Low Budget Film Making
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/31/hollywood-and-tv-put-the-squeeze-on-uks-low-budget-film-makers
Paragraphs on article:
As the Cannes film festival came to a close for another year, a combination of increasingly risk-averse Hollywood movie system addicted to blockbuster franchises and the global explosion in mega-budget TV drama is putting the squeeze on smaller films. Cannes prize-winners are among the few low-budget productions that are guaranteed success in the modern cinema market. In the UK, the number of domestic films costing £500,000 to about £30m to make, such as T2: Trainspotting and Florence Foster Jenkins, fell from 77 to 60 between 2014 and 2015 - this is the lowest number made since 2006. Similarly the number of small to mid-sized budget co-productions fell from 37 to 30- a level not seen since 2008. On the other hand, the Hollywood blockbusters made in the UK, such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, remain rocksteady, with just under 20 films produced in 2015.
"after the last financial crisis money dried up and the major Hollywood studios ended up cutting loads of their production slates and increased budgets pretty much for franchises and superhero stuff"
- David Hancock
He also says that "films from the major studios take more than 90% of that and the remaining 650 films are left chasing 9% of the box office."
As well as the changing focus of the film industry, pressure is being ramped up by the boom in big-budget drama flooding tv, typified by shows such as Netflix's £100m co-production The Crown. In the US the number of scripted shows being made annually has more than doubled since 2010 to more than 500 this year; Netflix recently revealed it has 90 original productions under way in Europe alone- sky has 80- and traditional broadcasters such as ITV and the BBC have upped their game with huge hits such as Broadchurch and Line of Duty.
"there is a lot of difference between high-end TV and many films these days"
"most drama now is a minimum of £1m an episode and the quality and the experience is very high. And the way the market has changed means that is where a lot of the money and funding now is"
The BFI says the figure for inward production investment in TV, mostly from US companies such as Amazon, Netflix and HBO, nearly doubled from £252m in 2013 to a record of almost £500m last year. In contrast, the spend on UK domestic films dropped to £198m in 2015, the lowest level since 2007.
"There has always been pressure on smaller films, it is a tough end of the market where there aren't that many breakout successes"
"It is always challenging but it seems to be particularly accentuated now with big budget films doing so well and pressure from the other side with high-end TV"
The BFI insists that the small to mid-budget films appears to be in decent health. it says that initial reporting shows that the number of domestic UK features being made in the first quarter this year (2017) is the same as in 2016 and that there has been a 30% jump in spend to nearly £32m.Following a similar model to the Hollywood majors, the Canadian media group said that its film strategy will now focus on "producing and sourcing a reduced slate of premium films."
what do you think is going to be the future of the film industry?
I think that in future the film industry will be mainly on social media and online such as Netflix, amazon prime and sky movies. Consequently cinemas will show movies that are targeted at a more niche audience - the amount of business they receive will decrease significantly.
Paragraphs on article:
As the Cannes film festival came to a close for another year, a combination of increasingly risk-averse Hollywood movie system addicted to blockbuster franchises and the global explosion in mega-budget TV drama is putting the squeeze on smaller films. Cannes prize-winners are among the few low-budget productions that are guaranteed success in the modern cinema market. In the UK, the number of domestic films costing £500,000 to about £30m to make, such as T2: Trainspotting and Florence Foster Jenkins, fell from 77 to 60 between 2014 and 2015 - this is the lowest number made since 2006. Similarly the number of small to mid-sized budget co-productions fell from 37 to 30- a level not seen since 2008. On the other hand, the Hollywood blockbusters made in the UK, such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, remain rocksteady, with just under 20 films produced in 2015.
"after the last financial crisis money dried up and the major Hollywood studios ended up cutting loads of their production slates and increased budgets pretty much for franchises and superhero stuff"
- David Hancock
He also says that "films from the major studios take more than 90% of that and the remaining 650 films are left chasing 9% of the box office."
As well as the changing focus of the film industry, pressure is being ramped up by the boom in big-budget drama flooding tv, typified by shows such as Netflix's £100m co-production The Crown. In the US the number of scripted shows being made annually has more than doubled since 2010 to more than 500 this year; Netflix recently revealed it has 90 original productions under way in Europe alone- sky has 80- and traditional broadcasters such as ITV and the BBC have upped their game with huge hits such as Broadchurch and Line of Duty.
"there is a lot of difference between high-end TV and many films these days"
"most drama now is a minimum of £1m an episode and the quality and the experience is very high. And the way the market has changed means that is where a lot of the money and funding now is"
The BFI says the figure for inward production investment in TV, mostly from US companies such as Amazon, Netflix and HBO, nearly doubled from £252m in 2013 to a record of almost £500m last year. In contrast, the spend on UK domestic films dropped to £198m in 2015, the lowest level since 2007.
"There has always been pressure on smaller films, it is a tough end of the market where there aren't that many breakout successes"
"It is always challenging but it seems to be particularly accentuated now with big budget films doing so well and pressure from the other side with high-end TV"
The BFI insists that the small to mid-budget films appears to be in decent health. it says that initial reporting shows that the number of domestic UK features being made in the first quarter this year (2017) is the same as in 2016 and that there has been a 30% jump in spend to nearly £32m.Following a similar model to the Hollywood majors, the Canadian media group said that its film strategy will now focus on "producing and sourcing a reduced slate of premium films."
what do you think is going to be the future of the film industry?
I think that in future the film industry will be mainly on social media and online such as Netflix, amazon prime and sky movies. Consequently cinemas will show movies that are targeted at a more niche audience - the amount of business they receive will decrease significantly.
Lovely work here Ruby, a good summary!
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What do YOU think is going to be the future of the film industry?
Miss C
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