Last night we all went along to The Bond in Digbeth to attend a night that was generously hosted by Screen West Midlands, SWM are a leading agency for all things television related within the West Midlands, and a company we have found very useful for us as a new independent television production company. Amongst other things they offer financial support for people in the area who are wanting to make a short film etc, and offer educational advice to further the film and media education available in the West Midlands.
Last nights event was named "Re-building the TV Drama in the West Midlands", as Birmingham seems to be recently attracting high profile television dramas such as Hustle, Spooks and Survivors, how do we encourage this trend to continue and sell Birmingham as a perfect location for such series?
A panel of professionals consisted of -
Tony Jordan (Red Planet Pictures, creator Hustle, co-creator Life on Mars)
Peter Lloyd (Series Producer, Doctors)
Michael Eaton (Screenwriter, Fellow Traveller, Signs and Wonders, Shipman)
Lee Thomas (Executive Producer, Production & Development, Screen West Midlands)- Claire Bennett (TV series writer)
- Claire Parker (Kudos Executive Producer)
The panel started by introducing themselves and giving a quick biography of the involvement they have had with television Drama, they then went on to discuss their opinions and views of how the West Midlands can start to re-build the drama content coming out of it.
Points of interest we took away from the evening were -
- Online Drama - there seems to be good investment for people within the Drama industry to create dramas for an online content. It is easy and cheap to do and means that the programme can be set anywhere as it is not having to necessarily fit to certain commissioning briefs.
- The re-build of the Drama industry is not one large movement, it is a large jigsaw and all the pieces need to be gradually found and put into place. Hustle and Spooks being filmed in the area is one piece of this jigsaw, we now need a way to find more pieces and encourage them to come here.
- When nothing is being made here, nothing else will come. The barrier has now been broken and we need to ensure the stability of this industry and what Birmingham can offer.
There were many media professionals that attended the event; scriptwriters, production companies, editors and freelancers that all have a passion to explore Birmingham and want to increase the amount of Drama being made here. The floor was opened up to a discussion of the ways in which we can all work together to put Birmingham back on the map, as an ideal location for production.
Contributions and decisions that were made consisted of -
- How do we start? How do we get noticed? Something needs to be produced that makes the city globally sellable.
- Online Drama content is a biggy! We must try and push this forwards.
- There was talk of setting up a site where we can all post our ideas and thoughts.
- Think of a way local companies can be helped and kept in a sustainable position to keep creating the content needed.
- Get everyone to work together, think outside the box - consider other professionals you can work with.
- With all this we can then work towards a specific collaboration.
The night was especially helpful for us, as we feel Trainer is an example of putting Drama back on the map for Birmingham as we aim to showcase local talent and we have collaborated with professionals and people starting out, trying to break into the industry, as well as showing how diverse a location Birmingham is. We had the opportunity to network with these people, tell them of our project and get to know what others are doing in the area to celebrate Birmingham.
It has also given us the opportunity to better understand where the future of Birmingham is heading in terms of television Drama and Drama shorts, and it is now clear to us that productions like Trainer are in high demand for the West Midlands.
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