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This morning’s Times of London reports that the film agency has hired political lobbyists Portland, the PR firm founded by a former adviser to Tony Blair. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has written to John Woodward, CEO of the Film Council, demanding he explain why has taken on Portland, whose other clients include McDonalds and the Russian government. Ed Vaizey, the culture secretary, wrote to the UKFC last week accusing the quango of “overzealously briefing in order to protect their interests”. This was before news that UKFC has hired an external PR firm came out. Treasury regulations prohibit quangos from using public money to employ PR firms to lobby government. UK Film Council says that it’s not using public money to fight against closure. Rather, its two-man press team have been overwhelmed by thousands of media enquiries. Portland is solely there to help the internal PR team cope with the tsunami of emails and phone calls.
The Times points the finger at Portland for procuring letters of support for the UKFC from Clint Eastwood and DreamWorks. UK Film Council head of communications Oliver Rawlins told trade mag PR Week that nobody from his team liaised with Eastwood or DreamWorks to invite to make their comments, despite handling a comms strategy relying on third-party advocacy. “We’ve ensured that the message has been simple, clear and consistent: this is a terrible decision that disregards the commercial benefits of the UK Film Council, the significant revenues it has generated over the years and the risks to the UK film industry and the wider economy of pulling the rug out now,” Rawlins told PR Week.
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Looks like it’s time the UKFC’s chief executive wrote that letter of resignation, but given that he’s spent this long working up and then protecting his salary, that seems unlikely.
Oh come on! You don’t need to hire an expensive team of political lobbyists to deal with press enquiries. There are hundreds of unemployed PR executives roaming the streets of London. This is pretty reprehensible behaviour on the part of Woodward and his cabal of bureaucrats.
Ah, Quangoland…
When it comes to self-parody, it’s the gift that keeps giving.
Am I the only one who thinks this is so funny, there must be the makings of a hilarious British comedy in this?
Nah….. the Film Council would never approve it!
For someone supposedly connected to the film business, they really don’t know much about optics. When the Tory-Lib Dem coalition accuses you of wasting money and being partisan hacks, you don’t give thousands of taxpayer dollars, meant for film, to a Labour Party connected lobbying firm.
They’re giving their enemies the political ammunition they need to bury them.
It’s funny how few of the media reports on the UKFC mention those members of the film establishment who praised its scrapping. Michael Winner, as one example of many. They are quick to mention Eastwood or McAvoy, but none of the supporters of this action.
There’s clear evidence of spin and manipulation. Portland’s hiring only confirms that.
There’s now a clear case for firing the management staff of the UKFC, without the need for expensive redundancy payments. This should happen forthwith.
The sooner the UKFC is gone, the better for the film industry.
Looking at this from an outsiders perspective, I am struck dumb by the way this has been allowed to carry on.
Good money from taxpayers being used like this is an insult to those who pay it.
we are a very liberal country here in the Netherlands but if this happened, either the people would be suspended or they would have the common courtesy to resign.
As it is, they are mocking the people they intend to serve, not only by defying their masters, by not acting in the best interests of the people they represent, by blatently defending their own interests and salaries.
And the biggest crime of all: by not working with the new administration to ensure an orderly transition in the interests of the British film industry.
Surely this is one step too far and the ministers involved must take more radical action to end this, if they are not to look as if it is the UK Film Council that runs the department of culture Media and Sport and not the other way round.
The view from Europe is that this is more looking like one of your Whitehall Farces.
PORTLAND – chief clients: The Russian Government and Macdonalds.
This is the PR firm of choice of the UKFC, having had their knuckles rapped once.
Stupidity or clear provocation?
That moral stature of former KGB officer Vladimir Putin – and the dress sense of Ronald Macdonald.
The UK Film Council.
Says it all really.
Funny Story!
UK Film Council News – An Insiders Knowledge
Right, usually I wouldn’t bother with such things as this but the closure of the UK Film Council and the big uproar that’s happened in it’s wake has really got to me. Firstly, before this causes so much backlash like my Lost article (death threats aren’t great thank you), I WORKED for the UK Film Council so let me give you all a little insight into what kind of establishment this place was.
I doubt this will impair my career within film as not only is it ages ago, but no-one of any importance will read this and they never helped to get me into the film industry anyway and I landed in TV instead. Less money, less creativity, less time, yet more hours. It’s what happens when you’re not rich or related to someone on the inside.
So anyway, I worked in Development and for all you guys who don’t know, this is where scripts get entered, digested and thrown back up. They decide essentially if something is good enough to fund and then they see it through. This department was headed by a woman and with about a team of fifteen people, there were three men, one was a very camp gay man, another an assistant and myself. In fact, rumours spread that they had been told off because they only employed women and it showed a lack of diversity. Naughty naughty. But then, it’s widely known that TV, maybe not so much film but definitely TV, is a woman’s game – and these girls stick together. I’m generalising, but it’s an area where men are completely outnumbered and unless you’re gay, you usually have to work harder to get a look in. Either that or you have to be good looking or lick arse. A lot of people would argue this, but more would probably agree.
So, what did these women do at Development meetings and such? Well, and I’m telling you now I’m not a sexist person, they would discuss their ex-husbands, the men they are having affairs with, gossiping about pregnancies, holidays etc. while we sit there smiling, laughing and looking like we’re fine with this. I would sit there with the scripts they got me to read (to keep me busy) and we wouldn’t bring it up at all. All that would happen is at the end of the meeting, they’d talk about what they’re doing for the day.
A commissioning meeting would take place where they would dismiss independent films and only discuss anything that could, or has, a name attached. This means if they can’t get any kind of US backing or a big star or director involved, they weren’t interested, but they make up for it by commissioning shorts. Cheap, cheerful and representative of young filmmakers. It’s bollocks.
They don’t give a shit.
One meeting with a screenwriter I was involved with had me getting 10 minutes to quickly read the script and then overhearing one of the producers saying ‘yeah, I looked over it last night but the fucking kids were running around everywhere. Doesn’t matter, it’s not as if we’re going to get it made’ then laughed. When I went into the meeting it was actually a cool little horror story that wasn’t perfect, but she wanted to change it into more of a love story. I fought his corner, which he got excited about as I understood where he was coming from and rest assured I wasn’t spoken to by this woman again for the rest of my contract. Also, the film never got made.
They also hated anything that was male-orientated unless it fitted into what they thought was for ‘lads’ – hence Danny Dyer in ‘Severance’ for example. Which was worse on page than it was on the screen. They were going crazy over a script that they were trying to get commissioned which was this – and I joke you not – a rich man (which was going to be Pierce Brosnan apparently) has his own zoo and one of the workers there gets in an accident and dies, so the wife of the dead worker goes to complain but ends up working there herself, she then befriends a chimp and falls in love with the rich man who she hated. That’s it. If this film did get made can someone tell me because they were in love with it, and it sounded like someone had been sick on a plate and then took a shit on it and poured it down my ears.
So when people are crying that it will affect film, I agree that it’s a good thing to promote British film, obviously, but I assure you the UK Film Council was a horrible establishment that paid itself up to £100k a year each for the big wigs and was solely interested in big budget movies that they could slap their name onto instead of putting the money into the actual British industry. Take a look at what films you see their logo in front of, it’s very interesting.
In my opinion, they aren’t worth a pot to piss in and I hope they find trouble getting another job, but let’s be honest, I’ll still be making them tea by the time I’m 50.
So don’t commiserate because the money we were wasting on these wankers isn’t worth it. It’s better off going back into film via another route and I think the gutsy decision to close it down was the right one. Why have an inept Film Council? It doesn’t make sense. I just feel sorry for the poor Production Assistant who worked there who would cry at her desk because she wasn’t being paid enough to make rent and decided she had to give up her dreams and leave to get another career. Meanwhile, the 40-odd year old women are analysing their shoe purchases. I’m not making any of this up. But alas, it’s the way of the world in this industry.
No rich parents, no family connections, no hope.
Doesn’t matter how hard you work – if you can’t pay through your nose to do a job you enjoy, then no wonder creativity in the British film industry is stifled – and it’s NOT about piracy. It’s about people like the UK Film Council.
Begin death threats now please …
Posted by Sam LeGassick