TheannouncementthatEnglandandWaleshadvotedtheUKout
of the EU struck fear into many people working in the creative industries. Anyone I spoke to about it felt the same way as me:
bereft. This is because we have all benefited hugely from EU culture, massive funding, co-production treaties, and from the creative cross- fertilisation that comes from our ability to live and work anywhere in Europe. The idea that we would suddenly be separated from our European colleagues, having been part of the same family for such a long time, is heartbreaking and makes us want to run for the hills (provided those hills are in Berlin, Dublin or Copenhagen).
We now have questions about our creative relationships and
funding in the US thrown into the mix, with the election of Donald Trump – currently an unknown quantity.
Between 2007 and 2012, the Creative Europe programme, through its MEDIA fund, gave £37 million to creative businesses in the UK and spent £39 million on promoting British films to the rest of Europe.
The EU’s £93 million Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee
Fund,asoutlinedearlierinthischapter,hasonlyjustlaunchedand
will give creative businesses in the UK unprecedented access to finance throughout the EU – while it is part of the EU.
Creative businesses have access to over 500 million potential customers throughout the EU and can employ talent from any EU member state without a work permit, and work across Europe without visas–flexibilitythathasbeenessentialtofilminginlocationsall
over Europe.
Brexit could mean we lose all of this. It could also mean we get hit by tariffs on sale of our content to EU members, although some film co-production treaties may be able to continue as they are agreed by the Council of Europe rather than the EU.
There have been voices within the film industry warning against the proposed Digital Single Market Strategy (DSM) of the EU. The DSM seeks to end geo-blocking of content across Europe, and stopterritorialcopyrightindigitalcontent.RebeccaO’Brien,MDof
SixteenFilms,whohasproduced15ofKenLoach’sfilms,is100per
cent pro-EU in general but says in an article for the Guardian:
The Digital Single Market Strategy (DSM) … threatens to make it impossible for distribution companies to secure rights to films on a territory-by-territory basis. Ultimately, all films made available on any online platform would have to be made available across the whole of the EU at once. By ignoring the complexities of the European model for film financing and distribution, this prescriptive vision in fact threatens to make Europe’s fragile film industry unsustainable, and ultimately to short-change the very European consumers it purports to empower.
Surely, though, it is preferable that creatives in the UK are sitting around the table when it comes to discussions about things like the DSM,andcaninfluencedecisions,ratherthancomplainingfromthe
sidelines.
There are optimistic voices in the industry, too. Highly experienced media accountant Bobby Lane, head of outsourcing and business development at Shelley Stock Hutter LLP Chartered Accountants, says:
I believe there are more opportunities for creative businesses than there were before Brexit. There is a huge pool of talent in UK creative industries and international businesses will still want to tap into these resources. Previously, if you were putting a proposal together for, say, £10,000, that might have seemed expensive to an international client, but now it is far cheaper due to the weaker pound. With the short-term reduction and weakening of the pound, UK creative businesses are even more appealing as suppliers as well as acquisition targets. People are investing in creative businesses for their skills and what they have to offer – they still have the same skills and are now cheaper to engage with so what’s not to like?!
However, if you are a creative business dealing with international companies, given the massive currency fluctuations over the past few months, it will be very important to seek advice and identify ways of reducing your currency exposure or risk.
It is now more than ever vital that creative firms stay close to their business advisors as we are still waiting to see the effects of Brexit. Good professional advisors should be able to guide them through the uncharted waters and advise what they should be doing as the rules change and develop.