News from Virtual Alien and his alter ego Old Nick
DM: Dark Matter
The film ruffled a few feathers. The film needed to be certificated by the Bfi -The British Film Institute, a quango of the British government.
As the film overwhelmed them, not able to comprehend the content, it needed an audit -very rare these days- and a lawyer's report -extremely rare-. After a few months the certification went nowhere and I complained but like all complaints in England it went nowhere.
The next thing was: the head of the complaint, as a source of authority, removed the film from IMDb and its parent company Amazon.
So now the application cannot be complained about because the film doesn't exist -according to this person-. Never mind that 16 people worked on it.
The film does exist and in multiple formats.
How can the Bfi, the British Film Institute, a quango from the British government continue to exist, when they haven't got the faintest idea about the film industry, doesn't publish any accounts and continue to manage huge sums of UK taxpayers money and lottery funding? Organising the yearly 3 cinemas London West End film festival at great expense, doesn't make them an expert. With spillage from this sordid affair over to HMRC to tarnish many hard working individuals! HMRC is not a problem when everything is clear and concise but the malicious act carried over and will drag on for a year and there is still very little accountability about HMRC and they hardly ever pay any damage or provide an apology. Now, it's all militancy as they are certain to win the next election. I wouldn't be too sure: even with Tory impotence, a real opposition has emerged, one that will not put up with any sabotage of this kind. It is illegal and I'm stressing the word as the DCMS (Ministry of Culture, Media and Sports in the UK) needs to be aware of the legal implications about malicious intent.
The films (and 3 more) are now destined for the web. It takes two years on average to produce a film -even longer- a year or two to be certificated in the UK and a year or longer for HMRC (UK tax) in an R&D scheme to approve it. By the time a film is released, it has an expiry date on it, unable to be theatrically released. One would be hard pressed to find a cinema in the UK.
It's not that we want to enter into this suicidal process but it is the only way to register a film in the UK and certify a valuation. It certainly is not a way to be bona fide: members of our team have worked for over 40 years in the industry, producing over 400 films / TV shows but it's all too political to be believed! I'm apolitical, there's the rub.
