BFC UK in Focus 2017

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Behind the scenes of the UK film and television industry 2017-18

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CONTENTS UK IN FOCUS 2017

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Contents 29-53 UK locations: the experts’ choice

The UK offers a stunning array of filming locales, from modern urban settings to mountainscapes, period architecture, stunning waterways — and retro theme parks. Take a tour around some of the best, selected by some of the country’s top location managers

Front cover, from top Northern Ireland St John’s Point Lighthouse

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Foreword by Gareth Edwards

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Made in the UK Highlighting some of the notable UK-made projects being released on the big and small screen over the coming months

Mark Godden/Shutterstock

Scotland Historic Cloisters, Glasgow University Jane Rix/Shutterstock

Design and conquer production designer Sarah Greenwood talks collaboration and creativity

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The human effect The quality and depth of talent keep film and TV shows turning to the UK for their VFX needs

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Open for business Leading industry figures discuss why the UK remains a welcoming place for film and TV

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Gold standard The Lost City Of Z found Northern Ireland to be rich with period possibility

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Bear necessities London provided every location needed to bring children’s favourite Paddington 2 to life

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Future proofing How the UK industry is training the next generation of talent

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Laughter lines Writer-actress-producer Sharon Horgan talks about the growing demand for funny women on screen

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It must be love Scotland was a marriage made in heaven for The Wife

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Global talent UK talents to have made a splash over the past 12 months

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Bard labour Shakespeare drama Will embraced Wales’s filming opportunities

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The personal touch BFC ‘fam trips’ are an essential introduction to the UK for overseas executives

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Television that travels The UK’s high-end TV productions are enjoying unprecedented international success

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Royal connections South-west England had everything necessary to recreate Tudor England for The White Princess

Zoltan Gabor/Shutterstock Billy Stock/Shutterstock

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The secret circle Action-comedy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle recreated the US in unexplored locations across south-east England

London Panoramic skyline of Canary Wharf Wales The Red Castle, Tongwynlais, Cardiff

Heart of the city Manchester offered new series Snatch the chance to recapture the spirit of Guy Ritchie’s original film

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Peter Krocka/Shutterstock

England Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall

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FOREWORD GARETH EDWARDS

Foreword T “IT’S FAIR TO ARGUE THAT THE UK HAS THE MOST TALENTED ARTISTS AND CREWS IN THE WHOLE WORLD”

o be honest, ‘A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’ is a very misleading opening statement. As a kid, Star Wars completely blew my mind, and I would have given anything to have gone into space and joined the Rebel Alliance with Luke and Leia. Sadly, someone eventually explained to me that those people and places don’t actually exist; it was all one big illusion they called ‘filmmaking’. So, I thought, the second-best option was to go and make films myself.

The question then was, how the hell do I do that? I had heard of Hollywood, but I lived in a small town in central England; this wasn’t really something we did over here, was it? But, as I slowly consumed every ‘behind the scenes’ book or magazine I could get my hands on, something else blew my mind: Star Wars, and so many of the other films that inspired me and my generation, was actually shot in the UK. This didn’t make sense. What was so special about this tiny island? Several years later, through some sheer cosmic fluke (and several Lottery grants), I actually got to make my own Star Wars film, and the answer became incredibly clear.

Simply put, it’s fair to argue that the UK has the most talented artists and crews in the whole world. And they are the nicest people you will ever meet, like one big family. Sometimes literally. For instance, I wanted one of the planets in Rogue One to look like the dark, rainy world from Aliens, which also shot in the UK. Neil Lamont, our production designer, smiled when I mentioned this: his dad, Peter, was one of the creative geniuses behind Aliens, and had passed on all his tricks to Neil! And the connections didn’t stop there. The father of our second assistant director, who had to shoot the X-wing pilots, also did that very same job on Star Wars: A New Hope. It soon became clear we were benefiting from generations of exceptional experience, gained making some of the greatest films in cinema history.

So, next time you watch that iconic blue text fade up, remember all that magic was not created in a galaxy far, far away, but very much within reach.

But, to be fair to George Lucas, opening Star Wars with, ‘A few months ago, just off the M25…’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

Gareth Edwards, filmmaker

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IN PICTURES MADE IN THE UK

MADE IN

THE UK The UK plays host to international film and high-end TV productions of all sizes. Here are some notable UK-made projects being released in the near future

Wonder Woman Warner Bros

Director Patty Jenkins

US and UK release June 2, 2017

Mary Poppins Returns Walt Disney Pictures

Director Rob Marshall

US and UK release December 25, 2018

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My Cousin Rachel Fox Searchlight Director Roger Michell

US and UK release June 9, 2017

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Dunkirk Warner Bros Director Christopher Nolan

US and UK release July 21, 2017

Outlander (season three) Sony Pictures Television, Starz

US and UK release September 2017, TBC

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IN PICTURES MADE IN THE UK

MADE IN

THE UK Patient Zero Screen Gems Director Stefan Ruzowitzky US and UK release 2017 TBC

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword Warner Bros Director Guy Ritchie

US release May 12, 2017 UK release May 19, 2017

Untitled Han Solo Star Wars Anthology LucasďŹ lm, Walt Disney Pictures Directors Phil Lord, Christopher Miller US and UK release May 25, 2018

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Britannia Amazon Studios Directors Sheree Folkson, Christoph

Schrewe, Susan Tully, Luke Watson

US and UK release 2017 TBC

Guerrilla Showtime, Sky Atlantic Directors Sam Miller, John Ridley US and UK release April 2017

McMafia AMC, BBC Director James Watkins

US and UK release 2017 TBC

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Alamy

REGIONAL CASE STUDY SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND

Kingsman: The Golden Circle visited the Chiltern Hills to shoot scenes in Amersham; (inset) star Taron Egerton

THE SECRET CIRCLE

Action-comedy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle may journey to the US, but the production tracked down unexplored locations in south-east England. Tim Grierson reports

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ritish location manager Andrew Buckley has to be tight-lipped about the plotline of high-octane sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, starring Taron Egerton and Colin Firth, but he can reveal that finding the right locations was absolutely crucial. “To double certain [US] elements here in the UK was a really big challenge,” he reveals. “The briefs we got said, ‘Ideally, it has to be within spitting distance of London.’ So we had scouts [in southeast England]] looking for the rolling countryside of Kentucky.”

The UK has a first-class track record for doubling for the US: Liverpool for New York in Florence Foster Jenkins, Glasgow for Philadelphia in World War Z and Essex even served as the location of the White House in Philomena.

The Kingsman team managed to find worthy locations in the Chiltern Hills and South Downs of southern England, that not only doubled for the US but were also used for a sequence set in Italy.

Targeted online research helped when looking for locations. “We have a formula,” (Right) Colin Firth in Kingsman: The Golden Circle

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says Buckley, who has been a location manager for six years and worked on Matthew Vaughn’s 2014 original Kingsman: The Secret Service.

“Google is our friend. With Google Earth, there’s a skill in actually typing in what you want to search for. When you finally get it, you go, ‘Wow.’” The additional challenge is finding truly unexplored terrain, especially in an area as popular with filmmakers as London and south-east England. “Every scout is trying to find a location that’s never been filmed before,” Buckley admits. “It’s nice when you come across a location where they haven’t had filming and they’re really excited about the whole process.”

Thankfully the depth and diversity of England’s locations provided everything the production needed, and Buckley says he is especially proud of one Golden Circle setpiece — although he has been sworn to secrecy. “It was a specific location the director wanted, and there was a big search. Again, Google being our friend, we managed to find out where it was and contacted them direct.

“IT’S GOOD TO MEET THE LOCATION OWNERS FACE-TOFACE AND REASSURE THEM ABOUT WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO”

Andrew Buckley, location manager

“It’s always good to meet the location owners face-to-face and reassure them about what we’re going to do. They hadn’t had filming there before, so it was a challenge because they didn’t know what to expect. It is your team’s job to reassure them, and they were excited. We made it work and it was such an enjoyable experience for the crew, myself and my team — and for the location.”

Building trust with location owners is something Buckley takes very seriously. “We’re the first to make contact for the film, and we’re the last that they see. We have to be conscious that other location managers would want to film there.” Buckley laughs. “You don’t want to be the person that cocked it up for everybody!” UK Kingsman: The Golden Circle is released by 20th Century Fox in the UK and US on September 29, 2017.

KENTFILM OFFICE.CO.UK

Over 100 great locations all within 30 minutes of Elstree Studios KNEBW

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SCHOOLS • ROADS • VILLAGES • ESTATES • COUNTRY HOUSES • PARKS • HOSPITALS • COURTROOMS • AND MUCH MORE

Alexandra Palace

Andaz London Liverpool Street

Athenaeum Hotel and Residences

Borough Market

Coin Street Community Builders

Premiere Locations

The May Fair Hotel Part of Edwardian Hotels London

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Ministry of Sound

Natural History Museum

Ravensbourne

English Heritage

Freemasons’ Hall

Imperial War Museums

Middle Temple and Inner Temple

From historic buildings to beautiful gardens and ultra-modern landmarks, our Premiere Locations represent some of the capital’s most committed and versatile venues for filming.

Visit www.filmlondon.org.uk/premiere-locations for more information.

Somerset House

Southbank Centre

Southwark Cathedral

Victoria and Albert Museum

The View from The Shard

SPOTLIGHT UK PRODUCTION

Open for business

Although the implications of Brexit are still unclear, the UK will remain a vibrant and welcoming place for film and high-end television production. Geoffrey Macnab goes behind the scenes

Guy Ritchie and Charlie Hunnam on the set of King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden

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hese are boom times for the UK film industry. Inward investment for film production reached an all-time peak of $1.7bn (£1.35bn) in 2016, with high-end TV drama worth a record $592m (£478m). And the schedule is already filling up for 2017 and beyond.

“Without doubt, they [US studios] love the UK,” enthuses Peter Armstrong, a partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, who works closely with Hollywood clients. “It’s the language, the crews, the hotels, the restaurants, the ambience that they can’t get enough of.”

The list of recent films to come to the UK certainly supports this. Transformers:

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The Last Knight has been shooting at various UK locations, from London and Stonehenge to North Yorkshire and Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. The Jurassic World sequel has come to the UK, and the latest Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, has also filmed here. They are joined by a huge list of productions including Kenneth Branagh’s updated Murder On The Orient Express, Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns, Lasse Hallstrom’s The Nutcracker And The Four Realms, Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, Matthew (Left) Transformers: The Last Knight

“THERE SEEMS TO BE AN INSATIABLE APPETITE FOR CONTENT, WHICH DOESN’T LOOK LIKE ABATING ANY TIME SOON”

Adrian Wootton, British Film Commission

Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Commuter and Paul King’s Paddington 2.

It helps, of course, that the main US studios regularly base their tentpole pictures at Pinewood, Shepperton, Warner Bros Studios Leavesden and the UK’s other key studios.

“We’ve reached a certain maturity in terms of our offer,” suggests Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission and ➤

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

NEW STUDIO SPACE Liverpool’s former Littlewoods HQ is being turned into a studio space dubbed ‘the Pinewood of the north’

Geoffrey Macnab tours some recent additions to the UK’s studio and filming spaces “Speak to Samantha,” is the advice for international filmmakers looking to come to the UK. Samantha Perahia, head of production UK at the British Film Commission, knows exactly what’s available and where. And, with a second office in Los Angeles, the BFC provides a 24-hour service to international clients. The challenge for the UK is to ensure it has the capacity to meet new levels of demand, and studios are ramping up. Pinewood has almost doubled in size while Warner Bros Studios Leavesden (WBSL) has also expanded. There are also many new traditional studios opening up in places from Belfast to Liverpool, as well as plenty of alternative spaces. And a feasibility study is being undertaken to explore the possibility of a new 17-acre studio site in Barking and Dagenham, east London.

WBSL has just launched a new 70,000 sq ft workshop and construction is also underway on a 35,000 sq ft soundstage and 50,000 sq ft workshop that will open in the first quarter of 2018.

“We have a masterplan in place to meet the

demand for space, which will ensure we can offer productions the choice and flexibility they require,” says Dan Dark, SVP and managing director, WBSL. “It’s vital we remain agile in order to maintain the UK’s position in this global market.”

His remarks are echoed by studio executives across the country.

Elstree Studios’ plans are already in place to build a 21,000 sq ft stage, with 26,000 sq ft of ancillary facilities, at the back of the studios’ site. Elstree is also exploring the potential for developing further stages and facilities within the existing 16-acre site. Roger Morris, managing director of Elstree Studios, says: “The industry needs more production space. Elstree Studios has re-established itself as one of the top UK studios, attracting work from across the film and television industry including many major Hollywood productions. This new development at our site will allow the studios to take advantage of an expanding market.”

Around the country While big-budget features have traditionally needed the space offered by the big studios in the south east of England, regional facilities are becoming increasingly ambitious in what they offer.

“THE IDEA IS TO CREATE A WORLDCLASS CLUSTER OF FILM, TV AND MEDIACOMPANIES”

John Moffat, Capital & Centric

In Northern Ireland, Belfast Harbour Studios is now open, with the site’s first clients soon to be announced. This $25m (£20m) facility offers around 124,000 sq ft of studio space, workshops and offices. This space is in addition to the nearby Titanic Studios, home to eight seasons of HBO’s Game Of Thrones.

In Liverpool, work is well underway on converting the former headquarters of mail order and sports gambling firm Littlewoods into a new studio space, which is already being dubbed ‘the Pinewood of the north’.

“There are two huge Art Deco buildings, 720 ft in length, that have an unbelievable history,” says John Moffat from developer Capital & Centric (C&C), who is overseeing the project. Two new soundstages, each 20,000 sq ft in size, will be built on land in front of these buildings, and there will also be space for offices and workshops. “The idea is to create a world-class cluster of film, TV and media companies,” Moffat adds. C&C, which is working in partnership with Liverpool City Council, is in talks with an experienced studio operator that will take over the running of the facility, and Continued overleaf ➤

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SPOTLIGHT UK PRODUCTION

NEW STUDIO SPACE CONTINUED Andy Marshall

“THERE’S A VERY CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY IN SOHO, DIFFERENT FROM ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD”

Space Studios Manchester takes shape

Adam Gascoyne, Union Visual Effects

Film London. “We have this incredible wealth of creative talent, both behind and in front of the camera.”

Success, he points out, begets success. With the examples last year of high-end TV dramas such as The Crown, Outlander, Game Of Thrones and The Night Manager, it is little wonder there is so much demand for shooting in the UK. There are returning series of several of these dramas, including the London-set Stan Lee’s Lucky Man and The Royals, and first-time projects including Len Deighton adaptation SS-GB. Underpinning the ongoing UK production bonanza is the crucial foundation of the film tax relief, introduced in 2007 and subsequently extended to high-end television, animation and videogames. This entitles production companies to claim back up to 25% of qualifying expenditure for projects that qualify as British.

The relief is available on 80% of the budget, and beyond that there are no caps.

The UK is not unique in offering tax credits, but what particularly appeals to international producers is the stability and user-friendly nature of the UK system. “It’s consistent, it’s intelligible and well run, it doesn’t have a sunset date on it,” Wootton notes of the film tax relief system, which has been in place for more than a decade.

Space Studios Manchester (formerly The Space Project) is being given a $17.3m (£14m) expansion. This will add to the five existing stages and will make the site, in the words of Adrian Bleasdale, CEO of the studio, “the biggest purpose-built complex outside London and the south east”. Alongside the new studio space will be offices and business units. “On site, we have

“THE IDEA IS THAT WE’RE AS FLEXIBLE AS POSSIBLE. WE DON’T DICTATE HOW PRODUCTIONS USE THE SPACE” Fiona Francombe, Bottle Yard Studios

already lined up a number of national and international providers to the film and television industry,” says Bleasdale. Space Studios Man-

tory construction work is underway. “All the finances have been agreed with our enterprise partners and the Scottish government for finan-

chester has focused on the high-end TV drama and commercial market but, as the site expands, the aim is to open up to film.

cial support,” explains Brodie Pringle, head of screen commission at Creative Scotland.

Once completed, Wardpark, already home to

Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios is also refining and adapting its offer. In autumn 2016, the studios, which are based on the site of a former wine production plant, received $833,000 (£672,000) in public funding to enhance its infrastructure.

UK attractions The aim now is to use one of the Of course, it is not the tax old bottling halls for filmmaking. credit alone that draws such “It’s about 30,000 sq ft, and we large-scale production to the are just making it into a useful, UK. The talent pool, the locapractical space,” says site manager tions, the filmmaking infrastrucJames Nesbitt in Stan Fiona Francombe of the improveture and the much-vaunted skills Lee’s Lucky Man ments, which will enable productions to of British technicians are imporuse the space for filming, storage, contant factors as well. And as struction or whatever else they might more film and TV is made in need. “The whole idea is that we are as the UK, the post-production flexible as possible,” says Francombe. “We and VFX houses are growing. don’t dictate how productions use the “[VFX] has been growing exponenspace. If it’s available and it’s of use to them, tially over the last 20 years,” says Adam they can use it however they want.”

Gascoyne, co-founder of Soho-based In Scotland, Wardpark Studios in CumberUnion Visual Effects. The company, nauld has been granted full planning permislaunched in 2008, has credits ranging from sion for significant expansion and the preparaT2 Trainspotting and Everest to Florence Fos-

Sony Television/Starz’s Outlander, will offer six soundstages — two of which are 50 ft high — over 78,000 sq ft, production offices, ancillary spaces and a backlot. Film and TV producers spent a record $65.3m (£52.7m) shooting in Scotland in 2015.

At the time of writing, the Scottish government had just greenlit the development of Pentland Studios, near Edinburgh. This new facility will offer up to six purpose-built stages, varying in size between 15,000 sq ft and 30,000 sq ft.

Meanwhile, improvements continue to be made at the Pelamis building in Leith. This huge premises, former home to Pelamis Wave Power, offers 160,000 sq ft of space and in parts is 100 ft high. “This isn’t your average warehouse.

Much of the infrastructure needed by the film and television industry is already there,” says Pringle. “It has accessible steel gantries [and] the roof is load-bearing to the weight of 20 tons, so if you wanted to hang a helicopter there, you could. It has an extraordinary level of power and it’s in its own independent secure site.”

ter Jenkins and The Theory Of Everything. ➤

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expects to have the site open, and production underway, by the first quarter of 2018.

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UK PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT

Gascoyne cites the visual-effects Oscar won by The Mill for its work on Gladiator in 2001 as a crucial moment in the rise of the UK’s VFX houses. This was followed by 10 years of Harry Potter films, which was an enormous fillip to the industry.

“There’s a very good, close-knit community in Soho, very different from anywhere else in the world,” notes Gascoyne. “Everything is very close.

You’ve got your grading facilities and editing suites within the same square mile and so it is very easy to get around.”

It helps, too, that there are strong bonds not just between the principals of the various VFX houses but with filmmakers as well. Union, for example, has good creative relationships with directors such as Danny Boyle, Stephen Frears, Roger Michell and James Marsh. “We get involved at script stage and we help them solve some of their conundrums,” Gascoyne says.

All of this contributes to the fact that, year after year, the visual-effects Oscars end up in London. It happened again in 2017, with the award going to Disney’s The Jungle Book, for which much of the work was done at MPC London, using software from Foundry. Indeed, VFX may be a huge industry but there is still a community feel in the sector, with rival houses working together on the bigger projects.

Filmmakers such as Danny Boyle, pictured left on the set of T2 Trainspotting with author Irvine Welsh and co-star Robert Carlyle, have long put their faith in UK VFX houses

film and high-end television industries will continue to play. “The UK’s creative industries are one of our biggest success stories, and we want to make sure the UK continues to be a world leader in film as we leave the European Union,” he says. “This government has been clear that we want to continue to VFX Oscar winner The Jungle Book attract the brightest and best talent to Britain after we leave the EU, and we are committed to making sure the UK remains an attractive destination for investors from overseas. Our thriving film sector is a great advert for ‘global Britain’ — an outward-looking, globally minded country that is open for business.”

The Brexit effect In the short term, the UK film industry has actually benefited from the outcome of the Brexit vote, whatever turbulence the referendum has caused elsewhere. In the early spring of 2017, a pound sterling was worth $1.25, compared to the $1.39 it was worth in early 2016. From the vantage point of international producers looking to work in the UK, there are savings to be made.

“Brexit obviously presents challenges for our sector,” says Wootton. “We have particular concerns around access to European VFX and animation talent, for example.” The ultimate aim, Wootton says, is to ensure “that our leading companies continue to have access to leading talent from across Europe so as to remain competitive and cutting-edge. However, we’re engaging at senior levels with the UK government and politicians across the spectrum — and they are listening.”

Matt Hancock, minister of state for digital and culture, acknowledges the importance the UK

Supplying demand Ask senior industry representatives whether production levels in the UK can keep on rising and many suggest they can. Not only is additional studio space opening up, but there has been an increased focus on training and the government continues to support an industry that generates so many jobs and so much income.

“In terms of what we can control, we’re doing everything we can to make sure we can meet the demand,” says Wootton. “There seems to be an insatiable appetite for content, which doesn’t look like abating anytime soon.”

“WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THE UK CONTINUES TO BE A WORLD LEADER IN FILM AS WE LEAVE THE EUROPEAN UNION”

Matt Hancock, minister of state for digital and culture

Alongside the traditional broadcasters and US studios, streaming giants led by Netflix and Amazon are also investing heavily in producing and acquiring UK film and TV drama. Production levels are soaring, and inward investment shows no signs of slowing. “We all believe that more needs to be done to sustain, protect and develop our indigenous industry,” acknowledges Wootton, “but inward investment has kept people employed in the film industry and has developed infrastructure and facilities which were never here in the same volume before.”

“As an industry, what we are all attempting to do is trying to avoid over-trading, trying to keep the growth of skills up with the growth of demand,” says John Graydon, a partner at accountancy firm Saffery Champness and a key figure in advising the government on film policy.

Indeed, the old adage that whenever anyone in the UK film industry is successful, they jump on a plane and head to Los Angeles no longer rings so true. Now, whether they are writers, directors, producers or heads of department, there is more than enough work to keep them on this side of the Atlantic. And this growth looks set to continue, whatever Brexit may bring. UK

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REGIONAL CASE STUDY LONDON

BEAR NECESSITIES

When it came to making Paddington 2, London once again provided every location the production needed to bring the children’s favourite to life. Louise Tutt reports “ WE CONSIDERED

RECREATING WINDSOR GARDENS ON A STAGE BUT THERE’S SOMETHING SO WONDERFUL ABOUT REAL LOCATIONS”

Rosie Alison, Heyday Films

Chalcot Crescent in Primrose Hill stood in for Windsor Gardens

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addington 2 is a love letter to London,” says the film’s executive producer Rosie Alison of Heyday Films. The sequel to the 2014 box-office hit, directed again by Paul King, shot in and around the capital for nearly 13 weeks from October 2016 to January 2017. It is produced by David Heyman at Heyday Films and fully financed

by Studiocanal. Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville star as Mr and Mrs Brown, with Hugh Grant and Brendan Gleeson joining the cast.

Around half of the shooting time was on stages at Pinewood and Warner Bros Studios Leavesden, with the rest entirely on the streets, and in the iconic buildings, of the capital. The main exterior location was the pretty pastel corner of Primrose Hill in north London used in the first film. The Victorian houses of Chalcot Crescent and Chalcot Square again stood in for Windsor Gardens and the neighbourhood where Paddington lives with the Brown family.

“It was wonderful to be able to shoot Windsor Gardens in a real London setting,” says Alison. “We did consider recreating it on a stage but there’s something just so wonderful about the real place that we know it wouldn’t have looked so good.”

The production spent two weeks in Chalcot Crescent and, although the residents generally knew what to expect, the filmmaking team, led by location manager Jonah Coombes (who had also worked on the first film), spent a lot of time preparing them, as well as talking to Camden

Council about closing roads and parking permits.

“There was quite a lot of advance preparation,” says Alison. “We gave a talk at a local pub with a screen show, showing people what was going to be done, and we tried to give people as much notice as possible. We had to change the colour of some of the buildings so the location manager had to spend a long time persuading some of the residents to have their houses painted and then painted back again.”

The road was never shut completely, with small sections cornered off when needed, and contributions by the production to local organisations also helped to ensure good community relations. “We organised a big donation to the residents’ association and to [arts venue] the Roundhouse nearby,” says Alison.

Transport hub The production also filmed locally at Portobello Road and in Little Venice. Further afield, it took in landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, the Serpentine and, of course, Paddington Station. “That is never straightforward,” says Alison of shooting at a major metropolitan transport hub. “We had to book a time to get a platform free and move trains on and off it.”

Location manager Coombes worked with all the relevant authorities, including Network Rail, to secure a slot on a late Saturday evening and early Sunday morning. Working with child actors meant some shots had to be grabbed earlier. “We had various shots around the station earlier in the evening as the two children had to be there earlier,” says Alison.

“Then we shot through until three or four in the morning.”

The sheer variety of versatile locations in London meant the production could swiftly overcome any challenges. “We were going to film around Parliament and Big Ben but it proved a bit too complicated, so we shifted that scene to Tower Bridge,” says Alison. “We were lucky to be able to find another iconic London location nearby that didn’t involve so many complicated logistics.”

Shooting in the famous Whispering Gallery at St Paul’s Cathedral also proved to be a delight.

“We had cameras high up so there was a lot of safety measures to make sure nothing got dropped. It’s such a big, open space that it was quite easy to manoeuvre around.” And Alison believes the compassionate nature of the first Paddington meant there was plenty of goodwill towards the production from cathedral authorities. “They opened themselves up to us and were incredibly helpful,” she explains. “They closed the cathedral and we had a full day there, shooting a scene with Hugh Grant. It’s such an amazing place to film, it’s awe-inspiring. When you make locations work, it is fantastic.” UK Paddington 2 will be released in the UK by Studiocanal on November 10, 2017, and in the US by TWC-Dimension on January 5, 2018.

INTERVIEW SHARON HORGAN

Laughter lines London-based writer-actress-producer Sharon Horgan has been making a splash on both sides of the Atlantic with shows including Pulling, Catastrophe and Divorce. She talks to Nikki Baughan about the growing demand for flawed and funny women on screen

Everett Collection Inc /Alamy

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alfway through UK In Focus’s chat with Sharon Horgan, she interrupts the conversation with a squeal. “Oh my God!” she exclaims down the line. “My daughter has just put a hamster on my head!” After a laugh, the animal is removed and Horgan continues discussing her extraordinary career without missing so much as a beat. It is a fittingly surreal moment, and proof — if any were needed — that the prolific writer-actress-producer is as down to earth as the characters she creates and plays.

And what an eclectic array of complex women Horgan has written for the screen over the past 15 years. From Pulling’s newly single Donna to Catastrophe’s new mum Sharon — both of whom Horgan also portrayed — and, most recently, newly separated Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker) of HBO drama Divorce, these characters may be at very different stages of their lives but are united by their unapologetic real-world outlook.

And it is a trait shared by Horgan, who is honest and disarmingly humble in her appraisal of an incredible career that “started out more as an interest in acting, if I’m honest”, she says, “before I decided to take control of my destiny and start writing comedy sketches and sitcom scripts on spec.” With her long-term collaborator Dennis Kelly, Horgan wrote for radio and TV shows such as Monkey Dust, before the pair got their big break in 2006 with BBC show Pulling. Running for two seasons and a one-hour finale, the show starred Horgan, Tanya Franks and Rebekah Staton as three frank-talking friends immersing themselves in modern single life, and picked up two British Comedy Awards for best actress (Horgan) and best drama.

Further accolades have followed,

“IT’S BECOME PRETTY OBVIOUS THERE’S AN APPETITE THERE FOR FEMALE STORIES, AS MUCH AS MALE ANGST STORIES” Sharon Horgan

including Bafta and Emmy nominations for Channel 4 hit Catastrophe, which is shown on Amazon Prime Video in the US. Written with costar Rob Delaney, the show is in its third series and stars Horgan as Sharon, a Londoner who falls pregnant after a fling with visiting American Rob (Delaney) and has her life forever changed. While it is beloved by fans and critics, and there is a fourth series on the horizon, Horgan remains pragmatic about its success.

“We were pleasantly surprised how it turned out,” she says. “You put things on the page and film them, and it doesn’t always 100% translate.

Once we saw the pilot, we felt pretty good about how it looked, how Rob and I worked on screen and how the jokes stood up, that there was a good balance of drama and comedy.

But we didn’t know if we would get a series. And then we didn’t know if it was just a flash in the pan, or whether the second series was going to disappoint. Having done the third series, we’re happy that it’s gone well and we’re starting to think, ‘That’s pretty good.’”

Indeed when speaking with Horgan there is always a sense that, even though she and writing partners Delaney, Kelly and Holly Walsh (with whom she worked on Psychobitches and Dead Boss) have created some of the most forwardthinking TV shows of recent years, complacency remains an alien concept. “I didn’t come out of Pulling

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Catastrophe

thinking, ‘Oh, well, I’m set up now,’” she recalls.

“I found people weren’t any more likely to commission my next thing because Pulling had been a critical hit. They were definitely happy to hear a pitch or read a script, but it’s all about continuing to prove yourself. And that makes sense — you shouldn’t just have stuff handed to you. There’s a limited amount of slots on TV, and there needs to be room for the new writers as well as the people who have already made something and expect to have another go. It’s good [the commissioners] don’t rest on their laurels and let you have the run of the place just because you’ve made one successful TV show. It makes sense that you continue to be challenged.”

Horgan certainly embraces a challenge; as well as writing and starring in Pulling, Catastrophe and films such as Man Up (2015), in 2014 she set up production outfit Merman with producer Clelia Mountford. “I worked with Clelia on [2009 comedy show] The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret, and when I directed my own short [2012’s Little Crackers], I immediately thought to call her to produce it. Then we ended up setting up Merman. Now, all the people I’ve met along the way, and was inspired by or thought, ‘You’re an incredible talent,’ I’m trying to encourage them to work with us. The UK TV industry is full of inventive, creative people and you definitely want to find a way to work with them. And when you’ve got them, you want to hold onto them by the short and curlies!”

Crossing the pond While her roots are firmly in the UK, in 2016 Horgan debuted US comedy drama Divorce. Created for US network HBO, the show stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church as a couple going through a protracted separation. While the US TV landscape may seem like an entirely different prospect, Horgan says she found the experi-

Pulling

ence a reassuringly familiar one, particularly in the early stages. “It was very similar in that I pitched an idea, wrote a treatment, wrote a script and made a pilot,” she says, although notes that having Parker attached from the beginning helped things move quickly. “It had a nice motor to it,” she laughs of the script-to-screen process.

When the series came to production, however, there were some marked differences. “Even when we made the pilot we had a showrunner involved, whereas everything I’ve done in the past, whether it was with Rob or Dennis or Holly, we were the runners of the show to some extent. And [in the US], you are in a writers’ room with 10 people breaking the arc of the series and farming out the scripts to the writers. It’s very collaborative, and means you can write 10 episodes quite easily compared to the six we’re used to writing in the UK. “It was also very different in terms of budgets and the stars involved. Yet I’d be sitting on set feeling as comfortable as I did in Divorce the UK, and I think it was at those moments I realised it’s all fundamentally the same. You might have bigger problems, you might have more time and more money but, really, the problems are the same and the solutions are the same.”

Wonder woman Divorce has been commissioned for a second series but, whichever side of the Atlantic she is working on, one thing remains unchanging for Horgan: the creation of interesting female characters. “I set out doing it without even thinking about it; it’s just naturally what I wanted to write,” she says. “Now I do feel a responsibility [to create such characters] because I’ve had such a lovely response, especially from women.

“Historically, [TV] was a very male environment,” Horgan continues of the emerging female perspectives being embraced by herself, in the

“IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTINUING TO PROVE YOURSELF. AND THAT MAKES SENSE — YOU SHOULDN’T JUST HAVE STUFF HANDED TO YOU” Sharon Horgan

likes of Catastrophe, Divorce and middle-class motherhood comedy Motherland (which she created with Graham Linehan and will soon return to BBC Two for a full series) and big- and smallscreen contemporaries such as Phoebe WallerBridge (Fleabag) and Alice Lowe (Prevenge).

“Apart from the odd exception, it was usually two blokes sat behind a computer writing sitcoms, and so it was a male interpretation of what a woman does, says or wants. Even in the really great sitcoms, the female characters were usually lacking, or just feeding lines so the male could say something silly or desperate or forgivable.

“Then more female writer-performers came along and wanted to write for themselves, and the balance started changing,” she continues. “It’s become pretty obvious there’s an appetite there for female stories as much as male angst stories, so therefore you want those women that you’re telling those stories about to be as multi-dimensional as they are in real life.”

Crucially, says Horgan, it is not just audiences who are receptive to these complicated women; the industry is also embracing these new ideas.

“Prior to this great era of TV we’re now in, once [commissioners] filled their female-shaped holes they moved back to the male stories. It doesn’t feel like that anymore. It feels like if it’s funny, it’s funny; if it’s a good story, it’s a good story. It doesn’t really matter from whose perspective it is, as long as it’s a new take on a good theme.

A lot of what we’re developing at Merman is female-based stories, and we’ve not had anyone tell us to stop. It’s a sign of how things are, and hopefully how things will continue to be.” UK Catastrophe is broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK, and available on Amazon Prime Video in the US. Motherland will be broadcast by BBC Two in the UK.

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SPOTLIGHT UK TV

Television that

TRAVELS

The UK’s high-end TV productions are enjoying unprecedented international success, both with traditional broadcasters and on streaming platforms. Andy Fry investigates what gives homegrown shows such broad global appeal

T

he globalisation of the television drama business has led to a plethora of top scripted content from around the world.

But, even in the face of more competition, UKoriginated drama continues to thrive.

The scale of this achievement is evident in the UK Television Exports Report from independent producer trade body PACT, which shows that UK TV exports were up 10% to $1.6bn (£1.33bn) in 2015-16. While the US remains the UK’s biggest customer, highlights included a 40% increase in Chinese revenues. A particular success was The Ink Factory’s The Night Manager (see sidebar), with 40 million views on online TV platform Youku Tudou.

In terms of distribution, ITV/Mammoth Screen’s Victoria was one of 2016’s best performers, selling to 150 territories including the US. This achievement was mirrored by the international popularity of BBC-commissioned shows including Happy Valley, Doctor Foster and Sherlock. Paul Dempsey, president of global markets at BBC Worldwide, says these stellar results “put the UK in the premier league of TV distribution”.

Programme sales are not the only positive indicator for UK TV drama. On the awards front, The Night Manager was a big winner at the Emmys, Golden Globes and the Producers Guild Of America Awards. At the Rose d’Or Awards, Big Talk Productions’ Raised By Wolves and the BBC’s River won the comedy and drama prizes.

Yet more evidence of the UK’s impact has been its involvement with SVoD platforms. Left Bank Pictures’ The Crown, for Netflix, has won critical plaudits; The Collection, an Anglo-French co-production, launched on Amazon in autumn 2016; and National Treasure, a Jack Thorne-scripted production for Channel 4, River was picked up by Hulu US.

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Most UK producers acknowledge they are blessed to be working in English, but several additional factors explain the success of the UK-scripted sector. Laurence Bowen, who recently set up drama indie Dancing Ledge Productions with backing from FremantleMedia, observes the UK benefits from healthy investment in drama by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, which has a robust slate including Hooten And The Lady, Guerrilla and Roman-era epic Britannia. Underlining the point about SVoD, Britannia is a co-production with Amazon.

“Also significant has been the introduction of tax credits,” says Bowen. “That has brought a lot of US projects here and enabled the UK to keep big-budget drama productions in the UK. This has been invaluable in protecting the country’s craft base.”

Deep talent pool The strength of this financial ecosystem has stimulated investment across the UK. While London and its studios are invariably busy, the nations and regions are also booming, with recent productions including The Fall (Northern Ireland), Decline And Fall (Wales), Trust Me (Scotland), National Treasure (Yorkshire), Close To The Enemy (Liverpool) and Poldark (south-west England).

Money and incentives can only take you so far, stresses Bowen. “UK producers have access to an amazing pool of writers and actors. At Dancing Ledge, we are working with Martin Freeman (Sherlock, Fargo) and Tony Grisoni (Southcliffe) on a project. We’re developing a drama with Tony Marchant, based on an Alistair MacLean novel, and have projects on the go with Guy Hibbert, Dan Sefton, Simon Block, John Donnelly and Mark Gatiss.”

“The UK has a tradition of great storytelling that has stood the test of time,” says Simon Vaughan, founder of indie pro-

The Crown

“THE UK HAS A TRADITION OF GREAT STORYTELLING THAT HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME”

Simon Vaughan, Lookout Point

duction company Lookout Point, which delivered one of last year’s big hits, War & Peace. “Writers like Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley) and Mike Bartlett (Doctor Foster) have idiosyncratic, singular voices.”

Lookout Point is now working with War & Peace screenwriter Andrew Davies on an adaptation of Les Miserables, and Bartlett on Press, an exploration of newspaper publishing in the 21st century. But Vaughan stresses that you “also need to look beyond specific shows to see the global

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

I SPY SUCCESS The Ink Factory’s international success with The Night Manager reflects the world-leading high-end TV drama being made in the UK. Simon Cornwell, co-founder of The Ink Factory, says UK drama producers have “a lot of opportunities because of the opening up of the international co-production market and the range of channels looking for high-quality scripted productions”.

He says of The Night Manager’s success: “An internationally recognisable cast helps,

The Night Manager

impact of UK talent. Our actors have always travelled well, but now you’re seeing international demand for our writers and directors.”

He cites Tom Shankland, who has gone from directing The Missing for the BBC to working on Netflix US projects such as House Of Cards.

Equally, he might have mentioned Paula Milne, who wrote Germany-set Cold War drama The Same Sky for UFA Fiction and Beta Film, or Simon Mirren and David Wolstencroft, who steered Canal Plus’ epic period drama Versailles towards international success.

Frith Tiplady, joint managing director of Tiger Aspect Drama, echoes Vaughan when she says, “UK producers have found a way to create dramas that appeal to the international market without having to bend them out of shape.”

Her slate includes Steven Knight’s acclaimed period gangland thriller Peaky Blinders, the Evelyn Waugh adaptation Decline And Fall and

Good Karma Hospital, a feelgood drama set in India. All are commissioned in short runs, something Tiplady sees as an advantage. “The shift towards eight to 10-part authored shows for SVoD and cable has been good for the UK, which has a lot of experience in auteur-led storytelling.

A lot of our writers start in the theatre then come to TV with a distinctive voice. An example is Simon Donald, who wrote Fortitude for Fifty Fathoms [a boutique within Tiger Aspect].”

Knack for collaboration Viewed more broadly, a notable characteristic of the UK system is the strong collaborative connection between theatre, film, TV and literature.

Mike Bartlett started in theatre, as did The Night Manager writer David Farr. Abi Morgan (River, The Hour) has worked across theatre, film and TV, as has Britannia scribe Jez Butterworth. A similar dynamic is at play in Close To The Enemy, written

as do strong production values. It was also an example of edge-of-the-seat storytelling that took audiences to places they don’t expect to see on TV.” Cornwell also notes that one area of the high-end TV drama arena in which the UK is especially strong is the depth of talented crew available. “You go to some places and the available crew can be stretched if there are too many productions. But the UK doesn’t suffer like that.”

One of The Ink Factory’s next TV projects is The Spy Who Came In From The Cold which, like The Night Manager, is adapted from a John Le Carré novel. Once again, the show is a co-production between AMC and the BBC, with Paramount TV handling international distribution.“We haven’t announced the cast yet,” says Cornwell, “but we have an Oscar-winning writer in Simon Beaufoy [Slumdog Millionaire] and great source material. It has great contemporary relevance in this era of rising extremism.”

by Stephen Poliakoff, and SS-GB, an adaptation of Len Deighton’s alternative history novel by Spectre and Skyfall writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Steven Knight (Taboo) also came to TV from filmmaking.

This joined-up creative approach is evident in upcoming BBC project The Child In Time. Based on the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan, the oneoff 90-minute drama will star Benedict Cumberbatch, who is producing via his company SunnyMarch TV. Also involved are Pinewood TV, a new division formed by the film studio group; PBS, as co-production partner; and Studiocanal, which will distribute the show internationally.

Strong support for independent producers has also played into the mix, in terms of allowing them to control rights. This has encouraged inward investment by US and European groups, and has placed UK indies such as NBCU-owned Carnival, Studiocanal-owned Red and ➤

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SPOTLIGHT UK TV

“WHENEVER WETALK TO ANYONE ABOUT INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTIONS, PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK ABOUT THE AVAILABILITY OF UK WRITERS”

Nicola Shindler, Red Production

On the set of Guerrilla

Endemol Shine-owned Tiger Aspect at the heart of the global scripted business. Proof that this model works is Red Production, which has achieved international success with projects as diverse as Happy Valley and The Five. “Sally Wainwright is a great writer of character and also pays attention to the details of the plot,” says Red CEO Nicola Shindler. “In Happy Valley, she tackled universally recognisable themes — a woman who has lost her child… who is good at her job.”

Support from Studiocanal is evident in The Five which, says Shindler, “was more filmic than most of our previous productions because we worked with a bigger budget. But the thing it shared with Happy Valley is strong writing.

Whenever we talk to anyone about international co-productions these days, people always ask us about the availability of UK writers.”

Red is also a classic illustration of the UK’s regional strength. Based in Manchester, it shot Ordinary Lies in Wales, Trust Me in Scotland and The Five in north-west England. Echoing Bowen, Shindler acknowledges “the tax credits have played their part. When you see a show like Games Of Thrones come to Northern Ireland [which it did ahead of the tax credit launch thanks to NI Screen funding but stayed thanks to the tax credit], it gets everyone looking at their skills and trying to improve what they do.”

Empowering indie producers has also encouraged an entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture, says Hakan Kousetta, COO of See-Saw Films, the company behind The King’s Speech, Top Of The Lake and Love, Nina. “Clearly we benefit from having great actors, writers and directors. But what’s exciting about the UK indie sector is that it is so good at giving people things that they don’t know they want.”

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While Kousetta acknowledges there is still work to be done on diversity (on and off screen), he says that “UK TV is moving forward in the way it seeks to embrace all voices within British society. And that diversity of voices is one of the things that makes the UK stand out.”

Illustrations of his point included the working-class sensibility of Paul Abbott (No Offence, Shameless) and the groundbreaking depiction of LGBT lifestyles that Russell T Davies has delivered in Queer As Folk and the Cucumber/Banana/ Tofu triumvirate for Channel 4. Idris Elba has also been influential in the diversity debate, both through his onscreen depiction of a troubled cop in Luther and through his indie company Green Door Pictures (Guerrilla). Elba, in partnership with Lionsgate UK, last year launched a writing competition to find the next crop of diverse writers.

Global team-ups At a time when the UK is wrestling with the implications of leaving the EU, it is worth noting the UK TV sector’s collaborative capabilities have resulted in several international coproductions: The Night Manager, Humans, Taboo, Penny Dreadful, The Missing, Death In Paradise, The White Princess and Guerrilla among others.

The latter, a co-production between Sky Atlantic and Showtime, sees Elba portraying a black political activist in 1970s London.

The UK has also had success in securing scripted format deals (Right) Happy Valley

in the US. Over and above the shows that have been piloted or aired for a single season, bona fide hits include Being Human, House Of Cards, The Office and Shameless.

One indie company that has positioned itself to work across the US, UK and Europe is Big Light Productions, a UK-based outfit set up by showrunner Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files, The Man In The High Castle). Katie McAleese, formerly creative director for BBC Drama Production, joined the company with a brief to work on co-productions and pursue opportunities for UK writers in the global market.

“It’s really exciting to join a company that puts writers and producer-writers at the heart of its thinking,” says McAleese, whose credits include the BBC One/BBC America co-production The Living And The Dead. “Our goal is to work in all kinds of ways with the US, Europe and UK, choosing the best approach for every project.”

Like Vaughan, McAleese believes the UK benefits from being “a nation of storytellers”. But she also agrees with Tiplady’s view that the UK ecosystem has enabled creativity to flourish. “Our system has allowed writers to work in so many lengths and formats that they have never had to force what they do into a mould.”

The UK also has a strong track record in creating content for younger audiences. Channel 4’s contribution includes Skins, The Inbetweeners, Raised By Wolves and Gap Year, an Eleven Film production created with the backing of eOne TV. “The writing and storylines in Gap Year are not only clever but highlight universal themes everyone can relate to, such as self-discovery and romance,” says Stuart Baxter, president, international television, at eOne. Indeed, the future looks incredibly promising for UK drama across the board and around the world, with upcoming high-profile projects including McMafia and Howards End. Spanning the spectrum from multi-location thriller to English literary classic, these forthcoming titles underline the level of UK drama producers’ global ambition. UK

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Jodie Comer and Michelle Fairley in Starz’s The White Princess

ROYAL CONNECTIONS

US TV network Starz found south-west England had everything it needed to recreate Tudor England for historical drama The White Princess. Andy Fry reports

I

n 2013, US premium-pay TV channel Starz teamed up with the BBC to make The White Queen, a War of the Roses period drama based on Philippa Gregory’s novels. The success of that show persuaded Starz to invest in an eight-part sequel, The White Princess. The story picks up after the Battle of Bosworth Field and centres on the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York.

The first series was shot in Belgium to take advantage of tax incentives. “By the time we got into planning for a second series, the UK [highend TV] tax credit had come into effect,” says Karen Bailey, SVP, original programming at Starz.

“The tax credit, combined with the authentic historical locations and the availability of crew, meant it made sense to produce here.”

To mark the launch of the UK’s high-end television tax relief in April 2013, the British Film Commission hosted its inaugural US to UK highend television familiarisation trip. Starz was one of nine US companies represented on the trip, which aimed to highlight the UK’s world-class TV drama infrastructure — now made all the more attractive and accessible to international producers as a result of the incentive.

The show’s headquarters were based in Bristol. “We’re familiar with the UK because we’ve shot in Wales [Da Vinci’s Demons] and Scotland [Outlander], but Bristol was the right choice for a couple of reasons,” says Bailey. “[One was that] The Bottle Yard Studios offered the facilities we needed.”

Bailey notes the city seemed most central for

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the physical locations the production team were eyeing. “Many key locations were within 60 miles,” says Bailey, “but a lot of what we were looking for was very close to the city itself.”

Westminster Palace interiors, including corridors, bedrooms and state rooms, were recreated at the studio. “Original rooms often aren’t right for the needs of a modern TV production,” says Bailey, “so you need to go into the studio. But we were keen to get a sense of England’s green and open spaces, as well as its gardens and building exteriors. Shooting on physical locations was key.”

Regional tour Pre-production started in January 2015 with the shoot taking place from late May until October that year. The production visited several of the region’s beauty spots: Gloucester, Salisbury, Wells and Bristol cathedrals all feature in the series, as do Berkeley, Sudeley and Arundel castles. There were also roles for Frampton Manor in Gloucestershire and Great Chalfield Manor in Wiltshire.

“We used a lot of locations to make sure we got exactly the look we were after,” says Bailey.

While the heart of Westminster Palace was recreated at The Bottle Yard, the throne room and great hall were shot on location in the picturesque town of Bradford-on-Avon. Westminster Gardens, meanwhile, was reimagined at Sudeley Castle, while other regional locations were used to replicate the Tower of London, York Cathedral and the court of Burgundy.

“WE WERE KEEN TO

GET A SENSE OF ENGLAND’S GREEN AND OPEN SPACES. SHOOTING ON PHYSICAL LOCATIONS WAS KEY”

Karen Bailey, Starz

“We dealt with private owners and bodies like English Heritage,” says Bailey. “Sometimes, understandably, we were restricted in terms of the hours you can stay or the parts of the building you can shoot in, but overall it was very smooth.”

While key talent was flown in for The White Queen, Bailey notes that “with The White Princess we hired everyone out of the UK, including heads of department. Almost everything was sourced from Bristol, with the exception of some costume support. We could draw on the crew from Galavant and also Poldark, which was on hiatus”.

The showrunner on The White Princess is Cornwall-based Emma Frost and the lead actress is Liverpool’s Jodie Comer. With the music composed by Scotland’s John Lunn and post-production also handled in the UK, the show is an authentic homegrown production. “That will go down well with US fans,” notes Bailey, “because we know they love UK royal dramas.” UK The White Princess airs in the US on Starz from April 16.

A UK broadcaster was still to be confirmed at time of publication.

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LOCATIONS SPOTLIGHT

UK locations

THE EXPERTS’ CHOICE The UK offers a stunning array of filming locales, from modern urban settings to mountainscapes, period architecture, stunning waterways — and retro theme parks.

Here are just a few, selected by the location managers who know them best…

Strangford County Down, Northern Ireland “There is a wealth of castles and courtyards in the region, including hidden tunnels and secrets of ancient architecture. It’s always a pleasure to stand in these spaces and imagine them being used in a script. Some of the structures in the region readily adapt into medieval settings, without much help needed from the art department.

Productions that have utilised the area include The Lost City Of Z, Disney show The Lodge and Game Of Thrones.”

Robert Boake, location manager (see bio overleaf) Photo credit: Robert Boake, LMGI

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UK MOOD BOARD NORTHERN IRELAND

Northern Ireland Curated by Robert Boake Location manager (Game Of Thrones, Your Highness, Ghost Machine) After working on big and smallscreen projects including Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Five Minutes Of Heaven and David Gordon Green’s Your Highness, Robert Boake has served as location manager on HBO’s hit fantasy show Game Of Thrones since 2011. He has won two outstanding achievement awards from the Location Managers Guild for his work on the show.

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Portmoon Ulster, Northern Ireland

“Jagged cliffs jutting into the sea, and the unique Giant’s Causeway pillars and columns nearby make Portmoon a breathtaking and special setting. It has been used to great effect in Game Of Thrones and Dracula Untold, in which the causeway doubled for the mountains of Transylvania.”

Robert Boake, location manager Photo credit: Robert Boake, LMGI

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UK MOOD BOARD NORTHERN IRELAND

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Mourne Mountains County Down, Northern Ireland

“The Mourne Mountains always deliver something unexpected. Depending on the weather and the light on any particular day, the terrain is always layered and always beautiful. It offers a much harder and rugged landscape than the greener pastural north of the country. They have provided a stunning backdrop for a number of productions, including Philomena and Game Of Thrones.�

Robert Boake, location manager Photo credit: Robert Boake, LMGI

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UK MOOD BOARD WALES

Wales

Curated by Gareth Skelding Location manager (Da Vinci’s Demons, Sherlock, Torchwood) Having started in the industry as an assistant director and worked his way through the ranks, Gareth Skelding has been a location manager since 2001. He has worked on large-scale TV productions including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock and Da Vinci’s Demons.

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Elan Valley Powys, mid-Wales

“The Elan Valley is one of Wales’ must-see sites. The rugged Highland-like landscape, sweeping vistas and breathtaking dams have been an attraction for producers looking to showcase its epic scale. The BBC has filmed here on many occasions, with the Top Gear production attempting to drive a Land Rover up the near-vertical face of the Claerwen dam, and in 2016, the Elan Valley was chosen as a location for Universal’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War.” Gareth Skelding, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Darren Grove

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UK MOOD BOARD WALES

Cardiff and Vale College Cardiff, south Wales

“Reflecting the rapidly changing face of Cardiff, the city-centre campus of Cardiff and Vale College immediately became a favourite destination for location managers in Wales. The sleek, modern architecture and strong interiors have been a hit with production companies ever since the facility opened. Last year it featured in flagship BBC series Sherlock.�

Gareth Skelding, location manager Photo credit: Phil Boorman Photography

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Sgwd y Pannwr waterfall Brecon Beacons, south Wales

“Sgwd Y Pannwr is the lowermost of three impressive waterfalls on the river Mellte.

Collectively they sit within the larger area known as ‘waterfall country’ at the southern tip of the Brecon Beacons national park. For many years filmmakers have been attracted to the impressive collection of reasonably accessible waterfalls at the head of the Vale of Neath, ranging from gentle river waterfalls to raging torrents at different times of the year. Bruce Wayne’s Batcave could be found hidden behind Henrhyd Falls in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises.”

Gareth Skelding, location manager Photo credit: Matt Botwood

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UK MOOD BOARD SCOTLAND

Scotland

Curated by Lloret Dunn Location manager (T2 Trainspotting, World War Z, Fast & Furious 6, Never Let Me Go) Lloret Dunn has 20 years’ experience researching, planning and location managing in Scotland.

Film, TV and commercial credits include T2 Trainspotting, World War Z, Fast & Furious 6, Never Let Me Go and TV series Rab C Nesbitt.

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Loch Katrine Stronachlachar, Stirlingshire, Scotland

“The north-west end of Loch Katrine has an amazing, otherworldly feel — quiet, remote and atmospheric.

Legendary hero Rob Roy MacGregor was born in Glengyle at the head of the loch and his family’s graveyard still sits on a promontory there today. A single-track road runs from Stronachlar pier all the way to the visitor centre at the other end. The loch has provided locations for Rogue Pictures’ Doomsday, among others, and its owner Scottish Water continues to welcome filming today.”

Lloret Dunn, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/hipproductions

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UK MOOD BOARD SCOTLAND

Blackness Castle Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland

“Seen from the Firth of Forth, with its irregular, angled curtain walls, this austere fortified castle has the appearance of a ship and its uses over the centuries include as an armoury, garrison and prison, as well as a royal castle. Blackness Castle doubled for Elsinore in Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet in 1990. It has also appeared in Doomsday and Outlander, and Historic Environment Scotland’s open attitude to filming has seen it undergo several temporary transformations over the years.”

Lloret Dunn, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Ulmus Media

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Fleshmarket Close Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland

“For T2 Trainspotting, we shot a sequence in which Begbie chases Renton through the old town of Scotland’s capital through Parliament Square, along the Royal Mile and ducking down through the closes (Scots vernacular for lanes) into Cockburn Street. Unsurprisingly, this four-night shoot involved extensive road closures, the removal of many parked vehicles and a huge amount of liaison with the incredibly helpful residents of Edinburgh.”

Lloret Dunn, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/ExFlow

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UK MOOD BOARD SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND

South-west England Curated by David Johnson Location manager (Poldark, Close To The Enemy, Wolf Hall) David Johnson has more than 25 years’ experience in location management across the UK and Caribbean. His small-screen credits include Casualty, Skins, Wolf Hall, Close To The Enemy and Poldark.

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

The Royal Crescent Bath, south-west England “The prime example of Georgian architecture anywhere in the country, the Royal Crescent, overlooking Victoria Park in central Bath, has an elegance and symmetry that lends itself to period and modern drama alike. As organised through the Bath Film Office, it can be controlled and dressed for period dramas — see Persuasion and The Duchess — or as a versatile backdrop for any shoot.”

David Johnson, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Godrick

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UK MOOD BOARD SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND

Cabot Circus Bristol, south-west England

“Situated in central Bristol, Cabot Circus is the premier shopping area in south-west England.

It combines modern design with multiple opportunities for filming. It has a stylish multi-storey car park that has been used for Land Rover and Pirelli promotions, and the shopping area itself has been used extensively in the BBC’s Casualty and E4’s Skins.”

David Johnson, location manager Photo credit: Paul Grundy

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Kynance Cove Cornwall, south-west England

“A beautiful and unique beach location in the Lizard, southern Cornwall, Kynance Cove offers a number of different aspects from clifftops and pathways to sandy beaches, caves and a café all set in an azure sea. Kynance is easily serviced, and is run by the local National Trust team that has a great understanding of the demands of large crews. Recent projects shot there include A&E/Mammoth Screen/BBC’s And Then There Were None and Poldark.”

David Johnson, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Julian Elliott

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UK MOOD BOARD SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND

Dreamland Margate, Kent

“I have not yet managed to actually shoot in Margate, but I have scouted the town and the attractions numerous times and would love to film there. Thanet District Council is always very welcoming and proactive in trying to meet our needs, and the vintage and nostalgic feel of Dreamland amusement park makes it a dream to scout; the ongoing restoration will only make it more attractive. There’s a good train service between London and Margate, with its lovely stretch of coastline, making it a sensible option.

It is only a matter of time before Margate has its moment in the spotlight.”

Ali James, location manager Photo credit: Dreamland

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

South-east England Curated by Ali James Location manager (Mary Poppins Returns, Ready Player One, Spectre) With more than 10 years’ location experience on features such as Stardust, The Golden Compass and Into The Woods, Ali James’ most recent projects include Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns.

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UK MOOD BOARD SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND

Syon House Isleworth, west London

“Syon House has lots of filming options, both interiors and gardens. I shot there many years ago but it was more recently used on Disney’s Alice Through The Looking Glass and I know the locations team were really impressed. Other productions that have filmed there include Downton Abbey, Dancing On The Edge, The Great British Bake Off and Pride + Prejudice + Zombies.”

Ali James, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Paula French

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Tower of London Tower Hamlets, London

“Unlike a lot of locations in the capital, the Tower of London usually plays itself; it is so iconic that it is difficult to pretend it is somewhere else. You always have to bear in mind this is one of London’s busiest tourist attractions, but the Historic Royal Palaces filming team is based at the tower and they really understand the logistics of everything from small features and documentaries to large-scale movies. It is certainly possible to undertake a large, ambitious shoot with careful planning. Miss Piggy singing a power ballad from the battlements for 2012’s Muppets Most Wanted is definitely one of my career highlights.”

Ali James, location manager Photo credit: Kit Oates Photography

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UK MOOD BOARD YORKSHIRE/NORTH-WEST ENGLAND

Yorkshire and north-west England Curated by Andy Morgan High-end TV producer and location manager (The Five, Cucumber, Happy Valley) Andy Morgan has more than 15 years of locations experience, having worked across a variety of projects such as The League Of Gentlemen, Hit & Miss, Peaky Blinders, Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley, Cucumber and The Five. He is also moving into high-end TV production management.

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Manchester canals and waterways Greater Manchester, north-west England

“A network of canals cut through and below Manchester city centre, with some great tunnels and underground walkways. I have filmed various dark and murky scenes in these spaces, in productions such as Peaky Blinders. Over the years a number of people have sadly died along the canals, and there is an urban myth about a serial killer called The Pusher, which is a film that could practically write itself.”

Andy Morgan, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Shahid Khan

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UK MOOD BOARD YORKSHIRE/NORTH-WEST ENGLAND

West Yorkshire moors Yorkshire, England

“The West Yorkshire moors are truly awesome — vast, mysterious, dark, moody, windswept, stunning and achingly beautiful. I am constantly struck by the moors’ scale and ever-changing appearance, having filmed in the area for Happy Valley, Last Tango In Halifax and most recently To Walk Invisible, a BBC drama about the Brontë sisters. Every season brings its own appeal and, no matter where you point the camera, it is always an epic shot. The moors can be bleak and unforgiving so are not the easiest of locations to film in, but you know it has been worth the effort when you see the results on screen.”

Andy Morgan, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Chris2766

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Liverpool Merseyside, north-west England

“I have shot in Liverpool on numerous occasions; it is a city full of amazing locations and I always find something new. It is such a handsome city, with two epic cathedrals, the Metropolitan Cathedral (pictured) and Liverpool Cathedral, row upon row of stately townhouses in the Georgian Quarter and swanky modern offices and apartment blocks. We shot season one of Peaky Blinders in two locations in Liverpool: Stanley Dock, which served as the grimy industrial heartland of their world, and Powis Street in Toxteth, an empty street we sealed off and stripped back to how it would have looked in the 1920s. It is an incredibly film-friendly city, thanks largely to the council’s dedicated Liverpool Film Office.”

Andy Morgan, location manager Photo credit: Shutterstock/Claudio Divizia

For further information on the location managers or locations featured in this article, please contact the British Film Commission (see page 80)

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REGIONAL CASE STUDY NORTH-WEST ENGLAND

Rupert Grint in Snatch

HEART OF THE CITY

Crackle’s new 10-part series Snatch found Manchester offered a wealth of production opportunities to recapture the spirit of Guy Ritchie’s original film. Louise Tutt reports

C

rackle’s energetic black comedy Snatch is an original 10-part series based on Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film of the same name, and tells the story of a group of charismatic would-be hustlers who become entangled in London’s dangerous Cockney gangster scene. It is a world of street markets, pubs and broad London accents shot entirely on location in Manchester, 160 miles to the north west of London — testament to the versatility and diversity of the UK’s filming locations.

“We were looking for the rough, gritty aesthetic of the original Snatch film and parts of Manchester do that very well,” says John Orlando, vice president of development at Crackle, the online US streaming service owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“We had conversations with the British Film Commission, as well as our local producers and scouts, who made us feel comfortable with the aesthetic we could achieve in Manchester,” he continues. “Our biggest concern was being able to capture the authenticity of the tone and look we needed in order to satisfy the loyal fans of the Snatch movie.”

Crackle brought on Helen Flint and Jean Holdsworth of London-based Little Island Productions (Galavant, Close To The Enemy) to line-produce the series. “Choosing a location for a series

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is a big decision,” says Orlando. “First off, the location must work creatively. Once that determination has been made, the financial implications and logistics in terms of crews, sets, ease of access, tax credits, etc, are all part of the decision-making process. The UK tax credit proved to be very valuable.”

City tour Using mostly local crew, the production shot all over Manchester, including in the city centre, the Northern Quarter and in the suburbs. It also did some work at Old Granada Studios, where the production offices were based, and spent two days on location in Liverpool. One of the biggest logistical challenges was recreating a busy market scene set against a big city skyline, a scene that was shot in the studio backlot and completed by Bournemouth-based Outpost VFX. “Our producers and design team ended up building a brilliant market set and then used VFX to fill in the skyline,” Orlando explains. “It was no easy feat, but we think it was accomplished with great skill and results.”

Snatch is created and written by former musicvideo director Alex de Rakoff, who also has an executive producer credit. He has crafted an entirely new story with new characters, played by a charismatic cast of young UK actors including

“MANCHESTER IS A GREAT CITY. IT REMINDS ME OF BROOKLYN IN THAT IT'S A CITY THAT'S EVOLVING, THAT'S MOVING UP”

John Orlando, Crackle

Rupert Grint, Stephanie Leonidas, Phoebe Dynevor, Luke Pasqualino, Lucien Laviscount and Ed Westwick. The UK's Nick Renton, whose credits include The Musketeers, directs.

“I’m a huge fan of the original film,” says De Rakoff. “[Guy Ritchie] opened up a whole new genre of films in terms of how to approach criminality and what can be done with tone and style.”

The new series shot for six months from September 2016 to February 2017. It is Crackle’s first production to shoot in the UK, and Orlando for one is keen to return.

“Manchester is a great city,” he says. “It reminds me a lot of Brooklyn in that it’s a city that’s evolving, that’s moving up. It has great crews, a variety of looks, and we had a very good experience. We would certainly consider returning.” UK Snatch is available on Crackle in the US. A UK broadcaster had yet to be confirmed at time of publication.

80 YEARS OF FILMMAKING

THE HOME OF

AWARD WINNING TALENT

www.pinewoodgroup.com

INTERVIEW SARAH GREENWOOD

Design and

The theatre setting of Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina

CONQUER

From the technological wizardry of Beauty And The Beast to the gritty authenticity of period drama Darkest Hour, production designer Sarah Greenwood takes a nimble approach to her work. Wendy Ide reports

T

alk to four-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood and it soon becomes clear that the key to her success does not just lie with her visual flair. A regular collaborator of Joe Wright, Greenwood has also worked with Guy Ritchie, Susanna White and Bill Condon, among others, and must juggle ingenuity and adaptability, inspiration and pragmatism on a daily basis. These traits mean she is equally at home on a lavish Disney extravaganza such as Beauty And The Beast and a small-scale UK period piece like Darkest Hour, Wright’s forthcoming account of Winston Churchill’s role in the early days of the Second World War. It also helps if you can think on the hoof when working with UK director Wright. Take Anna Karenina, for example. The film was originally planned as a relatively conventional interpretation of Tolstoy’s sweeping novel, with a six-week shoot in Russia to be matched by a further six weeks on sets in the UK. Greenwood and Wright had already visited Russia in preparation and were dazzled by the possibilities of St Petersburg and Moscow. But then the budget was calculated and there came a moment of reckoning: a Russian shoot would be expensive. Prohibitively so.

“So it came down from six weeks to four weeks to t w o weeks to 10 days to a week,” says Greenwood. “Then it was like, ‘OK, can we shoot this in the UK?’ Then it was, ‘Can we do it within the M25?’” It was around this time that Greenwood had a latenight telephone call from Wright. “‘Sarah, I’ve got this idea.’ I was like, ‘Oh God,’” she recalls. Wright’s idea was to use the performance arena of Russian high society as a touchstone, and set the entire story

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“THERE IS A JOYFUL CREATIVITY WITH JOE WRIGHT. IT’S A COLLABORATIVE THING, A TEMPERING THING — HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS BETTER?” Sarah Greenwood

Sarah Greenwood

within a theatre. Greenwood and Wright spent a week brainstorming and drawing on the references hoarded during their research trip to Russia. The resulting film, created with just 12 weeks of prep and shot almost entirely on a set at Shepperton, was a thrillingly inventive take on a classic novel. It earned Greenwood an Oscar nomination and won her the Art Directors Guild prize for excellence in production design.

Stage to screen Although Greenwood originally trained in theatre design, Anna Karenina is the closest she has come to the stage since the early days of her career. After studying at Wimbledon College of Art in south-west London, she worked for approximately three years in theatre before, as she puts it wryly, she “sold her soul to the devil” and jumped ship to film and television. “This was a long time ago, but the [Wimbledon] tutors didn’t approve of film and television. It’s interesting, because there’s always been this cross-fertilisation between theatre and other media with actors, but not on that side.”

It was during her work in television that Greenwood first encountered Joe Wright, who would go on to become one of her most significant creative partnerships. They worked together on two BBC mini-series, (Left) Sketch for Beauty And The Beast’s Garderobe

Nature Boy (2000) and The Last King (2003), as well as Bodily Harm (2002) for Channel 4, before Wright made his feature filmmaking debut on Pride & Prejudice (2005), with Greenwood at his side.

“I love Joe to bits; equally, we fight like brother and sister sometimes,” says Greenwood. “There is a joyful creativity with Joe. It’s a collaborative thing, a tempering thing — how can we make this better? You can speak freely and say, ‘I like that, I don’t like that; this works, this doesn’t work.’ And it’s on all sides. Joe allows that to happen. Whatever he says, there’s always a nugget of something really good in there. So when he says, ‘I’ve got an idea — maybe we can set it all in a theatre,’ your heart sinks because you’ve just spent bloody months doing all this work, but you know there’s a kernel of something in his idea. Then you have to pan for gold, prise that idea out. In that sense, he’s great, very lovely to work with.”

Old and new Production design Greenwood style is a job that frequently involves learning new skills and tackling fresh challenges. And that includes embrac-

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Darkest Hour’s war rooms

Beauty And The Beast’s Cogsworth, and (above right) the character at design stage

Beauty And The Beast’s Mrs Potts and Chip come to life

ing digital technology where appropriate. “I think of them all as pencils, they’re all tools.”

Greenwood would be the first to admit the spectacular look of Beauty And The Beast would have been impossible to achieve without the flexibility of CGI. The exterior of the Beast’s rambling gothic pile of a castle, for example, was a massive 4D model. “It ate so much computer memory, with any changes we would have to leave it to munch away overnight,” she says. “But that was fantastic. Without that facility it wouldn’t have developed in the way it did. If we’d made a physical white-card model, that model would have become precious and it would have stopped there. Whereas, actually, having the incredible skills of the draughtsman and art directors who could operate it — you could say, ‘That tower is too tall; can we put that over there.’”

Beauty And The Beast also employed more traditional methods. “Because it was all French rococo, everyone was drawing in pencil,” Greenwood continues. “It was all going to the sculptors and the modellers. It was a really strong mix of classic techniques and cutting-edge technology.” And a first for Greenwood and her regular

“BEAUTY AND THE BEAST WAS A REALLY STRONG MIX OF CLASSIC TECHNIQUES AND CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY” creative partner, set decorator Katie Spencer, was the opportunity to design and develop some of the characters — specifically the candlesticks, clocks and furniture that come to life.

War footing From Beauty And The Beast, Greenwood went on to Darkest Hour, a film she describes as a counterpoint to Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Dunkirk, a large-scale account of the same period during the Second World War. “That’s what was happening in France; what we are doing is what was happening in London. How close we came to capitulating. It’s all about unpreparedness, make-do and mend. It’s mind-boggling. You go to the real war rooms and you go, ‘How on earth did we win the war?’” The look of the film, she says, is dense and claustrophobic.

Greenwood and Wright have already had their own take on Dunkirk, albeit on a smaller scale, with an arresting single-shot beach battle scene in Atonement. But what many people assumed was bravura filmmaking on the part of Wright was, in fact, an example of inspiration resulting from problem solving. A week before the scene was due to be shot, with the town of Redcar doubling for Dunkirk, they realised that tides, light and the availability of extras meant the planned montage sequence would not be achievable. The solution was to shoot in a single take.

The biggest challenges of any project are not curveballs like this, however, they come at the very start before the design framework has started to take shape. “I am just starting on Mary Queen Of Scots [directed by Josie Rourke], and the challenge is how to do it. Once you know what you’re doing, then you can go, ‘OK, we need this, need that.’ But figuring out the look of something, where you shoot it, that’s difficult.” UK Beauty And The Beast was released in the UK and US by Walt Disney Motion Pictures. Darkest Hour will be released in the US by Focus Features on November 24, 2017, and in the UK by Universal Pictures on December 29, 2017.

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SPOTLIGHT VFX

A

s the scale and complexity of visual effects for major studio titles continue to rise, the VFX industry has had to become truly global to cope with demand, with producers keen to locate projects where financial advantages make most sense. It is the UK, however, that remains the centre for the production and post of the biggest film and TV shows, with its winning combination of financial incentives, dedicated facilities and world-leading talent.

Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant and Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk helped spend on film production in the UK reach a record $1.94bn (£1.6bn) in 2016, a 13% increase on the previous year.

“The UK is a trusted brand for all aspects of film production, from set construction and lighting design to post,” says Antony Hunt, CEO of VFX studio Cinesite.

“The UK has been a centre of excellence for film creation for a number of years and is seen as a world leader in the depth and resource of its VFX community,” adds Matt Fox, Framestore’s global joint managing director for film. The UK’s digital prowess grew on the back of a strong physical production presence, stemming from the late 1970s when films such as Star Wars, Superman and Alien shot in British studios.

“The directors making those movies were among the first to seed the idea of visual effects as part of the filmmaking process, as opposed to a post service,” says Fox. “It also positioned the UK culturally as a place where production and post disciplines merge.”

During the decade between the first and last films in the Harry Potter franchise (2001-11), the UK’s VFX scene grew from cottage industry to global powerhouse and work traditionally destined for the US west coast was channelled to London. “It’s clear from speaking to executives in Mumbai, Los Angeles or Beijing that there’s a great respect for the level of polish and finishing that our VFX community is able to put on production,” says Will Cohen, CEO at Milk VFX, which was one of five UK houses involved in the creation of around 1,500 shots for Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

The English language plays a part, of course, as does London’s vibrancy. Soho’s geography remains unique too, with all the facilities, screening rooms and networking available in a buzzing square mile, and the supportive fiscal environment created by the government’s film and high-end TV tax reliefs has undoubtedly underscored interest.

Small-screen demand In recent times, demand for UK VFX has heightened even further. The increasingly advantageous dollar-topound exchange rate following the EU referendum in June 2016 has made the UK even better value for US studios. Meanwhile, the unprecedented volume of high-end drama being commissioned by Amazon, Netflix, HBO and Starz — in turn prompting UK-based networks such as Sky to follow suit — has put demand for homegrown VFX at an all-time high.

“Not only has everyone upped their game but pro-

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

Framestore was Oscar nominated for its work on Marvel’s Doctor Strange

POST”

“THE UK IS A TRUSTED BRAND FOR ALL ASPECTS OF PRODUCTION, FROM SET CONSTRUCTION AND LIGHTING DESIGN TO

Antony Hunt, Cinesite

H

N A UM

E

THE

T C FFE

tion roduc pth p l a b de glo singly quality and that a e r c s in In an pe, it is the s tax break rning a a tu c lands t as much TV shows s. n d d of tale jor film an ir VFX nee rts the ma keep the UK for ngton repo i n to n Pen Adria

ducers have become more educated about what VFX can achieve,” says Rob Harvey, creative director of Lola Post, which is responsible for VFX on TV series Ripper Street and Fortitude. Harvey was also part of the Oscar-winning team at Mill Film, which made Gladiator in 2000. “At the time it was perceived as a massive VFX film, but it only contained 80 shots of the sort that you could do now for BBC One,” he says.

Budgets have also risen in line with creative ambition, driving more VFX specialists to work on TV projects hand-in-hand with features.

Framestore, Oscar-nominated for its work on Doctor Strange, re-opened a TV division late last year. “There’s more creative work being done in TV VFX and budgets are increasing,” says Fox. “The crossover between film pipelines and the ability to leverage large amounts of VFX data means we felt well-placed to grow this part of our business.”

“The quality bar for VFX for TV is being raised all the time,” says Duncan McWilliam, CEO of Outpost, which is working on 10-part Sky Atlantic series Tin Star.

“From creature design to set extensions, the type of work and skills, the pipeline and the goals are indivisible from film. You are just spreading the work over 10 one-hour films rather than one single one.”

Boutique facility One Of Us created 500 shots on Netflix’s The Crown, the company’s first long-form TV project after a decade handling sequences for features such as Everest and Assassin’s Creed. “Much of the work was on large-scale environments such as set extensions for Buckingham Palace, using the same workflow we’d establish for any film,” says head of production Matt Bristowe.

In some areas, such as posting at 4K resolution, TV is technologically ahead of features where 2K (HD) is the norm. “We’re working with a Hollywood VFX supervisor on their first major TV series and having to talk them through the challenge of handling 4K,” says Cohen.

“Most major international TV series are being shot 4K.” Global teamwork The sheer amount of content being created and its increasing complexity calls for VFX to be a global industry. As a gauge, the films that ushered in the era of computer-generated imagery — Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park — each contained around 50 VFX shots. By comparison, 2015’s top-performing release, Jurassic World, boasted 2,000, and 2016’s Captain America: Civil War topped 3,000.

These volumes are becoming routine and in a ➤

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SPOTLIGHT VFX

“I BELIEVE LONDON WILL BE ABLE TO ATTRACT THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF TALENT WORKING AT ALL LEVELS OF FILMMAKING IN THE FUTURE”

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION TAKES ROOT Project Dreamspace is at the vanguard of European VFX

Matt Bristowe, One Of Us

decade will likely look as insignificant as those from movies of the 1990s. A single VFX house, even one with the size and track record of ILM or Double Negative (DNeg), is unlikely to complete a feature of such scale alone.

As an example, while ILM shares work on each Star Wars film roughly 50/50 between its North American and London operations, portions of that work are further distributed to other houses. Jellyfish Pictures performed the bulk of post-visualisation — a method of helping directors and executives achieve quicker decisions on final shots — for Gareth Edwards’ 2016 hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. “We had a crack team of five artists working nine months solidly, and out of that we landed 150 VFX shots in the movie as well,” says Phil Dobree, the firm’s CEO. Jellyfish —which also worked on Netflix’s Black Mirror — is currently subcontracted to Lucasfilm, Disney and ILM for The Last Jedi, as is One Of Us. “With any large show, there will be the huge sequences of mass destruction or spacecraft alongside smaller standalone sequences,” says Bristowe. “That’s good for artists at smaller houses like ours whose voice may get lost in the machine working on projects [using a large number of VFX staff].”

Lola Post is one of a number of facilities that worked on space thriller Life, for which DNeg had the lion’s share.

“We’re often brought in near deadline to work on a particular scene as a safe pair Jellyfish worked on of hands,” says Harvey.

Netflix’s Black Mirror Working on scenes for Jason Bourne and Nocturnal Animals (for which it performed digital de-ageing on Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal) helped Outpost gain attention, believes Mercy McWilliam. It too landed shots on Life and The Mercy.

For producers and VFX supervisors, distributing shots among multiple facilities spreads the risk should schedules change. The strategy also allows a production to tap certain niche specialisms in creature work or environments and is designed to maximise tax credits in different parts of the world.

“Tax breaks are one of many issues at play in developing a project,” says Milk’s Cohen. “Awarding VFX contracts is about getting the best bang for buck but is also determined by the needs of the story, whether ➤

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The UK leads the charge in the rollout of cutting-edge virtual production, reports Adrian Pennington A scene in Disney’s The Nutcracker And The Four Realms (2018) features a castle with a bridge extending into the foreground. Shooting against green screen with a partial set of the castle gate, director Lasse Hallström and cinematographer Linus Sandgren could see both live action and virtual world on monitors to better frame and light the shot. Actors including Keira Knightley could respond intuitively to the CG

flow for The Nutcracker. “Over time, the quality of the virtual worlds on set will improve to the point where it will be indistinguishable from the final result.”

The high-water marks for the technique are Avatar, Gravity and The Jungle Book, the latter earning Moving Picture Company (MPC) the 2017 Academy Award for best visual effects.

“The scale, complexity and profile of work was unprecedented for us,” says MPC CEO Mark Benson. “It will become a reference point for photoreal characters, sets and virtual production workflow for the industry.

Virtual production is a global initiative, but the UK is playing a prominent part in devel-

backgrounds and characters on set, while the crew could share in the decision making.

Virtual production

oping the merger of virtual elements with action in real time.”

Project Dreamspace, a pan-European effort led by UK VFX tools developers The Foundry and Ncam, aims to take the technol-

techniques like this are increasingly common for productions requiring any degree of interaction between live action and virtual worlds. The process makes filmmaking nonlinear, collapsing the previously segmented disciplines of pre-production, shoot and post.

“The main benefit now is that a DoP and

ogy a stage further. “We are interested in how camera technology is going to change in the future,” says Jon Wadelton, chief technology officer of The Foundry. “What happens when we are able to record the depth of every pixel on set and have that made available to an artist in post-production?”

“Once we understand the xyz co-ordinates of each pixel in a scene, we can get the real and virtual to interact even more,” says Nic

director can view virtual assets in real time as part of principal photography, allowing them to make decisions there and then rather than having to wait weeks for shots in post,” says Hugh Macdonald, VFX supervisor at Nvizible, which provided the virtual production work-

Hatch, CEO of Ncam. “We can map the shadow an actor would cast on a virtual object or have them interact fluently with, and move around, virtual objects. The implications of fully realised interaction between digital and real on storytelling have barely been explored.”

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SPOTLIGHT VFX

“AWARDING VFX CONTRACTS IS ABOUT GETTING THE BEST BANG FOR BUCK BUT IS ALSO DETERMINED BY THE NEEDS OF THE STORY”

Will Cohen, Milk

nearby locations are used and what the other financial arrangements are.”

“The reality is that incentives don’t really force a massive sea change in the location of VFX, since work has to be married to a talent pool,” says Fox. “You can transfer post to a place where production may be cheaper, only to find that it costs twice as much when the work is done poorly.”

The talent pool may be international but the sheer amount and variety of work coming into the UK means there’s no difficulty finding crew or scaling up with world-class craft skills.

“We can cherry-pick the best talent from around the world to do specialist shots, rather than overloading one facility,” says Christian

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Manz, VFX supervisor on Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. “You get different ways of working by plugging into different cultures. You get a European sensibility.”

The UK industry has every intention of retaining its global outlook post-Brexit, and this is particularly relevant within the VFX sector.

Organisations such as the British Film Commission, the BFI and the UK Screen Alliance have ensured VFX skills capacity is front-andcentre in post-Brexit planning, and this emphasis has been reinforced by UK prime minister Theresa May who, in January 2017, announced the creative sector will be one of the five areas central to the government’s post-Brexit strategy.

“Our workforce is a global team,” says Bristowe. “I believe London will be able to attract the highest level of talent working at all levels of filmmaking in the future.”

There is also the peculiarly British character to consider. “Brits have historically been good at science, invention and art but we’re naturally very reasonable when it comes to settling and solving problems,” says Outpost’s McWilliam. “When budgets go wrong and shots aren’t going to plan, we offer a polite calmness rather than a hot-headedness, which does not go unappreciated.” UK

FLEXIBLE FUNDING

Productions basing VFX and post alone in the UK are increasingly taking advantage of UK tax reliefs, writes Adrian Pennington The UK boasts world-class studios as well as stunning and diverse locations but, to ensure flexibility for filmmakers, there is no obligation within tax relief rules to carry out all production activity in the UK. It is possible to qualify for the credit by carrying out elements of the production process in the UK, including VFX and post, as long as the 10% minimum spend is achieved and projects qualify as British.

Recent productions taking advan-

Blue Bolt worked on VFX for The Last Kingdom

BEFORE

Sherlock ©Hartswood Films Free Fire ©StudioCanal

AFTER

tage of this include Disney’s The Jun­

of Alien: Covenant [led by UK director

gle Book, which was shot on a Los

Ridley Scott] we did very efficiently.

Angeles soundstage with its Oscar-

The UK has some of the best VFX tal-

winning visual effects handled by

ent in the world and everything

Moving Picture Company (MPC) in the UK.

worked really well.”

It is not only features that can take

Warner Bros’ disaster movie Geo­

advantage of this flexibility within

storm based much of its considerable

the UK’s tax relief regime — major TV

VFX work at Double Negative and

dramas that have used the structure

Framestore in London, despite the script requiring Southeast Asian and

include Carnival’s The Last Kingdom (Blue Bolt) and Skydance’s Altered

Middle Eastern shooting locations.

Carbon (Double Negative TV).

Fox’s Alien: Covenant, which was

In addition to VFX/post costs

shot on soundstages in Sydney, also used the UK VFX/post-only model to qualify; the film’s 1,400-plus VFX shots were managed largely by Framestore and MPC. “It’s always been to our advantage to post in the UK, especially on such a large VFX project as this,” says producer Mark Huffam. “You have to spend at least 10% of the film’s budget on UK post to qualify for credits and then pass the cultural test — which in the case

qualifying for the UK film and highend TV tax reliefs, the prorated ‘neutral’ costs — qualifying costs that are spread throughout the production process, including producers, writers, director, insurances, etc — will also qualify so long as activity is based in the UK. For example, if VFX/post costs amount to 20% of the total core expenditure, 20% of ‘neutral’ costs will also qualify when activity is based in the UK.

Courtesy of Carnival Films

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

We create award-winning visual effects for high-end television and feature films www.milk-vfx.com info@milk-vfx.com @MilkVFX

63

Keep Your Head Productions/ Aidan Monaghan

REGIONAL CASE STUDY NORTHERN IRELAND

James Gray takes to the trenches in The Lost City Of Z

GOLD STANDARD Action adventure The Lost City Of Z found Northern Ireland to be rich with opportunity and period possibility. Tim Grierson reports

I

n The Lost City Of Z, writer-director James Gray tells the true story of Percy Fawcett (played by Charlie Hunnam), a British explorer who, in the early 1900s, became obsessed with a fabled city of indescribable riches he believed was nestled deep in the Amazon. And the filmmakers uncovered their own goldmine when they chose Northern Ireland to replicate Fawcett’s homeland.

As executive producer Mark Huffam, Oscarnominated for The Martian, explains, the decision was an obvious one. “Shooting in Northern Ireland, we could take advantage of the UK tax credit,” he says. “But also, we could take advantage of funding from Northern Ireland Screen.

It’s extremely cost effective.”

The production was also able to find locations that were believable, with minimal logistical challenges. “Belfast doesn’t necessarily have the scale of period London,” Huffam admits. “But with some really creative thinking by James and the production designer [Jean-Vincent Puzos], we took institutional period buildings and turned them into [residential] streets. It’s a friendly environment to close a road for a few days.”

“Part of the challenge was to counterbalance the epic scenery of the Amazonian sequences with equally outstanding and dramatic British backdrops,” adds co-producer Aidan Elliott. “The creative brief was for stunning landscapes with the romanticism of Turner or Constable. The Northern Ireland countryside, particularly its coastline, provided an ethereal, painterly quality.

64

Some of [cinematographer] Darius Khondji’s most stunning photography was shot at Strangford Lough, just 35 minutes from Belfast City Airport.”

The production spent about six weeks filming in Northern Ireland, before moving on to Colombia for the Amazon scenes. To Huffam’s delight, however, the team was able to utilise Northern Ireland for a scene they had assumed would have to be shot in South America, in which Fawcett travels by train to his jungle adventure. “We just happened to have a private railway line here, which had eight period carriages,” says Huffam. The production then tasked Extras NI with finding spot-on extras for the sequence. “Because Game Of Thrones is based here, [Extras NI] has an amazing database of just about every nationality you might want,” Huffam says.

Expert production pool Elliott also notes the positive effect Thrones has had on Northern Ireland’s burgeoning production industry, and not just in terms of state-ofthe-art facilities being built in the area. “The growing expertise is staggering, from a relatively small production pool 10 years ago,” he says.

“There’s an industrial, well-humoured work ethic, which I’m not sure exists in many established film centres.” He also credits “the accessibility and open-mindedness in the province” for helping to facilitate The Lost City Of Z’s location-

“WE COULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FUNDING FROM NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN. IT’S EXTREMELY COST EFFECTIVE”

Mark Huffam, executive producer

focused shoot. “The variety of locations was impressive, from recreating the Somme on local farmland, to First World War battleships, stately homes, period botanical glasshouses, banqueting halls, city halls and historic railways.”

Both Huffam and Elliot are particularly pleased with The Lost City Of Z’s spectacular deer-hunt opening. “We required a vast space for horsemen and hounds with undulating land and sufficient obstacles — walls, trees — to build excitement,” says Elliott. “Location manager Andrew Wilson took the director to a spectacular National Trust property called Castle Ward, near Downpatrick, and it was quickly settled upon.” The production was then able to splice together the Castle Ward shots of the roaming dogs with footage of deer from a nearby farm so the hounds would not be in proximity to the majestic creatures. The effect is as memorable as it is seamless. UK The Lost City Of Z was released in the UK by Studiocanal, and in the US by Bleecker Street Media.

WARNER WARNER BROS. STUDIOS

LEAVESDEN

WarnerBros.

Bros.Studios StudiosLeavesden Leavesden(WBSL) (WBSL) is is aa purpose-built, purpose-built, state-of-the-art Warner state-of-the-art film filmand andtelevision televisionstudio studiooffering offeringone one soundof the largest facilities in the UK. The 200-acre secure site has a collection of some of the UK’s largest of the largest facilities in the UK. The 200-acre secure site has a collection of some of the UK’s largestsound soundstages,ranging rangingfrom from10,800ft² 10,800ft²to to 48,400ft², 48,400ft², one one of of the the largest largest heated stages, heated underwater underwaterfilming filmingtanks tanksininEurope Europeand andanan unrivalled100-acre 100-acrebacklot backlotcomplete complete with with 250ft 250ft xx 250ft 250ft exterior exterior tank. unrivalled tank.

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Warner Bros. De Lane Lea in London’s Soho.

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For more information, please contact our dedicated bookings team: For more information, please contact our dedicated bookings team:

BUILTFOR FORFILMMAKERS FILMMAKERS BY

BY FILMMAKERS FILMMAKERS BUILT TM and © 2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.

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SALES@WBSL.COM TEL: +44SALES@WBSL.COM (0) 20 3427 7770 TEL: +44 (0) 20 3427 7770 WARNER DRIVE, LEAVESDEN WARNER DRIVE,WD25 LEAVESDEN HERTFORDSHIRE, 7LP HERTFORDSHIRE, WD25 7LP

SPOTLIGHT TRAINING

Future

PROOFING

With UK film and high-end TV production booming, maintaining a wide skills base is crucial. Wendy Mitchell investigates how the UK industry is dedicated to training the next generation of talent

F

rom acting and accountancy to stage combat and screenwriting, there are more than 8,000 courses and training opportunities for people hoping to forge a career in the UK’s booming film and TV industries. These range from apprenticeship schemes to weekend courses and degrees at some of the world’s leading film schools.

That depth and choice is no accident — training and skills development have been a priority in the UK for decades. The government formed the creative industries sector skills council Skillset (now Creative Skillset) in 1992, and its funding has grown to about $7.45m (£6m) per year across film and high-end TV training.

And this support has reaped huge rewards, with the UK routinely praised for having some of the world’s best film and TV creatives, craftspeople and technicians. And, thanks to booming levels of production, that skilled workforce is in constant demand.

“Last year had the highest level of inward investment ever [$1.7bn (£1.35bn)], and we want to keep up with that,” says Dan Simmons, head of partnerships at Creative Skillset.

The British Film Commission (BFC), as the organisation responsible for inward investment in film and television in the UK, is one of the many industry bodies that works closely with Creative Skillset to ensure skills and training policy reflects industry needs.

Iain Smith, BFC chairman and producer (Mad Max: Fury Road, 24: Live Another Day), also chairs Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Council. “The impact of tax reliefs cannot be underestimated,” says Smith. “They are crucial to the continuation of the UK’s success in international film and television production. But if the tax reliefs attract productions into the UK, it’s our infrastructure and workforce that keep them coming back. Our technical capabilities are second to none, and our workforce is world class. It therefore makes sense that we as an industry have identified skills development as a core priority, be it from schools to further education or from new entrants to mid-career training. This is the

66

only way we will continue to compete successfully in the global production market.”

Skills development is also a priority for the British Film Institute (BFI) which, as part of its new five-year plan, BFI 2022, will implement a major 10-year skills strategy with Creative Skillset. Simmons says this will “create new opportunities for thousands of individuals from all backgrounds across the UK to join and progress within UK film”.

“We’ve long been regarded as being very active, co-ordinated and progressive in terms of public investment in skills and industry investment of skills through the levies, and that kind of public-private partnership is a great model,” he adds. “We have world-leading crew, and they are also generous to teach the next generation of talent behind them.”

Agnieszka Moody, head of Creative Europe UK, also notes that UK professionals can be helped by wider European schemes. “Every year over 100 UK professionals take advantage of training courses offered by Creative Europe, from Berlinale Talents to EAVE or the Torino Film Lab,” she says. “I am very pleased to say that the UK’s Inside Pictures has built itself a solid reputation across the continent, attracting high-calibre executives and running an impressive alumni network which is a growing powerhouse of industry future leaders rapidly becoming current leaders.”

Training across Europe can also help break down borders. “Not only do you get to know who is who, and how the industry works in other countries, but being in a cohort can lead to future working relationships and partnerships,” Moody says. “Many a co-production was set up as a result of a training course.”

Practical learning One of the main growth areas in UK skills development is on-the-job training and apprenticeships. Michael Wilson, production manager for Sony Television/Starz’s Outlander, has hosted trainees on all of the show’s seasons, in roles including production design, costume making, painting, props, accounting, special effects and

“IF THE TAX RELIEFS ATTRACT PRODUCTIONS INTO THE UK, IT’S OUR INFRASTRUCTURE AND WORKFORCE THAT KEEP THEM COMING BACK”

Iain Smith, producer and British Film Commission chairman

camerawork. It is an initiative that gives back to the industry but also helps keep the production staff familiar with up-and-coming talent.

“Outlander is the largest production Scotland has ever had,” Wilson explains. “It’s also a period show and demands a range of specialisms. The work being demanded, particularly by our craft grades — costume, make-up and hair, prop making and construction departments, to name a few — is world class, and the roles therein are not easy to fill. On season one we really struggled to fill roles and find people locally who were gameready. So the desire to really invest in training

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

National Film & Television School students at work on their graduation film

“WE NEED TO KEEP SUPPORTING PEOPLE AS THEY GO UP, MAYBE WITH SMALLER INTERVENTIONS”

Alison Small, Production Guild

to ensure a sustained skills base. London-based, Oscar-winning VFX house Framestore, for example, offers a range of training opportunities including dedicated mentors for new staff, artistic and software training sessions for all employees and online training series Digital Tutors.

“We are an industry that is incredibly competitive when sourcing talent, so retaining our best people is really important,” explains Amy Smith, Framestore’s head of global recruitment. “Additionally, as the technology, tools and client demands develop with each project we undertake, we have to ensure our staff have the right skills and tools. Finally, timelines for our work are shrinking, so our staff are trained to undertake their roles as effectively as possible.”

While Smith recognises there is an increasing number of training opportunities available throughout the VFX sector, she asserts that onthe-job learning remains the most valuable, and not just because of the demands of proprietary tools. “By keeping training in-house, we are able to be flexible to productions’ needs and to work our training around individual artists’ schedules.” was born out of a need to build the skills base in Scotland.” That this has been achieved is evidenced by the increasing number of productions choosing to shoot north of the border.

Warner Bros is another organisation that puts a high value on UK skills training. It is a primary contributor to the Creative Skillset-managed Film Skills Fund, and hosts trainees on most of its UK shoots including, most recently, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and Wonder Woman. “It’s vital that young people have access to the creative industries, which is why we’re committed to investing in the next generation of talent,” says Roy Button, EVP and managing director of Warner Bros Productions Ltd. “By employing trainees, we benefit from their creativity and enthusiasm, and also play our part in the development of the world-class talent that’s become synonymous with the UK film industry.”

The UK government hopes to see more such apprenticeships set up in future and is establishing an apprenticeship levy accordingly. “That’s a challenge, but also an opportunity,” Simmons says. “What is exciting is that if we can make them work better for our industries, apprentice-

ships are a great opportunity to bring in new talents from diverse backgrounds, who can earn while they learn. And the industry gets to train them exactly how they need them to be trained.”

Alison Small, chief executive of the Production Guild, expects that in the future more mentoring programmes will become part of the guild’s regular offering. She is keen that most training is delivered in person, not online. “Online content isn’t a substitute for learning in a classroom or on the job. Part of training is about making contacts with students and trainers.”

In-person training also plays a key role throughout many of the UK’s production and postproduction houses, who are all working (Right) Ravensbourne students on location

School days Another strength of the UK’s training offer is a wealth of film schools: the National Film & Television School (NFTS) in London, Northern Film School in Leeds, SERC Film and TV School in Northern Ireland, Screen Academy Scotland in Edinburgh and many more.

Nik Powell, director of NFTS, says two years of learning “hard skills” makes NFTS graduates highly employable.

“There is a demand for these skills; people want to hire people who can do VFX, who can do lighting, who can do editing.”

NFTS is always evolving — alongside its awardwinning directing and producing degrees, it has allowed students in the games department to explore VR for the past ➤

67

SPOTLIGHT TRAINING

“THE DESIRE TO REALLY INVEST IN TRAINING WAS BORN OUT OF A NEED TO BUILD THE SKILLS BASE IN SCOTLAND”

Michael Wilson, Outlander production manager

five years. Other innovations include a new course devoted to natural history and science production and an MA in marketing, distribution, sales and exhibition.

Jeremy Barr, associate dean in the department of production at Ravensbourne, the Londonbased university sector college that concentrates on digital skills, agrees that graduates who learn such state-of-the-art technologies leave ready to work. “We stay at the forefront of technologies such as 3D, 360°, VR and multiplane imaging, and develop new workflows around these,” he says. “Importantly we have a culture of experimentation and allow students to pursue interesting developments that they discover.”

Sony Television/Starz’s Outlander has hosted trainees on each of the show’s three seasons

fostering collaboration with other creative industries and beyond? How can we share our learning? That’s something we want to do more of.” In that vein, Creative Skillset has also backed training for UK writers to understand the writers’ room approach in the US. At Creative Europe’s UK desk, Moody notes that “for the first time we will be supporting a Constant evolution VR creators’ lab on spatial narration and The continuing review of skills training is 360-degree film, organised by the Bavarian Film another demonstration the UK’s training sector Centre. The industry is changing so fast you is not resting on its laurels, but is evolving its can’t afford not to improve your skills all the offer according to emerging industry time, just to keep your head above the demands and aspirations. At the water. If this can be done in the Production Guild, courses are international context, all the offered not only to its 850 better.” members but to the NFTS has partnered wider industry, with with leading graphics topics ranging from processor manufacturer production accounting AMD to deliver a series and location manageof VR projects as part of ment to working with the school’s Bridges to US unions and VFX. Industry scheme. A proThe training opportuduction technology MA VR gives students experience across nities increase each year. was launched in 2016. the spectrum — from technology to games design and storytelling Following the introduction “Diversity is not just a quesof the high-end TV tax relief in tion of cultural background, gen2013, for example, the BFC was able der and socioeconomic diversity,” says to quickly identify an emerging UK skills gap — Powell. “It’s also different kinds of people meetUS-style budgeting for episodic TV drama. The ing on campus — technologists, games designers, BFC funded an initiative, with support from Crefiction storytellers.” ative Skillset, and worked in partnership with the Production Guild to help British financial controlDiverse workforce lers and production accountants learn directly Kate Kinninmont, chief executive of Women In from US practitioners how to work with US-style Film & Television UK, says the membership high-end TV accounting. The training was organisation has increasingly been involved “in repeated in 2017 and extended to include UK providing training initiatives to try to redress the unit production managers and line producers. grotesque imbalance that persists in employThere are three or four new VR initiatives that ment throughout the industry. In a largely freeCreative Skillset has backed in the past year, lance industry, individuals have to take responsiwhich particularly excite Simmons. “These are bility for their own career development and the kind of areas we are looking at — how are we training is often difficult to come by.”

68

At the Production Guild, diversity initiatives include Opening Doors, a scheme for people from underrepresented groups to access the creative industries. The Production Guild’s Small is hopeful more mid-career training and support will be introduced. “We also have to be careful of people leaving the industry. We need to keep supporting people as they go up, maybe with smaller interventions,” she says.

At the NFTS, “on the diversity stakes we are way ahead of the industry”, Powell says. Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students make up 15%-20% of the student body, and women 40%-50%. This year, a new workshop launched to encourage more women, BAME storytellers and people with disabilities to direct fiction. The pool was widened because the workshop was free to attend thanks to donations. “There were 400 applications for six places this pilot year, and there will be 12 places in 2018,” Powell adds.

As part of its training offerings, Bafta has launched Bafta Elevate, a bespoke annual programme designed to support individuals from underrepresented groups moving to the next stage of their careers. In 2017, the focus is on female directors working in high-end TV and film.

UK-based producer Manon Ardisson, who had a Sundance and Berlinale hit with her first feature production, God’s Own Country, has participated in a number of UK training initiatives, including Screen Yorkshire’s Triangle and Film London’s Microschool. She just completed Creative England’s Creative Producer Initiative (CPI), which she found helpful for the development of her whole career, not just one project.

“It’s great to be part of a course that focuses on your career as a producer,” says Ardisson. “Most programmes are project-based, which of course is an amazing opportunity to develop and finance a project, but CPI helps us think about our careers and ambitions more generally. That’s important if we want to work sustainably in this industry.” UK

REGIONAL CASE STUDY SCOTLAND

Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce in The Wife

IT MUST BE LOVE

For The Wife producer Piers Tempest, Scotland’s versatile locations and dedicated infrastructure proved to be a marriage made in heaven. Wendy Mitchell reports

P

roducer Piers Tempest had finished filming Jonathan Teplitzky’s Churchill in Scotland in early 2016, and the experience convinced him that the country was the best place to shoot his next film, The Wife.

Even though the story is set mostly in the US and Stockholm, the production found exactly what it needed in Scotland and shot at locations including Glasgow City Chambers, Pollok House, Royal Concert Hall and the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian, where it made full use of the Concorde aircraft housed there.

“Scotland provides extremely versatile locations,” Tempest explains. “The decision to move the production to Scotland was really a function of the locations and great crew. This combined with the economic factors such as the favourable exchange rate — as our funding was substantially in US dollars — the UK tax credit and support from Creative Scotland, which tipped the scales for us.”

Indeed, The Wife received $243,500 (£200,000) of National Lottery funding through Creative Scotland’s Targeted Screen Fund, plus recce funding and locations assistance from Creative Scotland’s Screen Commission.

The film — which shot for seven weeks in late 2016 in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stockholm — is directed by Björn Runge and stars Glenn Close as a writer who splits from her

70

“GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH ARE FANTASTIC CITIES ANDTHE HIGHLANDS AREBREATHTAKING”

Piers Tempest, producer

husband (Jonathan Pryce). Jane Anderson adapted the screenplay from Meg Wolitzer’s novel of the same name.

Welcome in the Highlands Production is booming in Scotland. Film and TV producers spent a record $64m (£52.7m) shooting in the country in 2015, marking an increase in total annual production spend of almost $38.5m (£30m) since 2007 (Sony’s Outlander series is just one key booster). Despite several big productions setting up home in the country, smart scheduling ensured crew were available for The Wife. “We were lucky as a lot of crew had come off T2 Trainspotting,” Tempest says. “An even spread of production throughout the year is in everybody’s interest.”

Tempest — who produces The Wife alongside Meta Louise Foldager of Denmark’s Meta Film and Rosalie Swedlin of the US’s Anonymous Content — encourages other producers to consider

Scotland’s appeal. “Locations are relatively easy to get to, with little congestion on the roads, and the accommodation is superb. It’s a great place to spend time. Glasgow and Edinburgh are fantastic cities and the Highlands are breathtaking.”

Brodie Pringle, head of Creative Scotland’s Screen Commission, notes it is more than the breathtaking locations that bring productions to Scotland. “What’s changing, with the tax reliefs and our top-up incentives, is that we’re finding productions are basing here in their entirety,” she says. “The Wife is a great example. They didn’t come here to shoot Scotland as Scotland; the majority of our locations were doubles for the US. “It’s a realisation that Scotland is a destination to film because of the crews, facilities and infrastructure as well as support from Creative Scotland and its partners,” Pringle adds. “Scotland offers the whole package.”

Tempest agrees the support network was pivotal in bringing The Wife to the screen. That extended beyond the “excellent” financial and logistical support from Creative Scotland. “Across all the bodies we worked with, such as Glasgow Film Office and Glasgow City Council, everyone has the same aspiration to grow the industry, create jobs and make great films,” he says. UK The Wife is due for completion in autumn 2017.

International sales are handled by Embankment Films info@embankmentfilms.com

FILM IN SCOTLAND FOR THE PERFECT LOCATION

www.creativescotlandlocations.com E locations@creativescotland.com T +44 (0) 141 302 1724 Loch Ard, The Trossachs Photo: Richard Burdon/Scottish Viewpoint

SPOTLIGHT TALENT

GLOBAL TALENT

The UK has a wealth of above and below-the-line talent working across all sectors of the industry. Here is a selection of those who have made a splash over the last 12 months Jamie Adams Writer/director Credits include

Songbird (2018), Black Mountain Poets (2015), Benny & Jolene (2014) Contact Cynthia Okoye, Curtis Brown @ cynthia@ curtisbrown.co.uk Chanya Button Director Credits include

Vita And Virginia (2018), Burn Burn Burn (2015), Alpha: Omega (short, 2013) Contact Sara Putt @ info@ saraputt.co.uk

2016), The Musketeers (TV, 2015), Ripper Street (TV, 2013) Contact Jennie Miller, Independent Talent Group @ jenniemiller@ independenttalent.com Robert Eggers Writer/director Credits include

Brothers (short, 2015), The Witch (2015), The Tell-Tale Heart (short, 2008) Contact Craig Kestel, WME @ ckestel@ wmeentertainment.com Damien Elliott Cinematographer Credits include

Emily Carey Actor Credits include

Wonder Woman (2017), Houdini And Doyle (TV, 2016), Casualty (TV, 2014-17) Contact Mary Fitzgerald, Lucy Johnson, Curtis Brown @ fjoffice@ curtisbrown.com Marnie Dickens Screenwriter (pictured right) Credits include

Thirteen (TV, 72

Zoo (2017), The Survivalist (2015), Cherrybomb (2009) Contact Sandra Marsh & Associates @ info@sandra marsh.com

David Farr Screenwriter

(2014), Testament Of Youth (2014), Red Riding (TV, 2009)

Credits include

Contact

The Man With The Iron Heart (2017), McMafia (TV, 2017), The Night Manager (TV, 2016), The Ones Below (2015), MI-5 (TV, 2005-10) Contact Camilla Young, Curtis Brown @ camilla.young@ curtisbrown.co.uk Louise Ford Editor Credits include

Siberia (2018), Wildlife (2017), Thoroughbred (2017), Don’t Breathe (2016), The Witch (2015) Contact Artistry J310 652 8778

Victoria Keeling VFX producer Credits include

Life (2017), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Jupiter Ascending (2015), Thor: The Dark World (2013) Contact Sara Putt @ info@ saraputt.co.uk

Mia Goth Actor

Stewart Kojima VFX co-ordinator

Credits include

Credits include

Highlife (2018), Suspiria (2017), Marrowbone (2017), A Cure For Wellness (2016), Everest (2015), The Survivalist (2015), Nymphomaniac Vol II (2013) Contact Sarah Spear, Grace Clissold, Curtis Brown @ spearclissoldoffice@ curtisbrown.co.uk Rob Hardy Cinematographer Credits include

Mission: Impossible 6 (2018), Euphoria (2017), Annihilation (2017), Ex Machina

Nick Emerson Editor

Justice League (2017), Wonder Woman (2017), Inferno (2016), Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Contact Sara Putt @ info@ saraputt.co.uk Mica Levi Composer Credits include

Marjorie Prime (2017), Jackie (2016), Under The Skin (2013) Contact Debbie Claire, Little Big Agency @ debbie@lb-agency. net

Daniel Kaluuya Actor Credits include

Credits include

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool (2017), The Crow (2017), Daphne (2017), Lady Macbeth (2016), The Hallow (2015) Contact Alice Townson, Lux Artists @ alice@luxartists.net

UK: Alice Townson, Lux Artists @ alice@luxartists.net US: Peter Franciosa, UTA @ franciosap@unitedtalent. com

Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out

Black Panther (2018), Widows (2018), Get Out (2017), Sicario (2015), Welcome To The Punch (2013), The Fades (TV, 2011), Psychoville (TV, 2009-11), Skins (TV, 2007-09) Contact Conor McCaughan, Sam Fox, Troika Talent @ info@troikatalent.com ➤

Working Title are proud to sponsor the British Film Commission

LEGEND, Feature Film, Produced by Working Title Films, Shot at 3 Mills Studios.

Photo: STUDIOCANAL

9 filming stages 11 rehearsal spaces 30 minutes from Soho ‘Our experience on shooting Legend at 3 Mills Studios was faultless… it was everything a studio should be.’

Richard May Production Manager, Legend

+44(0)20 8215 3330

www.3mills.com

Knowledge_Half Page Ad_March_2017_185x131.indd 1

bookings@3mills.com

@3millsStudios 21/03/2017 17:37

SPOTLIGHT TALENT

Jane Levick Production designer

Lewis MacDougall Actor

Credits include

Credits include

Lies We Tell (2016), This Is England ’90 (TV, 2015), The Falling (2014), Truckers (TV, 2013), Sightseers (2012), London To Brighton (2006) Contact Jane Levick @ janeylevick@yahoo.co.uk Ruth Madeley Actor

Boundaries (2017), The Belly Of The Whale (2017), A Monster Calls (2016), Pan (2015) Contact Zoe Bone, United Agents @ zbone@ unitedagents. co.uk

Lewis MacDougall in A Monster Calls

Vinay Patel Screenwriter Credits include

Murdered By My Father

Sarah Wilson Casting assistant Credits include

Credits include

The Level (TV, 2016) Contact Lime Management @ georgina@ limemanagement.co.uk

2014-16), One Of Us (TV, 2016), Tripped (TV, 2015) Contact Two Brothers Pictures @ hello@twobrotherspictures. com

(TV, 2016), The Good Karma Hospital (TV, 2017) Contact Kelly Knatchbull, Sayle Screen @ kelly@ saylescreen.com James Watkins Writer/director (pictured right) Credits include McMafia (TV, 2017), The Take (2016), The Woman In Black (2012)

Contact Talia Tobias,

United Agents @ ttobias@ unitedagents.co.uk Jack Williams, Harry Williams Screenwriters Credits include

Liar (TV, 2017), The Missing (TV,

Skybound (2017), My Cousin Rachel (2017), Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (2016), Suffragette (2015), Everest (2015) Contact Sarah Wilson @ sarah. wils@icloud.com

Screen TV Dedicated to high-end drama and the cross-over between the film and television worlds Screen International is bringing the cross-over between film and TV into sharper focus with the launch of its dedicated online section Screen TV.

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visit www.ScreenDaily.com/FilmTV 74

THE HOME OF UK PRODUCTION The Production Guild is the UK’s leading membership organisation for those working in film and TV drama production. Based at Pinewood Studios we have over 900 members who are highly experienced and endorsed in their particular grade.

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REGIONAL CASE STUDY WALES

Will used all four stages at Dragon Studios

BARD LABOUR

In bringing Shakespeare drama Will to the screen, US network TNT made the most of the ample production opportunities throughout Wales. Wendy Ide reports

A

flagship series for US cable network TNT, the irreverent drama Will — a fictionalised account of Shakespeare’s riotous early years — presented several challenges at the production stage. Many of these resulted from the sheer scale of the project and high quality of the production values. Executive producer Alison Owen describes the series, which was conceived

by Baz Luhrmann’s long-time screenwriting collaborator Craig Pearce (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge), as “an enormous endeavour”.

Having shot a pilot at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, the main challenge was to locate a space that could match Leavesden’s soundstage for size in order to construct the show’s main location: the theatre. “We had a number of requirements,” Owen recalls.

“We had to be able to find a stage, or a set of stages, where we could create a large number of interior worlds. We had to have a big backlot where we could pretty much build a Tudor Shoreditch. And we needed somewhere that had good locations that we could sprint out to, and get more production value that way. But mainly we needed a really big stage that would encompass our theatre.”

To assist with their efforts, the British Film Commission liaised closely with the US and UK production teams, co-ordinated searches with

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the UK’s regional and national screen agency network and contributed to the production’s scouting costs. When the team discovered the largest stage — nearly 70,000 sq ft — at Dragon Studios, Bridgend, 28 miles west of Cardiff, they realised that, with a couple of tweaks, it could house their theatre set.

Ultimately, the production used all four stages at Dragon Studios, plus the five-acre backlot.

“We were doing what’s known as double banking,” says Owen. “Most days we had many crews shooting. We were shooting one of the episodes and then people would be doing pickups or additional scenes from other episodes. So it was fantastic we had the whole world in one place.”

Wales also provided a wealth of locations, which local screen agency, Wales Screen, helped source, as well as advising on local crew. The production utilised the dramatic landscape, but one of the main discoveries was St Donat’s Castle, a romantic medieval structure (now a residential sixth-form school called Atlantic College) that was formerly owned by William Randolph Hearst. It had been initially ruled out because it was not from the Tudor period. “But the more you go back to places and the more you think about them, the more you start to see ways that you can use them,” says Owen. “We ended up using the hall, the chapel, the exterior

“MOST DAYS WE HAD MANY CREWS SHOOTING… SO IT WAS FANTASTIC WE HAD THE WHOLE WORLD IN ONE PLACE”

Alison Owen, executive producer

and the interior, big spaces and little spaces. The college was wonderfully co-operative.”

And the changeable Welsh climate was also not an issue. “The advantage of having so many stages and your backlot in the same place is that you have constant weather cover,” says Owen. “Occasionally, if you have a whole day planned on location, you have got your equipment there, you have cranes and you can’t afford the luxury of not shooting and rehiring the stuff.

You have to film, come what may. On those days we have been lucky, I don’t think there has been anything that we have been completely monsooned out of. Funnily enough, every time our American colleagues from TNT have come over, it has been gloriously sunny.” UK Will is due to broadcast in the US on TNT from May 2017.

A UK broadcaster was still to be confirmed at the time of publication.

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SPOTLIGHT FAMILIARISATION TRIPS

The personal

TOUCH

Universal’s The Mummy filmed across south-east England

British Film Commission’s familiarisation trips are an essential introduction to the UK’s production landscape for overseas executives, and set the groundwork for international relationships.

Nikki Baughan goes behind the scenes

T

hat the UK has become a production destination of choice for international films and high-end television shows is no secret. Nor are its world-class facilities, dedicated infrastructure and broad range of talent that attract an increasing number of global productions. What’s perhaps less well known is the behind-the-scenes work that ensures the UK remains at the forefront of the global production landscape.

The British Film Commission (BFC) plays a central role, and one of its key initiatives is the familiarisation trips (or ‘fam’ trips) it puts together for overseas executives, the first of which was hosted by the first British film commissioner, Sydney Samuelson, in the early 1990s.

These orchestrated trips allow senior decisionmakers from key international film and high-end TV companies (usually from North America but also, in recent years, China) to spend a week immersed in the UK industry. The itinerary allows them to explore facilities and locations throughout the country’s regions; meet crew members, VFX and post-production practitioners and key decision makers; and obtain practical information on a range of relevant subjects including tax relief, funding and legislation.

Nationwide showcase “We are lucky enough to have a country that can accommodate TV drama and film in each of its nations, and we want to make sure our clients can see it for themselves,” says Samantha Perahia, BFC’s head of production UK. Each trip’s schedule allows for a diverse range of activities designed to highlight the UK’s unique offer, from studio visits, networking events and meetings to photo opportunities on the Game Of Thrones set, dinner in a film-friendly Welsh castle and a Thames river cruise past the cinematic London skyline.

The trips do not stop there. “Beyond demonstrating the UK’s production capabilities,

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“EVERY EVENT INCORPORATES GUESTS FROM EVERY SECTOR OF THE UK INDUSTRY, TO MAXIMISE NETWORKING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT”

Samantha Perahia, British Film Commission

the fam aims to celebrate that aspect of the UK’s film and TV support industry that gives us the edge over competitors — customer service,” says Perahia. “This underpins every aspect of the trip including our guests’ international and domestic travel, accommodation, meals, facility and location visits, events and entertainment. Every event incorporates guests from every sector of the UK industry, to maximise networking and business development.”

Each trip is geared towards a specific sector of the industry, including high-end TV, studio features, independent features, post-production and VFX, and there are clear rules as to who is invited to attend. “Executives must represent companies that have a slate of fully financed projects, or access to secure finance, and must have decision-making

authority,” explains Perahia. “The BFC has an economic and industrial remit. We are here to maximise and support the production of high-value feature film and TV drama in the UK.” A lot of time and effort goes into choosing the right guests for the trips. This responsibility falls to BFC staffers on both sides of the Atlantic, with Kattie Kotok, the BFC’s executive vice president — US production, key to identifying suitable executives. Over the last 25 years, a plethora of companies have taken these trips, including Sony, Warner Bros, Fox, Universal, Paramount, Disney plus the mini majors and the leading US TV companies including HBO, Starz, CBS, Sony TV, FX and Gaumont. These have been complemented by a huge number of carefully tailored recces for individual companies; de facto mini fam trips geared towards specific projects or slates. The benefits for all are numerous, not least the opportunity for the international community to meet and network in a focused way.

“We get a chance to be up close and personal,” says Louise Hussey, VFX executive pro(Left) Fam trip to Media City, Manchester, as part of the government’s Northern Powerhouse strategy

Alamy

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

“THE FAMTRIPS GIVE YOU THE EXTRA BIT OF KNOWLEDGE TO SAY, ‘WE CAN BRING OUR SHOW THERE. I’VE SEEN WHAT THEY CAN OFFER AND IT WORKS FOR US’”

Melissa Harper, Starz

ducer at London-based effects house Double Negative (DNeg), who often meets with executives attending the fam trips. “We have the opportunity to share our work, discuss it in detail and answer questions with a very specific and targeted group of people. A lot of our business is based on developing personal relationships and the trips offer networking opportunities as well as the slightly more formal showcase session that allow us to really get to understand the needs of our visitors.”

“There’s no substitute for personally putting eyes on what a facility looks like, what actual locations are going to provide you, meeting with crew members and talking to vendors that you might be engaging with,” agrees Melissa Harper, senior vice president of production at US entertainment company Starz, who toured key UK production hubs as part of the BFC’s inaugural highend TV fam trip in 2013. “[The trip] was a very comprehensive scout of the UK, as far as selling itself as a production destination. It was incredibly worthwhile.”

“There’s nothing like being on the ground, meeting the people, seeing the space and knowing what’s available,” agrees Cristen Strubbe, vice president of physical production at Universal Pictures, who enjoyed a tailor-made individual fourday tour of London, the south east of England and Northern Ireland organised and hosted by the

BFC. “For example I was able to meet up with the Livett family, who do waterwork on the Thames, which was very helpful because that is very production-specific stuntwork. If it wasn’t for the trip, I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to meet with them unless I had a specific request in mind.”

The fact the BFC’s fam trips are specifically designed as a broad introduction to the opportunities offered throughout the UK, and not just to highlight the more well-known locations, is a key benefit for US executives. “As outsiders to the British film community, we look to the BFC to be the experts to guide us,” says Starz’s Harper. “Obviously we might be familiar with Warner Bros Studios Leavesden and Pinewood, but we might not know about Three Mills or Titanic Studios, or certain hotels that cater very well to overseas talent. That’s the insight the fam trips were able to provide us, that gives you the extra bit of knowledge to say, ‘We can absolutely bring our show there. I’ve seen what they have to offer and it will work for us.’”

Familiarity breeds content While the UK’s world-leading offer may be widely known, fam-trip alumni agree that firsthand experience of the infrastructure, talent and knowledge fosters a sense of confidence when embarking on such huge transatlantic business.

“There’s nothing like knowing I can pick up the phone and call someone I have met face to face,” says Strubbe. “It makes life a lot more manageable when you’re dealing with these highly complex political and financial schemes. To know a person that you can discuss any issue with directly is incredibly helpful. And everyone was very well versed in the incentives, how they apply to their piece of the business and how that could benefit us. It felt like a very tight-knit community.”

Indeed, the connections forged and knowledge gained on BFC fam trips are evident in an increasing number of incoming productions. At time of publication, Starz had just finished shooting The White Princess in Bristol, for example, while Universal has filmed The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, in various locations around London and south-east England. And DNeg has teamed with US production company Skydance on Netflix scifi drama Altered Carbon, based on Richard Morgan’s novel. “We met Jake Rose, Skydance’s head of production, when he came across for a BFC fam trip,” says DNeg’s Hussey. “As a result, we were asked to pitch for work on the show.”

And therein lies the reason for the continued success of the trips — not only do they showcase effectively the UK’s facilities, locations, incentives and infrastructure, but they bring together international decision-makers with the skilled individuals and organisations that keep the country’s industry so well-oiled.

“Having done a lot of production all over the world, I have to give high marks to the UK’s domestic support network,” says Starz’s Harper.

“Not just nationally, but regionally, any production has the right point of contact, the right support and the right people to answer any questions and guide you when you’re seeking to bring an investment into the area. There’s also a world-class pool of talent both in front of and behind the camera, and a surprising breadth of diversity in locations and shooting options for a relatively small geographic area. The UK really has a lot to offer, and the BFC’s fam trips are a great opportunity to see what’s possible. I highly recommend it for any executive who has the opportunity to participate.” UK Further information

britishfilmcommission.org.uk

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BRITISH FILM COMMISSION UK IN FOCUS 2017

SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS BRITISH FILM COMMISSION FUNDERS British Film Institute (BFI) 21 Stephen Street London W1T 1LN +44 (0)20 7255 1444 www.bfi.org.uk Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ +44 (0)20 7211 6000 enquiries@culture.gov.uk www.culture.gov.uk Department for International Trade (DIT) King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH www.gov.uk/dit

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION SPONSORS GOLD SPONSORS

Angels Costumes 1 Garrick Road London NW9 6AA +44 (0)20 8202 2244 www.angels.uk.com Harbottle & Lewis Hanover House 14 Hanover Square London W1S 1HP +44 (0)20 7667 5000 www.harbottle.com HBO 2500 Broadway, suite 400 Santa Monica CA 90404 +1 310 382 3616 www.hbo.com Movie Makers Woburn Park Farm, Addlestone Moor, Addlestone KT15 2QF +44 (0)1932 828888 www.mmuk.tv Pinewood Studios Group Pinewood Studios Pinewood Road, Iver Heath Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH +44 (0)1753 656767 sales@pinewoodgroup.com www.pinewoodgroup.com Saffery Champness 71 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4BE +44 (0)20 7841 4000 info@saffery.com www.saffery.com Walt Disney 3 Queen Caroline Street London W6 9PE +44 (0)20 8222 1000 www.disney.co.uk Warner Bros Entertainment UK Ltd 98 Theobald’s Road London WC1X 8WB +44 (0)20 7984 5400 www.warnerbros.co.uk

SILVER SPONSORS

3 Mills Studios Three Mill Lane London E3 3DU +44 (0)20 8215 3330 www.3mills.com BBC Worldwide Television Centre 101 Wood Lane London W12 7FA +44 (0)20 8433 2000 www.bbcworldwide.com The Bottle Yard Studios Whitchurch Lane Bristol BS14 0BH +44 (0)1275 890 954 www.thebottleyard.com Coutts & Co 440 Strand London WC2R 0QS +44 (0)20 7753 1000 www.coutts.com Double Negative Visual Effects 160 Great Portland Street London W1W 5QA +44 (0)20 7268 5000 info@dneg.com www.dneg.com Elstree Studios Shenley Road Borehamwood Hertfordshire WD6 1JG +44 (0)20 8953 1600 info@elstreestudios.co.uk www.elstreestudios.co.uk Framestore 19-23 Wells Street London W1T 3PQ +44 (0)20 7344 8000 www.framestore.com MPC 127 Wardour Street London W1F 0NL +44 (0)20 7434 3100 www.moving-picture.com Working Title Films 26 Aybrook Street London W1U 4AN +44 (0)20 7307 3000 www.workingtitlefilms.com

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Chair of the British Film Commission advisory board Iain Smith, OBE British Film Commission The Arts Building Morris Place, London N4 3JG +44 (0)20 7613 7675 enquiries@britishfilmcommision. org.uk www.britishfilmcommission.org.uk

BBC Worldwide Television Centre 101 Wood Lane London W12 7FA +44 (0)20 8433 2000 www.bbcworldwide.com British Film Institute (BFI) 21 Stephen Street London W1T 1LN +44 (0)20 7255 1444 www.bfi.org.uk British Screen Advisory Council (BSAC) 58 Broadwick Street London W1F 7AL +44 (0)20 7287 1111 www.bsac.uk.com

Framestore 19-23 Wells Street London W1T 3PQ +44 (0)20 7344 8000 www.framestore.com Harbottle & Lewis Hanover House 14 Hanover Square London W1S 1HP +44 (0)20 7667 5000 www.harbottle.com Mayor of London Greater London Authority City Hall, The Queen’s Walk London SE1 2AA +44 (0)20 7983 4000 www.london.gov.uk

Warner Bros Entertainment UK Ltd 98 Theobald’s Road London WC1X 8WB +44 (0)20 7984 5400 www.warnerbros.co.uk Wales Screen Welsh Government Creative Sector 4th floor, Bayside St Line House Mount Stuart Square Cardiff Bay CF10 5LR +44 (0)29 2044 4241 penny.skuse@wales.gsi.gov.uk www.walesscreen.com Wiggin 9th floor, Met Building 22 Percy Street London W1T 2BU +44 (0)20 7612 9612 law@wiggin.co.uk www.wiggin.co.uk

Creative England 1st floor, College House 32-36 College Green Bristol BS1 5SP +44 (0)20 8324 2311 production@creativeengland.co.uk www.creativeengland.co.uk

Northern Ireland Screen 3rd floor, Alfred House 21 Alfred Street Belfast BT2 8ED Northern Ireland +44 (0)28 9023 2444 info@northernirelandscreen.co.uk www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk

Creative Scotland Waverley Gate 2-4 Waterloo Place Edinburgh EH1 3EG +44 (0)845 603 6000 enquiries@creativescotland.com www.creativescotland.com

Pinewood Studios Group Pinewood Studios Pinewood Road Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH +44 (0)1753 656767 sales@pinewoodgroup.com www.pinewoodgroup.com

Creative England 1st floor, College House 32-36 College Green Bristol BS1 5SP +44 (0)20 8324 2311 production@creativeengland.co.uk www.creativeengland.co.uk

Creative Skillset 94 Euston Street Kings Cross London NW1 2HA +44 (0)20 7713 9800 info@creativeskillset.org www.creativeskillset.org

Producers’ Association of Cinema & Television (Pact) 3rd floor, Fitzrovia House 153-157 Cleveland Street London W1T 6QW +44 (0)20 7380 8230 www.pact.co.uk

Directors UK 3rd and 4th floors 22 Stukeley Street London WC2B 5LR +44 (0)20 7240 0009 info@directors.uk.com www.directors.uk.com

Production Guild of Great Britain Room 329 Main Admin Building Pinewood Studios Pinewood Road Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH +44 (0)1753 651767 pg@productionguild.com www.productionguild.com

Creative Scotland Waverley Gate 2-4 Waterloo Place Edinburgh EH1 3EG +44 (0)845 603 6000 enquiries@creativescotland.com www.creativescotland.com

Double Negative Visual Effects 160 Great Portland Street London W1W 5QA +44 (0)20 7268 5000 info@dneg.com www.dneg.com Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU) +44 (0)7914 397243 info@feutraining.org www.feutraining.org Film London The Arts Building Morris Place London N4 3JG +44 (0)20 7613 7676 info@filmlondon.org.uk www.filmlondon.org.uk

Saffery Champness 71 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4BE +44 (0)20 7841 4000 info@saffery.com www.saffery.com UK Screen Alliance 4th floor, 18 Soho Square, London W1D 3QL +44 (0)20 7734 6060 victoria@ukscreenalliance.co.uk www.ukscreenassociation.co.uk Department for International Trade (DIT) King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH www.gov.uk/dit

UK SCREEN AGENCIES

Film London The Arts Building Morris Place London N4 3JG +44 (0)20 7613 7676 info@filmlondon.org.uk www.filmlondon.org.uk Northern Ireland Screen 3rd floor, Alfred House 21 Alfred Street Belfast BT2 8ED Northern Ireland +44 (0)28 9023 2444 info@northernirelandscreen.co.uk www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk Wales Screen Welsh Government Creative Sector 4th floor, Bayside, St Line House Mount Stuart Square Cardiff Bay CF10 5LR +44 (0)29 2044 4241 penny.skuse@wales.gsi.gov.uk www.walesscreen.com

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION chair Iain Smith chief executive Adrian Wootton UK OFFICE head of production UK Samantha Perahia executive assistant to the CEO and team co-ordinator Sonya Watt production and information co-ordinator Abee McCallum US OFFICE executive vice president, US production Kattie Kotok executive assistant Meredith Brace Sloss COMMUNICATIONS acting head of communications Darren Kalynuk senior press and communications manager Alex Deller marketing and events co-ordinator Catherine Hall digital development co-ordinator Margaret Davidson UK OFFICE British Film Commission, The Arts Building, Morris Place, London N4 3JG, UK, enquiries@britishfilmcommission.org.uk, +44 (0)20 7613 7675 US OFFICE British Film Commission, 2029 Century Park East, suite 1350, Los Angeles, CA 90067 US, info@britishfilmcommission.org, +1 310 843 2909 UK IN FOCUS editor Nikki Baughan Screen International editor Matt Mueller, matt.mueller@screendaily.com Broadcast editor Chris Curtis, chris.curtis@broadcastnow.co.uk group head of production and art Mark Mowbray group art director, MBI Peter Gingell contributors Wendy Ide, Andy Fry, Tim Grierson, Geoffrey Macnab, Wendy Mitchell, Adrian Pennington, Louise Tutt commercial director Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@screendaily.com, +44 (0)20 8102 0813 account manager Pierre-Louis Manes, pierre-louis.manes@screendaily.com, +44 (0)20 8102 0862 publishing director (maternity leave) Nadia Romdhani managing director, publishing and events (maternity leave) Alison Pitchford CEO Conor Dignam Published by Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, +44 (0)20 8102 0900 www.mb-insight.com

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