'How much impact has Film Four had on the UK film industry in the last 20 years? What do you think their role will be in the future and will it ever be possible for such an institution to compete against the vertical integration that is possible with institutions such as Disney?'
Film 4 recieve £15m a year, and aim to finance between 8 to 12 feature films a year, as well as 4 or 5 short films. But they dont fully finance production so they work with producers to find the right finance at the right time which is a very important part of their work. Their own money represents both licence fee for free UK TV, and also an equity investment which is a way for us to be invested across the long life of a film. They spend a very large proportion (around £2.5m a year) on developing scripts and ideas and they see this as a hugely important part of their work – this is where the risk lies, this is where we find and nurture new writers and directors, and this commitment to development means they can work with producers to build projects in a creatively challenging environment to the point where they are robust enough to go out to the market.
The Film4 ambition holds new talent at its heart – theyview it as a long term strategy and it is indeed one which has paid off many times over over many years. A mixture of long term returning directors and new directors form the spine of our feature film production slate. Directors like Danny Boyle, Shane Meadows, Kevin MacDonald, Steve McQueen, Martin McDonagh and Roger Michell all continue to make films with British money, albeit sometimes shooting in the US (Martin McDonagh’s new film Seven Psychopaths has just shot in LA with an all US cast – but it has British talent and British money behind it, from a British production company).
They see our ability to support film-makers from the outset of their career to be the essential ingredient in building a stable of distinctive, important British voices. And they have learnt to take a risk on an apparently less “commercial” project, but one which a film-maker and we both believe holds something special, different, challenging, resonant, can often be the best – and scariest – decision we can make.
We have a new digital initiative, Film4.0 which is developing innovative new projects across different platforms, with talent often new to film, but also with established film-makers new to the digital sphere.
We are looking at new financing models for super low budget films which allow the film-maker teams to share in gross from first pound in and access audiences through new distribution models. We have a diversity initiative on which we are working with new producers to reach out to communities we feel are under-represented.