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Oct. 19th, 2007 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI just read a very fiddly detailed chapter that explained who paid for what British films in the 1980s, and how they all went broke. Apparently the vast majority of films lose money, so the only way to make films is to have a whole ton of money in the first place so you can lose money at random in the hopes that someday somehow one of them will make enough that you aren't astronomically in debt. The British film industry never had that kind of financial padding to start with, and the Thatcher government took away a whole bunch of things that were helpful and let everything fall down. The companies that didn't go broke decided they'd rather just show films and not make them, which they can get away with because then lots of hopeful little companies take risks to make films and go broke independently. And also because Hollywood makes a bazillion films and sends them here.
It's all a bit mindboggling really. And makes it sound very much like the description of opera in Terry Pratchett's Maskerade, which I just read the other night. Opera is apparently a business where you put money in and get opera out. So too with film. Except for when you get half a film, or a bunch of broken promises.
It sounds like it'd be fascinating around the edges, like soap but with movies.
The next chapter sounds like it's about how Film Four came to = British Film Industry all by itself. Which is a mindboggling concept and I look forward to seeing how that worked out.
So far they've only discussed one actual movie plot, yet it remains full of drama. Neat.
PS Flash Gordon = technically British movie. I'm somehow left thinking it's obvious yet *facepalm* all at once.
PPS I know nothing about bits of history I technically lived through. It's vaguely embarrassing. There's politics and stuff going on and all I recognise is the names. Oh, and some of the gay rights stuff. I guess my angle on history is, um, specialised...
It's all a bit mindboggling really. And makes it sound very much like the description of opera in Terry Pratchett's Maskerade, which I just read the other night. Opera is apparently a business where you put money in and get opera out. So too with film. Except for when you get half a film, or a bunch of broken promises.
It sounds like it'd be fascinating around the edges, like soap but with movies.
The next chapter sounds like it's about how Film Four came to = British Film Industry all by itself. Which is a mindboggling concept and I look forward to seeing how that worked out.
So far they've only discussed one actual movie plot, yet it remains full of drama. Neat.
PS Flash Gordon = technically British movie. I'm somehow left thinking it's obvious yet *facepalm* all at once.
PPS I know nothing about bits of history I technically lived through. It's vaguely embarrassing. There's politics and stuff going on and all I recognise is the names. Oh, and some of the gay rights stuff. I guess my angle on history is, um, specialised...
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Date: 2007-10-19 11:22 pm (UTC)