Each week I look at a different topic around the film industry, focusing on the data and statistics which reveal what’s going on.
Grab a cup of tea – this is a long one. It’s rare for filmmakers to get a candid look at the books of someone else’s film but, thanks to the generosity of Marcus Markou, that’s exactly what you’ll get to read below. Papadopoulos & Sons is an independent feature film that tells the tale of an […]
Last week I looked at the previous six year’s worth of financial accounts for the UK Film Council (UKFC) and the BFI, focusing on the recoupment stats. I have since managed to build a complete set of accounts for the 12 years between 1st April 2002 and 31st March 2014. In summary… Across all BFI […]
As I get further down the rabbit hole of publicly-funded UK films, I’m finding curiouser and curiouser results. Today’s research looks at the money that is returned to public organisations if a film they backed performs well. I have previously looked at How the BFI awarded £129 million in the past four years, Which public bodies […]
Over the past few weeks I have been looking at UK-based public funding for films. It appears to be a hot topic for UK filmmakers as I’ve had all manner of emails and social media messages asking for more details. So I decided to dig deeper into the largest public body dedicated to supporting UK film […]
Last week I answered a question posed by someone working in a public funding institution, who wanted to know if organisations like theirs are involved with better-than-average films. The result showed that, yes, they were. This week, I am answering a question on a related topic but this time from a filmmaker. They emailed me to […]
In recent years, the Chinese market for Hollywood films has flourished so much that Chinese consumer demand is already affecting the content of Hollywood’s creative output. The studios can see just how lucrative China’s 1.4 billion possible cinema-goers could be, if only they can manage to stay on the right side of the autocratic and ever-controlling government. […]
For the past decade, DVD revenue has been shrinking rather quickly, due to piracy and changing consumer viewing habits. The industry is hoping that the new kid on the block, Video On Demand (VOD), can fill this shortfall. In 2014, I surveyed 1,235 film business professionals and found that 61% of them expect that within the next […]
I spent the weekend at the first of twelve sessions for the Micro-Budget Mentor scheme that I’m running with producer James Cotton. We had a lecture theatre full of keen micro-budget filmmakers and I spoke about at the current state of low and micro-budget filmmaking in the UK. In order to prepare, I looked in detail […]
Last week’s article didn’t feature any sexy charts, so I thought it would be a shame to disappoint film data nerds two weeks in a row. As penance, I thought I’d tackle a juicy topic I’ve had on my mind for a while: Do filmmakers lie about their budgets? The short answer is – yes, all […]
In November I am leading (along with James Cotton) a four-month part-time programme around micro-budget films. I want to ensure we’re teaching what is actually happening in the industry today, rather than outdated ideas or common misconceptions. So, being the data-driven fiend that I am, I have performed a number of studies into the topic. […]
