Northern Alliance - BFI
Northern Alliance - BFI
Northern Alliance - BFI
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
3.2 The UK Film Council‟s strategy<br />
A range of measures have been taken by the various departments of the UK Film<br />
Council to meet the key objectives of its short film strategy, including:<br />
1. Provision of a coherent UK-wide framework<br />
Funding has been made available by the NCF to each nation and region in the<br />
UK, on a matching basis, to support digital short filmmaking;<br />
Originally, the £10,000 maximum budget per film and annual output<br />
requirements were stuck to across the board, but over time each of the<br />
strategic partners in the UK‟s nations and regions have had more freedom to<br />
plan their initiatives to fit local circumstances;<br />
The NCF also appointed Lifesize Pictures, an independent company, to manage<br />
all its short film schemes in partnership with the National and Regional Screen<br />
Agencies and other strategic partners.<br />
2. Development of new creative and technical talent<br />
Four distinct, UK-wide short film initiatives have been put in place, which target<br />
filmmakers at different stages of their careers. These provide a ladder of talent<br />
development, leading from entry-level schemes all the way up to schemes that<br />
support filmmakers who are approaching their first feature film.<br />
3. Encouragement of digital production and distribution<br />
Two of the NCF‟s four short film initiatives, Digital Shorts and Digital Nation, have an<br />
explicit requirement to shoot the films on a digital format. In terms of numbers of<br />
films made each year, these two schemes represent the vast majority 12 of the short<br />
films financed by the NCF. However, apart from the discontinued Viral Shorts<br />
scheme, there are no ongoing NCF initiatives to encourage the digital distribution of<br />
short films, such as a dedicated online platform.<br />
4. Promotion of cultural diversity and tackling social exclusion<br />
In addition to working with its strategic partners to reach out to under-represented<br />
communities, the NCF also funds two specialist short film initiatives targeting<br />
filmmakers from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds (Blank Slate, managed<br />
by B3 Media) and disabled filmmakers (The Magic Hour, managed by 104 Films). The<br />
UK Film Council‟s Diversity Unit became a co-funder of these initiatives in 2008.<br />
12 93% of all NCF films since inception. Source: UK Film Council official collected statistics.<br />
Page 15