The success of Four Weddings and a Funeral was a turning point in the tortures of the British film industry and led to greater demand for UK films and the means to finance them.

It also boosted demand for specialist lawyers to act for producers, who carry the burden of raising finance for their movies.

Frank Bloom, the legendary lawyer who is now a consultant at London law firm Marriott Harrison and acted for David Putnam for many years, and who had a minor role on Dick Lester's classic Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night, describes the job thus: 'When acting for independent producers, it's like being in the centre of a great cartwheel, with every spoke leading to bankers, distributors, financiers, and the many other parties involved in the process of film-making'.Mr Bloom, whose firm also worked on the latest Star Wars movie -- which he is prevented by contract from mentioning -- has seen some 35 years in the film industry.

He admits the activity in the UK film industry is astonishing.

'It's changed enormously.

Even in the early 1980s when David Putnam was at his height, there were still only two or three major producers,' he says.

'Now, it's another world.'The UK industry has entered a golden age.

After Four Weddings and a Funeral came other low-budget hits, ranging from The Madness of King George (1994), Trainspotting (1996), The Full Monty and Bean (1997) and Shakespeare in Love (1998).The success of these high-quality budget movies, some of which also had low budgets, showed that independently-made films could make money.

Four Weddings and a Funeral cost only £3 million to make, yet it has taken more than £200 million at the box office.

Before it was released in 1994 Hugh Grant, producer Mike Newell and production company Working Title Films were virtual unknowns.

By the time they made Notting Hill -- on which Frank Bloom advised -- they commanded a budget ten times bigger.

On its opening weekend, Notting Hill became the most successful debut of any romantic comedy.

Ironically, these great UK successes were supported largely by US and Dutch money, and the profits flowed overseas.

But because of their success, there has been a huge increase in the range of native UK financial support available to independent filmmakers.

In 1997 the government waded in with a series of initiatives.

Chancellor Gordon B rown's first budget allowed producers of films costing up to £15 million to write off against tax their entire production and acquisition costs as soon as their films were completed.

The policy was renewed in March, extending it to 1 July 2002, in the hope of encouraging additional private UK investment into films.

'What this has done is establish a sale and leaseback industry, which has added a valuable source of revenue for the makers of films and the some of the more expensive forms of television programme,' says Medwyn Jones, partner at Harbottle & Lewis.

Investors buy the film and immediately lease it back, paying the producers a percentage.

Mr Jones, whose firm acts for UK production companies including Merchant Ivory and for Mrs Brown producer Ecoss Films, adds: 'It's only worth going through the hoops for sale and leaseback if the figures are large'.In another move, the government is to change the definition of what makes a British film 'British'.

The new rules will allow more films that feature British casts and are made in the UK to be described as British -- and qualify for the tax concession benefits.

It will end the anomaly which saw Little Voice, starring Ewan McGregor and Jane Horrocks, be denied the status of being British just because its soundtrack was recorded abroad.There has also been a growing number of City banks such as Sociiti Ginirale, Barclays, and Close Brothers, and smaller specialist film financiers in the sector.However, finance remains a complex issue and lawyers provide an essential role in helping producers find the cash.

Marriott Harrison partner Phil Rymer says: 'A lot of institutions are confident that the film industry is stable.

But it can still be a Herculean task helping people through the hell of raising finance'.

Among lawyers, there are essentially two types of specialist in the field -- those in the City who act mainly for the financiers, banks and big film companies, in firms including Richards Butler, Denton Hall, SJ Berwin, Theodore Goddard and, to some degree, Berwin Leighton.

Then there are those firms which tend to work mainly for the producers, but which can handle financings too.

These tend to be media specialist firms, including Marriott Harrison, Harbottle & Lewis, Olswangs, and Henry Hepworth.

The latter was only set up four years ago and already has a strong portfolio of TV and film clients, including half a dozen independent producers.

So fast-growing is it that the firm continues to recruit, having recently taken on several lawyers from Mishcon De Reya and in August plucked a six-lawyer intellectual property team from Davis Arnold Cooper.

'We have three film lawyers here, and I desperately need another experienced assistant,' says founder Michael Henry.Mr Jones of Harbottle & Lewis says law firms are in a good position to advise producer clients on the availability of financing: 'Firms have a large throughput of films and TV programmes,' he adds.

'Producers may only have two or three projects a year, and they're relying on firms like ours because we know what's likely to be available.'An example of a media firm taking on a big financing deal was when Olswang recently acted in one of the City's biggest-ever investments in the industry.

In the deal, top fund manager Hermes Investment Management acted as agent for the British Telecom and Post Office Pension Funds, investing around £30 million in a new production, financing and sales company called Renaissance.

Senior partner Mark Devereux says: 'The deal is the first significant institutional backing for the fil m industry since Goldcrest in the 1980s.

I sincerely hope that it marks a sea change in the investment community's perception of the British film industry.'Acting for independent producers is a cradle-to-grave task.

Mr Rymer says: 'As a film lawyer, you're involved with the product from the first moment the producer comes up with the idea.

From that moment, we're involved in protection of that asset, to the stage where we can raise development finance and eventually develop it to stage where a financial institution or independent investor will advance production financing to complete the film.'The mix of finance depends completely on the film idea, says Mr Jones.

And he adds: 'It depends entirely on what the film is, the budget size, whether it's commercial or arthouse.

The key advice is for the producer to take as little money as possible at the high-risk stage of development, otherwise they could lose control of their project'.So what are the crucial stages in the complex business of movie-making? Imagine a thriller novel being made into a movie.

The first thing is to call the literary agent and pay for exclusive options on the book covering film and TV rights, says Mr Rymer.

Then seek development finance.

This pays for a screenwriter and research.

A development financier needs to be found, usually a large distribution or production company.

With them, the name of a screenwriter can be settled on.

They then advance money to produce two or three drafts, to be discussed with the development financier.

'At the same time, you're preparing draft budgets and wish lists of people to star in your production,' says Mr Rymer.

'You get to a point where the development financier has enough financial and artistic information to make a decision.

At that point they decide whether to 'greenlight' the film -- formally commit to finance it.'Traditional sources of cash include distributors which pre-buy films, and banks, which undertake loans under deficit or gap financing schemes.

'There may be a whole patchwork of financiers,' says Mr Jones.

'Independent financiers provide equity finance, who put in real risk capital and get back a share of the profits.' Mr Jones says that a producer may take his bundle of contracts, including video rights or a pre-sale deal, to a TV network, to a bank for invoice discounting finance in which a bank is given unpaid invoices for goods or services sold and puts up the money for a proportion of the total.

Banks tend to want a 'completion bond' -- a form of insurance policy -- to guarantee their money should the film fall through.

The handful of completion bonders are experts in the industry and can take a movie idea to completion.The EU provides financing, but the drawback for UK film-makers is that its funding is aimed largely at co-productions involving two or more countries, says Mr Jones.

Foreign funding is still largely from the US, says Michael Maxtone-Smith, film finance partner at Richards Butler.Mr Maxtone-Smith, who advised NatWest on its funding of Rogue Trader, says financiers' lawyers must have good film industry knowledge.

Mr Maxtone-Smith adds: 'There are a lot of peculiarities in the business.

There's a huge amount of documentation and due diligence and much of the work is fast-moving, last minute stuff'.While the lawyer has held the producer's hand through the early development stage, they sometimes have to shoulder the burden by deferring part of their fees until production financing is completed.

But nothing is a foregone conclusion, and the lawyer often shares the risk.

Mr Bloom adds: 'Where the risk really arises is where you have the screenplay written, budget prepared, and the picture's hovering at the point of being greenlighted.

Often the papers are not signed until literally the eve of principal photography.

The risk to us is that you start gearing up, wracking up thousands of pounds of costs, and the picture then falls dead.

If the client hasn't got two half pennies to rub together, you're technically Donald Ducked'.However, being 'Donald Ducked' on past occasions has not dimmed Frank Bloom's enthusiasm for film work.

'We're in this business because we love it.

How much better it is to see a film and feel you were involved in that, than to think I was involved in the merger of ABC bank with XWZ bank.'