Film Council told to fly the kite for Britain

Leading accountants Baker Tilly have recommended to the Film Council that all films made in Britain should be branded with an on-screen kite mark or logo.
According to research findings released in a new industry report entitled 'The Road to Exhibition', the British are notoriously bad at supporting their home-grown productions compared to the support enjoyed by filmmakers in other European countries and the US.
Christine Corner, head of Baker Tilly’s media group, said: “This situation is not good for the British film industry, because the success of any film in its home market is crucial when distributors decide which films they want to release around the rest of the world. The more markets a film runs in, the greater its chances of success. If the British film industry keeps its successful projects a national secret, we will never be able to re-gain our lost position as one of the premier film-making countries in the world.”
According to the 2002 British Film Institute Handbook, of the 100 UK productions made in 1999, 26% have still not achieved a distribution deal and only 24% were granted a 2001 release. Of the rest, 50% had achieved some form of deal, but mainly in the less prestigious and less lucrative video and DVD markets.
Corner added: “Branding films might seem strange at first, but look at the enormous success this concept has enjoyed in other, much more mature, markets. Take any food product – by law, it has to contain certain labelling information as well as declaring its country of origin. Think about the success of the Lion campaign for British eggs and how spectacularly well various other generic promotions have worked. The British film industry should be less parochial and more outward-looking – we have got to engage with international distributors or become niche players. The kite mark or logo would show the international film industry and British audiences that we are alive and kicking and keen to regain our lost ground as major players.”
(GB)