Annie, that's honestly the best breakdown of the changes I've read anywhere. I really do struggle to understand this stuff and I found your piece helped enormously.

Two questions, if I may:

When I hear "points" I think "France" and the various point-related debacles including the famous A Very Long Engagement mess. What steps are the government taking to make sure their points system works?

On the idea of our industry "picking up" once all this is in force: I'm worried that too much damage will have been done - SO many shoots are now in Eastern Europe. Now that the infrastructure there is really solid (give or take a few gripes), aren't there too few reasons to come back to London, even if the tax situation improves slightly? ALL the other costs are so much lower (See Bond and Oliver Twist etc. etc. etc.)

Thanks for the feedback Lydia.

1. Points

You are right that the government hasn't been doing enough to make sure that the points system works. The consensus is that it hasn't been working as it should be with films being classified as British when they shouldn't be and this is why the new "culture" test has been introduced.

When you ask "What steps are the government taking to make sure the points system works?" What kind of thing do you have in mind?

The Long Engagement Debacle was basically the result of ambiguity in interpreting the French test which resulted in the film being interpreted as "French", a decision which was later revoked to much controversy and led to the French government reviewing how they classify "French" films.

At the moment, the UK Government has produced guidelines regarding how it plans to interpret and apply the new UK cultural test. It appears that many of the industry's questions on how the test was going to be applied when a summary of the new cultural test was introduced have been answered by the guidelines.

Like most pieces of legislation however unfortunately we won't know how effective it is until it comes into force and we see the test in action. Obviously if there are any problems then we would hope that they would rectify any obvious loop holes or problems with the guidelines or interpretation of it.

2. Damage

You are right that a lot of damage has been done and that Eastern Europe is obviously an attractive location for anyone thinking of shooting in Europe because of the cheaper costs. Crew costs, general expenses, equipment hire are all basically cheaper in Eastern Europe.

However this problem is linked with the fact that the UK has a (more or less) successful economy as opposed to an economy of a developing nation and it is difficult to see what the government can do to combat this problem apart from offering a tax break for the production costs overall.

One advantage from having a successful economy however is that invariably it is finance raised in countries like the UK that go on to finance the skillset and films which are being made in Eastern Europe.

It is also difficult at this stage to judge precisely how successful or non-effective the new tax legislation is going to be since we will not know the full picture until 22 March.

I agree that there are still too few reasons to come back to the UK and we should be looking to how to make the process more efficient, less bureaucratic etc but at least it is a step in the right direction. As to whether it is enough to bring production companies back to the UK we will just have to wait and see.

3. Does this make sense? Have I answered your questions or am I missing something?

I think this discussion is awesome. It sets a very high standard for the kind of "after-article" discussions we'd like to have in our forums.

I think that this article is great because it is so topical... Annie, perhaps you could do a News Feature on it on March 22nd - basically looking at the new legislation and going back to your article and seeing how it will affect things...

Brilliant work

xz

Cheers for feedback guys.

Would love to follow this up on 22, problem is that I will be on holiday in Sydney that week. I can take a laptop with me and since I'll have access to the internet in the hotel I'll be able to write a brief synopsis on the legislation announced that day but I might not be able to write a longer more analytical article until I come back on the Sunday sorry guys.

Would that be sufficient?

Hmm... I would suggest that if you'd be taking your laptop only for this UKfilm.org article then you should probably leave your laptop at home. It's important to have a good, clean break away from everything you associate with work. If you take your laptop then you'll probably end up spending every spair minute thinking "ooh, I could quickly squeeze in a bit of work / research etc" which will really screw up your holiday.

But if you're planning to take your laptop anyway then yes, just a quick little update on the 22nd would be awesome and more than adaquate!

Thanks Jack, coincidentally though I've just been told that I am not allowed to take the laptop (i.e. my boyfriends) with me. I should have access to the internet regardless however although it will probably be more limited than I would like but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for your great response!

LL

News 22/3/06:
Budget comfirms new film tax relief system

This is not an add for my film...well it is , but that's not the point. Check out the blurb under the film at this link. It's about 'Mutual Financial Support', a donation scheme. A way for the independent film industry to support itself by supporting each other, without the need to buy D.V.D.s if you don't want to.

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