James
Lee, the chairman of Scottish Screen, the public
film agency in Scotland, has reacted angrily to
revelations in The Scotsman about the lack of
a commercial film industry in Scotland, despite
a six-year policy to use lottery cash to create
one.
Mr Lee blamed the current situation on earlier
decisions of the Scottish Arts Council. Scottish
Screen took over responsibility for awarding lottery
funding to Scottish film makers last year, under
the orders of the then culture minister, Sam Galbraith.
Previous to that, the Scottish Arts Council (SAC)
had responsibility for subsidising film, however
a string of commercially-disastrous film investments,
coupled with accusations of cronyism from industry
heavyweights like Bill Forsyth, led to Mr Galbraith
side-lining the SAC.
Mr Lee has more than 20 years’ experience
in the film industry, including being a moving
force behind Goldcrest films, makers of Chariots
of Fire and The Mission. Later, Goldcrest
was bankrupted by the failure of the movie Revolution,
staring Al Pacino.
When Mr Lee was appointed to be chairman of Scottish
Screen three years ago, he had asked Mr Galbraith
to hand responsibility for funding awards to his
board.
Says Mr Lee: "I was not prepared to continue as
chairman on any other basis."
Mr Galbraith agreed and responsibility was transferred
to Scottish Screen in April last year. Lee regards
this as one of his major achievements as chairman.
Under Mr Lee, there has been a change in funding
strategy. He wants to back emerging Scottish film
talent until the point that they can survive alone
in the marketplace.
However, the changes are taking a long time to
come to fruition and Scottish Screens current
policy may still beseen as contradictory: If Scottish
films need to learn to be commercial why subsidise
them?
Chaiman Lee robustly defends the emergency financial
package that Scottish Screen offered to actor/director
Peter Mullan for his film Magdalene. A month ago
Mr Mullan needed to raise an additional £400,000
towards his £3 million budget or move the project
to Ireland. Scottish Screen had already become
the film’s major backer with £500,000 of
lottery cash. Now it has offered an extra £150,000.
According to Mr Lee; "The market is not yet ready
to back Peter Mullan as a director, but he is
undoubtedly one of Scotland’s most accomplished
talents."
However, Mr Lee’s detailed explanation of
the financing of Magdalene reveals a complex story.
He says: "Once all the rights in Magdalene had
been licensed to distributors and sales agents,
the market had placed an effective value on the
project. That value was about £750,000 yet it
could not be made for less than £2 million."
At this stage, with the project clearly uncommercial,
Mr Mullan could have been encouraged to go back
to the drawing board, in budget or script. But
Mr Lee says: "I take the opposite view. We decided
to fill the gap."
Mr Lee has wrought other changes. No project will
be rejected because it is "too commercial", as
was the case under the previous SAC regime.
Mr Lee is dismissing the lottery panel inherited
from the SAC regime, said to be responsible for
some of the films subsidised which subsequently
produced poor showings.
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James
Lee, the chairman of Scottish Screen, the public
film agency in Scotland, has reacted angrily to
revelations in The Scotsman about the lack of
a commercial film industry in Scotland, despite
a six-year policy to use lottery cash to create
one. 