THE BUSINESS OF FILM

1.3

In the UK, the BFI and its predecessor the UK Film Council, have published a number of reports on the economic and cultural value of film. Studies have shown that film contributed £3.67 billion to the UK economy. This is because films have become increasingly popular with people as they are a good leisure activity and also can carry powerful messages for the audience, helping them reflect on themselves.

This chart shows how the screen industries generated over £6 billion for the UK economy.









 1.6
 Film plays a massive part in the economy.
The graph below shows the amount of money spent in the UK on the production of feature films over the last 20 years.

 The spend of domestic UK films has been fairly constant over the 20 years and the UK makes many independant films that are clearly British such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Pride' that have done well.
Another important factor of film production is tourism. This is when people visit a place that was featured in a film of TV programme. Film induced tourism is worth around £840 million pounds, so this is very important to the economy.
Film is regarded as very important and high profile in the creative industries.
Film is still doing extremely well in the UK even though American films take most of the money at the box office. UK independent films took only 16% of the UK box office takings in 2014. There is no large British film production or distribution company based in the UK, whereas in America there is.
Threats that could diminish the importance to the UK film industry is the use of piracy DVDs. Recent research suggests that almost 30% of the UK population has taken part of some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying fake DVDs. This costs the UK film industries about £500m a year.
1.8
The UK has a very supportive funding system, this means that their films tend to travel well. The BFI train up filmmakers, producers and the cast who are able to move comfortablely between independent and studio film making and also between UK and international film making. This shows us that they have a very healthy training system as a lot of the British films end up in the Oscars and BAFTAs.
1.10&1.11

 

The term 'value chain' in the film industry describes a series of steps which are used to show how the spark that brought the film maker to make his or her film right up until the end of the commercial life for the film.
This image shows the main stages of the film value chain. 





This image displays the 'film value chain'. This highlights the different stages in the creation and consumption of an independent film. The 'development' stage is getting the film idea and script before it goes to the market. The 'finance' stage is when the film is financed on its own terms and in its own way. In the world of independent film, finance is the most difficult stage.

The 'production' stage is in some ways the simplest part of the chain. It is a very established industrial process that is divided into the 'pre production' and 'post production'. Distribution is the process by which the film goes out to theatre chains, cinemas, broadcasters and video shops. Finally, exploration is when the consumers actually experience the film, this is mainly done through the cinema. However, films are being consumed more in different ways with the growing importance of digital technologies.