The British film industry: institutional context

To complete our introduction to the British film industry, we need a little more institutional background.

We will be using another Media Factsheet to finish our background research on this exam topic. Complete the following tasks on your blog:

Important note! Our Media Factsheet archive is now on the M: drive Media Shared:

M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. 


1) Find Media Factsheet #100 on the British film industry. Save it to USB or email it to yourself so you have access to the Factsheet for homework

2) Read the whole of Factsheet #100 British film industry


3) What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British?

The cultural test is a check-list which is set into 4 different sections. Each section is set out like this:

A - Cultural Context

A1 The film is set in the UK 4

A2 The lead characters are British citizens or residents 4

A3 The film is based on British subject matter or underlying material 4

A4 The original dialogue is recorded in mainly the English language 4

B - Cultural Contribution

B The film represents or reflects a diverse British culture, heritage or creativity 4

C - Cultural Hubs

C1 British studio and/or location shooting, visual effects or special effects 2

C2 British music recording, audio post-production or picture post-production 1

D - Cultural Practitioners

D1 British director 1

D2 British scriptwriter 1

D3 British producer 1

D4 British composer 1

D5 British lead actors 1

D6 Majority of cast are British 1

D7 British key staff (lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer etc.) 1

D8 Majority of crew are British 1

4) Complete the task on the Factsheet, researching the films listed and finding out what they score on the cultural test: Sweeney, Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

Sweeney:
£3,000,000

set in London

based on British subject matter 

English spoken 

UK based production company

British writer

majority of cast British

majority of crew British 

Attack the Block
£13,000,000

British writer/director 

main British actors 

set in UK

English language 

reflects British creativity 

set fully in London 

The King's Speech
£15,000,000

directors birtish 

writiers british 

lead actors are bitish 

shot in UK

skyfall 

We Need to Talk About Kevin
£7,500,000

directors birtish 

writiers british 

lead actors are bitish 

shot in UK

skyfall 

Skyfall
£250,000,000
British actors
set in UK
British directors 
shot mainly in UK

British production company

5) What is the main problem for the British film industry?
The film makers do not recieve their revenue because they have to sell their distribution rights to a distribution company.

6) What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

They have outstanding creative skills and they have outstanding facilities.

7) What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

British film-makers could choose to rely upon co-productions with American studios to keep the industry afloat and to attempt to make low budget films.

8) In your opinion, which of these two options would best safeguard the future of the British film industry?

I think is British films collaborated with american films a lot more revenue could be made.