SUBMISSION 4
Letter to Derek Wyatt MP from Salvation
Films
IS THERE A BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY?
I was writing to you because it has long been
a source of contention to myself, and colleagues of mine working
in the independent sector, as to the amount of wasted money and
opportunities that have been afforded to British Film since 1997.
Salvation Films is a small independent distributor
and producer of sex and horror films. We are also distributed
in the States by Image Entertainment (who handle Warners and Disney)
and in Japan by Nippon Columbia.
We have raised monies for two features, Sacred
Flesh and Black Kiss, totally through private investment
and have secured theatrical, television and worldwide sales for
them.
We have also handled the theatrical distribution
of independently made features like The Bunker which opened
on seven screens in London earlier this year and is released on
rental in 2003.
For your information, The Bunker was
made for £1 million which was raised from private investors.
Another title that we successfully released this year was a British
horror film called Cradle of Fear. Cradle of Fear
was made for just £40,000 and has taken many times its budget
in the six months since its release. As well as having been sold
to the US, Germany, France, Australia and Japan.
I mention all of this, not to blow my own trumpet
but, to emphasise that the smaller independent sector of film
producers and distributors are making films that people want to
see. More to the point they are being made with their own finance,
getting distributed and are making a profit which is more that
can be said for most of the mainstream films produced in the UK.
What we see happening is that many of our contemporaries
with their collective heads in the film fund trough don't really
care if the films that they are making get released or are commercially
successful because they make their profits at the front end. Most
of the monies being invested by the Government since 1997 have
been taken in fees, office overheads or have just been wasted
on making films that have no chance of making their money back.
Once the film gets made few of those involved aside from the director
and cast really care if it has an audience or even if it is distributed.
The current system tends to encourage those
that are involved in the making of the film to recoup their monies
immediately, rather than if and when the film is commercially
successful. The production company or producer concerned isn't
encouraged by this system to care as he/she will just move on
to their next film and repeat the process, except this time they
will have a track record and will increase their fee and so on.
Your Committee has an opportunity to stop this
and I sincerely recommend that you talk to some of the "real"
people in the independent side of British film. We may be small,
but we exist without government funding and get our films seen
by people who choose to pay to see them.
2 December 2003
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