This is England had a small budget that was built mainly on Shane Meadows' name as a director. The funding came from a number of sources that you should know from your research.
During the 2000s, in an era before the recession and before austerity cuts the (then) Labour government were keen on promoting the British film industry. There were tax breaks available to filmmakers and funds to access dependent on various criteria.
Often this criteria led to the question what constitutes a British film?
As we explore the criteria of a British film and learn more about the funding of the British film industry you should be constantly considering how This is England plays a part in this.
Firstly we'll look at what the Government of the time considered to be a British Film.
Look at pages 10-12 of the PDF below to answer the questions above.
Whilst people will always argue about, not only what films are British, but also what the criteria should be - it is hard to ever get complete consensus.
Something that we can all agree on is that the British film industry is much smaller than it's American counterpart in Hollywood. In a chicken and egg situation - films often to struggle to find funding from production companies and what little money there is has to be spread around.
So how do British films get funded in the first place? Look at the next four slides to sill in some of the blanks...
The introduction of the UKFC was very welcome and had a number of successes, the montage below shows just how important the Film Council was...
The more observant of you will have noticed that at the end of this montage that it's actually a tribute video - paying respects, RIP UK Film Council 2000-2010.
This is because the Coalition government that arrived in 2010 decided to to scrap the UKFC. Understandably those who had benefited from and lauded the Film Council were very upset and wanted their voices heard...
So if we look at what the UKFC was supposed to do and largely did...
- Direct funding from the National Lottery to film projects
- Support low budget 'art house' movies
- Invest in more commercial films that are likely to make a profit
- Help films with marketing and promotion through helping pay for prints of movies to go to cinemas and other funding such as posters and ads in magazines
- Providing digital projectors for cinemas to enable low budget films to get into as many screens as possible
Sounds like a good thing. So where did it go wrong?
- Accusations of spending too much on staff and expenses
- Not putting profits into new projects but only into funding the UKFC
- The Film Council would help fund low budget art house movies or high budget commercial movies, but seems to neglect funding the low budget commercial films
- The digital projectors bought for cinemas were often put into screens with 500-1000 seats rather than the 100-200 seater screens which smaller films would be shown in. Big films benefitted, smaller indie films did not
As much as Liam Neeson's assertion that closing down the film council was: "A blow" and "A big mistake" - it might be useful for us to look at a few more articulate arguments.
This reaction from a filmmaker writing in the Guardian was typical of the kind of dismay levelled at the Film Councils 'abolition'...
So what do we think about a British Film Industry?
Contribute ro this discussion, add to the forum by clicking here...
So finally finally, you are going to have to write an answer to the question:
Explore the factors which affected the production of This is England
Here are some hints and tips as to the sort of thing you need to be looking at...
Of course funding is not the only factor which affects the production watch this short 'making of' documentary to think about other factors which might have affected the film...
Here's the good Doctor Mark Kermode interviewing the man himself about This is England (this is useful when considering Background & Context)
Before you attempt the answer there are things that we've studied before such as the Background & Context of the film, as well as the Genre of the film and of course the wider influence of Shane Meadows as an Auteur.
Whilst lengthy, these production notes provide a useful resource for finding out more about how the film was made...
Whilst lengthy, these production notes provide a useful resource for finding out more about how the film was made...
When you feel you can write a response which encapsulates many of the different factors that have affected the production of the film then write for half an hour and make a case...
