A DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDING OF LOW AND MICRO-BUDGET FILM PRODUCTION IN THE UK

This thesis examines whether there is a different perspective to low and microbudget
filmmaking than has previously been understood, challenging the Low and
Micro-Budget Film Production in the UK report, commissioned by the UK Film
Council (UKFC) in 2008 to inform their policies. The introduction of this thesis
illustrates how the UKFC report used inappropriate methodologies and poses the
research question: would a different methodology present a perspective of low and
micro-budget film production that differs from the ‘comprehensive picture’ that
the UKFC claimed to portray?
Participatory Action Research (PAR) is presented as a suitable methodology, as it
has not previously been used to explore film production and it enables a plurality
of perspectives to be presented from across the crew. However, the participatory
action of filmmaking is resource intensive and required various stakeholders to
collaborate in order to address the research question. A feature-length film, The
Ballad of Des and Mo, was shot, edited and screened as part of the Melbourne
International Film Festival in 2010, and artefacts created as part of the film’s
production (including a further feature length documentary following the process)
are presented as evidence within this thesis. However, serious limitations were
encountered within the PAR process, including incomplete data collection,
contested representation of the process within the artefacts and struggles over
ownership. The discussion contends that PAR within film production is unreliable,
but argues that the artefacts created were still examples of low and micro-budget
filmmaking, and subsequent analysis is conducted using grounded theory to
establish themes within the artefacts. The outcomes correlate with wider literature
and establish that the UKFC’s report was incomplete and did not present a
‘comprehensive picture’ of low and micro-budget filmmaking.
Two findings are established: the limitations of PAR in a filmmaking context and
the discovery that low and micro-budget filmmaking places unique pressures on
social relationships.