Overview of the Repayment Years Followed by Executive Agency Status for Film Division During the years 1987 to 1991
The purpose of this section is to provide an account of the effect on Film Division of the of the moveby COI to becoming a Repayment Department followed by the change to becoming an Executive Agency and Trading Fund.
There was no significant change in respect of the volume of production work. There was a considerable amount of additional clerical work setting up an internal market and getting staff used to the idea of billing services such as the use of viewing theatres to production budgets.
The change to becoming an Executive Agency and Trading Fund carrying with it the loss of the requirement that Departments had to use COI Film Division for the production of the films they wished to have made was to have a major impact on the Division.
The first development in1990 was the decision by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO) to set up an internal FCO Television and Radio Unit. The FCO then gradually withdrew a substantial amount of its work hitherto produced by Film Division. The loss of work was not confined to Film Division. The total FCO expenditure across COI fell from circa £23 million in 1987-1988 to circa £15 million in 1991-1992.
The effect on Film Division of losing part of Overseas Television Services work together with losses occasioned by the departure of other departments between1990 to 1992 was a reduction in turnover from £8,394,000 in 1990-1991 to £6,684,000 in 1991-1992 or some £1,710,000 reduction of Film Division’s income.
The exact rationale for the FCO move is by no means clear (at the time of writing the COI files are still closed under the 30 year rule). Why it would want to take on the work of commissioning programs as well as becoming involved in marketing the programs, both of which had been successfully carried out by Film Division is unclear. It was certainly unlikely that there would have been any financial savings since the FCO did not have the budgeting capability of Film Division. It chose to commission work through a tendering process and, so far as is known, no comparative studies were undertaken to ascertain potential cost savings.
Historically the Foreign Office and the other overseas departments had, since the mid 1960s, represented something of the order of over a third of the Film Division expenditure on production and distribution.
Following the setting up of the FCO Film Unit television programs were commissioned by FCO as individual projects and put out to tender. For example the FCO commissioned several series of a package of 13 x 30 minute television programs under the title Inside Britain. In some instances Film Division was invited to pitch for a particular a program, sometimes it was successful, sometimes not. Another television series UK Today, first commissioned by the FCO in 1989 as a monthly series of 15 minute, later 30 minute, television magazine programs. The format was reminiscent of British Calendar in the early 1960s. It enabled it to be produced in a number of language versions providing television transmissions in many countries. Film Division made issues 1 to 124 from 1989 to 1993. Thereafter FCO commissioned the series from World Wide Pictures Ltd for several more years.
In the case of the Home Departments between 1990-1994 work on new films started to drift away from COI. Film Division lost all work previously produced for the Home Office work apart from occasional television fillers. This loss followed the transfer of Charles Skinner (erstwhile Director of Film Division) to the Home Office Information Department around 1992/3. Later Health and then Transport took their business away. The latter (circa 2003) also involved Charles Skinner by then DoT Director of Communications.
Around that time Douglas Alexander the Labour Cabinet Minister responsible for COI intervened in a dispute with Department of Transport who proposed to remove a £12 million advertising budget away from COI. This action would have undermined the important role of COI carried out in obtaining discounts in media buying by pooling Government buying power.
Whether, in the period leading up to 1994, the Home Departments who withdrew wholly or in part from COI carried out comparative cost savings is not known. The issue of the COI running costs or overheads was long standing and no doubt contributed to the decision. COI’s usual defence of its overheads, cited off setting cost savings through budget negotiation and discounts on, for instance, media buying together with media expertise. The defence that COI provided costs savings that more than covered the COI costs was often greeted with scepticism. Certainly the original rationale of 1946 for all government information films to be produced through COI was long forgotten. There may have been other specific operational reasons for a department to pull away. Over the years, many in COI were aware of latent unhappiness by individuals in departments toward COI, engendered either by instances of perceived poor service or of value for money. There were problems of inter departmental communication personality clashes or simple tribal hostility. There were also a number of instances of disaffected COI staff moving to Departments and undermining relations.
However it is also fair to say that experience over the years leading up to 1990 suggests that COI did not make any huge effort to overcome these issues or to recognise the need to develop and maintain good relationships at all levels with departments. The need to “sell” COI to departments was not evident; why perhaps would it be? Under the existing rules departments had simply to decide on their requirements. In order to get them made they had only one place to go to. Videos promoting COI and sell its services were unknown until 1990 when the first promotion video was produced. While the need to foster good relations was recognised by individuals in COI, this need was not always recognised throughout COI. The years of Departments being “tied” to COI probably played a good part in the decisions by Departments to welcome “untying” and the opportunity to go their own way: making movies without COI could be fun.
However the story of the transition to Executive Agency Status was not entirely a story of doom and gloom. An aspect of “untying” was that COI was then able to offer its services to a wider range of public service organisations than hitherto. A picture of what was happening in Film Division in the years 1987 to 1991 as staff became aware of the approach of troubling change is well sketched by looking through the sections on Films Division taken from the COI annual Reports of 1987 to 1988, 1989 to 1990 and 1990 to 1991 as follows:
The COI Annual Report for 1987-1988 recorded that Films Division had produced 40 television commercials, 32 television fillers and 63 video programs in that year. The client list was long and the projects extremely varied. Among the more unusual projects breaking new technological ground were interactive multimedia programs for the Royal Navy, the Cabinet Office and the Inland Revenue. These projects used computer-controlled video displays that could be accessed by the public.
Another unique project created by Film Division for the British Pavilion at Expo 88 at Brisbane was a video display using 100 television monitors in the form of a “crystal” towering 20 feet into the air. The monitors each played a short film on an aspect of life in the UK. Visitors to the exhibition could walk around the “Crystal” to view the display of the many aspects of Britain. The “Crystal” was a major attraction at the British Pavilion.
Projects for the Foreign Office included the eighth and final program in a series about the war in Afghanistan. A further 13 programmes in the series “Focus on Britain” were produced for use in the United States. Another 13 programs in the Perspective series about science and technology in Britain were completed. Several of the programs won Awards at international television festivals bringing to nearly 300 such awards for COI.
Perspective was now sold to more than 70 countries worldwide including several Eastern European countries as part of the extensive overseas sales operation which COI carried out for the Foreign Office. The year also saw a further breakthrough with the first ever sale to Indian television that was the program on AIDS.
Film Division marketing activities also continued to grow with CFL Vision further enhancing its reputation as one of the UK’s largest video distributors. These included a drugs education package for the Department of Health and Social Security that earned CFL the prestigious Clifford Wheeler Award for program distribution.
The year also saw a useful expansion of CFL’s public library scheme with videos now available for free loan in over 250 libraries.
Film Division Technical Services Unit in addition to providing support services for production and marketing carried out a technical appraisal for the Department of Transport on screening traffic information at motorway service areas, together with a feasibility study for the Home Office on the use of closed-circuit television in magistrates courts.
The COI Annual Report for the year 1989 to 1990 reported an increase in production of 25% during the year. Some 230 projects encompassing documentary films, television commercials, training videos, visual materials for conferences and public information television fillers were produced. Particularly encouraging was a 15% rise in the production of documentary films won against stiff competition from commercial production companies. Again the Division received international recognition for its work gaining 22 awards during the year.
The production of television commercials for the water privatisation campaign was one of the major tasks of the year with COI staff expertise and knowledge of the market and buying power enabling the Department of the Environment to save £300,000 on television production alone.
Another major success was a series of television fillers produced for the Home Office on crime prevention. Distribution through a continuing programme of liaison with television stations in the United Kingdom enabled the series to achieve a substantial amount of free airtime.
Increased emphasis on the importance of obtaining effective use of completed video programs led to marketing and production staff liaising closely from the outset of the early negotiations with clients to save money by carefully planned targeting and distribution of videos through CFL Vision the COI marketing and distribution facility. An innovation of the year was to offer departments tailored packages of marketing and distribution to suit specific needs as well as the normal listing in the CFL catalogue. A number of departments took advantage of this targeted marketing facility. Film Division Technical Services and Radio Technical Services were brought together toward the end of the year within the division with a view to streamlining services to clients and further improving cost-effectiveness.
The COI Annual Report for 1990-1991 showed that the Division produced over 200 projects for audiences at home and overseas. They included 42 documentary films, 14 television fillers together with106 television commercials. The overseas television magazine UK Today continued as well as some 17 programs covering the crisis in the Persian Gulf together with in-depth background news items on the conflict for television audiences worldwide.
The UK Today series of monthly television items illustrating life and events in Britain and produced for the Foreign Office doubled in length to 30 minutes from December. Distribution was extended to over 100 countries and a Russian language version was introduced for transmission to 20 stations across the USSR. A third series was commissioned for 1991 to 1992.
Film Division producers continued to ensure that the concepts created by advertising agencies for television commercials were brought to the screen as efficiently and effectively as possible. Among television commercials produced during the year more than half were associated with the electricity privatisation campaign. Meanwhile the characters of Star Trek launched the campaign for the sale of shares in Powergen and National Power. The Scottish Generators flotation featuring a huge hairy spider began in 1991.
Another major project was the Training and Enterprise Council’s campaign for the Department of Employment, while the annual Drink and Drive campaign for the Department of Transport won the Silver Award for Top Public Service Commercial on British Television.
An important challenge was to produce three training videos and a publicity video in connection with the 1991 Census. Following research a marketing program for the publicity video was set up using Citizens Advice Bureaux, local census offices, public libraries and the CFL Vision free loan service. An important aspect of the work of the Film Marketing Section was to update and improve the use of Television Fillers. The year saw the number of free airtime transmissions on commercial stations and the BBC rise to around 40,000 with a further 8,000 screenings on cable and satellite television. A new series of eight crime prevention fillers produced in 1990 obtained 3000 screenings a particularly high rate of transmissions.
The CFL Vision marketing operation handled over 33,000 issues of programs that was a 4% increase on the previous year with 100 new titles added to the catalogue.
The Conference and Events section mounted 41 conferences and seminars during the year. The major events were the Home Office World Drugs Summit and two NATO conferences for foreign ministers in June and for Heads of Government in London the following month. The NATO summit at Lancaster House proved a massive logistical and organisational challenge. Electricity sub stations had to be set up to meet the huge demand for extra power supplies.
Conference Unit arranged the accreditation of some 1500 media representatives as well as the provision of telephones, photocopying facilities and so on. Technical services organised closed circuit television throughout the media Centre, Lancaster House and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and arranged the necessary facilities so that hundreds of transmissions could be made during the conference.
Some different technical challenges were posed by the World Drugs Summit. Two sessions ran concurrently one the cocaine threat and another on drug demand reduction. Film Division technicians had to relay CCTV pictures from both throughout the media Centre for the media to follow on interpretation headsets.Film Division installed over £500,000 worth of video projection equipment in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre for the event.
Technical Services turnover increased by about 20% to £4,500,000 with major clients providing much of the additional business. The unit used extensive quality control and duplication facilities to produce more than 60,000 videocassettes. It also continued to carry out direct transmissions to satellite and main broadcast circuits and further income growth was generated by the provision of special presentation services to departments.
The overall picture of the years from 1987 to 1992 is one of considerable creative activity. Moreover it also demonstrated the full range of the services provided by the Division. The years were also five years of increased focus on the need to market COI services to the client departments.
However there were stormy seas yet to come which could be inferred by looking at the overall decline in COI sales from £184,226,000 in 1987-88 to £151,581,000 in 1991-92 a fall of £32,645,000.
Changes In Film Division Structure and Staff During the 1990s.
In 1990 the Division became part of the Visual Media and Radio Group as one of several Media Groups to manage the change of COI Status from a Repayment Department to that of being an Executive Agency.
Following the retirement of John Hall at the end of 1988 Charles Skinner became Director of Film Division from 1989 to 1990. He then moved to the Home Office. His successor as Director, was Malcolm Nisbet from 1991 to 1993 who had been recruited from outside the COI. He returned there after two years. In turn his successor was Ian Hamilton from 1994 to 1999, then by Sally Whetton from 2000 until 2005. By then the Film Division had become part of a restructured COI within a recently formed Broadcast and Events Department.
The Division was badly hit when production for the Foreign Office was gradually moved away between 1990 and 1993 as noted earlier.
The loss of the Foreign Office work reduced the production side of Film Division to reliance on work emanating from the Home Departments. That work had traditionally been divided into three separate teams, one team producing documentary films, another team television fillers and a third team, television commercials. The extent of the loss of work from Home Departments through untying was not immediately known though it became apparent as the 1990s progressed. It was decided to discontinue the earlier organisation of separate teams for documentary films, television commercials and television fillers. In its place was one production area with one Head of Production supervising a group of staff producers supplemented by freelance producers to take on specific projects. There was some specialisation by individual producers, otherwise, as need arose, some producers might work across the three areas of output.
Thus in 1989/1990 Annabel Olivier Wright, a very experienced and successful Producer/Director, was promoted to be Head of Production reporting to Charles Skinner, Director of Film Division. She was was succeeded in 1994/5 by Geoff Raison as Head of Production until he moved to the Cabinet Office. He was then succeeded by Jackie Huxley followed by Simon Devine.
Producers mostly working on documentary films and television fillers from 1989 through to 2000 included, at various times, Judith Davison, Tim Langford, Kim Flitcroft, Geoff Raison, Ian Sottley, Mike Lockey, Eddie Newstead. John Ross and Simon Devine mostly produced television fillers (Simon had come from the budget Unit under Sylvia Barker) but also produced some television commercials as need arose. John Ross who had been a Producer from 1985 to 1988 mainly working on documentaries for the Royal Navy returned in 1995. He specialised in the production of television fillers producing almost all television fillers together with a number of documentary films. He continued with Film Division until 2010.
In the case of television commercials, Barbara Simon who had been with the Overseas Television Services was promoted to Producer level to specialise, for most of her work, on the production of television commercials. This involved, as in earlier years, working with COI Advertising Division and advertising agencies appointed for specific campaigns. From time to time she also produced a number of television fillers. Barbara had previously worked in several areas of the Overseas Services including an operation providing facilities and assistance to the London based correspondents of overseas television companies and a television series Pattern of People and the UK Today series produced in Los Angeles.
Despite the optimism and achievements recorded in the Annual Reports of 1987 to 1992 decline continued.The consequence was recorded in a staff newsletter Issue 48 of June 1996:
Restructuring for Film Division. A major restructuring of Film Division has begun with set target dates for the operational changes required. Some aspects of the division’s restructuring are the result of changes in demand from the Foreign and Commonwealth office. It will also reflect a move toward new ways of working.
These changes will result in the departure of 26 operational staff by 30 June next year. The first 10 staff will leave at the end of this month. A decision on administrative staff awaits the COI wide assessment of support service requirements.
Ian Hamilton Director of Film Division said four services will close. They are the television science series Perspective. The in-house video, duplication and presentation services together with the transfer of the Footage File sales operation and the privatisation of the overseas marketing “London Television Service” will also take place.
The services remaining will be provided by 27 operational staff. This number excludes the previously announced transfer to Film Division of a slimmed down events operation in October.
The privatisation of the Footage Sales operation was eventually to be a disaster when the contractor withdrew leaving the COI Film Archive stored in poor conditions in a disused underground tunnel.
1990 to 1999: The Production Process
The production process refers to the way in which production companies or facility suppliers and creative contributors were organised and contracted. Toward the latter part of the 1980s and into the 1990s this process underwent a good deal of evolution.
At the inception of the COI Film Division in 1946 it was envisaged that all film production would be contracted out to commercial film production companies. The role of the Film Division would simply be that of an informed intermediary expert between a department of government who required the production of a film and the people who would actually make the films. COI Film Division would not have on its staff any producers, directors, writers, camera crews or editing facilities.
The anomaly referred to earlier in the shape of the Crown Film Unit lasted until 1952. But this was not part of the COI Films Division it was simply under thecontrol of the Films Division. Sir Humphrey was alive and kicking in 1946 making fine distinctions.
The convention of COI as a contracting organisation was firmly held to for a good many years, so that in the late 1950s a proposal by the new Overseas Television Services to acquire a camera crew and equipment for shooting news items, was the cause of a huge row that was eventually debated in the House of Commons and firmly rejected.
Inevitably, over time, when needs really pressed, the convention began to be eroded in favour of some aspects of production being carried out in house. Many of these changes were lead by the rapid growth of the Overseas Television Services during the 1960s. Then staff contracts were used to employ, producers and researchers, television studio directors and film editors.
During the 1960s and beyond the Television Fillers operation also came to employ producers and writers and occasional directors. Curiously there was no overt debate about these changes. There were no formal reviews or consultations with Treasury who had, after all, laid down the rules in 1946 and for some years after. The changes just happened, they were nodded through by the Finance Division though perhaps they were also enabled to happen by changes in the Budget and Contracting Team.
This preamble is by way of recording further changes in the production process of documentary films and television fillers, in the late 1980s and continued into the 1990s and then in the 2000s that extended the role of the Producer. So that his role took on a greater degree of creative decision making, together with that of negotiations with freelance crew and other suppliers. Taken with the appearance on the staff of Production Managers, the effect was that gradually COI became to look and operate in the manner of a normal production company. In effect moving toward the role of the Crown Film Unit of yesteryear. The culmination of the process is contained in a document produced in 2006 entitled “Moving Image Production at COI: a Guide for Producers” written by Andrew Lane Fox.(copy may be found in Research Materials from the Navigation Bar) As the title implies the document is a guide for producers providing information on all aspects of working within Film Division and providing the limits of a producer’s authority. It is a remarkable document not only for its detailed scope but because it clearly sets out the final historical change from the film making responsibilities and control by Film Division in 1946 to that of Film Division 2006 now renamed MIAC (Moving Image and Audio Content) albeit that the some of the changes had gradually been introduced many years earlier. The role of the Producer in the production of documentary films had been a more gradual change. During the 1980s, as indicated earlier, producers had been encouraged to become much more closely involved in the production process though production companies were still commissioned to actually make the films. It now became quite clear that the producer function lay with the Film Division Producer who had overall responsibility for making sure that the project was finished on time and to budget. In a few cases productions were made in house simply hiring technical facilities as required. An example was that of the documentary film “Minder” (1985) produced by Richard Smith for the Department of Health and utilised the characters and format of a television series of the same name. In the case of the television fillers the first indications of what was to become in later years a much more common practice began to appear in the late 1980s and through the 1990s. That was to give to enable producers to have the responsibility to negotiate budgets as well as the ability to choose production facilities rather than commissioning out a whole production. However the actual writing of the contracts or purchase orders continued to be carried out by the Budget or Purchasing Unit as before. Thus the production process for several parts of the Division moved toward producing more projects “in house". The term implied using Film Division staff or contracted staff as producers, directors, writers and researchers while separately hiring technical facilities as required. In effect much the same pattern as that adopted by many production companies.