The British film industry: blog tasks

 Factsheet #132: British Film

Use our brilliant Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to find Media Factsheet #132 on British Film. You can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) Write a one-sentence definition of what makes a film British.

• the people making the film are British, is it funded from within Britain, are the cast British, is the film’s subject matter about Britain or British culture.

2) What is the difference between a Hollywood production context and production context of a British film?

• Hollywood studios have high budgets, a heavy reliance on celebrities both in the cast and crew and spectacle driven stories. While what could be considered to be recurring characteristics of the British film production context are that films made within the British production context will in some way reflect British culture, films such as The King’s Speech (Momentum Pictures, 2010) and Son of Rambow (Optimum Releasing, 2007) have varying degrees of involvement from Hollywood or other outside agencies however they are both inherently British in their subject matter.

3) When did the James Bond franchise start?

• The 1960s brought about the start of the James Bond franchise

4) In terms of film censorship and graphic content, what began to change in British film in the 1970s and 1980s?

• The 1970s sees a rise in British Films of sexual content, both the act of sex and sex linked to violence. The 1980s see the rise of videos and the ‘video nasty’s scare where filmmaking was becoming more accessible and more extreme content was being created and finding its way to Britain. And so a continual evolution of film censorship and classification in this country has happened since the 1980s that sees all films released in the UK to have one of 7 (possibly 8 although the R18 certificate is rarely used) classifications awarded to it. The BBFC in the last few decades has tried to engage more with British audiences, making its guidelines not only accessible to all but also engaging with the public when reviewing these guidelines.

5) What groups are often represented in British film? Give examples of films these groups feature in.

• As such many British films tend to centre on topics and issues that deeply concern British society or largely make up the collective British psyche. Issues such as class, politics, social change and education are some of the many issues that British film has explored throughout its history.
• the way youth is portrayed in a very singular way in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros., 1971), the focus is on violence, anti-establishment and a compulsion to act in an anarchic way. This is echoed through British Cinema and into current films such as Eden Lake (Rollercoaster Films, 2008), where we see a similar, (if not less fantastical) set of values being given to the youthful antagonists of the film.

6) What does the Factsheet suggest might be the audience appeal of British film?

• This is the first step towards targeting and appealing to a British audience as with any film made by a country for its own populace. The main characteristics that can be identified as appealing to a native British audience would include; the actors, British actors tend to be clearly identifiable as British and will often be associated with a particular genre of British film, for example Hugh Grant having an association with British romantic comedies.

Factsheet #100: British film industry

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

Find Media Factsheet #100 on the British film industry. You can find it on the same link as above. Read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

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

2) Complete the task on the Factsheet - choose three of the films listed and research them to work out what they score on the cultural test: The Sweeney (2012), Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

• We need to talk about Kevin - 10
• The kings speech - 27
• Attack the block - 27

3) What is the main problem for the British film industry?

• Historically, the British film industry has been production led rather than distribution led. This means that many UK films are made but, in order to get the film exhibited, the filmmakers have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the film to a distribution company.

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

• outstanding creative skills of practitioners
• outstanding facilities
• several important film studios are British, such as Ealing Studios and Pinewood Studios.

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

• British filmmakers could choose to rely upon co-productions with American studios to keep the industry afloat.
• The UK film industry’s second option is to attempt to make low budget films targeted at a niche,

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

• In my opinion relying upon co-productions with American studios is the safer option as it guarantees funding and distribution however a massive downside to doing this is that most of what makes a film 'British' could be lost as the American company involved wouldn't approve of the decisions and would leave the film feeling more like an American film than a British one. Making low budget films for a niche audience is the better option if they want to retain the feel of a British film as although it is risky it reduces the influence from other countries.