Lets begin with the basics: Screen Yorkshire is the biggest regional screen agency in the UK. They have an investment pool of over £30m called the Yorkshire Content Fund (YCF) and are as such a major player within the British film funding landscape. Therefore, I was of course very interested in learning about the ways in which they distribute their funds and how they choose which projects to back.
Heppell’s job, as described by himself, is to “find and negotiate appropriate projects to invest in, present them to our investment committee and then, once they are approved, to executive produce the projects, which involves being responsible for the business affairs as well as the creative side of our involvement in the project.” This obviously means that Heppell holds a lot of sway when it comes to choosing which projects should be backed.
“Good”, you may think, “I’ll give him a call and see whether he might be interested in financing this brilliant idea I have!” Sadly, if you are a young filmmaker at the beginning of your career, the chances of that happening are close to zero. The reason therefore lies in the rules that come attached to the main source of the YCF. £15m of this fund where provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This money comes with an obligation to invest it according to the so-called public-private model, meaning that any money from the YCF invested in an audiovisual project has to be matched at least 1:1 by a private investment to the exact same conditions. So, if for example a bank invested £1m into a feature film and secured a first row recoupment deal plus a 10% cut of all further profits, the only way for Screen Yorkshire to co-invest into the project would be to get the exact same conditions as the bank, recouping alongside it. The reason for these restrictions is to prevent the money from the ERDF to warp open market mechanisms in the region that it’s being spent in. In other words, the goal is to avoid “uncommercial films” being backed in the way that the BFI might do with its lottery funding, thus distorting the free market principle.
Another clear criteria for any film hoping to be funded through the YCF, is a pre-arranged agreement with a sales agent or distributer. Only if the rights, or some of them at least, to film has been bough prior to going into production will Screen Yorkshire consider backing the project. This is also the reason, why Screen Yorkshire frequently finances TV productions. The pre-existing infrastructure of a broadcaster backing the project equals financial securities that only few independent film production companies can offer.
So, Screen Yorkshire has a clear commercially driven agenda where financing is concerned. I asked Heppell, whether there have ever been any exceptions to this modus operandi:
“We have never done it just for the art’s sake. Under this model we are more than ever obliged to look first and foremost at the bottom line. And now I would also say that one of the key things, particularly in films in terms of a project’s commerciality, is actually its quality. And so certainly when it comes to most British films the likely bottom line is almost certainly going to be due the creativity and the creative quality of the project.” So, while it may at first seem depressing from a young filmmaker’s point of view that films made by proven companies and creatives are the only contestants that stand a real chance of benefitting from the YCF, Heppell’s argument is nevertheless positive about the impact the YFC has on high quality films being made. Whether or not to agree with Heppell in this point, obviously depends entirely on ones definition of quality.
Lets take a look, for example, at one of the project currently being co-funded by Screen Yorkshire: Hunter’s Prayer (2015, dir. Jonathan Mostow). This fast paced action thriller about a hitman, is a £25m US production with involvement of Apollo Media (UK), FilmEngine (US) and Full Clip Productions (US), staring amongst others Sam Worthington (Avatar) and Allen Leech (The Imitation Game). Heppell describes this as Screen Yorkshire’s “first properly international film” and goes on to explain, “that it is produced and generated out of Los Angeles, although the majority of the finance actually comes from the UK with only a certain amount from the US, some from tax credits in Spain and Hungary. It’s a project that’s primarily set in Europe, but we’ve brought it to the UK and us and partners such as Ingenious have provided the majority of the financing.” While this certainly makes sense commercially and if considered in the context of the BFI’s Wide Angle strategy aiming to increase the internationalisation of the UK’s film industry, but it is a long distance from being a project that would fall into the category of any cultural importance to a specifically British audience.
So, bringing this to a close, I think, while Screen Yorkshire is an incredibly valuable asset in bringing big productions to the North, there are limits to how useful it is in terms of supporting up and coming talent, trying to make their mark and bringing a breath of fresh air into the industry.
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