01.08.2013 Views

Northern Alliance - BFI

Northern Alliance - BFI

Northern Alliance - BFI

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

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

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!