Northern Alliance - BFI

Lifesize holds a discussion each year with filmmakers about professional conduct,
including copyright, contracts and the working time directive, but there is a duality in
practice with ostensible compliance disguising breaches of policy. Lifesize feels the
UK Film Council is not involved enough to appreciate this fully.
Lifesize says it focuses on cherry-picking talent that is suitable for the international
marketplace, whereas strategic partners promote at a local or national level, and
tend to promote every film they fund. It also feels that the National and Regional
Screen Agencies can also be dogmatic about targets and that some poor films are
commissioned simply to help meet targets. It believes that Digital Nation plays an
important role in moving on from this context, with bigger budgets and a more
flexible approach. Lifesize concedes that data management has not been efficient in
the past; it would like to stop having to report back on the money made on the sale
of films and would like more flexibility in the way films are contracted.
Via Lifesize Pictures, the NCF is closely involved in the selection and development of
every short film commissioned through the four schemes including the approval of
the final cut (see Appendix IX for detail on the individual schemes‟ processes).
Conversely, although both the UK Film Council and Lifesize Pictures actively promote
many short films, in the majority of cases (especially at the Digital Shorts level) the
responsibility for actually marketing the films is left with the filmmakers themselves.
This may reflect the economic reality that there is no viable business model for short
film distribution. Certainly the returns from Digital Shorts and Digital Shorts
Plus/Digital Nation support this conclusion.
Page 38