Northern Alliance - BFI

higher education. Certain film schools, and in particular the National Film and
Television School, were specifically referred to by interviewees as a source of high
quality short films. Broadcasters occasionally commission short films; the rest, which
we estimate at around 50 a year, are financed privately.
Although detailed figures do not appear to have been compiled, we believe that the
annual cost of the short films produced within UK higher education runs to several
millions of pounds. This would appear to make the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE) the largest single investor in the production of short films in the
UK.
Given the very limited private finance available for short filmmaking, the four
programmes financed by the UK Film Council, examined in detail in section 3,
represent the most important source of funding for films made in the UK outside of
higher education 11 .
The National and Regional Screen Agencies were frequently quoted by interviewees
as being among the most important organisations supporting short film in the UK.
This is not just because of their role in delivering the UK Film Council‟s programmes,
but also because of other activity relevant to short film production. For example, EM
Media and Scottish Screen support the production of short films by targeting the
provision of „next step‟ shorts support (similar in their aims to Cinema Extreme). Film
London manages an Arts Council England (ACE) funded initiative called Flamin,
which targets artist filmmakers. The Film Agency for Wales operates a scheme to test
feature directors, and Scottish Screen provides another targeted at documentary
filmmakers. Several Screen Agencies also offer a small number of non-production
schemes targeted at the makers of short films, primarily to support the completion
and/or festival exhibition of films.
The present level of short film production in the UK is therefore largely a factor of
public funding of one kind or another.
2.6 Value
When considering the payback that short films make to the UK‟s cultural life in return
for this public funding, it may be useful to think of their contribution in one of two
ways: their intrinsic value as a form of art or entertainment in their own right; and
their instrumental value as a means of developing the skill set of the UK industry as a
whole, in particular the subsequent feature films of short film „graduates‟.
11 Further sources of public finance include local authorities, especially the London Borough Film
Funds, and broadcasters (BBC and Channel 4).
Page 12