SUBMISSION 54
Memorandum submitted by Mr Mike Elrick,
Head of Corporate Communication, British Film Institute
Thank you for your communication seeking clarification
for the Culture Select Committee on how the bfi assigns
"country of origin" or "nationality" to films
in release reviews in Sight and Sound and elsewhere.
I have spoken to a number of senior colleagues
about what constitutes the nationality of a film. Over and above
eligibility criteria set out under Schedule 1 of the Films ct
1985 (1999 amendment) I think the most helpful description of
criteria we at the bfi use is set out by the editorial staff of
Sight and Sound magazine.
Sight & Sound take a distinct view
of what constitutes the nationality of a film; a view that allows
the magazine to be consistent in definitions of films made not
just in the UK but around the world, and which allows the editorial
team to define past as well as present and future productions.
The following system is the most accurate they have found and
throws up the fewest anomalies.
Basically the Filmographic Unit takes account
of the production companies listed on a film to ascertain nationality.
There are usually two types of companies credited
on films—although they are not at all mutually exclusive:
(a) Those with financial input.
(b) Those with artistic input.
For our purposes the most significant company
listed on the credits is that (or those) that are given copyright.
The nationality of these companies dictates the nationality of
the film.
Example 1:
Mark Herman's film Little Voice is a British-US
co-production based on the copyright details to be found on the
film, which are as follows:
1998. Scala (Little Voice) Limited.
Miramax Films and Scala present
The UK-registered Scala company "Scala
(Little Voice) Limited" is listed first in the copyright
details and thus the film is a majority UK production. The US
"Miramax Film Corp" comes second and is thus the minority-producing
partner.
Example 2:
Alan Parker's film Evita is a majority
US-UK co-production on the basis of the following credits to be
found on the film:
1996. Cinergi Pictures Entertainment Inc. and
Cinergi Productions N.V. Inc.
A Cinergi/Robert Stigwood/Dirty Hands production
Andrew Vajna's US company Cinergi has the copyright
and would have financed the film (almost certainly in its entirety)
but the film acquires UK co-production status by dint of Parker's
British-based company Dirty Hands (note that Parker not only directed
the film but co-produced and co-wrote it as well), which could
be termed as having creative responsibility for the film but it
is unlikely that it supplied any of the financing.
Budget spends is an unreliable indicator of
nationality: in the case of Evita the majority of the shoot
took place in Argentina and Hungary (using, presumably, a substantial
portion of the budget). The British spends were at Shepperton
Studios.
Similarly, the Hughes brothers' American film
From Hell would be defined as Czech since the majority
of the shooting took place in Prague.
Nationality of the key participants is also
a problem, and is likely to become more so as time passes. Again
taking Evita as an example, the director/co-producer/co-writer
Alan Parker is British, co-writer Oliver Stone is American, director
of photography Darius Khondji is an Iranian holding French citizenship,
production designer Brian Morris and music composer Andrew Lloyd
Webber are both British, star Madonna is American and star Antonio
Banderas is a Spaniard holding American citizenship.
There is a caveat: occasionally copyright is
claimed by a company set up as a tax shelter. A significant number
of American and British films have been funded by German-based
tax funds in recent years, thus "Mikona Productions GmbH
& Co. KG" claims the primary copyright for:
In cases such as these we do take account of
the German nationality of the copyright holder, but in a minor
rather than majority capacity.
A separate but important point is that it is
not possible to ascertain the nationality of a film with certainty
until we see a comprehensive set of final credits. Companies frequently
drop out during the course of production and new companies become
involved right up to the point of final postproduction. Thus creating
a finite list of British productions based on production charts
is simply not possible.
I hope this opens up some of the areas of discussion
in this complicated area and helps the Committee in its deliberations.
8 September 2003
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