The British film industry is not thriving

There's an opportunity for British film to flourish, writes ex Hammer Films chief Terry Ilott, but all will be lost if we don't sharpen our business skills

British director Steve McQueen won best picture at this year's Oscars, but what about the next generation of film pros?

The successes of 12 Years a Slave and Gravity at this year's Oscars have given rise to self-satisfied crowing in sections of the British media. One could be forgiven for thinking that British film was in good health. But while the UK remains awash with astonishing talent both in front of and behind the camera, and while we continue to enjoy a patrimony that comprises a treasure chest of stories we can plunder, the fact remains that over the past thirty years it has become almost impossible to make even a decent living – never mind build a business or a career – in the British film industry.

The industry sucks the creative life out of our best creative talents, then throws them over the side, never to be seen again.

According to British Film Institute (BFI) data, of the nearly 1,200 directors who made British feature films in the 20 years to 2008, 74% made one, 15% made two, just under 6% achieved three, and 2.4% made between five and nine. A mere six directors were able to put together 10 or more films.

Michael Winterbottom, Ken Loach, Gillies Mackinnon and Kenneth Branagh were in this elite group. Coming up close behind were the equally celebrated Danny Boyle (nine), Mike Leigh (eight) and Stephen Frears (eight). BFI data shows that in the 10 years to 2012, the trend towards a one-time-only film "career" has accelerated, with 80% of writers and directors achieving a single credit.

You might also consider that 50% of the film workforce is self-employed, many of them making a precarious living at best. Or that from 2003 to 2010, only 7% of British films achieved a gross box office of twice their cost of production (the BFI's very rough yardstick of profitability). The rest – 93% – fell short.

Thirty years ago the British film industry could boast two major corporations, The Rank Organisation and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, each of which owned a cinema circuit, a film library, theatrical and home video distribution divisions, foreign sales divisions, film studios and production companies. Clustered around their skirts were a host of reasonably well-capitalised production and sales businesses, including Goldcrest, Hemdale, Virgin Films, J-and-M Entertainment and Palace Pictures. These were capable of mounting award-winning and crowd-pleasing pictures such as Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Mission, Platoon, Mona Lisa and A Room with a View.

Between them, these large and medium-sized companies provided the infrastructure within which creative and business careers could flourish. All have gone. It is now 16 years since the demise of our last major film company, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, whose alumni – older, sadder and doubtless wiser – still populate the boardrooms of what remains of film's corporate culture.

With the decline of the corporations has come a decline of professionalism. The film industry has started to pick up the bad habits that have infected other sectors of our economy, with a significant increase in unpaid interns and people working on a deferred fee basis (working for free).

We are lucky to still have a core of expertise and infrastructure – studios, post-production and special effects houses, expert lawyers and accountants – on which to build. We also have talent, not just in film but in film's constant cross-fertilisation with theatre, television, publishing and the visual arts. Further, we benefit from the injection of capital and expertise provided by the Hollywood studios, who continue to make big films in the UK and without whom our industry would likely be dead in the water.

But the creative side cannot continue to flourish in the absence of a healthy commercial side. We need viable companies. We need to take a leaf out of the US book and learn to help ourselves. 

Film professionals, especially on the business side, must make themselves better equipped. In Hollywood, it is commonplace to find film executives, even film lawyers, who have attended both film school and business school. In the UK there are probably no more than two dozen MBAs in the entire industry. If you want a career in film, get equipped. Hard work and talent are not enough.

Creative Skillset is doing useful work in this regard, especially in technical and craft grades. Film schools are also doing their bit on the creative side. But we still need executives and entrepreneurs who can talk the talk and walk the walk. That means getting a business education, becoming familiar with the vocabulary of finance and being confident in how to go about building and sustaining a business.

The opportunities are certainly there, as screen entertainment flourishes in emerging markets and on new platforms and pipelines. But those opportunities will be seized by others if we in Britain don't sharpen our business skills.

Terry Ilott is tutor at the Met Film School – he was previously director of the Film Business Academy, CEO of Hammer Film Productions, governor of the BFI and editor of Screen International