The idea of a National Lottery has always seemed an un-British sort of thing, somehow colliding with the Protestant work ethic and distinctly continental in flavor. Nevertheless, when the National Lottery opened for business in December 1994, no one, least of all the Tory Government which devised it, had correctly predicted the spectacular take up rate from amongst all sections of the Great British population. Perhaps the shift from post-war settlement and the politics of consensus to monetarist economics and the politics of conviction has bred the kind of individualism that now embraces the opportunity for huge personal gain.

The five centers selected to distribute Lottery money were told to expect about £15 million (US$23.8 million) per annum income from the Lottery. This estimate was way out--each center receives between £250-£280 million ($396-$444 million) per annum from this fabulous source. Add to this sum the same amount again taken by the Treasury, 7% taken by Camelot, the company which administers the Lottery and the many millions won every week by the punters--the total is astronomical.

Jukebox by Run Wrake, Animate! 5 minutes, 1994.

Two years in five minutes ... How old are you? Employing a montage of xeroxed paintings and sound, Jukebox is a personal journey through fragmented experience. Former Royal College of Art student Run Wrake now works out of commercials production house Bermuda Shorts.

Where does all this money go? The five centers are: The Arts Council, The Sports Council, The National Heritage Memorial Fund (which purchased the Churchill papers for the controversial sum of £8 million [$12.7 million]), The Millennium Fund (which will build the new site for the Tate Gallery) and The Charities Board. All applications for Lottery cash must be processed through one or other of these five centers.

Funding for Film
The Arts Council is the center responsible for film and unofficially the figure allotted to this area from the Arts Council Lottery income stands at 15%. The cash will be accessed via the Film Programme which is in the process of being established and which will fund commercial features and other large scale film projects. The jury is still out on whether or not film applications will also be able to access cash from the Arts for Everyone program which is the bottom layer of funding, part of which is earmarked for initiatives which support the commissioning of new work from the youth, community, popular and amateur sectors.

As part of its pre-Lottery remit, the Arts Council has been administering a number of film funding schemes through its Film, Video and Broadcasting Department, currently headed up by Rodney Wilson. These projects range over a number of areas, including documentary films about the arts and films by artists. This latter category, which includes animation, is run by Film Officer Dave Curtis, who will be known to many readers as an expert on early animation. The Lottery has impacted directly on all these programs in the following way: applications for Lottery funding for film can only be made to the Arts Council; so therefore if a particular scheme is to benefit from the Lottery, then it can no longer remain inside the funding center. As a result, Rodney Wilson will leave the Arts Council, taking all these schemes with him, and set up an agency at arms length from which he will be able to apply for Lottery money. More of this later...

This film was inspired by the old children's rhyme. Ex-Royal College of Art student Petra Freeman created the images by painting on a hard plaster slab directly under the animation camera.