Filmmaking in the UK - Grounds for Optimism
Upsurge in film shoots
The lion's share of professionals working in the UK film industry are employed in film production, a sector which has enjoyed a surge in activity in recent years.
Skillset figures show over 9,000 people work in film production and development, with another 8,200 working in facilities which includes studio/equipment hire, special physical effects and post production.1
According to the UK Film Council, 2003 saw a dramatic increase in production activity to £1.16 billion, a figure it described as likely to be the highest to date.2
Much of the rise is thanks to a slew of inward investment productions (films that are more than 50% financed from outside the UK) that surged year on year in 2003 from 16 to 30 and were worth a staggering £729 million.3 Big budget films pushing these figures up included Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Alfie, Alexander, Sahara and Troy.
The number of local films made in the UK (that is, features made by a UK production company shot wholly or partly in the UK) also rose year on year, from 37 to 44, with production value rising from £156 million to £269 million. Big budget UK films contributing to this total included Bride And Prejudice, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, Five Children And It, Thunderbirds and Wimbledon. UK co-productions also rose from 66 to 99 and were worth £159 million.4
Unrepresentative workforce
The production boom has kept film industry professionals busy and in work. For most, though, employment is not always regular. Skillset figures show that the majority of professionals working in production (63%) do so on a fixed term contract that lasts only for the duration of a film. Only 11% have a permanent contract with the company or organisation behind a film.5
However, the workforce is hardly representative of the British population at large. Just one third of the film workforce is female, with the female percentage varying widely by occupation group, from 89% in make-up and hairdressing to almost zero in sound/electrical.6
The clear majority are also white. Overall, only 5% of the film industry's workforce is made up from minority groups - below the national average across all business sectors of 6.1%. According to Skillset figures, the minority ethnic percentage is especially low in areas such as art/sets/props, sound and electrical, special effects, construction and locations. The number of disabled workers in the film industry is also low, standing at just 2%.7
Skillset's workforce survey also paints a picture of a predominantly young industry, with 67% aged 44 or under, and with most concentrated in London and the South East. Reflecting the itinerant nature of an industry which requires production staff to work away from home for long periods of time, 38% of the workforce are single and 65% have no dependent children.
Finding work
Unsurprisingly, film is perceived as a highly glamorous industry and attracts interest from vast numbers of graduates and school leavers.
However, it is a very hard industry to break into. And the uncomfortable truth is that it's not what you know, but who you know that will often help you find work. According to Skillset research, the vast majority of film industry professionals (81%) were recruited to their most recent production by word of mouth8. Making a film is a very personal process that involves a group of people spending an intense few months together, for long hours at a time. The ability to get on with people is crucial - which is why directors or producers will prefer to hire someone they know and like above an outside candidate who might boast greater qualifications on paper.
Nowadays, many people (45%) find that, to break in to the industry, they have to do unpaid work first so that they can make contacts and get their face known. Many of these new entrants (46%) are graduates.9
Once in, people quickly discover that working in production demands long hours - the average day is well over 11 hours of shooting time, plus the time taken to travel to the studio or other locations, for six days a week. Employment is also unpredictable - most of the workforce surveyed by Skillset had worked on four feature films in the past two years with 71% reporting at least one bout of unemployment during the year.10
And formal training is thin on the ground. Very few of the professionals contacted by Skillset had experienced any kind of formal, organised film industry training course over the past year. Of those who had, 45% had paid the fees themselves.
Financial rewards
The financial rewards of working in film, however, can be good. 58% earn £30,000 a year and over, while 25% earn £50,000 or more11. This reflects the high degree of skills and specialisation in the workforce, and the ability for many people to find work in other areas such as television when they might not be working on a film.
Even on lower budget films, rewards can be good. The recently published Relph Report on the Production of Lower Budget Films - which focused on films with budgets of £2m-£4m - makes interesting reading. It found that, at the higher budget range, crews averaged about 55 people with average wages of £1,000 a week. At the lower budget end, crews were 45 strong with wages of around £450.12
The fee for screenwriters13, the report concluded, averaged about 2.5% of the budget (so, £100,000 for a £4 million film), while producers and their production fees amounted to an average of just under 6%.14 This might sound a lot, but for lower budget films is clearly inadequate given the time it takes to develop, finance, shoot and deliver a feature.
Fees for directors vary enormously. Much depends on the status of the director: whether they are a hungry first timer or someone with a name brought in to help the producer finance the movie or are the originator of the project, looking for help from the producer in getting it made. The range can be from £750 to £2,500 a week, for all but the most established directors, for a film that might take 30 weeks to make including pre-production, shooting and editing. Directors are usually entitled to a share of the profits as well.15
The Relph Report also sheds light on average pay for other crew: line producers, for example, earn between £1,500 and £2,000 a week, while the wages for directors of photography vary from £1,100 to £3,500. Most DoP's also come with their own crew of focus puller, clapper loader and grip who might earn up to £1,000 a week each as well.
The art department also benefits from significant investment, with art departments of 6-8 people and prop departments of 5-6 people common. With the addition of construction labour and standbys, modest films can end up with 25 people solely concerned with the setting in which the story takes place.16
Meanwhile, one of the most financially rewarding areas to work in the film industry is in editing and post-production. Skillset's 2004 workforce survey found that this group was the most likely to have earned £50,000 or more in the past year from film work.17
Post-production is one of the most vibrant parts of the industry with anecdotal evidence suggesting that there is more than enough work coming into the UK for the pool of highly qualified professionals working in the sector.
Raising the money
How is all this money raised? With great difficulty, producers say.
Big budget Hollywood productions that come to the UK will largely be financed by the US studios, but will also look to take advantage of generous government tax breaks on offer to bankroll a significant part of their budget.
Indeed, one piece of legislation, the Section 42 tax break, has been a crucial weapon in attracting large Hollywood productions to UK shores and fighting off the rival claims of competing film industries in countries such as the Czech Republic, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Section 42 offers producers about 10% of their budget in the form of a tax break. This, along with the UK's renowned skills base, makes the UK one of the world's favoured destinations for foreign film shoots.
Producers of lower budget UK films will have to piece together their finances from a variety of sources. The Relph Report gives a useful guideline of how a £3 million budget film might raise its money. Some £500,000 might be raised by selling UK rights to UK television and a theatrical and video distributor. Another chunk, perhaps £900,000, may come in the form of national lottery investment from the UK Film Council. Foreign pre-sales in selected international territories might also raise £490,000. The value of foreign rights is generally produced on the back of a sales agent's estimates. A sales agent may be able to help facilitate a 'gap financing' or an advance with a bank to underwrite 25% of the budget - or £750,000 - based on sales estimates for the film. Another substantial proportion of the finances - £360,000 - would come from another tax break on offer to film makers, the Section 48 tax break, which offers back about 12.5% of a film's budget.18 This important tax break is set to be replaced in the near future with a new 'tax credit' incentive, details of which are currently being worked on by The Treasury.
1 Skillset, A Bigger Future - The UK Film Skills Strategy, page 56.
2 UK Film Council, Statistical Yearbook 2003, page, page 77.
3 ibid, page 77
4 ibid, page 77.
5 Joint UK Film Council and Skillset 2004 Feature Film Production Workforce Survey, page 55.
6 ibid, page 4.
7 ibid, page 4.
8 ibid, page 52.
9 ibid, page 6.
10 ibid, page 4.
11 ibid, page 37.
12 Relph Report on the Production of Lower Budget Films, page 9.
13 ibid, page 13.
14 ibid, page 14.
15 ibid, page 16.
16 ibid, page 21-31.
17 Joint UK Film Council and Skillset 2004 Feature Film Production Workforce Survey, page 45.
18 Relph Report on the Production of Lower Budget Films, page 75.
The lion's share of professionals working in the UK film industry are employed in film production, a sector which has enjoyed a surge in activity in recent years.
Skillset figures show over 9,000 people work in film production and development, with another 8,200 working in facilities which includes studio/equipment hire, special physical effects and post production.1
According to the UK Film Council, 2003 saw a dramatic increase in production activity to £1.16 billion, a figure it described as likely to be the highest to date.2
Much of the rise is thanks to a slew of inward investment productions (films that are more than 50% financed from outside the UK) that surged year on year in 2003 from 16 to 30 and were worth a staggering £729 million.3 Big budget films pushing these figures up included Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Alfie, Alexander, Sahara and Troy.
The number of local films made in the UK (that is, features made by a UK production company shot wholly or partly in the UK) also rose year on year, from 37 to 44, with production value rising from £156 million to £269 million. Big budget UK films contributing to this total included Bride And Prejudice, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, Five Children And It, Thunderbirds and Wimbledon. UK co-productions also rose from 66 to 99 and were worth £159 million.4
Unrepresentative workforce
The production boom has kept film industry professionals busy and in work. For most, though, employment is not always regular. Skillset figures show that the majority of professionals working in production (63%) do so on a fixed term contract that lasts only for the duration of a film. Only 11% have a permanent contract with the company or organisation behind a film.5
However, the workforce is hardly representative of the British population at large. Just one third of the film workforce is female, with the female percentage varying widely by occupation group, from 89% in make-up and hairdressing to almost zero in sound/electrical.6
The clear majority are also white. Overall, only 5% of the film industry's workforce is made up from minority groups - below the national average across all business sectors of 6.1%. According to Skillset figures, the minority ethnic percentage is especially low in areas such as art/sets/props, sound and electrical, special effects, construction and locations. The number of disabled workers in the film industry is also low, standing at just 2%.7
Skillset's workforce survey also paints a picture of a predominantly young industry, with 67% aged 44 or under, and with most concentrated in London and the South East. Reflecting the itinerant nature of an industry which requires production staff to work away from home for long periods of time, 38% of the workforce are single and 65% have no dependent children.
Finding work
Unsurprisingly, film is perceived as a highly glamorous industry and attracts interest from vast numbers of graduates and school leavers.
However, it is a very hard industry to break into. And the uncomfortable truth is that it's not what you know, but who you know that will often help you find work. According to Skillset research, the vast majority of film industry professionals (81%) were recruited to their most recent production by word of mouth8. Making a film is a very personal process that involves a group of people spending an intense few months together, for long hours at a time. The ability to get on with people is crucial - which is why directors or producers will prefer to hire someone they know and like above an outside candidate who might boast greater qualifications on paper.
Nowadays, many people (45%) find that, to break in to the industry, they have to do unpaid work first so that they can make contacts and get their face known. Many of these new entrants (46%) are graduates.9
Once in, people quickly discover that working in production demands long hours - the average day is well over 11 hours of shooting time, plus the time taken to travel to the studio or other locations, for six days a week. Employment is also unpredictable - most of the workforce surveyed by Skillset had worked on four feature films in the past two years with 71% reporting at least one bout of unemployment during the year.10
And formal training is thin on the ground. Very few of the professionals contacted by Skillset had experienced any kind of formal, organised film industry training course over the past year. Of those who had, 45% had paid the fees themselves.
Financial rewards
The financial rewards of working in film, however, can be good. 58% earn £30,000 a year and over, while 25% earn £50,000 or more11. This reflects the high degree of skills and specialisation in the workforce, and the ability for many people to find work in other areas such as television when they might not be working on a film.
Even on lower budget films, rewards can be good. The recently published Relph Report on the Production of Lower Budget Films - which focused on films with budgets of £2m-£4m - makes interesting reading. It found that, at the higher budget range, crews averaged about 55 people with average wages of £1,000 a week. At the lower budget end, crews were 45 strong with wages of around £450.12
The fee for screenwriters13, the report concluded, averaged about 2.5% of the budget (so, £100,000 for a £4 million film), while producers and their production fees amounted to an average of just under 6%.14 This might sound a lot, but for lower budget films is clearly inadequate given the time it takes to develop, finance, shoot and deliver a feature.
Fees for directors vary enormously. Much depends on the status of the director: whether they are a hungry first timer or someone with a name brought in to help the producer finance the movie or are the originator of the project, looking for help from the producer in getting it made. The range can be from £750 to £2,500 a week, for all but the most established directors, for a film that might take 30 weeks to make including pre-production, shooting and editing. Directors are usually entitled to a share of the profits as well.15
The Relph Report also sheds light on average pay for other crew: line producers, for example, earn between £1,500 and £2,000 a week, while the wages for directors of photography vary from £1,100 to £3,500. Most DoP's also come with their own crew of focus puller, clapper loader and grip who might earn up to £1,000 a week each as well.
The art department also benefits from significant investment, with art departments of 6-8 people and prop departments of 5-6 people common. With the addition of construction labour and standbys, modest films can end up with 25 people solely concerned with the setting in which the story takes place.16
Meanwhile, one of the most financially rewarding areas to work in the film industry is in editing and post-production. Skillset's 2004 workforce survey found that this group was the most likely to have earned £50,000 or more in the past year from film work.17
Post-production is one of the most vibrant parts of the industry with anecdotal evidence suggesting that there is more than enough work coming into the UK for the pool of highly qualified professionals working in the sector.
Raising the money
How is all this money raised? With great difficulty, producers say.
Big budget Hollywood productions that come to the UK will largely be financed by the US studios, but will also look to take advantage of generous government tax breaks on offer to bankroll a significant part of their budget.
Indeed, one piece of legislation, the Section 42 tax break, has been a crucial weapon in attracting large Hollywood productions to UK shores and fighting off the rival claims of competing film industries in countries such as the Czech Republic, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Section 42 offers producers about 10% of their budget in the form of a tax break. This, along with the UK's renowned skills base, makes the UK one of the world's favoured destinations for foreign film shoots.
Producers of lower budget UK films will have to piece together their finances from a variety of sources. The Relph Report gives a useful guideline of how a £3 million budget film might raise its money. Some £500,000 might be raised by selling UK rights to UK television and a theatrical and video distributor. Another chunk, perhaps £900,000, may come in the form of national lottery investment from the UK Film Council. Foreign pre-sales in selected international territories might also raise £490,000. The value of foreign rights is generally produced on the back of a sales agent's estimates. A sales agent may be able to help facilitate a 'gap financing' or an advance with a bank to underwrite 25% of the budget - or £750,000 - based on sales estimates for the film. Another substantial proportion of the finances - £360,000 - would come from another tax break on offer to film makers, the Section 48 tax break, which offers back about 12.5% of a film's budget.18 This important tax break is set to be replaced in the near future with a new 'tax credit' incentive, details of which are currently being worked on by The Treasury.
1 Skillset, A Bigger Future - The UK Film Skills Strategy, page 56.
2 UK Film Council, Statistical Yearbook 2003, page, page 77.
3 ibid, page 77
4 ibid, page 77.
5 Joint UK Film Council and Skillset 2004 Feature Film Production Workforce Survey, page 55.
6 ibid, page 4.
7 ibid, page 4.
8 ibid, page 52.
9 ibid, page 6.
10 ibid, page 4.
11 ibid, page 37.
12 Relph Report on the Production of Lower Budget Films, page 9.
13 ibid, page 13.
14 ibid, page 14.
15 ibid, page 16.
16 ibid, page 21-31.
17 Joint UK Film Council and Skillset 2004 Feature Film Production Workforce Survey, page 45.
18 Relph Report on the Production of Lower Budget Films, page 75.
