Visiting the British Film Institute

Today, we visited the British Film Institute to help  us with our exam in a few months.

When we got there we were seated in a cinema-type room where a man called Mathew Hall showed and talked us through clips of films which were related to the question: What is a British film?

We were shown clips from films such as; 'London to Brighton' and 'This is England' which could be classed as a British film due to the cast, setting and theme but could also be classed to some people as an American film because it is American funded.

 What factors does a film have to have to be classed as British? It is different for everybody and every film. You cannot generalize it. But here are a few points which could be ticked off to see if a film is British or not:

• British cast
• British funded
• Set in Britain
• Heritage
• British producers, directors, crew etc
• British theme

Most British films are American funded because there is just not as much money in the British film industry compared to the American. if a director wants to make an amazing film and it will cost a lot of money, the only way to make the film amazing was to get funding by the American film industry.

Here are some example of British films which have been funded by American institution:

• Sherlock Holmes
• 300
• Harry Potter

We were given a talk by the director of the low-budget film 'Shifty' (2008)  his name being Eran Creevy who now owns the company 'between the eyes'. He talked through how he came to directing a film and what the story of this film is about.

The story follows Chris who is following his friend, a London drug dealer named Shifty. He sheeps his through home-visiting and running from drug deals.

Overall, i quite liked this film and i thought it would have been more brutal and explicit with the drugs (e.g, injecting and more violence) etc. I thought it would have been more brutal and explicit because that's what you expect from the drug industry.