As acts of cultural vandalism go, the decision by the coalition government to abolish the UK Film Council, without any consultation, might not quite be on a par with the Taleban's destruction of the Bamiyan statues of Buddha, but it has still attracted considerable wrath.
Aside from the predictable wails of dismay from members of the film-making fraternity - such as Oscar-nominated director Mike Leigh and actor Liam Neeson, who has drawn cheques from appearances in two Film Council-funded films - there is also concern about what the body's dissolution means for what could have been an interesting new media opportunity for advertisers.
The Film Council was part of a rash of quangos set up under the Labour government which, it now appears, were rather too keen to spend the public's cash. However, it was run on broadly commercial lines, as well as being largely benign and non-partisan.
In addition to contributing to the cultural mood of the nation, the organisation has delivered a return at the box office (notwithstanding the £1.6m of taxpayers' money put into 2004 flop Sex Lives of the Potato Men, which now looks like a particularly poor investment).
Indeed, in its 10 years of existence, the Film Council has invested more than £160m of funding generated by the National Lottery in more than 900 films, and claims to have generated £5 for every £1 it spent. Whether this is true or not, it did an undeniably good job of promoting the small and plucky British film industry abroad.
In a particularly bold move, at the end of last year the body seized on an additional potential revenue stream with the launch of Film Tree, an initiative to encourage brands to invest in independent movies (see www.filmbrandconnections.com, run in association with Marketing's publisher, Haymarket). The Film Council recognised that brands had hitherto played mere bit parts in big productions, but in the future there would be a mutually beneficial opportunity for advertisers to have a more fundamental role in the filmmaking process.
Of course, the transition of brands into movie-making, beyond simple product placement, will be a slow process. Outside the advertising and marketing fraternity, for example, who really knew that Eurostar had funded Shane Meadows' Somers Town? Questions therefore remain as to how the model will work.
The shift to this new order is, however, inevitable, and when advertisers, agencies and film production companies crack it, it will present brands with enormous opportunities.
The Film Tree initiative was in keeping with the mood of the times. Unless the British Film Institute, which the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has said should take on many of the Film Council's responsibilities, continues to pursue this policy, it is difficult to see what options brands will take in relation to film partnerships.
The Film Council, unlike many of the other quangos that have now been disbanded, was not set up for political reasons, and this initiative was in the finest traditions of the free market - not that of some utopian socialist ideal.
While few advertisers - or, for that matter, consumers - will lament the dissolution of some of the quangos that have already been culled, such as the Legal Deposit Advisory Council or any of the 16 Agricultural Dwelling House Advisory Committees, the Film Council's disbandment is lamentable. There shouldn't be a dry eye in the house.
- Jeremy Lee is associate editor of Marketing. Read his blog at marketingmagazine.co.uk
30 SECONDS ON ... THE UK FILM COUNCIL
- The UK Film Council was created in 2000. It is the government's lead agency for film and employs 75 people. It invests in film production and distribution, as well as dozens of other cinema-related initiatives. These include training and supporting new filmmakers, a Digital Screen Network (240 screens and counting), several UK film festivals, promoting Britain as a location for filmmakers and raising the profile of British cinema abroad.
- The organisation works with and funds partners across the UK, including national and regional agencies, the BFI and FILMCLUB, an after-school scheme that gives children free access to classic and popular films.
- The Film Council last year launched FindAnyFilm.com, a search engine that enables users to find where, when and how a film is legally available in the UK.
- Movies funded by the body include Bend it Like Beckham, In the Loop and Streetdance 3D, as well as upcoming films from Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears and Joe Cornish.