Northern Alliance - BFI

The provision of culturally significant short films should be seen as a potentially
valuable by-product - especially if the potential to reach a mass audience via the
internet is realisable - but not a priority.
While restating its goals, the UK Film Council should also restate its commitment to
short film. There are almost certainly areas of the UK Film Council‟s activity where the
extent to which the market could compensate for a reduction or withdrawal of
support from the UK Film Council is not known for sure. With short filmmaking there
appears to be no doubt: its role is pivotal. Short filmmaking in the UK will reduce in
proportion to any reduction in the UK Film Council‟s support. We therefore believe
that support for short filmmaking should be prioritised during the UK Film Council‟s
current forecasting and planning of expenditure, though this should not prevent
changing the allocation of that support to obtain greater effectiveness and
efficiency.
Data collection systems
In section 4.2, we found that there is a need to ground all future support for short
film on much firmer evidence, especially with regard to the impact of the activity the
UK Film Council supports.
The UK Film Council appears to have replaced the fragmented production schemes
but without fully unifying the information gathered on short filmmaking. Most
importantly, there appears to be no effective system in place to collect and
consolidate quantitative data measuring talent development and career progression
across the UK Film Council‟s short film initiatives.
The entire work of the UK Film Council appears predicated on an assumption that
new UK feature filmmaking talent needs short film programmes for it to develop.
Although this is strongly endorsed by industry opinion canvassed as part of our
research, we believe it should be validated given its importance in forming the UK
Film Council‟s overall strategy. In particular, while it seems axiomatic that new UK
feature film directors emerge from short film programmes, it is not proven that the
overwhelming majority of them do.
Recommendation:
The UK Film Council needs to develop a methodology for accurately
monitoring how new feature film directors emerge and the contribution that
its short filmmaking programmes make to that process, compared with other
means of preparing for and entering the industry.
If this assessment validates the prioritisation of support for short filmmaking during
the UK Film Council‟s current forecasting and planning of expenditure, then further
activity, including the possible adoption of recommendations made here, would be
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