Northern Alliance - BFI

Table 4: Recent applicants and awardees from minorities across schemes, 2008/09 25
2008/09
Digital Shorts (excl.
Applicants (%) Completion Fund Cinema Extreme special schemes)
Ethnic minority 28% 17% 17%
Female 40% 31% 32%
Disabled
2008/09
Awardees (%)
5% 1% 3%
Ethnic minority 10% 0% 15%
Female 30% 50% 44%
Disabled 0% 0% 7%
The UK Film Council's Diversity Unit recognises that in schemes tasked with discovering
and advancing talent, quotas and targets cannot be arbitrarily imposed: “We need to
make access and diversity a way of doing things, rather than a set of outcomes.”
Using its grant in aid budgets, the Diversity Unit has recently partnered with NCF
Lottery funds for short film production. These joint funds have been directed towards
two positive action programmes: Blank Slate 26 run by B3 Media, which supports black
and ethnic minority filmmakers; and The Magic Hour ,,27 run by 104 Films, which
supports disabled filmmakers. The grant in aid funding from the Diversity Unit allows
B3 Media and 104 Films to provide specific outreach and access activities that would
be difficult to fund through NCF Lottery funds alone. Both schemes are conceived as
temporary, fast-track initiatives to encourage ambition, engagement and the
development of skills and knowledge among target groups, anticipating a point at
which such special measures will no longer be needed and the mainstreaming of
diversity will be effective. The UK Film Council recognises that achieving that aim will
be difficult, especially in a way that does not exclude disabled filmmakers.
25 Figures reflect activity up to September 2009.
26 B3 Media describes the primary objective of Blank Slate as the opportunity to make digital
shorts and develop talent with a twist - “The twist is the ethnic remit”. B3 aims to support filmmakers to
improve storytelling skills, and develop a knowledge of the film industry and how it works. Film
production budgets range from £4,000-£17,000; the lower end of the spectrum enables B3 to work with
and develop very inexperienced filmmakers “with little or no formal training, but who show a spark of
talent”, without the pressure and risk that higher budgets would bring.
27 The Magic Hour scheme represents “a tectonic shift in the presence of disabled people in UK
film”. Its key aim is to put more disabled people in front of and behind the camera. In addition, it aims to
provide training for the filmmakers and “best practice examples” of the value working with disabled
filmmakers, aimed at the industry; an evaluation report of The Magic Hour scheme is intended to
introduce best practice models to the national and regional screen agencies, for example. Working with
disabled filmmakers involves specific access costs, such as additional carers or specially adapted
vehicles for disabled filmmakers. All films are made on a budget of around £8,000. The filmmakers and
producers consulted agreed this was a very demanding figure.
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