BELSTONE PICTURES

Belstone Pictures is a British, independently owned production company set up in 2016 by ‘Finn Cardigan Bruce’, a former student of Hurtwood House. Bruce began his career working as a photographer in the US, gaining some important life skills on cinematography that he would have needed. He then went onto work ‘on set’, working alongside major Film industry professionals on productions such as ‘Downton Abbey’, ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘The Voice UK’, however the job that would jumpstart his career into the industry would be working at Blink Tv, MPC and sky news.  

As Bruce began growing in the industry, he then worked alongside Shaun Redick and Ray Mansfield on the brilliant, ‘Get Out’ and ‘the Black KKKlanman’ as executive assistant, which would have given him the ultimate launch into the film industry. Finally, Bruce worked alongside Nicola Horlick and helped across the investment and development of her own film funds, which would have given him a very good all-round experience of many sides in the industry to give him the knowledge needed for his own production company.  Shortly after leaving Horlick, Bruce set up Belstone Pictures in 2016. Located in Oakly street London, Belstone has been running for approximately 5 years and have now produced three films; ‘Tucked’, ‘Making Tracks’ and ‘Paul Doods Deadly Lunch Break’ 

Belstones greatest box office success was ‘Tucked’ which was released in 2018 ranking in an estimated total of $50,000 with their production budget of $22,000 which they would then use this revenue of profit using the ‘Tent Pole Strategy’ to then fund their other expenses and later films. 

Belstone, being a small, independently owned production company, cannot afford to spend their limited profit on hiring A-lister actors to star in their films, unlike Disney and therefore tend to have a smaller B/C-lister cast or to take risks on ‘new talent’ which is more of a gamble on the quality of outcome on the film overall and also means they lose the advertisement that comes alongside a more well-known cast. Belstone is known for multicasting their Films with the same actors, especially with Tucked and Making Tracks with April Peason appearing in both. 

 

Currently, Belstone has multiple films either in pre-production or post-production or have been announced. 

PRE 

-Sumotherhood (action/comedy) 

POST 

-Sweet Caroline (action/comedy) 

ANOUNCED 

-Broken Cove (drama) 

-Merely Players (comedy/musical) 

-Room 17 (drama) 

As Belstone is a much small production in comparison to the likes of Disney, they have access to both negative and beneficial outcomes from the scale of their company. Belstone are horizontally integrated meaning they only produce and have no say in the distribution of their films; a benefit from this method is that It is less risky as it places some of the responsibility for the film's success in the hands of the distributor and it also means that the company can become more popular as they can become more niche in their work and spend all their energy in the production aspect of the film. Another key benefit small productions attain is the ability to vary in both the style and genre of their work as they don’t have the same global/international audience that Disney for example as they have to create work that is universal to attain their gross audiences; this therefore allows Belstone to focus of maybe more taboo topics that won't be relatable to everyone like a blockbuster is for example. As small companies work through horizontal integration, they are splitting the risks but also therefore splitting the money for the entire process with their collaborative partners, which therefore means more t=of their revenue can be spent in creating genuinely impressive work. Technical innovation has also helped and benefited small companies as well, allowing them to gain the same access that larger companies have but much cheaper and yet at the same level; for example, special effects, computer, and camera software, and editing. This ability to produce high quality entertainment on low budgets, like ‘Tucked’ for example, have enabled independent companies to find mainstream success.