I have been meaning to write this for some time but been a bit busy. Now I finally have the time for this entry.

Obviously the recession affected a lot of people. But with me finding it hard to get work, many of my friends and relatives I find are often asking the same questions to me "Will the recession have an effect on the film industry?"

It does seem impossible with the amount of films being released each year that film makers or VFX artist are having trouble, especially in the UK where a lot of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters are being filmed and made yet no one seems to think the UK could be capable of competing with the likes of ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) and other effects houses and film studio's located across America's southern states. We don't seem to be doing bad.

I have read a report from the UK film council on UK films production from Jan 09 to Sept 09. Film production in the first nine months of this year were £857.2 million, compared to last years £512.3 mill from the same first months as last year thou we seemed be making less films and spending more on them, average budgets are also up from previous years. But these tend to be contributions from multiple sources outside. The recession has had some effect with some drop in the the averages of budgets yet we seem to be making more films.

But surely more films are being made without VFX and CGI to save on money? From the looks of it no.

The London VFX houses don't seem to be having much trouble. In fact a couple of the biggest houses in London are reporting to be fully booked with work till 2011, with the new Harry Potter effects being generated in London as well as the new film "Where the Wild Things" London is making it self more known for it's CG and VFX and a lot of it in high quality.

I have been noticing more job openings coming up in the British film industry, and with some reports early this year from various job sites mentioning the film industry making a quicker recovery. Seems this may be coming true thou not entirely recovered what with budget cuts to TV shows and re-showing of old shows instead of making new ones. Film doesn't seem too bad at this point and all thou budget is down quality doesn't seem to be.



Sources:
Times Online Article
UK Film Council Research and Statistics Unit

See you in the Vortex.

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