Examination of Witnesses (Questions 160
- 164)
TUESDAY 6 MAY 2003
MR PETER
BLOORE, MR
CHARLES HARRIS
AND MR
DAVID CASTRO
Q160 Ms Shipley: To make a cinema
happen. If you want these outlets for the particular films that
you are promoting—
Mr Harris: I would look and see
how the existing ones, the Everyman's, the Clapham picture house,
how they came about.
Mr Bloore: They are all quite
old cinemas unfortunately.
Q161 Ms Shipley: Quite. You see what
I am getting at. I would have hoped you would have a really clear
answer. You need a network of small cinemas, specialist cinemas,
backed by whom? Who would you see backing them?
Mr Harris: The Film Council are
looking into it at the moment. The bfi used to have that
remit and it seems to have moved away from them.
Q162 Ms Shipley: I know nothing about
this, apart from the fact I do not have a cinema in my town.
Mr Bloore: In the past there was
the national film network that the British Film Network used to
run. They would send films around the network of cinemas. Where
my parents live in Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast they have an
award winning cinema that gets and shows all of the major releases
and a lot of the minor releases and all of the art house releases.
That is a very good model of a small cinema that is still functioning
and keeping its head financially above water.
Q163 Ms Shipley: Finally, Chairman,
Stourbridge is doing a good thing at the moment. It has got lots
of things, like the car showroom is going to sponsor a film evening
and a local thing called the Bonded Warehouse is putting on one
and various other rather strange locations are putting on well-known
films. This is really exciting, there is a definite market for
it there, but I do not know how often that sort of initiative
happens. Does it happen often?
Mr Bloore: Not to my knowledge.
Again, I have to say you are slightly beyond our remit of the
training, so that is probably why we are trying to evade the questions.
To pick up on your earlier point about the fact that in order
to get the book published, do I understand that in the end you
paid for the book?
Q164 Ms Shipley: Good God, no. I
got a major publisher to publish it, and by giving them a very
good marketing plan.
Mr Bloore: I suppose the point
I was going to make is one big change that has happened in the
last few years is with digital cameras, video cameras, coming
on-line it is now possible for a film maker to make their film
comparatively cheaply. Even then, a feature length film shot with
a digital camcorder is likely to cost in the region of £100,000
to £200,000 and, of course, it will suffer difficulty in
getting exhibition, so the things that you have just been citing
about getting better exhibition and the Film Council's suggestions
for digital exhibition of films would all be very valuable in
getting those films out to a wider audience. It would also be
very valuable to see the new Cinema Fund at the Film Council be
able to fund more of these very, very low budget films because
the risk is comparatively low, they are putting in relatively
small sums of money. At the moment, off the top of my head I believe
that they can do four or five a year, maybe it is a bit more.
If they were able to make many more of those low budget digital
films as a first film it would give film makers an opportunity
to cut their teeth and learn their trade in the same way that
Ken Loach, who I work with, originally cut his teeth on BBC productions
before going on to make films like Kes. Unless you have
that opportunity to practise your craft you will not have the
opportunity to grow as a director and film-maker.
Ms Shipley: Interesting, thank you.
Chairman: Thank you very
much indeed. We are grateful for the trouble you have taken, you
have really thought this through and it will be a great help to
us. Thank you.
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