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>> CHRIS SMITH: The report makes a whole range of recommendations and if I had to single
out three or four that are particularly important the first would be giving producers - the
British independent producers who have a success - giving them the opportunity to use the proceeeds
of that success to make more movies. So we incentivise producers to, not to just do a
one-off but to carry on making good movies year, after year, after year. Secondly, we
want producers and distributors to get together right from the outset of making a movie so
everyone's thinking about the audience from the word go and making a movie with the audience
in mind. That sort of joint venture approach between producers and distributors is something
that's pretty new and we very much want to incentivise and to encourage that. We also
want the broadcasters to step up to the plate rather better than they have up until now.
Channel 4 and to a certain extent the BBC have done pretty well by British film over
the course of recent years. But they could do better and, in particular, we think that
Sky and ITV could do a bit better because at the moment they don't put any support into
British film really at all and we think that needs to improve. We hope the Government will
sit down with the broadcasters and talk about ways of achieving that. We also want to make
sure that skill and talent development is very much on the agenda. It's the real strength
of the British film industry and if we don't get that development of skill and talent,
which is done pretty well at the moment already, but if we don't improve that even further
we're not going to be able to carry on punching our weight across the world. And we want also
education in schools to include film as an integral part of what's available to every
school pupil. They should be able to learn about film, to understand about film and,
if they want to, to have the chance to have a shot at making a bit of film. And that offer
should be something that's available across the piece hopefully in every school over time.
British film at the moment is in a strong place. It's doing well. It's doing brilliantly
in terms of inward investment, it's doing brilliantly in terms of independent British
production. But we need to sustain that. We need to make sure that that can be the case
next year, and the year after, and the year after that - not just a one-off. And that's
why I think the proposals in our report will help to do that and I certainly hope that
the Government will give a positive response when they come to answer the recommendations
of the report in a month or two's time.