The BBC, Channel Four, Scottish Screen, Skillset Scotland, indie and freelance producers got together for a unique collaboration in Glasgow last week. It was an Open Forum on “Diversity – the Creative Opportunity”.

Greater diversity can make programmes more commercially successful as well as more creative, said guest contributor Oona King (Channel 4’s Head of Diversity).
“It makes good business sense. A more inclusive industry makes better programmes, and is fairer and more representative. Programme-makers should take the risk to involve new talent from more varied backgrounds off screen as well as on it, from the development stage onwards.”
She added that C4’s Drama Controller Tessa Ross, for example, enabled visual artist Steve McQueen to direct “The Hunger” about ethnic conflict in Northern Ireland – even though he had never directed drama before. And two of C4’s greatest successes in the past 2 years both had diversity at their core: the movies “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Last King of Scotland”.

The Forum was initiated and staged by the Indie Training Fund, the leading charity providing  development for indie TV and digital media production companies and freelancers. It was one of a series of events and half-day Diversity workshops that ITF is organising around the UK to support the broadcasters’ new Diversity Pledge, and the Cultural Diversity Network

The discussion was led by Jo Street (BBC Scotland’s Daytime Commissioner) and Daniell Morrisey (BBC Vision’s Talent Business Manager, and a member of the Indie Talent Forum).

In the opening interactive quiz the small teams of delegates from several Scottish indies (including Bees Nees Media, the Broadbent Partnership, Caledonia TV Productions, The Comedy Unit, Firefly Arts, IWC Media, Lion TV & the Media Co-op), and the BBC, and the freelance producers had some surprises in what they knew about their audiences. Guided by the workshop leaders they then discussed some successful current programmes, and came up with ideas about how they could be improved by working towards more diverse elements and viewpoints:

Most of those present felt they gained new perspectives from the event which they would aim to include in the content of their future projects.  Afterwards they said:

“I will try and change my mindset so that diversity is more integrated into the development process”

“We will work even harder to give opportunities to diverse new talent when we hire people”

“A great and thought-provoking session”

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: bbc, channel 4, cultural diversity network, Diversity Pledge. Oona King, Indie Training Fund, Scottish Screen, Skillset Scotland
Comments: (0)

Pact is running another of its revealing series of ‘Behind the Screens’ showcasing events to highlight some of the best new digital, innovative and technological projects from the UK digital media industry.
Get a closer look at the latest projects from award-winning Pact members and network with other producers, commissioners, new media executives, managing directors, technology representatives and more to gain new ideas, productions and partnerships.
Kicking off in March in London, this FREE 7-city tour, sponsored by Adobe, will feature top producers and their projects as follows:
London: 12 March 2010
Featuring Maverick Television (Embarrassing Illnesses); Coggap (Noostar); Raw TV (Battlefront) plus more

Glasgow: 6 May 2010
Tern Digital (Art of Maps); Illumina Digital (Sun Quiz Live), Axis Animation (The Journey); Cube Interactive (Double Six Club)

Birmingham: 13 May 2010
Star Dot Star (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra); Eye Film and TV (Tempting Fates); Lion Interactive (Victorian Christmas)

Manchester: 10 June 2010
Preloaded (1066); Desq (BBC Legacy); Urban Canyons TV (Urbanation); ISO Design (Central Station)

Cardiff: 15 September 2010
Quark Films (The People vs George Lucas); Modern Toss (Chaos Laboratories); Hat Trick (Chartjackers) plus more

Bristol: 11 November 2010
RDF Contact (Being Human), plus more

Belfast: 9 December 2010
Ronin Films (The Irish Giant), plus more

These FREE events will run from 3.30pm-5.30pm followed by drinks and networking.
For more details and to register go to: https://www.pact.co.uk/Homepage/Events/

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: adobe, digital showcase, pact
Comments: (0)

Mad March special offers: 25% off the following courses if you book by the deadline…

Scheduling for Drama Production 18.03.10 London
A one-day workshop for production staff introducing guidelines for scheduling production in feature film and TV drama
Who’s it for? An introductory course for production staff new to scheduling for TV drama and feature film. Ties in with the ITF PMs and Budgeting for Drama courses
Book by Wednesday 10 March for 25% off

Budgeting for Drama Production 30.03.10 London
A 1-day workshop for production staff introducing guidelines for budgeting feature film and TV drama productions
Who’s it for? An introductory course for production staff new to budgeting for TV drama and feature film. Ties in with the ITF PMs and Scheduling for Drama courses
Book by Monday 22 March for 25% off

Skillset is still offering bursaries of up to 80% of training costs including travel and accommodation expenses where relevant – to eligible freelancers and employees on all 4 of our cross-platform workshops until March 2010.
Find out more and apply as soon as possible before the courses because Skillset will take up to 4 weeks to approve applications…

Multiplatform: Joined-up Production 12.03.10 London
A one-day workshop to help production companies and digital interactive agencies work together to create cross-platform content. Led by Kirsty Hunter, Head of Interactive at Lion TV (producers of “Britain from Above” for BBC) & Andy Bell, Creative Director of Mint Digital (makers of “SkinsLife”, “Football3s” & “Landshare” for C4).
Who’s it for? Producers, APs, project and operations managers, and other production team-members. This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact

Making Money From Digital Platforms and Rights 16.03.10 London
A half-day introductory workshop to help production companies and interactive agencies understand how to make money from digital platforms, and to exploit the content rights in both broadcast and corporate markets. Led by Peter Cowley (Endemol’s Digital Media MD) & Justin Judd (i-rights CEO)
Who’s it for? Designed as an introductory course for TV and digital media production companies this course will benefit those requiring an overview of exploiting content on TV, digital media, interactive and 360 platforms.This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact

Other core skills for production and development teams members…

Intro to Artistic and Literary Copyright 25.03.10 London
A basic half-day seminar for anyone wanting to understand more about clearance procedures for artistic and literary copyright in production
Who’s it for? Production staff of all levels, anyone dealing with books, art, still images or other types of artistic copyright in production

Finding & Interviewing Programme Contributors 29.04.10 London
A one-day workshop designed to help you find and assess the right people for factual entertainment, reality TV and game shows
Who’s it for? Anyone in production who is involved with finding and assessing contributors, particularly researchers and assistant producers. Relevant for those working in factual entertainment, reality TV and game shows

Music Rights (2): Negotiating Agreements 18.05.10 London
This in-depth seminar is designed for people with good practical experience of music copyright in film and television, and/or have attended the introductory level Music  Rights (1): The Essentials
Who’s it for? Please note: this course is intermediate and is not suitable for those who are either new to or have very little working knowledge of music copyright

Pitching Your Project 20.05.10 London
A one-day intensive workshop for indie producers on pitching TV and film projects to commissioning editors/funding bodies
Who’s it for? Designed Producers and production staff with some experience of production and the commissioning process. This workshop is suitable for all TV and Film genres. Prior to the course each delegate must submit a one-page outline of a project that they would like to develop further

Upcoming essential training on the management of productions, team and business…

Diversity: Putting the Pledge into Action 15.04.10 London *new course*
A new low-cost workshop to help indies make the most of their commitment to the Diversity Pledge, and the practical steps they can take to implement it in their company ethos and operating practices
Who’s it for? HR & operations managers, production heads & managers, co-ordinators, and executive producers

Intro to Factual Production Management  22.04.10 London
A one-day workshop for covering the basic elements of production management
Who’s it for? Junior personnel who need to know some basic operations of the production office.  Production staff who are beginning to take on a production management role. It is not intended as a ‘brush up’ session for already experienced production managers

Making Money from Formats 05.05.10 London
A one-day workshop for Producers and distributors covering developing, licensing and selling TV format ideas
Who’s it for? TV Producers, distributors, legal and business affairs staff. This is an introductory course covering the subject from a producers point of view and is intended for those with some experience in TV sales and business affairs

Intro to Employment Law  13.05.10 London
A one-day seminar covering the basics of employment law for independent production companies
Who’s it for? This seminar is suitable for producers, production managers, human resources staff and anyone wanting to know more about the legal side of recruitment and staff management

View our current short course list with dates and prices to plan ahead before places run out.

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: training
Comments: (0)

Skillset is now offering bursaries of up to 80% of training costs – including travel and accommodation expenses where relevant – to eligible freelancers and employees on all 4 of our cross-platform workshops in the first quarter of 2010. The two remaining workshops below are still eligible for funding.
Apply as soon as possible before the courses because Skillset will take up to 4 weeks to approve applications:

Multiplatform: Joined-up Production 04.03.10 (tbc) London
A one-day workshop to help production companies and digital interactive agencies work
together to create cross platform content
Who’s it for? Producers, APs, project and operations managers, and other production team-members. This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact

Making Money From Digital Platforms and Rights 16.03.10 London
A half-day introductory workshop to help production companies and interactive agencies understand how to make money from digital platforms, and to exploit the content rights in both broadcast and corporate markets
Who’s it for? Designed as an introductory course for TV and digital media production companies this course will benefit those requiring an overview of exploiting content on TV, digital media, interactive and 360 platforms.This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact

More info/apply for a Skillset bursary

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: training
Comments: (0)

ITF has been finding its feet on Twitter and Facebook for a few weeks now – so we thought it was about time we told you about this.

All four of us at ITF (Andrea, Claire, Ian and Laura) are adding updates which we hope will provide members and anyone else interested with bite-sized information about…

• upcoming courses
• available funding / subsisidies
• interesting meetings

So – if you want to be kept in the loop about what ITF and its partners are up to – please feel free to follow us on Twitter, and find us on Facebook…

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Social networking, tweet, twitter
Comments: (0)

For some of our short courses freelancers and staff can now get bursaries from Skillset which ITF funds!

Find out more

Posted by indietrainingfund
Comments: (0)

As of 6 April 2009 a number of employment law updates have come into force. These include issues on resolution procedures, flexible working, sick pay and statutory annual leave entitlement.

Itf’s Intro to Employment Law is a one-day seminar covering the basics of employment law for independent production companies. It will include what the changes are and what they mean for employers reviewing contracts and policies to reflect the changes. This seminar is suitable for producers, production managers, human resources staff and anyone wanting to know more about the legal side of recruitment and staff management.

Next date: Intro to Employment Law 11/11/2009 – ITF Member £150 / Pact Member £225 / Corporate 300

Book now

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: contracts, law, Legal, training
Comments: (0)

Can you now pitch successfully for a TV commission using just 140 characters on Twitter?
This was one of the questions raised in ITF’s provocative and topical Open Forum discussion “So what’s all this multiplatform business?” in a full house at London’s Framestore cinema on 18th March.

Jokingly suggested by Endemol’s Digital Media Director Peter Cowley, the idea was taken up with enthusiasm by Louise Brown, Channel 4’s new Head of Cross-Platform Commissioning, who encouraged the TV and digital media professionals in the audience to get on as many networks as possible. She also suggested that planning how to develop and manage communities of viewers/users was now becoming increasingly important, as well as deciding how and when to respond to them. Her own checklist for cross-platform commissions is “niche, open & interactive”.

In his opening remarks the chairman Andrew Chitty, MD of Illumina Digital, had set the scene by noting the challenge of the shift from broadcast platforms to participatory online media, and the resulting creative and commercial impetus to engage users across multiple platforms. Acknowledging the threats to local media producers and ad-funded broadcasters, and of Video on Demand to niche broadcast channels, he asked what the role of PSB would be in this new environment.

C4’s Louise Brown said she thinks the digital production explosion will be good news for small suppliers and the creators of electronic games. New content ideas can initially be tried out at lower cost on the web before TV transmission (like C4’s “Osama Loves” which was made in partnership with Mint Digital).

Peter Cowley explained how much more challenging than TV commissions it is to get digital and non-broadcast projects off the ground because, as well as the content, the producer now has to find the funding and the platform, and also identify and develop the target community. It is higher risk but there should be a higher potential reward.

Jonathan Jackson, COO of the Digital Rights Group , pointed out that digital rights currently make up only a small percentage of overall distribution and sales deals but that he expected them to grow rapidly.

Anthony Lukom, MD of MySpace UK, stated that providing the platform and acting as a broker between the content-provider and potential sponsors, as MySpace does, was the model for the future.
After Cowley showed a clip of Endemol’s short  viral HD mini-drama series “Kirill” for MSN, Lukom proposed that one way forward to avoid product placement issues is to do a cheaper branded version on the internet, and a full high-quality version for TV transmission without  the commercial content. Although product placement is commonplace in the USA and Holland for example, it still appears to be a dirty word for Ofcom and the government in Britain, so the more acceptable new term may be “product integration”…

Lukom  also said that social community networks can now complement and greatly reinforce TV broadcasting. “Skins” was successfully previewed on MySpace before its transmission on E4. Just as music fans have broken the industry’s commercial clout by expecting to download tracks for free, Lukom believes that the success of what has traditionally been TV content will now be decided by the user, and not the broadcaster.

The chairman Andrew Chitty concluded by asking what skills gaps there are if we want to succeed as Digital Britain in the future. (He is a member of Lord Carter’s committee who produced the recent interim report.)  Rather than digital technologists he thinks we need more effective service design producers to provide a better overall digital media experience.  Anthony Lukom is looking for people who can adapt longer-form media content structures to short-form interactive with strong social network appeal.

Both Lukom and Cowley ended by saying that if the government and Ofcom try to over-regulate the media industry, and especially the “unregulate-able” digital sector, they will hold back British creativity and future economic success in this area.

This Open Forum event was staged in association with Film London

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Add new tag, andrew chitty, anthony lukom, jonathan jackson, louise brown, multiplatform, open forum, peter cowley
Comments: (1)

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Film London, ITF Open Forum, Networking
Comments: Comments Off

ITF Open Forum

in association with Film London

When? Monday 9th March 2009 at 18.30

Where? Framestore Cinema, 19-23 Wells Street, London W1T 3PQ

Price? Free

In the current tough financial climate, production companies are asking how they can cut costs, including the use of music.

space

• How much cost, time and effort is involved, and is it worth it?

• What rights are you actually buying?

• What are the latest licensing deals for TV, film & digital media?

• Dangers & pitfalls

• Commissioning composers

• Cost-saving strategies

• How to negotiate good deals

Presented & chaired by Ivan Chandler (Musicalities)

with:

Danny Adams  (PRS for Music)

Anne Beresford (MJW Productions)

Andrew Chowns (Pact)

Ben Jones (Musicians Union)

This is one of a new series of free ITF Open Forum evening discussions when leading industry figures will talk about the latest hot topics in our business. TV, film and digital media professionals are all welcome, and those attending will have a chance to share their experiences and network with each other.

Agenda

1830 Registration, refreshments & networking

1900 Forum session begins

Followed by open discussion & questions

2045 Closure

Online registration is now open at www.filmlondon.org.uk/seminars

NB:Speakers are subject to change

The latest line-up will be posted here

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Add new tag, Film London, Ivan Chandler, Legal, Licensing, Music, Music composition, Music copyright, Musicians Union, PPL, PRS for Music
Comments: (1)