Research on Trainspotting

Trainspotting, the first novel written by Irving Welsh in 1993 was to be published by Secker & Warburg.
The plot of the film is of a group of friends that are regular heroin abusers. All throughout the book and film, we see that they all try to curb their ways with not much luck and try to turn their life away from the problems they have created for them selves. This novel come film is set in the Scottish city of Edinburgh in the mid 1980’s.
However, the title relates to obsessive behavior, in this case; drug addicts obsess about getting their next fix just as train spotters obsess about collecting train numbers. Or a slang term meaning to inject heroin or to "Mainline" it.
Once we look past the drug addictions, other recurring themes in the film are shown. For example, the urban poverty and squalor in the culturally rich Edinburgh. The film has developed a mass of cults which make up today’s society whether it be young teenagers to senior adults.
The types of genre we know this film as is associated with is crime, drama and comedy. We see the crime when the group of friends starts to take the drugs, sell them and commenting theft. We see drama with the way they are dealing with their individual problems, like the loss of a child or mending a broken heart. The consequences of their actions have cost them their lives. And we finally see comedy with the lead character and narrator’s cheap but witty sarcasm. He describes the feeling of wanting, taking and recovering from his heroin addiction. With this we also see the surreal hallucinations he gets from quitting the drug with horrific and rather graphic images.
The film was directed by multi Oscar award winner Danny Boyle (Slum dog Millionaire, Shallow Grave). The films screen play was written by John Hodge (The Final Curtain, Alien Love Triangle). The film was filmed in some of the Scottish highlands and some parts in England’s busiest cities, London.
There were only four companies that took charge of covering financial aid and producing the film as well as helped distributing it. These are Channel Four Films (now known as Film Four Productions), Figment Films, Polygram Filmed Entertainment and The Noel Gay Motion Picture Company.
The novel was long listed for the booker prize in 1993; however, the novel was turned down for the short list because it was argued that it “offended two female judges’ sensibilities”. The film version of the bestselling novel was nominated for an Oscar and won BAFTA’s for best film, screenplay, actor, actress, director and producer. The film was also ranked 10th spot by the BFI (British Film Institute) in its list of top 100 films of all time.

UK Film Council

I think that it is important for Britain to make their own films as I personally think that Great Britain brings the most realism compared to American films. Great Britain has as much right to make films as America does. Hollywood is owned by corporate businesses that are only truly interested in making money instead of making sure they truly appeal to their audiences. Whereas most British film crews are only interested in making a great film without thinking about the money they will make.
I think that the British film council should fund more films that require special effects as I think that British films mainly deal with realism and could use a new breakthrough especially with all the fantasy novels that are created by British authors and are set in great Britain, for example Harry Potter was made a British author which is set in England. However, there are many genres to focus on but I think that if the British council funds a fantasy, there would be major completion between Britain and Hollywood.
The five types of films that my organization will fund will be Dramas, to keep the sense of reality in our British films such as Atonement and Carries War; romances, Great Britain has had many hit with romance, films such as Love Actually and Bridget Jones Diary; comedies, the British are known for their witty banter and charming ways in such films as the Carry On collection; Cult films like the infamous This Is England, so you can see all the colour’s of great Britain and family films such as Harry Potter so it is suitable or all members o the family. The reason my organization will fund these type of genres is because I feel that the new British film makers of today will do a good job of selecting their target audiences and making sure that they will meet the demands of the public.

I feel that there are other organizations that are related with making quality British films. The main one is helping to encourage young people to take part in drama workshops and to help those who wish to act, into an acting school. To help these young people, my organization would have to run workshops in local schools for those who wish to act or produce/make films and give scholarships to hose worthy enough to attend a performing arts/media-film studies school. This way, we are helping to educate young minds and helping to make the British film making association a larger community so as to truly compete against the corporate Americans.

The Statutory and the British Film Council.

The statutory definition focuses on the maker, production cost, labour cost and previously filmed material. I think that the origin of the producer and cast are slightly ignored. This is because they focus on the pay the actors and staff get, not their true origin. I think that they have chosen to ignore this because most films with actors from different countries, who are acting in a film by a British director which is made in Great Britain, are immediately classed as British films.

The British council definitions for a British film are quite different to the statutory definitions. This is because the British Council needs at least three of the following six: A British producer, A British production team, A British director, a predominantly British cast, a subject matter that informs the British experience and A British identity as defined by the bfi in the release review in Sight & Sound. Whereas the statutory needs to meet all of the following tests to prove films are British: The maker test, the production cost test, the labour cost test and previously filmed material.

BAFTA Short listed Films

Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella)
Looking at the information for this film I see that there are only a few English actors as the rest are American and Australian. This film was made in Romania and in America. The plot is of the American civil war which immediately explains why the filming locations were mainly based in southern America. Even though the director is British, I do not consider this film to be British. There is nothing truly British in it. It only meets one of the requirements in the British Council which is for British director.

Girl with a Pearl Earring (Peter Webber)
I have done some research for the British background of this film and have learned that a few of the actor, director and Archer Street Production are the only things that are predominantly British. I believe that the British council most probably not call this film British as it only contains one of the six requirements. Whereas the statutory holds more than one of the six requirements.

In This World (Michael Winterbottom)
With the information gathered, I have come to the conclusion that this film is not truly British. The director however is from England and certain pieces of the film were made in Europe, including Great Britain. The rest was made in places like Turkey, Iran and Pakistan with actors belonging to those countries. This only meets two of both requirements form the statutory and the British film Council. However the realism that we would normally find in British films is there with the plot/storyline.

Love Actually (Richard Curtis)
After looking this film up it was quite clear that this was defiantly a British film. This is because this film meats practically all of the requirements for the statutory film tests and about three of the British Council requirements. Even though the director and writer of Love Actually are from New Zealand, most of his work was made over in England. I consider the film to be British as the clips I have seen show some of the realism that you would find in a normal British film than you would in an American film.

Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald)
I have had not much information in finding out where the actors come from in this film. However I did find one who was from Northern Ireland, whilst the director comes from Scotland. This shows that it has met two of the statutory tests whilst it meets around three of the British Council requirements. I don’t really feel that this film is truly British as none of it was made over in Great Britain. However it does hold the British realism the director gives it.

What Do You Think Makes A British Film?

I think that to make a true British film, you would need a British cast, film production crew and needs to be filmed in either in great Britain itself or in the European continent. This is because without them or any thing that is British, would not necessarily come under British film for me or some members of the public.

Films like Love Actually and Sense and Sensibility to me are genuine British films because they have actors from the British isle and are made totally in Great Britain and Europe with a British filming crew.
Whereas films like Cold Mountain, to me, are not British. I feel this because the film was made entirely in America with only several British Actors.