out post sound blog

The Guardian reported this week that the British film industry, certainly in terms of admissions, was in a very good place even with the recession, increasing numbers of cable and satellite film channels, downloads and all the rest of it.

Quoting UK Film Council figures, Mark Brown stated that admissions last year had hit 173.5 million while box office takings in the UK and Ireland exceed £1bn for the first time ever.

However, in terms of production the figures where not so great, and this is something we are certainly seeing on the ground. The level of inward investment, mainly from Hollywood, was recorded as it's highest ever, while the amount spent on co-productions was down to a measly £35 million, not a patch on 2003 when it hit £169 million.

The level of co-production investment is largely, according to the UKFC, due to 'the one flaw' in the film tax credit scheme introduced by Labour and that being that co-productions have to be shot in the UK - film it in another country and the co-production doesn't get tax relief.

Market share for UK films, and we are talking the ones from the bigger studios here, fell by almost half to 16.5% from 31% in 2008. On the flip side, independent films, the ones that we at out post like to get involved with, took their biggest market share in the last 10 years, up to 8.5%. This figure was helped along, not surprisingly by Slumdog Millionaire, St. Trinian's 2 and In The Loop.

It is great to see the indie market pushing forward, Hollywood blockbusters are great (on the whole) but it really does give the whole thing a bit of a shake up when relatively low budget features hit the big time.

Long may it continue!