As we may have mentioned, Yellow Horse isn’t just books, but also art, photography, animation, music and, of course, film, so it was understandable that we were surprised to learn that the UK Film Council is to be scrapped under the British government’s latest round of funding cuts. I’m not a terribly political person, and as a displaced American, my political nouse is not sufficient to editorialise on the decision, however, having worked directly for another quango (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation) that is directly funded by the Film Council, I do have a small understanding of the work that they do. Screen East has funded Games Eden in the east of England for some 4 years now and I have seen first hand the opportunities that small organisations and individuals can take advantage of through these non-governmental bodies.
The lottery funding that supported the Film Council will not be taken away, by all accounts, but how it will now be allocated is in question. Games Eden may not survive the cut, nor in fact, may Screen East itself. As for the work done to directly support the UK film industry? The UK Film Council said today that it has invested more than £160 million in Lottery funds over the past ten years, generating £700 million at the box office worldwide. There are conflicting opinions as to whether they have been wholly effective, but the Guardian’s round-up of the recent films funded by the council gives yet another indication and there is plenty of opposition to the announcement.
Of course, it got me wondering what sorts of funding opportunities exist in the US and found this handy guide to Funding Bodies in the US. In fact, the entire website is pretty useful.
More useful independent film resources include indiewire and ShootingPeople. For networking resources, see Massify and, of course, the website that brought Scott and Teddy together, NextCat.
And since we’re on a film theme, here’s an amazingly creative stop-action animation to wind things up. It’s long, but worth it.
BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
