News from South West Screen’s Filming and Locations team

March ‘09

Welcome to our fifth quarterly newsletter which aims to give you a round-up of what’s happening in production in the South West and how we’ve been working on your behalf. If you have any comments on this newsletter or you would like to suggest content for future newsletters, please get in touch.
 

The Queen (Blast Films) on location at Stourhead, Wiltshire in February

CHANGES WITHIN THE LOCATIONS DEPARTMENT
David Shepheard has now taken up his post as Film Commissioner for Abu Dhabi.  He’s regularly in touch, though we may get fed up of hearing how hot it is over there and how much money he has to work with and sever connections soon!  The inward investment side of David’s previous role is now going to be undertaken by a new role, that of International Trade Advisor, which will be co-funded by UK Trade & Investment SW.  Click here for more details on this post.

Fi is now covering the Locations side of David’s role and has been given a promotion and new job title: Production Services Manager.  She’ll be working more on strategic issues (e.g. the ‘Keep Casualty in Bristol’ campaign, working on getting a studio for Bristol, setting up Film Charters with the local councils in the region, etc.) At the moment there is no funding available to provide permanent support for Fi in the Locations Department , but Harriet Martin (previously Bristol and Bath Film Offices) is here on a part-time basis until the end of May when the staffing situation will be reviewed.
 

CAMPAIGN CONTINUES TO KEEP CASUALTY IN BRISTOL  

We’re still working very hard for Casualty not to be moved over to Cardiff.  Contrary to popular opinion, the decision hasn’t been made and the BBC have delayed delivery of their internal report into comparative costs between Bristol and Cardiff until the end of March at the earliest.  South West Screen identified two possible sites for the re-housing of the production which has to move due to leases on current warehouses coming up for renewal.  Of the two sites, Paintworks on the Bath Road has been identified as the BBC’s preferred choice and Verve Properties (owners of the site) are working closely with the BBC’s consultants to produce detailed and comprehensive costings for a possible occupation of the site.
We have asked local MPs to lobby the BBC on the impact of losing the show , both economically (£25 million/year was proved by a report South West Screen commissioned last year) and on the production infrastructure in Bristol and the South West.  You may have seen last Wednesday’s Inside Out West report on the threatened move – if you haven’t, you can still catch it on i-player if you’re quick.
Louise, a dedicated and determined Casualty fan, has set up an online petition on Facebook and would welcome as many people signing up to it as possible - you can find the petition here.


DRAMA ON A BUDGET
With all eyes on Casualty and an increasing scrutiny of the future of drama on television, South West Screen would like to share some of Broadcast’s recent analysis of the impact of budget cuts on recent drama productions. Through several interviews with leading independent production companies, opinions remain positive that lower budgets translate into opportunities for emerging talent and creative flexibility.  Tom Sherry (Head of Drama, Wall to Wall) says: “Delivering value is in both the programme-maker’s and broadcaster’s interests alike.  Co-finance and deficit funding will increasingly play a bigger part in the commissioning process and who knows what new funding models the channels will throw at us.  What I do know is we have to listen.  I don’t believe there are any ‘new tricks’ for making drama cheaper.  The one thing which is guaranteed to save you money is getting the script right.”
Simon Heath (Head of Drama, World): “Don’t develop a Harrods show then try to make it on a Woolworths budget. Most obviously, scripts need to be ready in good time..a significant amount of studio or warehouse shooting is vital.”
With local talent pools gaining the edge over expensive household names, the credit crunch could mean a much needed injection of drama into the regions as told by Being Human’s Executive Producer, Rob Pursey, Managing Director of Touchpaper Television. “The location fees, transport and production offices in the nations and regions all offer better value.  And there are extremely talented production crews across the country who are very keen to work in, or near, their home town.” Let’s hope that the South West can continue to build on the exciting opportunities that budget drama’s can gain from our talented region!
Source: Broadcast 27th February 2009.


SOUTH WEST GREEN                 
At RealScreen in Washington in February a Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking was launched by the American University and the Filmmakers for Conservation.  This was co-authored by Larry Engel (documentary filmmaker and professor at the American University) and Andrew Buchanan (30 years of production experience across drama, film and documentary and lives in Somerset).  We are aiming to launch these Guidelines in the South West at a special screening of the new Working Title / Universal feature The Boat that Rocked.  We worked closely with the production team to make the shoot on location in Portland, Dorset, more environmentally friendly, with Weymouth & Portland Council pulling out all the stops to support recycling on location for the 6 shooting weeks. More news to follow.


EU MPs VOTE TO SCRAP UK OPT-OUT
In December European MP’s voted to scrap the UK's opt-out from the Working Time Directive, limiting the working week to an average of 48 hours. MEPs voted in favour of ending it by 421 votes to 273. The UK government has now entered negotiations with the European council of ministers, with the aim of reaching a final decision on whether the opt-out will be scrapped in the next couple of months.
The main points of the directive, as adopted by MEPs, are:

• The individual opt-out from the 48-hour week will end three years after the directive is adopted
• The average 48-hour week can be calculated over 12 months
• The entire period of on-call time, including the inactive part, to be working time, unless a collective agreement determines otherwise
• For workers with more than one contract of work, working time shall be the sum of the periods of time worked under each of the contracts
• The directive will not apply to chief executive officers, other senior managers and persons directly appointed by a board of directors.

The UK Film Council has been in contact with the Production Guild on this issue, and submitted evidence on the consequential impacts on production if the opt-out was removed. We hope to update you on progress shortly.  


SOUTH WEST SCREEN GETS A FRESH NEW LOOK      
South West Screen is soon to be entering a new era of communications with the launch of our exciting new website at the end of March.  The Locations & Crew section is being updated to make navigation easier for all those visiting the site and we will be publishing ‘blogs’ of recces, events, meetings and production updates on our Web Community to keep our Production Guide members up to date with the latest news This community will be interactive, and you will be able to post information, feedback to our blogs, and generally communicate witha host of creative South West based individuals, companies, and services.  As a part of this re-vamp we are planning to cleanse our Production Guide and ensure that all information and personal details are up-to-date.  Please take a moment or two to let us know of any changes you would like to make by clicking here to amend your entry or please contact us if you would like us to delete your entry entirely.  If we receive more than two bounce-backs to any entry then we will assume that the contact details we hold for you are no longer valid and will delete your entry. Thank you very much for your help with this and do follow developments on our website launch on Twitter @ southwestscreen.


Shot in the South West: currently on / coming soon to the screen
Casualty – BBC1
Lark Rise to Candleford Series 2 – BBC – re-commissioned for series 3 to start pre-production in April.
Being Human – BBC - re-commissioned for series 2 to start pre-production in July.
Mistresses Series 2- BBC - re-commissioned for series 3 to start pre-production in June.
Skins Series 3 – E4 - re-commissioned for series 4 to start pre-production in April.
Deal or No Deal – C4
The Young Victoria (feature)


Currently in production / pre-production in the South West
Casualty - BBC
Four Seasons – Gate TV for German transmission
Pilcher ’09 – FFP New Media for German transmission
Doc Martin – Buffalo Pictures
Cranford – tbc
Jam & Jerusalem – tbc


Statistics
Locations on our online database: 1164
Crew and services on our online Production Guide:
1799 crew | 508 General Services | 546 Facilities | 148 Production Companies


Our contact details….our services are free.

Fiona Francombe, Production Services Manager
fiona.francombe@swscreen.co.uk
+44 (0)117 952 9983

Harriet Martin, Location Support
harriet.martin@swscreen.co.uk
+44 (0)117 9529979

Featured location




Freemason’s Hall:   Our featured location is this atmospheric and film-friendly Victorian Gentleman’s residence dating from 1873.  The Freemason’s Hall retains two external faces with much of the original brickwork and windows intact, including two external doorways. (please note that the scaffolding in this photo is temporary and will come down before summer 2009).  Internally there are three Masonic meeting rooms, two fine Victorian rooms still with their original Morris fireplaces and carved wood panelling, staircases, attic hallways, kitchens and dining rooms.  In addition, the external belfry retains its original (non working) bell above a carved stone plaque and looms over 80+ private parking spaces.
For further information on this property please contact South West Screen’s Locations Team on 0117 952 9979.
 

South West Screen is funded by the UK Film Council and the South West of England Regional Development Agency.

News from South West Screen’s Filming and Locations team
December 2008



Welcome to our last quarterly newsletter of the year which aims to give you a round-up of what we’ve been working on here at South West Screen and what’s happening in production in the South West. If you have any comments on this newsletter or you would like to suggest content for future newsletters, please get in touch.

Campaign Continues to Keep ‘Casualty’ in Bristol 
Many thanks to those of you who responded to the ‘Economic Impact of Casualty in Bristol’ questionnaire sent out a few months ago. The report has now been compiled by Attentional and has been given to the BBC to consider as part of the value for money analysis.  Equity and BECTU are organizing a public event in Bristol this Saturday (13th December) to encourage the public to show their support for keeping ‘Casualty’ in Bristol by sending postcards to BBC Director General  Mark Thompson. For details click here.
David and Fiona are continuing to work alongside Bristol City Council, the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) and the BBC to keep the programme here, and are helping as much as possible with their ‘Value For Money’ exercise.  We expect a final decision to be made in early Spring ’09.

David Shepheard (Head of Inward Investment & Locations) is leaving South West Screen
It is with great sadness that we have to let you know that David will be leaving South West Screen on 23rd December to take up a new post as Film Commissioner to Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. David has been at South West Screen for two years and made a big impact in this time. Although we will miss him, we wish him and his family all the very best for their next few years in the heat… just as long as he doesn’t take work away from us in the West… Fiona Francombe will be taking over from David in leading the Locations department and we’ll let you know the new structure of the department as soon as possible.

Enhanced Listings on the Production Guide
Some of you will have been contacted recently by a company called OpenBox who have been contracted by South West Screen to sell advertising opportunities on our online Production Guide.  We have taken the decision not to produce a new printed production guide owing to the high cost of producing the book. However, we have been concentrating on improving our online Production Guide, which continues to be a valuable resource for promoting Crew and Companies from the region. 

We took the decision to include advertising options on some of the pages on our website and to allow individual crew members the opportunity of purchasing an annual subscription to have an enhanced entry on the Guide.  This service will see an entry on the Guide appear at the top of searches for crew grade on a rotational basis, similar to other popular search engines on the web. 

To subscribe to the enhanced entry, simply log onto your profile on the Production Guide, update your production credits and select the enhanced service.  If you do not want to take out the enhanced entry, you are still able to have a FREE basic entry on the Production Guide by going online here.

The Production Guide
We thought we should repeat the above message due to the recent breach of South West Screen’s copyright and data protection rights by the South West Film Company.  You should have been e-mailed by us about this. If you have any concerns or queries or if you did not receive our e-mail please do not hesitate to contact us.

Talk to the Historic Houses Association (HHA)
In October Fiona gave a talk to members of the Historic Houses Association about ‘Filming and Photography in Historic Houses’.  It covered the practical issues that should be faced by owners, as well as recommendations for the HHA to review their current scale of charges which in our view are not in line with ever-reducing production budgets across all genres.  Please contact Fi if you would like to read her notes from the talk.

Shot in the South West: currently on / coming soon to the screen
Casualty – BBC
Lark Rise to Candleford Series 2 – BBC
Being Human - BBC
Mistresses Series 2- BBC
Cranford Series 2 – BBC
Alice (feature)

Currently in production / pre-production in the South West
Casualty - BBC
Skins Series 3 – E4

Production in 2009
At the time of writing, we are not aware of much production coming into the South West over the next few months, and as you know, the industry as a whole is traditionally quiet at this time of year. We predict an upturn in production in early Summer, and we will of course update you on this in the next quarterly newsletter.

Statistics
Locations on our online database: 1152
Crew and services on our online Production Guide:
1734 crew | 500 General Services | 524 Facilities | 143 Production Companies

Our contact details….our services are free.
David Shepheard, Head of Inward Investment and Locations (until 23rd December)
david.shepheard@swscreen.co.uk
+44 (0)117 952 9973
+ 44 (0)7795 088501

Fiona Francombe, Filming and Locations Coordinator
fiona.francombe@swscreen.co.uk
+44 (0)117 952 9983

Featured location
The Silk Mill, Frome, Somerset
Spacious four storey atmospheric Victorian warehouse, 10000 square ft in size with 3 annexes and 1 tunnel. If you'd like further details on this, or any other location, please contact us.






Happy Christmas to everyone, and here’s to a production-filled New Year!

South West Screen is funded by the UK Film Council and the South West of England Regional Development Agency.