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but can’t get a distributor to back their first auteur piece? Yes, at a price – and we’d love to have a UK distributor behind all of our work if possible.
And will any of them get an audience on Channel 4 at 10pm? Twelve months ago, I confront- ed this potential confusion of inter-
ests - not to mention the many amateur historians who harked back longingly to the early days of My Beautiful Laundrette like WW2 vets getting all rose-tinted about a lone banana appearing in an era of rationing.
I decided, quite simply, to commission as widely as possible but only to target projects that have some unique quality - some stamp of individuality and excite- ment - that marks them out as Channel 4 material and with each development commission make sure that we are working with a talent that we have great faith in.
We want films that are driven by filmmakers, films that our audi- ences will want to watch, films that will launch a new generation of directors and writers and pro- ducers, and films that will support those that we know we want to work with already.
And a priority for us will be to maintain relationships beyond each film with talent that we
hope will come to feel that Film Four is their natural and most wel- coming and supportive home.
So what are we doing after twelve months in our new slim- line form? Our first completed films include an atmospheric thriller in Roger Michell’s Enduring Love (an adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel), Dead Man’s Shoes, a powerful and provoca- tive work from maverick film- maker Shane Meadows, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes’ directorial debut, A Way Through The Woods, a beautifully-wrought story about marital breakdown.
Our development stretches from teen horror black comedy in the form of Vernon God Little, which Pawel Pawlikowski is set to direct, to Lynne Ramsay’s adap- tation of The Lovely Bones, to Dominic Savage’s examination of young love and sex in Time Of Our Lives. And our appetite for commercial films with a unique stamp of creative flair remains undiminished.
With the Film Four Lab headed by Peter Carlton we’re hoping to provide a genuine platform for emerging talent. The debate will no doubt continue to rage about how best to nurture new voices and new visions in the small pond of the British film industry.
We’re involved both in making short films and in providing cata- lyst funding and support for vari- ous film funds and initiatives around the country. But we also want to make movies with new talent and to attract genuine creativity from areas such as the art world and music.
So much for talent both new and old. What of new audi- ences? We’ll have to think lateral- ly if we’re going to succeed in bringing originality and substance to a media-saturated generation raised on Playstations, clubbing and Big Brother.
Perhaps surprisingly, the good news is that cinema-going is still experienced as an event by 18- 35 year olds, but the bad news is that our entire budget wouldn’t even pay for the special effects in most American action movies.
We can’t be star-led or star- fed. Our challenge is to work with genres that lend themselves best to the event experience (come- dy, horror, sci-fi) but to find that unique “twist” that makes a film original and worth making rather than just another genre pic.
It’s a steep learning curve but one with some exciting rewards. The success of Film Four’s Touching The Void (a sell-out national release as I write) is par- ticularly impressive given that it’s
a documentary set in the spe- cialised world of mountaineering - lending it a combination of scenery and human endeavour. It’s filmed with searing credibility and verve. And to me the ticket sales show how hungry audi- ences of all ages are for a gen- uine story told with bold integrity.
With the British film industry once again rising Bambi-like to its feet after a shaky patch, Film Four is uniquely placed to lend a hand and an ingredient to films we feel have a special recipe to offer. Of course this is always a gamble. And we should never underestimate our audiences.
In the end, despite distribution problems, tax credit changes, and all the vicissitudes of lottery funding, the reason for so many box- office flops and failures among British films of recent years is quite simply that they’re bad. I’d like to see our money used to bring substance, polish and depth to the development and execu- tion of movies in this country.
But if the Film Four contribution can make any difference, I believe it’s in stimulating a talent pool to create eddies and cur- rents from which, just occasional- ly, a big splash will emerge.
Tessa Ross is Head of Film, Film Four
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