Short Film Export Report - BFI

placed programmes and discussion events at key festivals;
DVD compilations and lobbying of programmers and buyers by Lifesize on behalf of the
filmmakers. The PR budget includes £15,000 towards the cost of producing and shipping
Digibeta compilations for screenings, and £10,000 for travel and accomodation.
until 2005 Short Circuit fulfilled a similar role but with a greater emphasis on generating
sales. The focus of Lifesize‟s campaigning is on promoting the talent rather than the film
itself, with rights to the Digital Shorts retained by the regional screen agencies.
3.3 Regional and National screen agencies
AIM: Principal objectives tend to be talent development or promotion of the region/nation
rather than commercial sales, although some of the RSAs are developing sales strategies now
that they hold the rights to the shorts that they produce.
BUDGET: Some variation across the UK, but generally a small proportion of agency budgets
for production, promotion and/or skills development.
ACTIVITY: The most common form of support from N/RSAs is a bursary towards cost of
travel and accommodation for filmmakers visiting international markets or festivals. Many
filmmakers are able to match the support offered by the British Council against that of their
screen agency.
3.4 Other public support
Some screen agencies collaborate with their regional UK Trade and Investment office to
support filmmakers at markets;
There are online resources which operate as an international platform for British shorts,
including britfilms.com and BBC Film Network;
Skillset offer travel bursaries for training purposes, in connection with events like Berlinale
Talent Campus;
Students presenting work internationally can benefit from the support of their film-school;
Distribution strategy has become a much more important element of film training as a
whole, particularly at events like Think Shoot Distribute (London) and Trailblazers
(Edinburgh).
3.5 Private support
A number of UK companies provide
their talent with the time and resources to
develop non-commercial work, and to
present this work internationally. Recent
successful examples include Raymond
(dir: BIF collective, prod: The Mill), City
Paradise (dir: Gaelle Denis, prod:
Passion Pictures) and The Pearce Sisters
(dir: Luis Cook, prod: Aardman Films).
The extent of in kind support from
“Whereas commercials work tends to be scripted by
an advertising agency, and music videos generally
have to fit a brief from a label, band or manager,
short films are a great opportunity for a director to
show their own style or express an idea that they have
had in their head.”
- Jordan McGarry, head of development at Partizan
“At Aardman, a relatively unknown director can
quickly achieve significant international recognition
through film festival screenings and winning awards.
The kudos gained from a successful animated short
can do wonders for a filmmaker's belief in themselves
commercial companies should also not be underestimated, and their abilities. with outfits It is also like Passion, beneficial Slinky to the and perceived
Aardman devoting considerable staff time to abilities the distribution of the studio.” and promotion of their work
internationally. The responses below give some - Kieran idea Argo, of the Events value and of Exhibitions shorts for production Manager at
companies.
Aardman Films
6 The slate is being reduced slightly as some regional screen agencies produce fewer Digital Shorts.
10