PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
helping the UK compete against Canada, Aus- tralia, New Zealand and the US states.” The BFC is preparing for its workload to
increase. The new TV tax credit for high-end TV productions of at least $1.61m per episode is aimed at attracting a great deal more production into the UK from 2013. The new mechanism will be a ‘mirror image’ of the fi lm tax credit, worth about 20% of the net budget. “Our appetite has been whetted by Game Of
Thrones and the catalytic impact it has had on the Northern Ireland economy,” explains Stephen Bristow, the associate director at accountancy fi rm RSM Tenon.“We were deafened by US sup- port for a potential TV tax credit in the UK.” One of the productions to have benefi ted should
the credit have been in place is Mammoth Screen’s Ford Madox Ford adaptation Parade’s End, which is being backed by HBO and the BBC, and pro- duced by David Parfitt. “As a big chunk of the book is set in France we decided to shoot about a third in Belgium, which isn’t such a stretch,” Par- fi tt explains. “We are doing all the post in Belgium as Belgium also has a tax break. We shot the rest in the UK.” There is certainly a feel-good factor about the
Snow White And The Huntsman: Universal Pictures’ fi lm was one of the many international productions to shoot in the UK last year Ahead of the game
The UK is booming, with a record-breaking $1.6bn worth of Hollywood production using the territory’s studios, locations, crews and services last year. Now the TV tax credit is poised to bring in further international productions
“I
get asked about our crews, and if they are any good or not,” says Iain Smith, one of the world’s most renowned line producers, of the question
he is asked most frequently about the UK. “I have no hesitation in reassuring them we have plenty of A-list crew in the UK, some of who are indisput- ably and truly the best in the world.” Those A-list crews delivered a record-breaking
$1.61bn (£1bn) of inward investment into the UK in 2011, working on projects including Paramount Pictures’ World War Z, Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight Rises, 20th Century Fox’s Prometheus, Dis- ney’s Frankenweenie and Universal Pictures’ Snow White And The Huntsman. “We have state-of-the-art facilities and infra-
structure,” says Smith, whose producing credits include Alexander and Children Of Men, “and a huge reservoir of genuinely innovative and crea- tive people, from actors, to designers, to writers and directors.” Smith is the chair of the British Film Commis-
sion (BFC), the organisation charged with market- ing and promoting the UK to the rest of the world. Adrian Wootton, who now oversees the BFC, says: “The BFC is managed as a division of Film London but its marketing, its branding, its focus, is com- pletely ring-fenced. It is there to promote the nations and regions [of the UK]. It’s why we have an advisory board, where the nations and regions and our industry partners, which include Disney,
■ 34 Screen International at Cannes May 21, 2012
‘We give incoming film- makers a sense anything can
be achieved.’ Iain Smith, chair, British Film Commission
Warner Bros, Pinewood Studios, Framestore, Har- bottle & Lewis and RSM Tenon all come together to look at what the big issues are.” As the front door to the UK, the BFC helps the
US studios navigate through the larger technical challenges they may face, including import/ export issues and securing visas and planning permissions. Film London, Creative England and the national agencies from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland step in with practical support. The BFC’s two-person Los Angeles-based team
liaises daily with the US studios and major US independents. A further three staff are based in the UK offi ce, providing on-the-ground produc- tion support across the UK. “The positive fi scal policies, the skills base that
has been built up, the investment in the infra- structure, and the fantastic visual-effects compa- nies mean we’ve got a great, globally competitive offer,” says Wootton of the UK. “We have man- aged to successfully sell that offer to our US cli- ents. How many other countries can say they’ve got a $100m new studio facility [the Warner Bros- backed Leavesden] opening this year? Not many.” He suggests the dynamism of the UK is having
a knock-on effect throughout Europe. “If a huge multi-million dollar fi lm comes into the UK, they often want to shoot in other parts of Europe too. They might do some VFX work in Paris, some shooting in Eastern Europe. We are successfully
UK right now. Smith believes this cannot be over- stated. “We know what we’re doing,” he says. “We emanate confidence and certainty, all of which gives incoming fi lm-makers a sense that anything can be achieved.”
www.britishfi
lmcommission.org.uk
PROMETHEUS CASE STUDY
When Ridley Scott and his executive producer Mark Huffam were considering where to shoot the $150m sci-fi project Prometheus, they knew they wanted to be based in the UK. However 20th Century Fox wanted to run the numbers on other locations. “We could have done the studio work in
Hungary, Australia or Prague,” says Huffam. “But the UK is Ridley’s home and when you take the tax break into consideration, the UK was the most competitive.” Prometheus did most of its studio work at
Pinewood, with eight days in Iceland and a further three in Jordan. Fox was happy. “In the UK the costs are quantifi able. The [US]
studios like that,” Huffam explains. “As long as you have done your due diligence, if you say the budget is going to be X, it will be X. The crew is a motivated, hard-working crew.”
Prometheus
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