Apologies to anyone expecting updates just now. I’m in the process of apart from working as usual at the grindstone for Beez, finishing off a 30,000 word piece of work!  Regular service will be resumed shortly - in late August likely.

- Andrew.

However a month or two back while I was digging around for theatrical plans I came across some interesting figures.  The UK Film Council holds a special fund for creating film prints (35mm or digital) and advertising of these films in cinemas for anyone who is too small as a distributor or is releasing an arthouse film that without funding would never reach more than 1 press screening.  Now when you realize that this is a very transparent system, at least with regards to displaying what awards they have given out, one question stood out: Has Asian cinema benefited at all from this fund?

The simple answer is yes.  Below are several tables I put together in a spreadsheet while I was doing my own research into the numbers out there for the amounts gone into live action and animation over the past few years:

Anime/Western animation:

Japanese/Chinese live action:

Film	Distributor	Fund	Total Allocated
Curse of the Golden Flower	Universal Pictures International UK & Eire Ltd	National Lottery	£300,000
Lust Caution	Universal Pictures International UK & Eire Ltd	National Lottery	£200,000
Mongol	The Works UK Distribution Ltd	National Lottery	£150,000
House of Flying Daggers	Pathe Distribution Ltd	National Lottery	£100,000
2046	Tartan Film Distribution Ltd	National Lottery	£80,923
Zatoichi	Artificial Eye Film Co Ltd	National Lottery	£70,000
I'm A Cyborg	Tartan Film Distribution Ltd	National Lottery	£20,000

Both of these show no real small numbers for a campaign theatrical or otherwise for either genres in the UK.  In reality as well most advertising from these put into theatrical also greatly helps the sales of the DVDs as well however long afterwards they come out - even if it’s just down to all the adverts being basically ready to go barring changing “Out in cinemas” to “Out in shops”.

Looking at the amounts funneled into the two Anime titles fans would recognize there and cite as shining examples of anime taking the world by storm at the time, ask yourself this: Without a contribution from the UK Film Council would they truly have been as much of a success in this country?

The answer is very likely a no - if they had not been covered then at minimum the budgets would be half the amount they were.  Sure the DVD sales would probably have still been good but Spirited Away would probably have remained a title recognized as being an Oscar winner that they probably should show to their kids.  Sure the back catalog of Ghibli would be out there for people to buy from Optimum still no doubt - but whether it would get front row placing and sales figures when it comes to retail is a completely different affair.

Of course I am sure now people have noticed, there will be a host of companies lining up at the trough to try and get a piece of that feed though for any film with a vague eastern tinge that seems arthouse.  That being said if you look at in from the perspective of National Lottery funding being used to promote films that would not otherwise stand a great chance in the UK - then it is clearly doing its job.

As far as spending the income from sanctioned gambling goes, you could do a lot worse than promoting the finest elements of Eastern cinema including anime.  Though as a colleague at another company and I were discussing, one has to wonder how a film like Zaitochi managed to wrangle its way in there though (as personally it wasn’t that great a film)…

One would suspect future candidates for this fund would include from the anime world: Sword of the Stranger, Sky Crawlers and the upcoming Ponyo.  The question is - without this money do you think these shows would do half as well at reaching the audiences they do?

If the answer to that is no - then I think a big thank you to the UK Film Council is in order for making the previous and (hopefully) popular forthcoming releases from companies in the UK possible!

© SOTSU • SUNRISE • MBS

Although this post will likely, as it should, disappear back into the dark recesses of my website very quickly - it’s important to get a couple of professional courtesies out of the way first.  So without further ado (or too much boring stuff) here we go:

Number 1: All contents of this website reflect my own personal opinion.

While a lot of my articles here will be covering facets of the Japanese animation industry both in the UK and Europe that fans may not always get to see, never mistake opinions offered as those of my employers lines.  This is a blog about my profession written from a personal perspective so don’t expect a hate-fest or piles of company secrets spewing from my mouth like some kind of faulty septic tank.

You can however expect topics about Anime and cinemas around the UK, how everyone in the UK/EU Anime industry hit the credit crunch a year before it really became trendy, any amusing tales that may crop up in my working life that are OK to share as well as an assortment of topics in related fields about products that have caught my eye for example.

Number 2: How often do you plan to update your website?

As I’m guiltily aware - updating personal websites and such takes a lot of dedication and effort out of working hours.  Given my life is extra busy as I effectively do the equivalent of two jobs at once it’d be ridiculous to suggest every day of the week I update right now.

It’s intended to read a bit like a magazine and consequently I’ll aim to have several items of varying size uploaded bi-monthly, at least during the very busy next 3 months of my life.   If possible and time allowing I’ll at least drop something interesting on far more frequently for people to have a look at as well.