatchWith records the social commentary in tandem with the timeline of the show. In addition, the iPhone and iPad apps provide a comprehensive content offering including videos, photos and news pieces."
With the cable network getting significant social media activity around programs like "Jersey Shore," "Awkward," "Teen Wolf," "16 & Pregnant" and "Teen Mom," there are opportunities for brands to not only sync their messages into the app as programming is being viewed, but also to offer branded, interactive questions about the show.
Indeed, MTV prides itself on generating exclusive content and involving cast members in their digital tools -- a way the net stands apart from other second-screen TV apps on the market like GetGlue and Miso. MTV measures app success not by the number of downloads, but by active users.
All of the data provides a real-time tracking system the network can use to learn more about how people consume content and then hone future programming, advertising messages and promotions.
"We're tracking, minute by minute, which clips are shared or most popular, and we use that to inform our programming strategy," says Colin Helms, VP of MTV Digital. "We'll write articles and blog posts and disseminate (them) across Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr and (photo sharing program) Instagram, then contextualize them differently, maybe turning something into an animated GIF."
Scogin says that being able to sync content with points in the show will start to affect how MTV creates content and how its programmed.
Because it's a fine line in balancing digital add-ons without distracting from the television viewing experience itself, the WatchWith application was designed to be intuitive and easy to navigate.
"We've been experimenting for many years," Helms says. "When we first started, it was largely (on a) desktop. Now, the majority (of viewers have) some other screen in the living room: a smart phone, laptop or tablet." The key attributes for MTV are that the added content is consistent across platforms and doesn't compromise the television viewing experience.
Designed by mobile developers Rogue Paper, who also did the similar VH1 Co-Star app, WatchWith integrates users' Facebook and Twitter accounts and features a custom filter that displays the best and most "liked" comments in real time, and pushes one's own friends and followers to the top of the feed.
As a given show progresses, WatchWith showcases comments and re-tweets from the show's cast and delivers relevant content tied to the narrative directly into the stream, including photos and videos of specific characters, actors and show moments.
"With scripted shows, … you're paying attention to dialogue and storyline, and we don't want to distract from that," Helms says. "We're taking advantage of natural behavior, people engaging in watercooler discussions whether on Facebook, Twitter or in their living rooms. We want to be part of that conversation and curate it, and enhance it by inserting our own content and filtering it to refine the quality of the experience."
The WatchWith app can be downloaded free and is expected to be available on Android by year's end.http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118042481?refCatId=1009
Toronto leads the drive into 3D
Showbiz Update: Canada - Ontario - Film: 3D
By JENNIE PUNTER
'The Three Musketeers 3D'
From filmmaking to cutting-edge research, Ontario is emerging as an important center for stereoscopic 3D activity and expertise, with Toronto its focal point.
"The advantage of being based here is we have equipment houses, studios, trained crews and a range of post labs with 3D expertise," says S3D producer-director James Stewart of Toronto's Geneva Film Co., which has produced and directed dozens of commercials, concert pics, docs and remastered "Cave of Forgotten Dreams."
Ontario tax incentives, expanded a couple of years ago, are a critical factor for biz flow, especially now that voters in British Columbia have chosen to phase out one of the tax breaks offered to foreign producers.
"We now provide greater support through post, visual effects and for 3D," says Ontario Media Development Corp. manager of film Donna Zuchlinski.
From S3D-specialized companies such as Bill White's equipment-developing 3D Camera Co., production shingle Stereo3D Unlimited, which includes co-founder Tim Dashwood's R&D sister division, and Diane Woods' boutique shop 3reedom Digital to Dennis Berardi's booming visual effects company Mr. X ("The Three Musketeers 3D") to progressive post houses like Deluxe and Creative Post, Ontario players are increasingly in international demand.
When Stewart started in 2004, he was among a handful of locals working exclusively in S3D.
"It was a cool medium -- and of course Imax always understood the power of 3D -- but it was still really abstract to people until they started seeing Hollywood movies," he says.
Founded in 2004, Toronto-headquartered smallscreen S3D pioneer Spatial View focuses on mobile devices and earlier this year launched 3DeeCentral, an online store of S3D content.
"Just as the service community has room for growth, the creative community here has huge potential for growth, because when tablets and phones go 3D there will be huge interest for content," Stewart says. "My conversations at conferences now are less about technology than creativity."
In recent years government agencies have ramped up support for innovation-focused collaboration.
"If there is innovation happening anywhere in the world, (Ontarians) are all over it," says John Helliker, director of the Sheridan Institute-founded Screen Industries Research and Training Center in Toronto.
The center fosters collaborative research (workflow, software, motion capture, etc.), training and relationship-building between academic and industry here and abroad working in digital image capture and creation -- with S3D a key area. A new Pinewood-housed theatrical 3D screening facility will serve the center's research and be made be available to Toronto productions needing footage evaluation starting this fall.
York U. is homebase for 3D Film Innovation Consortium (3D Flic), which unites scientists, creators and industry partners for research and development in S3D film language and production.
Both 3D Flic and the center are talking about collaborative projects. This fall they jointly launch a 3D Ontario resource Web portal dedicated to comprehensive info, company profiles and news.
FilmFunds goes the crowd-sourcing route
Filmmakers to upload marketing materials
FilmFunds, a new venture launching at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, is going the crowd-sourcing route to test whether a film or TV show will attract an audience. The Los Angeles-based company will enable filmmakers to upload a synopses, trailer, artwork and other marketing material to a website and mobile app. After reviewing the materials, members choose whether to "Like" a project, with positive results predicting an audience for it once released.
Site divides projects into three categories -- materials of projects members can help put into production, completed projects member votes can help get finished or distributed, and a marketing portal where studio pics can gain support and members can recruit friends and pre-sell tickets through websites like Fandango.
A FilmFunds mobile app lets users snap a photo of a trailer, poster or film title to access more information, while Emotional ID translates real-time facial reactions and emotions during test previews into measurable results. Service will tap into a database of 60 million moviegoers who signed up to be part of the FilmFunds test group over six months.
"Over the last decade we've seen how social marketing can make a film or TV show successful," said FilmFunds co-founder Shelly Palmer. "FilmFunds posits a new form of social marketing that occurs before a project is made."
Company is also co-founded by Sean Stone, who serves as CEO. He is the son of Oliver Stone. Ron Yuan heads content and new media.
Site divides projects into three categories -- materials of projects members can help put into production, completed projects member votes can help get finished or distributed, and a marketing portal where studio pics can gain support and members can recruit friends and pre-sell tickets through websites like Fandango.
A FilmFunds mobile app lets users snap a photo of a trailer, poster or film title to access more information, while Emotional ID translates real-time facial reactions and emotions during test previews into measurable results. Service will tap into a database of 60 million moviegoers who signed up to be part of the FilmFunds test group over six months.
"Over the last decade we've seen how social marketing can make a film or TV show successful," said FilmFunds co-founder Shelly Palmer. "FilmFunds posits a new form of social marketing that occurs before a project is made."
Company is also co-founded by Sean Stone, who serves as CEO. He is the son of Oliver Stone. Ron Yuan heads content and new media.
18 April, 2011
Who said a cinematic film could only be shot with professional equipment? Well, Park Chan-Wook, a famous Korean Director has shocked the nation by using his iPhone to film his new film, Night Fishing.
You may recognise the director’s name from directing Old Boy, which won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. But he is now back wowing the public with his new film shot from an Iphone.
In total, 4 Iphones were used and compared to Old Boy, Night Fishing uses the bare minimum. A budget of £85,000, has helped him direct a 30 minute film, which is about a middle aged man who unexpectedly catches the body of a woman with his fishing line. Unaware and panicking about what to do, he faints. After regaining consciousness he is wearing the woman’s clothes and the movie shifts to the woman and her tale.
Park is said to use the Iphone because of his interest and because it created ‘strange effects’. He also found it easier to shoot the film, which is not surprising, as the Iphone is so compact!
“Testing new technology is part of the amusement” says Park. This filming method, just shows how some film directors are being enterprising and creative in their own industry.
How multiplex cinemas saved the British film industry 25 years ago
The Point of no return … the Milton Keynes cinema that changed everything. Photograph: Alamy
You probably haven't heard about the four twentysomethings who saved the British film industry a quarter of a century ago. Enthusiasm for cinema in this country was flatlining when they flew to Kansas City in 1985 to learn the way of the multiplex, the several-screens-in-a-shed phenomenon that had stopped the postwar rot in US film-going. By November that year, a strange structure topped with a red, neon-lined pyramid had descended in the centre of Milton Keynes. The Point – with 10 screens, the UK's first true multiplex – had arrived.
Gerald Buckle, the first manager of the Point multiplex, and now the head of digital development for Odeon Cinemas, was one of those twentysomethings who visited the training base of American Multi-Cinema Inc to learn the techniques they would bring to bear in Buckinghamshire. He remembers the impact the Point had: "You couldn't move in the foyer on a Saturday night. There were so many people there waiting for shows to start."The increased choice of films, state-of-the-art technology, copious free parking space and a vast array of snacks on sale – all imported from the American model – made an immediate impact on the stagnant British market. The Point sold 2m tickets in its first two years, a miracle in a climate that had seen the national cinema attendance drop to just 55m by 1984 (the peak had been 1.6bn in 1946). Cannon opened the second British multiplex at Salford Quays in December 1986, and between 1987 and 1991 around 500 new screens sprung up nationwide, by which point British cinema admissions had risen to 100m.
British exhibitors such as Rank and ABC had been sceptical about the American model, and such outlandish practices as cleaning up after each screening. But there was no arguing with the results once the Point showed the way. The Point was also the beneficiary of a push to revive the UK film industry: 1985 was declared British Film Year, and a PR campaign was launched on behalf of cinemagoing. What's more, the late film critic Alexander Walker hinted in his book Icons in the Fire that the US mogul Lew Wasserstein had told the British government that Hollywood might consider opening multiplexes in Britain if the UK film industry could be deregulated. That happened in 1985 with the abolition of the Eady levy, which took a share of box office receipts to support British film production.
Nevertheless, the Point's success also signalled trouble for small, independent cinemas. In Milton Keynes, two local cinemas – including one that had been open since 1912 – closed after the erection of the giant pyramid, and score of other small cinemas would be forced to close as the multiplexes spread across the country. The Point was widely seen as the McDonald's of the film industry, and the next few years saw fierce arguments about whether multiplexes really were the way forward: did their much-trumpeted range of films really amount to much? Given that half the day's screenings would be of Police Academy 3: Back in Training or similar, and that Hollywood movies dominated the screens to the near-total exclusion of anything else, perhaps not.
For Mark Batey, chief executive of the Film Distributors' Association, that homogeneity was a price worth paying, given the state of the movies: "Consumers had forgotten about cinema, really. There were the Bond films every couple of years, the early Spielberg adventure films, Star Wars, and not a great deal else. Strange to think about it now. There was no habit. A lot of traditional sites were hanging on by their fingertips."
The Point has changed hands a few times since 1985, and it's looking a little shopworn these days. The multiplex, meanwhile, is currently pupating, waiting for its next phase of evolution, as digital projection and 3D arrive. But that's nothing compared to the cultural revolution of 1985. "It was entirely understandable, entirely the right thing to do," says Batey, "When we were one step away from falling off a cliff."
• This article was amended on 15 November 2010. The original said that The Point hosted the royal premiere of Presumed Innocent in 1985. This has been corrected.
Illegal movie downloads 'threaten the future of British film market'
Moments Worth Paying For campaign launched to make legal viewing easier for online audiences
The Social Network has been one of the most popular illegal downloads. Photograph: c.Col Pics/Everett / Rex Feature
Illegal downloading is threatening the film industry's ability to operate in Britain, a leading expert in digital copyright has warned.
As watching illicit copies of new films becomes increasingly commonplace, Liz Bales, director-general of the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness, is pinning her hopes on new technology which will make legal viewing easier and help to stem commercial losses estimated to be running at about £500m a year.
"It is a global issue," said Bales. "In some countries it has reached the point where it is not possible to offer competitive legal services. In Spain, for example, the market has been decimated by digital infringement."
News last week that Warner Bros and Facebook are to join forces to distribute films directly over the internet – just as websites such as LoveFilm, Netflix and Apple TV already do – is likely to add to confusion in the marketplace about the legitimacy of different film sites. Many older viewers are unclear about the legality of sites such as Blinkbox, SeeSaw and IceFilms. As a result, broadcasters, film studios and distributors are increasingly worried that their audience of users who are prepared to pay to download their films legally will continue to shrink, destroying the domestic market.
"You can download in less then 10 minutes now – in less than five minutes sometimes. Ninety per cent of my collection comes from my friends. You could call me a cheapskate, but I still go to the cinemas and I still buy DVDs."
When Steve wants to see a blockbuster – such as Inception, Toy Story 3 or Avatar – he waits for the British cinema release, but he has recently downloaded The Social Network and The King's Speech.
"The King's Speech was poor quality and quite pixilated and a banner kept coming up saying the film was intended for review purposes only. Most of the stuff is good quality now and if you wait till it has actually come out on DVD, then you know the copy you download will be good quality."
Last month the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, asked industry regulator Ofcom to develop techniques for blocking websites that infringe copyright law. The minister said he had "no problem" with blocking access to websites, despite online censorship concerns from critics, but he added: "Before we consider introducing site-blocking, we need to know whether these measures are possible."
Ofcom is expected to report back in the spring.
As watching illicit copies of new films becomes increasingly commonplace, Liz Bales, director-general of the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness, is pinning her hopes on new technology which will make legal viewing easier and help to stem commercial losses estimated to be running at about £500m a year.
"It is a global issue," said Bales. "In some countries it has reached the point where it is not possible to offer competitive legal services. In Spain, for example, the market has been decimated by digital infringement."
Bales believes there is room for optimism in the prospect of "cloud-based" internet services – virtual storage technology that will allow individual film fans to set up a "digital rights locker" through which they can watch legally selected films on a domestic device of their choice.
Research has shown that many copyright criminals go to illegal sites simply because they are easy to use, allowing films to be downloaded in high-quality formats and watched in widescreen on domestic television sets.News last week that Warner Bros and Facebook are to join forces to distribute films directly over the internet – just as websites such as LoveFilm, Netflix and Apple TV already do – is likely to add to confusion in the marketplace about the legitimacy of different film sites. Many older viewers are unclear about the legality of sites such as Blinkbox, SeeSaw and IceFilms. As a result, broadcasters, film studios and distributors are increasingly worried that their audience of users who are prepared to pay to download their films legally will continue to shrink, destroying the domestic market.
For most film fans, the choice between waiting months to pay or becoming a copyright pirate is not too appealing, so the entertainment business is trying to help. Bales's organisation, which was set up in 2004 to represent the film and television sector, launched a £5m campaign last month to help make their point. The campaign, called Moments Worth Paying For, is fronted by the comedian and writer Reece Shearsmith, of The League of Gentlemen, and was prompted by research that found that one in three users regularly visit illegal sites first. At the centre of the strategy is "findanyfilm.com", a site set up last year by the UK Film Council and funded by the National Lottery.
Supported by advertising revenue, it offers a free service that tells users where to find the film they want on TV, on DVD, on a download site, on Blu-ray and even in the cinema. It will be a hard battle to win, however, especially with users such as 25-year-old law student Steve, who has illegally downloaded films for a decade. "It has got much easier now," he admitted."You can download in less then 10 minutes now – in less than five minutes sometimes. Ninety per cent of my collection comes from my friends. You could call me a cheapskate, but I still go to the cinemas and I still buy DVDs."
When Steve wants to see a blockbuster – such as Inception, Toy Story 3 or Avatar – he waits for the British cinema release, but he has recently downloaded The Social Network and The King's Speech.
"The King's Speech was poor quality and quite pixilated and a banner kept coming up saying the film was intended for review purposes only. Most of the stuff is good quality now and if you wait till it has actually come out on DVD, then you know the copy you download will be good quality."
Last month the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, asked industry regulator Ofcom to develop techniques for blocking websites that infringe copyright law. The minister said he had "no problem" with blocking access to websites, despite online censorship concerns from critics, but he added: "Before we consider introducing site-blocking, we need to know whether these measures are possible."
Ofcom is expected to report back in the spring.
David Cameron v Ken Loach on British film making
11th Jan 2012 10:58am | By Alasdair Morton
David Cameron has said that the British film industry needs to make more mainstream films to achieve greater success and to make the UK appealing as a location for filmmakers too.
First David Cameron announced he was a fan of Lana Del Ray and Band of Horses (he’s not interested in Katy Perry or Bruno Mars, apparently). Now he’s decided to offer his thoughts on the movie world, declaring that the British film industry needs to make more ‘commercially successful’ films.
Speaking before a visit to the world’s famous Pinewood studios, he said he wants producers to get more help making ‘commercially successful’ independent films that are not supported by Hollywood dollars.
It is expected that Lord Smith’s review of Government policy next week is to recommend reorganising Lottery funding in favour of British films that have a clear steer towards overseas success. The King’s Speech, funded by the UK Film Council, made over £250 million at the box office on a reported £9 million budget.
“In this year when we set out bold ambitions for the future, when the eyes of the world will be on us, I think we should aim even higher, building on the incredible success of recent years,” the Prime Minister said.
“Our role, and that of the British Film Institute (BFI), should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions.”
Director Ken Loach, speaking on the BBC’s Breakfast, has voiced concerns of Cameron’s and the Government’s review.
“If everybody knew what would be successful before it was made there would be no problem."
“What you have to do is fund a lot of different, varied projects and then some will be successful, some will be original, some will be creative, and you will get a very vibrant industry."
Loach expressed concerns though that the review would fail to address the multiplex monopoly in this country saying: “we do not have a wide spread of independent cinemas,” before adding: Unless you can see a wide variety of films we get a very narrow menu.”
Cineworld profits rise on successful year for British film
'Cherished' piece of film history lost as Twickenham Film Studios close
It has been at the heart of the film industry for nearly a century. But after playing host to productions from the gems of the silent era to the latest Hollywood blockbusters, Twickenham Film Studios is to close its doors.
Administrators have been called in to the heavily indebted business and say there is no hope for it to continue in the film industry. Instead the south west London site is expected to be sold as a potentially lucrative property development.
Along with Pinewood and Shepperton studios, Twickenham, which was due to celebrate its centenary next year, is considered one of the most important filming locations in the country.
A string of celebrated directors have filmed on its three stages, including Lord Attenborough, Roman Polanski and Steven Spielberg, whose recent film adaptation of War Horse was partly filmed there.
Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady was also fine-tuned at Twickenham, where Phyllida Lloyd, the film’s director, completed her finishing touches in post-production and the studios’ old viewing theatre and wardrobe department were recently used for the film, My Week With Marilyn starring Michelle Williams.
Film and television production at the studios will be wound down in the coming months, before the site is sold.
Twickenham is believed to have struggled to keep pace with rising rents in the area, and to compete with larger studios like Pinewood in Buckinghamshire and 3 Mills in the East End, which have larger stages and more advanced technology.
Gerald Krasner, the administrator handling the unwinding of Twickenham Film Studios Ltd for the restructuring company Begbies Traynor, said: “Twickenham Studios has debts at the moment that it can’t pay, but if we sell the property, everyone will get paid in full.
“It has lost money for a few years now, and the shareholders have already put in substantial monies but they are not prepared to put any more money in. It will not be retained as a film studio, because there is no way of making it pay as a film studio.”
Mr Krasner confirmed that all 17 members of staff at the studios would be made redundant within the next six months. He declined to say how much debt the company owed, or to how many creditors.
The last accounts posted by Twickenham Film Studios Ltd for the year ended March 2011 showed that the company made a loss of more than £400,000.
Although last year saw record levels of overseas investment in British film production, with War Horse, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo all filmed here, profits from those blockbuster films are channelled back into the American studios and production companies behind them, like Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount, and not British film studios, whose running costs and rent are often higher than fees they can command for hire rates.
Originally called St Margaret’s Studios and built on the site of a former ice-rink, Twickenham studios were established in 1913 by Dr Ralph Jupp, the founder of the London Film Company.
The same year, The House of Temperley, a silent film directed by Harold M. Shaw based on a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, was the first film shot there.
The site was later bought by the British film producer, Julius Hagen, who renamed it the Twickenham Film Studios in 1929.
Among the bill of legendary productions filmed at the site are the Beatles’ films Help and A Hard Day’s Night, Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, Alfie starring Michael Caine and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning directed by Karel Reisz.
The streets of 19th-century Paris were recently recreated at Twickenham for the filming of Bel Ami, based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant and starring Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Robert Pattinson which opens next month.
The film producer Stephen Woolley, who made Absolute Beginners starring David Bowie and Patsy Kensit and Little Voice with Jane Horrocks and Ewan McGregor at Twickenham, said he was “hugely saddened” to learn of its closure.
He said: “Twickenham is a cherished piece of our film history, and I grew up admiring films like A Hard Day’s Night knowing they had an intrinsic connection with that particular studio.
“But it is a sign of modern times and modern film-making, where so many more productions are either shot on location or in much bigger studios with more advanced technology.”
Joseph Bennett, an acclaimed film production designer who created the sets for Jude starring Kate Winslet at Twickenham, said that its closure was “a great shame”.
He said: “Working at Twickenham, you felt as if you were truly part of film history. It had an extraordinary atmosphere, so much more intimate than some of the larger, more corporate modern studios.”
The studios are owned by an overseas company, Shardub Enterprises, registered in the Dutch Antilles.
Its directors are Malek Akkad, an American film producer behind the Halloween horror films franchise, Bruce Grakal, an American lawyer, and Roger Sewell, an accountant.
Cinema chain reports 9.9% jump in pre-tax profits but warns of lower retail spend and 'trading challenges' in year ahead
Cineworld said it hoped there would be enough blockbuster releases in 2012 to sustain its strong performance through the Olympics year. Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Cineworld, the UK's leading cinema chain, has reported a 9.9% rise in profits after the box office success of films including The King's Speech, The Inbetweeners, and the final instalment of the Harry Potter franchise.
But the company also highlighted pressures on consumers as it reported an increase in midweek discounting, falling interest in pricier 3D screenings and less spending on drinks and snacks.
Cineworld's pre-tax profits rose 9.9% to £33.4m in the year to 29 December 2011 as sales edged up 1.5% to £348m. The average ticket price per admission was up 2p at £5.01, while average retail spending per person fell to £1.69 from £1.73 the previous year.
The company said the rise in profits was testimony to "the continuing appeal of cinema even in difficult economic times", echoing industry reports suggesting people have been opting for cinema as a relatively cheap night out.
Turning to the outlook, it added: "The current financial year has started satisfactorily with a reasonable level of business carrying over from the Christmas period with the main films being Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
"The performances of films released so far this year such as The Artist, Iron Lady and War Horse, whilst receiving critical acclaim and being in line with internal expectations, have been lower than the same period last year, which benefitted from the unexpected success of The King's Speech."
For the year ahead, Cineworld flagged pressures on cinema-going from the upcoming Olympics and the European football championship but said there were blockbuster releases later in 2012 to support business for the rest of the year, including the next Bond film Skyfall, The Hobbit and The Dark Knight Rises.
It noted that the "general economic and consumer environment is expected to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future and will continue to present trading challenges". Chiming with recent industry reports, Cineworld said "certain segments of the customer base" were preferring to see 2D screenings over 3D to save on admission price. It also warned a tough advertising market could affect how much cinemas make from advertisers.
Shares in the company rose 0.9% to 201.75p in morning trading.
Broadcasters should do more for UK film - Labour
Labour has called for the UK's major broadcasters to invest more in the UK film industry.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch told the House of Lords that independent British films were able to compete with the "best in the world" but film-makers still struggled to raise the finances to make them.
She said the BBC and Channel 4 made an "important contribution" to the UK film industry, but that other national broadcasters were failing the sector by "freeloading" on the investment of others.
"Given the importance of the UK film to both our economy and to our national identity, is the government prepared to follow the example of several other European countries and require all broadcasters to invest in future film production, at similar levels to that of Film 4 and BBC films?" she asked during question time on 27 February 2012.
Lady Jones's calls were echoed by former Labour culture secretary Lord Smith, whose review of British film policy was published in January this year.
He said the BBC and Channel 4 invested £10m and £15m in British film production respectively, but that Sky and ITV contributed "precisely nothing".
In France, however, broadcasters were required to invest in French film production in return for their licence, which resulted in £420m of funding last year, he told the Lords.
Lord Smith's report contains 56 recommendations for ministers, the British Film Institute (BFI) and the industry to give greater support to UK film-makers, including the introduction of a British Film Week to help capitalise on "a golden period" of UK cinema.
Culture spokeswoman Baroness Garden of Frognal told peers the government was "actively considering" the report and would respond to its recommendations in spring 2012.
She said public funding in the British film industry was "reasonably substantial" - estimated at £296m in 2009-10 - but added that there "is possibly room for more investment" from television channels.
However, Conservative peer Baroness O'Caithan cautioned against making investment mandatory, arguing that organisations should be allowed to decide what they invest in.
Children's TV presenter and Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Benjamin criticised the lack of British-made productions for children; she called for the BFI to ring-fence some of its funds for children's programmes and also for tax breaks.
Welfare reform
The debate was followed by a brief discussion on a procedural motion relating to the Welfare Reform Bill.
Labour urged the government to reconsider its decision to schedule the next stage of the Welfare Reform Bill during the one-hour "dinner-break" later that week.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon argued it was "completely inappropriate" for such a "major piece of legislation".
Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the House, responded that he was "astonished" by her remarks, adding: "Everything we have done on this bill has been entirely precedented".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_lords/newsid_9699000/9699443.stm
