If you tend to think of yourself as a card carrying member of the frustrated, ignored and generally skint legion of first time filmmakers struggling to get a first step on the wobbly career ladder that is a job in film, here's news of two initiatives that might be of interest.
The first, A Bigger Future, is a £10 million per year package of measures (for the next 5 years) launched in September by Skillset and the UK Film Council.
From the point of view of newcomers to the industry, the initiatives in the strategy are to include creating a national network of Screen Academies based in existing higher/further/post graduate education institutions across the UK, introducing a new industry approvals system for film courses in higher education (presumably to root out the kind of dodgy media courses that promise Hollywood and deliver Hollyoaks), establishing a 'time bank' of industry professionals willing to give up their time to lecture or run training courses (long overdue) and most importantly providing bursaries to help companies take on trainees and work placements.
Stewart Till, Deputy Chair of both the Film Council and Skillset believes that 'with the implementation of the strategy, the UK will lead the world in film training'. This makes sense. UK studios have consistently earned big dollars from producers attracted by the high technical skills and work ethic of UK technicians, so perhaps the government is at last coming round to the idea that this kind of investment is money well spent. Time will tell...
Click here to find out more about Skillset and A Bigger Future.
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