Film4

1. What is Film4's remit (its reason and purpose for being)?
2. What types of films are green-lighted by Film4? Give examples of films and genres.
3. Why is Tessa Ross regarded as "the mother of British film-making" and therefore instrumental for Film4's success?
4. How much is Film4's yearly budget and how much of it did "Slumdog Millionaire take up? ( Be careful with this one as co-productions, UK Lottery money and deals with Pathe, etc. helps make Film4's budget stretch further!)
5. Why does Film4 form partnerships with other companies/individuals?
6. What is the future for Film4 - budget and film-wise?
7. What problems did Film Four face in the naughties?

1. Film4’s purpose for being is to provide opportunities for new, up and coming directors or established directors that perhaps haven’t had the recognition they deserve for a while. They aim to produce these with quality, innovation, diversity and distinctiveness.


2. A huge film produced by Film4 is Slumdog Millionaire made in 2008 which can be found under a drama genre. Another including Four Lions created in 2010 which can also be found under the genre of drama as well as comedy. Others include Touching the Void, This is England and The Last King of Scotland.

3. Tessa Ross is regarded as “the mother of British film-making” because as the channels executive she has turned Film4 around since taking charge 6 years ago and creating a promising future for the film production company. Another example is her dedication to the institution she’s been there helping to produce the majority of all the films that Film4 have produced. An example of how she goes out of her way to help is when the idea of Slumdog Millionaire was coming into production she realised that they’d need to seek permission to use the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, so she travelled to Celador to gain rights and partner up. Danny Boyle went on to say "She knew to put it together with Celador, in the way that a good executive producer does." This proves the dedication and time she has for the production company.

4. The budget for Slumdog Millionaire was originally £8 million, but was later on increased by 20% to £10 million. The overall cost of the film was $15 million, which is roughly £10 million.

5. The reason for Film4 forming partnerships with other companies is to ensure that they gain rights to use companies ideas in their films. The reasons for doing this are shown by Tessa Ross’ actions. It must be ensured that they have rights so they cannot have action taken over them with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act.

6. Film4 is hoping to boost its overall budget by £50 million in 2011. This will take place over the next 5 years going up roughly by £15 million per year. This is set to commence at the same time as Film4’s newest financed film being released, Never Let Me Go staring Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley.

7. A major problem that FilmFour Ventures faced in 2001 was a huge loss of £5.7 million. This was due to Charlotte Gray making one of the most expensive films they have ever made yet it doing very poor in the box office. It was stated that in 2011 Film Four put out 14 films, yet its releases were only accounted for just 0.7% of the UK’s box office market. In 2006 Film Four were struggling very much so announced a huge change. There original business model of a pay TV on a subscription basis was failing so they decided to change this and bring in adverts; they believed this is where they’d get their money from.