Northern Alliance - BFI

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To date no short film has fully recouped its UK Film Council Investment. 95 Reporting Lifesize Pictures has a system for dealing with revenue reporting and relies on obtaining information from national and regional screen agencies and filmmakers. Cinema Extreme: Producers account for revenues and send annual statements to the UK Film Council‟s Business Affairs and Production Finance departments. Completion Fund: Mayavision reports to the UK Film Council‟s Business Affairs and Production Finance departments. Digital Shorts: Each National and Regional Screen Agency is required to account to Lifesize Pictures annually on the performance of films and sales, however there has been inconsistency in receiving this reporting. Background to current practice Contract logic There are several reasons why current short films contracts are a cut-down version of the feature film contracts, rather than being a more simple grant agreement: Part of the UK Film Council‟s mission has been to professionalise short filmmaking, and just as filmmakers use shorts to gain experience of the process of making films and developing their creativity, they also need to gain an insight into professional business practices in order to prepare them for moving on to making a feature film; The short film contracts have been drafted to reflect: (a) the fact that the UK Film Council distributes Lottery money and is therefore responsible for ensuring accountability and value for money in its use. Over time, provisions have been added to some of the templates to reflect best practice and to address issues that have arisen at partner level to do with openness and transparency of processes; and 95 Source: UK Film Council Business Affairs department. Page 96
(b) VAT is paid on awards and provisions need to be included to ensure that the UK Film Council acquires a share of copyright, a credit and is entitled to recoup and share in net profits from short films. Note: the recoupment provisions on short films have been softened so that the UK Film Council only seeks to recoup half its investment; Exploitation/distribution of short films may not be the primary reason for making the films, but there are still some distribution/exhibition opportunities and sales available. In order to maximise those opportunities the films have to be fully cleared, and the UK Film Council contracting process provides for this. Role of the UK Film Council's Business Affairs Department The fact that UK Film Council takes a share of copyright in the films puts it at risk of legal action in the event that a filmmaker infringes third party copyright or fails to fully clear the film. Therefore, the UK Film Council has provided all short filmmakers (whether directly, on Completion Fund and Cinema Extreme films, or indirectly through its partners on Digital Shorts) with template clearance agreements for cast and crew, including director, producer, music composer and writer. This is to ensure that good standard documentation is used and that all short films produced through UK Film Council funding are fully cleared. This procedure was adopted in response to many problems in the early years of the shorts programmes, where films were not properly cleared and could not be licensed for use, or where the filmmakers got into disagreements with each other or with the Digital Shorts partner. The use of music is also subject to stringent rules, because experience has shown that obtaining music rights can be prohibitively expensive for short films, as well as being time-consuming to clear. The provision of the clearance pack has therefore reduced the number of problems brought to Lifesize Pictures and the UK Film Council's Business Affairs department. Nevertheless, issues continue to arise such as where the Business Affairs team discover late into the process that a filmmaker has used, and failed to clear, another party‟s copyright – for example, based the script on a short story or poem, or filmed someone‟s trademark or artwork. Often these issues are not spotted at the outset, and Lifesize or the Business Affairs team have to intervene. Also, the UK Film Council‟s partners/agents may have limited knowledge of legal and compliance issues, so they naturally seek advice from Lifesize and, where Lifesize cannot help, from the UK Film Council's Business Affairs department. In general, agents/partners do try to field the majority of queries. The Business Affairs department, together with Lifesize or Mayavision as appropriate, are directly involved in training and advising short filmmakers on the business side of production for the Completion Fund and Cinema Extreme. In Page 97
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Northern Alliance Review of short f
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Appendices I Case studies 56 II Def
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1. Executive summary 1.1 Introducti
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support a single disabled filmmaker
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emerge as a result of the structure
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target audience consists of the var
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While our interviewees had sympathy
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3.2 The UK Film Council‟s strateg
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Table 2: Summary of the NCF‟s pro
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All of the entities in the table ab
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Table 4: Recent applicants and awar
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Table 5: Strategic partners‟ prio
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There is a need to ground all futur
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Table 8: Success and its cost, from
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Shorts appears relatively efficient
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As noted in section 4.2 above, the
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Given that Cinema Extreme positions
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Figures for the Digital Shorts prog
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“We have no brief to work towards
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4.5.2. Revenues Table 14: Scheme re
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Others were more critical, openly q
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4.7 Support for showcasing films at
Page 45 and 46: The provision of culturally signifi
Page 47 and 48: less than a quarter of the cost of
Page 49 and 50: Recommendation: The UK Film Council
Page 51 and 52: emove the perceived element of comm
Page 53 and 54: As part of our review we checked th
Page 55 and 56: films produced in the UK. We would
Page 57 and 58: million in only a few weeks. I was
Page 59 and 60: That dedication and persistence has
Page 61 and 62: Appendix II Definitions Exactly wha
Page 63 and 64: Directors, started in 1989 and prod
Page 65 and 66: Appendix IV Why short films are mad
Page 67 and 68: Appendix V The public value of shor
Page 69 and 70: Social networking sites, such as Be
Page 71 and 72: Investment in the production of sho
Page 73 and 74: Agency Scheme Number of shorts Budg
Page 75 and 76: Appendix VIII Overview of the UK Fi
Page 77 and 78: Some rules, such as the requirement
Page 79 and 80: The future The short film schemes h
Page 81 and 82: Appendix XI Short film internationa
Page 83 and 84: Beyond Europe 1: New Zealand Film C
Page 85 and 86: Appendix XII Data availability Summ
Page 87 and 88: it subject to loss because of staff
Page 89 and 90: Appendix XIII Platforms and audienc
Page 91 and 92: “There isn‟t much of an audienc
Page 93 and 94: Appendix XV Access and diversity Pa
Page 95: Appendix XVI Business affairs Short
Page 99 and 100: Completion Fund, and from the Natio
Page 101 and 102: The training scheme is best known f
Page 103 and 104: Appendix XVIII The role of film fes
Page 105 and 106: Appendix XIX List of interviewees O
Page 107 and 108: Appendix XX Sample survey questionn
Page 109 and 110: 3. Measuring success How does your
Page 111 and 112: 4B. Festival screenings of short fi
Page 113 and 114: 4E. Revenue generated: Please provi
Page 115 and 116: 4H.Of the above, how many have subs
Page 117 and 118: 'Developing exceptional talent' and
Page 119 and 120: for making and reporting distributi
Page 121 and 122: Of the filmmakers supported by resp
Page 123 and 124: Filmmaker activity On average, each
Page 125: Appendix XXII Northern Alliance Nor
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