Financing the British Film Industry
Capital, Cash and Quota, 1896-1945
A comprehensive history of the financing of British film production from the emergence of the industry until the end of the Second World War
- A ‘prequel’ to the award-nominated The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1896-1945
- The first comprehensive account of the provision of production finance in the formative years of the British film industry
- Includes new material documenting the costs of British films, the financing crisis of the 1930s, and the attempts to establish an official film bank before and during the Second World War
- Based on extensive archival research, including the National Archives, Bank of England Archive, the Special Collections of the British Film Institute, and the archives of the Commercial Union and Prudential Assurance Company
Financing the British Film Industry provides a comprehensive history of the financing of British film production from the origin of the industry until the end of the Second World War. It documents the growth of the film business from a cottage industry to a mature business enterprise. It considers the capitalisation of the industry and analyses the relationships between producers, banks and insurance companies. It charts the fluctuating fortunes of British film-making and the various government-backed initiatives support the production sector.
James Chapman argues that the difficulties of the British film industry arose not from the extravagances of individual producers or the collapse of particular companies but from underlying economic and structural weaknesses: that the industry was too reliant on short-term finance and that the domestic market was insufficient to guarantee a profitable return for anything other than a modestly-budgeted film.
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Growing Pains
2. Challenges of War
3. The Road to Protection
4. Capitalisation and Consolidation
5. Quota Production in the Early 1930s
6. Korda and the City
7. Boom and Bust
8. The Bank of England and the Film Industry
9. Renewing the Quota
10. Recovery and Revival
11. The Film Bank
12. Remittances and Quotas
13. The Rank Empire
Appendix I: Statutory Costs of British Quota Films, 1 April 1932-31 March 1932
Appendix II: Schedule of Bank Loans to Producers and Repayments
Appendix III: Statutory Costs of British ‘Long’ Quota Films, 1 April 1938-30 November 1939
Bibliography
Index
This indispensable history is packed with information about the financial underpinnings of the British film industry. Covering four key decades, it documents and explains how the fluctuations of an unstable fiscal environment influenced many classic and lesser-known British films. With compelling detail, inextricable connections between commerce and culture are proven.
Meticulously researched and authoritatively framed, Financing the British Film Industry, James Chapman’s “prequel” to The Money Behind the Screen, is a comprehensive account of the fiscal history of British cinema to 1945, drawing on untapped sources and offering fresh insights. The film business, it shows, was always a capital endeavour.
