Examination of Witnesses (Questions 5000
- 5019)
5000. Let us move on, you have had your opportunity.
Let us go please to the minutes of the meetings of 1 December
and 8 December in your exhibits behind tab 2, but actually it
is Exhibit 3.[11]
It is right to say that you are not a member of either of these
committees?
(Mr Johnson) That is correct.
5001. Your name does not appear, you were not
even an attendee.
(Mr Johnson) No, I was not.
5002. What has happened since 8 December? Clearly
there was a meeting to discuss this on 1 December and this was
endorsed or reported on on 8 December. Well, we are now in March,
so what has happened?
(Mr Johnson) What has happened is that a relocation
committee has been set up and has met and has looked at various
accommodation options. However, it has not reached any conclusions
as to how we should take the matter forward.
5003. Is there any reason why you have not disclosed
the minutes of those meetings? The impression one might get from
reading this is that you have got no further at all, but the fact
is that it has been advanced. How many meetings have there been
since 8 December?
(Mr Johnson) I believe there have been two.
5004. Can you provide us with copies of those
minutes at lunchtime?
(Mr Johnson) Yes, I can.
5005. So no decision as yet. What time-frame
are they working to for a decision?
(Mr Johnson) I do not believe that they have
been set a timetable to come to a decision. They will report on
their recommendations at the Council of Management meetings as
they fall throughout the year.
5006. What is the expected timetable? If they
have not set themselves one, what is the BBFC working to in practical
terms, in terms of when it is likely to have a solution or a view?
(Mr Johnson) We cannot come to a firm view
until a number of issues have been resolved. One of those is an
expectation of what our likely workload is going to be over the
next few years. Now, we have commissioned research from industry
specialists to try and give us some insight into when we can expect
DVD submissions to tail off. We expect to receive that report
in the second half of April of this year. That will provide us
with part of the answer. We are also currently investigating,
as I have said, the proposal to digitise our archive. Now, we
have not yet come to a conclusion as to whether to go ahead with
that project or whether to house it in-house. The result of those
decisions will also have an impact on our accommodation options.
5007. Mr Johnson, I understand all of that and
you have made that clear. I asked you the question which I think
the Committee may find helpful which is roughly what timescale
are you working to? All right, we have got a report in April,
but do you expect to have a better idea of what you are likely
to do in May, or is it June, or is it next year? I am not asking
you to give a figure which is not going to change, but what is
the expectation of the BBFC as to the timescale?
(Mr Johnson) The picture is not clear enough
at present for us to have come to a clear view on when we will
have to make a final decision on whether we can remain at 3 Soho
Square. As I have explained, there are a number of variables—
5008. Yes, and you do not need to go through
them again. I am just concerned to know whether you have any timescale
and the answer is that you do not. If the Committee would not
mind just looking again at the minute of 1 December, the previous
page, digitisation is something which requires a third site.[12]
In fact the report says that you require two new sites of which
the digitisation site, if it goes ahead, is the third. Even without
digitisation, you need another site.
(Mr Johnson) No, that is not what
the minute says.
5009. Well, it says "to accommodate new
recruits". It says, "Furthermore, a third site would
also be required if a decision is made to undertake the digitisation
project in-house", so a second site is clearly required in
any event, regardless of whether you digitise in-house.
(Mr Johnson) It is not clear. This is a report
of the options being considered. One of the options being considered
is the provision of serviced offices for certain tasks to be conducted
in. Another option is to site the digitisation project, if it
goes ahead, externally. It says clearly that a third site would
also be required "if a decision is made to undertake the
digitisation project in-house". No such decision has been
made.
5010. I am sorry, Mr Johnson, but you strike
me as trying to evade the question. This report, and you are not
the writer of it, says "a third site for digitisation",
so it seems to be quite clear to me that the BBFC is saying, "We're
going to need a second site in any event and mainly serviced offices
would be a good option, but then we need to look at the possibility
of another site if we do digitisation in-house and then it might
be better to operate from one site rather than three". Am
I misreading that?
(Mr Johnson) I do not know whether you are
misreading it. We are considering a number of options which include
taking on serviced offices very, very close to 3 Soho Square in
which certain tasks can be carried out, but with staff still based
at 3 Soho Square, and we are also looking at the options for housing
the digitisation project which may not go ahead.
5011. So there are two new sites, possibly one,
depending on digitisation. Can I ask you about digitisation please.
You have told the Committee that the film studios are seeking
to load the digitisation market for DVD to maximise their ability
to transfer to that format. This is a process, and the Committee
will be well aware of this, as we all are, where both the music
and the film industries capitalise because every time a new format
comes out, we go through the process of getting everything again.
We went from reel-to-reel tape and LPs to cassettes, then we went
to CDs and now we have got MP3, and it constantly renews the market
in rebranding the same products and the film industry is the same,
is it not? We had the battle between VHS and Betamax and then
we went to DVD and there is a new format already out, which is
a small tape thing, though I am not sure what the name of it is,
but I noticed that the new Harry Potter film was in that
format. That is right, is it not, that there is a new format out?
(Mr Johnson) There are new formats coming out.
You may be referring to the UMD—
5012. I have not gone that far myself at this
stage.
5013. Mr Binley: Mr Elvin, I am delighted
to know that you look at Harry Potter films!
5014. Mr Elvin: Given the choice between
reading evidence! I will not ask questions of the Committee as
to which they would prefer! However, there are new formats like
UMD, but new formats simply mean that the cinema industry begin
the process again, do they not?
(Mr Johnson) Not exactly, no. There is a crucial
difference between the move from VHS to DVD and the move from
DVD to the next format.
5015. Because of the—
(Mr Johnson) Well, if you will let me finish,
I will explain what the difference is. The difference is that
the VHS format altered the cinema film so that it would fit on
standard TV screens. That is a process called panning and scanning,
so when you bought your VHS tape and you put it in your machine,
you did not see what you saw at the cinema, but you saw generally
the centre two-thirds of the image because they chopped off left
and right.
5016. The 4:3 ratio?
(Mr Johnson) Exactly, the 4:3 ratio. When the
works were classified for VHS release, they were classified in
that 4:3 ratio format. Now, we classify the work, not the distribution
medium, so if you had your version of Casablanca classified
in 4:3 format for VHS release and you wanted to release it in
the same format for DVD, there would be no requirement for you
to submit it to the Board again for reclassification; you have
got the classification certificate for that work and it does not
restrict you from one format to another. What happened with DVD
was that it allowed, and this is one of the big selling points
of the DVD, for people to buy films in the state in which they
were created for the cinema. People have moved to wide-screen
televisions now and DVD allows the wide-screen format of the film
to be shown. Now, we have not classified that format, so in order
to release on DVD in the full-aspect ratio, the work must be resubmitted
to us and a great deal of our work at the moment is involved in
watching these things again in the full-aspect ratio. Now, when
it moves again to a new format, we have already seen the full
thing, so there will not be a new aspect ratio, so there will
not be a new spurt of extra work, like we have seen with DVD.
It simply will not happen.
5017. Continuing my role as the resident Harry
Potter expert before the Select Committee, I have noticed
that we get sold DVDs in multiple format, what is called the `vanilla
release' which has only the film on it, and then we get varying
forms of special editions, director's cut, additional special
features and the like. Do they all require separate consideration
so that you know that the special features which may be shown
to children and, I suppose, for the adults that watch them as
well, do they also require consideration?
(Mr Johnson) Unless any of the elements are
exempt from classification, they all need to be classified.
5018. So if I go to a new digitised format,
the mere fact that it is a wide-screen, pan-and-scan issue may
be relevant if that includes some new feature which is classified
or you will have to do the process again?
(Mr Johnson) We would have to do the process
only for that new feature.
5019. Mrs James: I bought The Lord
of the Rings director's cut and it had seven commentaries
on it. Would you have to check every one of those commentaries?
(Mr Johnson) We do check commentaries, yes.
11 Committee Ref: A58, British Board of Film Classification
Minutes of Finance Committee Meeting, 1 December 2005 (WESTCC-14805-022),
and Minutes of Council of Management Meeting, 8 December 2005
(WESTCC-14805-023). Back
12
Committee Ref: A58, British Board of Film Classification Minutes
of Finance Committee Meeting, 1 December 2005 (WESTCC-14805-022). Back
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