The interactive magazine for regional film journalists
online.co.uk
News update 2
Cultural Olympiad for young filmmakers
Young filmmakers can win a chance to get their work showcased at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games through a major new nationwide competition called Film Nation: Shorts.
The winners’ work will be screened at the iconic venues of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London 2012 to an audience of millions.
The best films will also be showcased on giant London 2012 Live Site screens around the country, on the London 2012 website, and on a dedicated Film Nation website.
Submissions for the competition will be run each year until 2012, showcasing the creative talents of the next generation young film-makers and giving them a chance to be right at the heart of the
Games.
BACKING: Skins star Nicholas Hoult, flanked by director Destiny Ekaragha and actress Georgia Groome at the contest’s launch
All 11- 25-year-olds are invited to create short films (of no longer than three minutes) that celebrate the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games: respect, courage, excellence, friendship, equality, determination and inspiration.
Submissions will open in June when the project website goes live, with young people able to submit their short films until October 1. The competition culminates in special regional and
national award ceremonies each year to highlight the best new film making talent, with the first national award ceremony in December.
Film Nation: Shorts is not, say the organisers, just a competition, it is also a chance for young people to meet professional film-makers and acquire new skills in film-making techniques using the latest state-of-the-art Panasonic equipment, through
UK films took a 7 per cent ($2 billion) share of the global box office in 2009, in a year when global box office receipts increased by 8 per cent year on year (to $29.9 billion).
UK inward investment films (UK films wholly or partly financed by US studios but qualifying as British through the Cultural Test (ie using UK cast, crew, locations, facilities, post-production and often with UK source material) earned 4.4per cent of the worldwide box office in 2009.
This was thanks in no small part to the success of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Sherlock Holmes, whilst UK independent films took a 2.3per cent share of global revenues, with Slumdog Millionaire grossing $327 million alone.
British films take 7% of world box office
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince UK/USA
Slumdog Millionaire (I) UK
Sherlock Holmes UK/USA
Planet 51 (I) UK/Spa
The Tale of Despereaux UK/USA
Fantastic Mr Fox UK/USA
The Boat that Rocked UK/USA
Inkheart UK/USA
Last Chance Harvey (I) UK/USA
The Young Victoria (I) UK/USA
Slumdog Millionaire (I) UK
Sherlock Holmes UK/USA
Planet 51 (I) UK/Spa
The Tale of Despereaux UK/USA
Fantastic Mr Fox UK/USA
The Boat that Rocked UK/USA
Inkheart UK/USA
Last Chance Harvey (I) UK/USA
The Young Victoria (I) UK/USA
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Worldwide gross ($m)
TOTAL TOP 10
Why British film is beating the recession
While the nation faces a painful future in the current financial climate, the UK film industry is weathering the recession well, and its long-term trend is one of strong growth and expansion.
That’s the conclusion of a new report, The Economic Impact of the UK Film Industry, which has been commissioned by the UK Film Council, Pinewood Shepperton plc, Framestore, Cinesite and Double Negative.
The industry contributes a total of over £4.5 billion a year to UK GDP and more than £1.2 billion to the Exchequer,
The report, by Oxford Economics, also concludes that the UK’s film tax relief is vital to sustaining current
levels of global competitiveness and job creation.
Without the UK film tax relief in place, UK GDP would be reduced by around £1.4 billion a year. That compares with a current cost of the film tax relief of around £110 million a year, meaning that an extra £13 in GDP is generated for every £1 invested.
Specifically, the report examines the many ways in which the UK film industry contributes to ‘UK plc’, including:
* Jobs – the UK film industry directly employs around 36,000 (up by 30% since 2000 and 7% since 2006), supporting a total of 100,000 direct and indirect jobs (up from 95,000 in
2007);
2007);
* Skills – the UK film industry provides jobs for some of the UK’s most highly qualified workers, with 58% of the production workforce university educated and London having a global market share of approximately 20% in film visual effects work;
* Multiplier effect – for every job supported in the core UK film industry a further job is supported through indirect and induced multiplier effects. In addition, the showing of UK films helps UK TV broadcasters generate about £245 million of revenues.
Total multiplier activity contributes a further £1.6 billion a year to UK GDP and £425 million to UK tax revenues;
* Between 2000 and 2009, fixed
* Multiplier effect – for every job supported in the core UK film industry a further job is supported through indirect and induced multiplier effects. In addition, the showing of UK films helps UK TV broadcasters generate about £245 million of revenues.
Total multiplier activity contributes a further £1.6 billion a year to UK GDP and £425 million to UK tax revenues;
* Between 2000 and 2009, fixed
capital investment in infrastructure and new technology has totalled almost £1.1 billion. In 2009 alone, capital investment in the core UK film industry is estimated to have been £147 million, with most of the investment undertaken in the production sector;
* Inward investment is estimated to account for around £3.6 billion of film’s contribution to GDP and £960 million in Exchequer revenues;
*Exports – in 2008, UK film exports totalled around £1.3 billion;
* Culture – British films are
important to UK audiences. A film shown in the UK can expect its box office to be up to 30% higher if it is indigenous. UK films are estimated to have boosted the box office revenues by around £60 million a year over the last decade;
* Tourism – films depicting the UK are responsible for generating around a tenth of revenues from overseas visitors, around £1.9 billion a year;
* Regional support – the film industry directly supports around 2,200 jobs in the South West of England and 2,100 in the North West;
* Merchandising – merchandising associated with UK films supported about 6,600 jobs in 2009 and contributed about £237 million to UK GDP and £107 million to the Exchequer.
The full report can be downloaded at: www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/
j/i/The_Economic_Impact_of_the_UK_Film_
Industry_-_June_2010.pdf
* Inward investment is estimated to account for around £3.6 billion of film’s contribution to GDP and £960 million in Exchequer revenues;
*Exports – in 2008, UK film exports totalled around £1.3 billion;
* Culture – British films are
important to UK audiences. A film shown in the UK can expect its box office to be up to 30% higher if it is indigenous. UK films are estimated to have boosted the box office revenues by around £60 million a year over the last decade;
* Tourism – films depicting the UK are responsible for generating around a tenth of revenues from overseas visitors, around £1.9 billion a year;
* Regional support – the film industry directly supports around 2,200 jobs in the South West of England and 2,100 in the North West;
* Merchandising – merchandising associated with UK films supported about 6,600 jobs in 2009 and contributed about £237 million to UK GDP and £107 million to the Exchequer.
The full report can be downloaded at: www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/
j/i/The_Economic_Impact_of_the_UK_Film_
Industry_-
934
327
191
94
67
43
36
35
28
20
327
191
94
67
43
36
35
28
20
1,775
a unique programme of 100 free workshops in centres around the country, which will be announced on June 21.
Details of the workshops and a series of free online filmmaking resources will be available on the Film Nation: Shorts website from June.
You can find more details at www.london2012.com/filmnation.
The road map to
the movies
The Brit Flick Pilgrimage is a new tourism initiative hatched between Visit Britain and the Vauxhall Astra, featuring the ultimate driving route for film buffs over the length and breadth of these isles.
the movies
The Brit Flick Pilgrimage is a new tourism initiative hatched between Visit Britain and the Vauxhall Astra, featuring the ultimate driving route for film buffs over the length and breadth of these isles.
Starting at Doune Castle in Scotland, the route then weaves south via Roslynn Castle, 10 miles south of Edinburgh, to Alnwick Castle and Easington, Chatsworth Castle and Haddon Hall, Broughton Castle, Brompton Cemetery and Crystal Palace transmitter mast in London, Bourne Woods near Farnham, Pembrokeshire, Castle Combe and Wells before finally finishing up in deepest Cornwall.
The locations selected cover films like Braveheart, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, The Da Vinci Code, Billy Elliott, Harry Potter, The Duchess, The Full Monty, The Madness of King George, Shakespeare in Love, The Italian Job, Sherlock Holmes, Gladiator, Robin Hood, Hot Fuzz, Alice in Wonderland and Straw Dogs.
From an oft-repeated Friends episode in which Ross, the nerdy paleontologist, is seen watching on TV 1969’s The Valley of Gwangi to the recent remake of 1981’s Clash of the Titans, there are constant reminders of the art of Ray Harryhausen.
In his glowing foreword to a 2005 book on that very subject, Peter Jackson reveals how he created a special “Harryhausen scene” – the fight with the cave troll in Balin’s tomb – in the first of his Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Now comes news that as Harryhausen turns 90, his own archive containing more than 20,000 items and several hundred models is likely to be acquired by the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Born in Los Angeles, Harryhausen was just 13 when he saw and was conquered by King
MODEL OF GENIUS: Ray Harryhausen
NMM salutes the wizard of movie-making
Kong, especially the effects work of Willis O’Brien. Fifteen years later, he landed his breakthrough job as an assistant to O’Brien on Mighty Joe Young.
Harryhausen’s own finest hours came in the Sixties with a succession of UK-based sfx stop-motion delights like The 7thVoyage of Sinbad, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Jason and The Argonauts, One Million Years BC and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
As well as the anticipated NMM initiative, there has also been a joint BAFTA / BFI tribute to Harryhausen.
Meanwhile the London Film Museum has just opened a year-long exhibition devoted to the wizard and his work.
After more than 20 years in the West End and in various touring versions since it was first staged in 1987, Susan Hill’s ghostly audience- pleasing thriller The Woman in Black is finally set to be filmed in the autumn.
Starring Daniel Radcliiffe with James (Eden Lake) Watkins as director, the movie will also mark the return of Hammer Films to the world of big screen filmmaking for the first time in some 30 years.
The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur
Kipps (Radcliffe), who is ordered to travel to a remote corner of the UK and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers.
As he works alone in an old and isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover its tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he discovers that the local village is held hostage by the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance. According to Watkins: “'When I met Dan, it was quite uncanny how closely our thoughts on the story mirrored
each other: I can't wait to get down to work with him to fashion a compelling character and a classy ghost story that tugs at the heart and chills to the bone.”
The screenplay is by Jane Goldman, aka Mrs Jonathan Ross, who has also penned the X-Men prequel, X Men: First Class, which starts shooting soon in the UK. It co-stars James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in the roles created by Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
The ghost in the machine . . .
