You can’t make great film, TV and animation without investing in the people. This is why ScreenSkills is committed to delivering training, resources and opportunities across the whole of the UK. This month our focus is the South East.
Seetha Kumar, ScreenSkills CEO, said: “We are proud to support the screen industries in the South East in close collaboration with partners. Thanks to productions that contribute to our skills funds and the BFI, who award us National Lottery funds, we can run training for professionals at all careers stages.”
Productions and placements
Encompassing the counties of East Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Buckinghamshire, the South East of England continues to be a hive of activity across film, television and animation with productions contributing to the respective ScreenSkills funds.
Productions of all budgets have contributed to the Film Skills Fund, benefiting from ScreenSkills support and work placements for craft professionals.
True Things, Harry Wootliff’s upcoming drama shot on the Kent coast, stars Ruth Wilson and Tom Burke as an ill-matched couple, and welcomed two trainees onto set from the Film Trainee Finder programme, ScreenSkills’ paid placement initiative for new entrants.
A further trainee worked on Living, the Brighton set adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru starring Bill Nighy which recently received its premiere at the Sundance festival.
On the set of Mothering Sunday, a drama starring Josh O’Connor and Colin Firth, a costume trainee was joined by a former Royal Air Force serviceman and locations trainee Mark McKenzie. Mark first took part in ScreenSkills Veterans in Focus training course, an initiative that encourages former armed forces members to transfer their skills to the screen industries.
On the placement, Mark said: “It was a door opener for me – working on a feature like Mothering Sunday just wouldn’t have happened without ScreenSkills. It was a facilitator to get me into the industry. I’m still in touch with everyone at ScreenSkills and get almost daily updates on what’s available but I’m booked out until next April!”
Hear more about Mark’s experience.
With an eye on future film productions, ScreenSkills’ Head of Film and Animation Gareth Ellis-Unwin visited the newly opened Shinfield Studios in Reading, Berkshire recently. Hosted by Julia Hillsdon, Head of Marketing at Shinfield, Gareth was shown the four functional stages and the variety of workshop space that has been built since planning permission was granted last May. He said: “The speed and quality of the stages that have been built at Shinfield is staggering… I’m just jealous I can’t shoot one of my productions there yet!”
From returning favourites such as Call the Midwife and Bridgerton to new dramas After Ever After and Marriage, high-end TV production in the region has seen fifteen shows contribute to the HETV Skills Fund in the past year. Eleven of those took on new entrants to the industry as part of the HETV Trainee Finder programme, with trainees working across art, camera, sound and costume departments.
Through the Make a Move programme, 16 crew and production professionals who had been identified by industry colleagues as ready to step up their careers, received placements on 12 HETV productions across the region. They ranged from make up juniors to production coordinators and worked across productions as varied as The Larkins, Whitstable Pearl and Grace.
The Amazon Studios production, Devil’s Hour, and Hartswood Film’s Inside Man offered opportunities to participants on ScreenSkills’ First Break initiative. The social mobility programme, launched by the High-end TV Skills Fund in 2019, creates pathways to careers in television production for people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
In the summer of 2021 ScreenSkills worked with Hartswood Films to provide opportunities for local people in Hampshire to work on two drama productions being made at the new Farnborough Film Studios. First Break invited people to two open events followed by half day boot camps and the chance to apply for paid placements.
Both shows were based at Farnborough studios where they became the first productions to make use of the studios’ new 22,000 sq ft sound stage, named The Hartswood Stage after the company’s commitment to television production. Sue Vertue, executive producer and CEO of Hartswood Films said: “This is a state-of-the-art sound stage with fabulous locations in the surrounding areas. We have also had the opportunity to involve quite a few local residents in a ScreenSkills First Break work experience programme which was very exciting for both sides.”
In the world of animation, Brighton-based Plug-In Media have been animating on the CBeebies’ new show, Supertato. The soon-to-air programme was a contributor to the Animation Skills Fund and follows the adventures of world’s first potato superhero against his villainous rival, Evil Pea.
Fund supporter, Novel Entertainment, are an Oxford-based production company geared towards children’s television with their well-loved property Horrid Henry. Their recent work, Horrid Henry’s Gross Day Out, is currently available to stream on Netflix.
The Unscripted TV Skills Fund, which was launched last summer is committed to spenging at least 50% of its income on beneficiaries in the nations and English regions with the South East one of the regions to benefit. It has announced a suite of programmes to address areas of skills shortage within the industry aimed at those already in the industry as well as new entrants hoping to make their first steps in unscripted TV.
Sarah Joyce, ScreenSkills’ Head of Unscripted and Children’s TV, said: “From our ongoing industry consultation and research, we know just how urgent skills needs are and therefore how vital interventions like these will be to the continued growth and vitality of the unscripted TV sector across the UK.”
One area of focus is the development researcher course, a training programme to develop new talent ready to join unscripted TV. Those in the South East can apply to take part in a free course at Brighton in June. Applications close on 25 May.
A new programme designed to demystify the world of unscripted TV has two events taking place within the region in the coming months. It aims to provide a greater understanding of the world of unscripted television and invites attendees to discover more about the roles available, what constitutes unscripted TV, and how to get a job within it. Read more about the initiative and find out how to book your place.
New pathways and career development
2021 saw the MA Post Production for Film and TV course at Hampshire’s Solent University endorsed by ScreenSkills Select. Industry evaluators independently assess courses to identify thosethat provide students with the employability skills, experience and understanding they need to enter the working industry.
It joins 31 other courses across the South East with ScreenSkills Select endorsement. Read why camera trainee Caleb Johnston chose an endorsed course when he studied film production at the University of Portsmouth, and discover a complete list of endorsed courses at colleges and universities in the region.
The ScreenSkills Mentoring Network, delivered with National Lottery funds from the BFI part of the BFI’s Future Film Skills strategy supports partner organisations to run mentoring alongside ScreenSkills own matching programme. For two consecutive years, ScreenSkills funded mentoring programmes delivered by Slough-based Resource Productions. Through its Creative Collective mentoring programme, the film and TV production company has supported filmmakers in the region through both traditional and peer mentoring.
Brighton-based Talking Point ran the TP Mentoring Network Programme in 2019 and 2020 with funding from ScreenSkills. It addressed people coming into, or moving up a grade in production departments and provides workshops, resources and one to one mentoring with established practitioners working at a supervisory or head of department level on feature films and high end TV drama.