Kent Film and Television Board Meeting 16
Kent Film and Television Board Meeting
Midday, Wednesday 16th December 2009
Maidstone
In place of Chair – Tanya Oliver [Director of Strategic Development and Public Access]
Attendees Kevin Lynes – CABINET MEMBER, Kent Film Office Linda Bell – BBCSouth East
Jill Cochrane – MD Vertex Group
Paul Dixon – MD Courtyard Studios
Jan Dunn – Director/writer
Juliette Kaplan –Actor
Tim Leandro –Director
Geoff Miles – MD, Maidstone Studios
Mike Agnew – Director/Producer
Alistair Stewart – Chief Executive of Shepway District Council
Elaine Wickham –Producer
Sarah Williams – Script Writer
Apologies - Chair - Brenda Blethyn – [Actor], Vice Chair - Peter Gilroy – [Chief Executive of KCC], Sam Breckman – [Production Manager], Chris Chandler – [Interim CEO Screen South], Dr David Starkey – [Presenter], Elaine Thomas –[Rector UCA]
Tanya Oliver [TO] – Introductions
Gabrielle Lindemann [GL] Gave update of Kent Film Office [KFO] since pervious meeting
- Since the last board meeting the change in the economical climate has been huge. Many productions have seen their budgets cut by half. Also, to fulfil it’s nations quota, the BBC has pushed some Kent programmes to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Production spend for KFO in 2008/2009 – 4.4million excluding the 1 million tourism spend brought in by The Other Boleyn Girl Trail. [OBG]
- Based on the success of the OBG Trail, KFO are in the process of developing an on-line Movie Map to encourage more film tourism to Kent. It is hoped that it will be linked to the Dicken’s celebrations in 2012 and again, in partnership with Visit Kent, and will be added to their website, as well as feature on other outlets such as Visit Britain, for example.
- Filming Days in the county – 724 days for 2008-2009 and 290 so far this year and KFO think that this is result of recession hitting and hopes to reach it’s target of £2.2 million Kent spend and will consider this a success in the current financial climate.
- KFO has received full, cross party, council backing for Road Closure Bill thanks to the support of Kevin Lynes. This bill will allow KFO to close roads for filming in the same way that Film London [FL] can and allowing KFO to compete with them and perhaps even partner FL as the only rural authority with these powers.
- Film Friendly – KFO have been successful in getting the majority of district and borough councils to sign up, however KFO are still trying to get the BBC to sign up.
As agreed in the last meeting, KFO have worked on securing an annual 200K development fund for development, production, infrastructure, skills and training for the creative sector, as is available in most other UK regions. The Calling, which was the pilot project for the fund, received £75K and has so far generated in excess of £500K for the Kent economy.
TO – informs the board that our joint chair Peter Gilroy will be leaving KCC next year, and thanks him for his dedication towards KFO.
GL – asks the board what their opinions regarding the current economic climate and what their own experiences are?
Paul Dixon [PD] – comments that there are currently large numbers of unemployed freelancers.
Mike Agnew [MA] – comments that productions are not making any additional shows out of their remaining budgets for Christmas Specials. In January and February our TVs will be bare.
Juilette Kaplan [JK] – explains that commissioners do not like Christmas Specials anyway as they cannot sell the repeats later in the year.
Geoff Miles [GM] – states that the Maidstone Studios have seen a complete change since the start of the year which was very bad and they now have programmes coming in for the New Year, so they are not out of the woods but the studios on their way up again.
PD – has seen that advertising revenue is returning, so this must mean that they are putting money back into the industry.
GM – has noted that Fountain Studios, who facilitate The X Factor, have not seen anywhere near the growth that Maidstone Studios have.
MA – believes the London Studios do not provide the kind of competitive services that Maidstone can.
GM – believes Kent has a major draw and feels that the Movie-Map is a great idea. LA maps generate millions of Dollars for tourism in the USA.
Jill Cochrane [JC] – states that printed versions of the map in hotels, B&B’s and tourism information centres would generate lots of money for Kent.
GM – thinks that utilising the potential of Kent TV would be a fantastic source of marketing and a great sales tool.
TO – suggests that it might be useful to have Amanda Cottrell on the board so that we can draw on her knowledge and contacts regarding tourism in Kent. This was agreed to by the board.
JK – asks where the development money will come from.
TO – informs the board that KCC recongises the huge potential of film and television in generating economic benefits within Kent and the development fund money would come from the regeneration fund, since it would generate income and jobs for Kent creatives. She asks whether KFO may draw on board member’s expertise when evaluating projects.
Tim Leandro [TL] – would be happy to help for film and drama projects
Linda Bell [LB] – offers her help for factual and documentary
Paul Dixon [PD] - already involved
Mike Agnew [MA] - offers for entertainment and formats
GL – asks TL if he knows anyone who could help with TV commissioning and how to attract more TV to Kent.
TL – suggests that Julian Scott at Coolabri could be helpful and that he will contact and see what he can arrange. Tim also suggests that TV is very structured and there are few decision makers. The best thing to do to attract more TV to the county would be to develop relations with well known production companies of ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and that way KFO stands a better chance of having success.
LB - suggested Endemol, Wall to Wall, Shed, Ricochet as a starting point
TO – asks if anyone has any comments so far
Elaine Wickham [EW] – forwards comment from Jo Nolan CEO of Screen South highlighting that she is very interested in a Mircowave Scheme for Kent providing that it is Talent Focused.
GL – explains to board that the microwave scheme is a programme developed between BBC Films and Film London which asks film makers to produce a feature for £100K. Film London offer them £20kKand BBC Films offers them £30K. It is then up to the film maker to find the additional £50K. GL asks should we do a similar scheme in Kent?
JK – asks regarding distribution?
GL – explains that she has a meeting with Film London regarding 2 current microwave projects where she hopes to learn more about the sales and distribution options as well as how to run this kind of scheme.
TL – interested by the opportunity.
MA – discusses the options offered by VOD – including I-Player, U-Tube and I-Tunes. Even Kent TV would be a great platform.
GL – asks if success of VOD is genre related?
MA – there is a hierarchy of genre on-line as the majority of footage is shot by students or film-makers that can not raise large budgets. Therefore the films are mainly low budget and micro budget films and predominantly Horror.
TL – suggests that the format should be 90 minutes for any micro budget scheme as this will then have greater potential for festivals and theatrical release. 50 minutes is no good for cinema.
JC – adds that a 90 minute feature would also need a cracking 2 minute trailer to get the attention of audiences.
JD – KFO needs to build relationships with commissioning bodies and comments that a way to do that is to have a scriptwriting competition in Kent.
GL – then asks the board for help to find contacts so she can get a greater insight into the commissioning process.
Jan Dunn [JD] – informs KFO that it needs to be done by relationship building. For Example, JD has been trying to get a commissioner to come to Kent for a networking meeting; however she can not get any firm answers.
LB – informs the board that the BBC is overwhelmed and that they have an agreement with PACT which they need to abide by.
JC – can KFO sponsor PACT membership for local filmmakers?
GL – explains that KFO did look into this but it is very expensive.
TO – states that she will look into it and that KFO might be able to use a portion of the development fund to pay for this if it help support and develop Kent businesses.
Kevin Lynes [KL] – agrees that KFO can use the development fund to pay for the sponsorship.
TO – asks board for their final thoughts and what KFO should do this year?
GM – comments that he and Elaine and Jan are going to meet and discuss more options regarding bringing match funding into the development fund.
EW – comments that once they have discussed this, it may be a good opportunity to get together more often with regards to the funding.
PD – asks what happened with the online forum?
GL – explains that our KCC website does not currently offer this but improvements are being made and once capable, KFO will talk with ISG and discuss what monitoring etc will be needed for this to take place.
Sarah Williams [SW] – believes that the scriptwriting competition is worth considering and should concentrate on the development of Kent novels, stories, history and sites etc.
GL – asks if board would be interested in setting up a steering group to sort out guidelines, etc?
SW – would be happy to be part of group.
JD – comments that the BBC Writers’ room would be a great place to partner with.
TL – happy to sit on group and also comments that it might be a good idea to have a Kent Film Festival as a high profile companion to the competition.
JD – mentions that we have the Folkestone Book Festival and that she too would be willing to sit on the group.
TO – agrees that KFO will look again into the possibilities of having a Kent Film Festival.
GL – comments that KFO is only 2 people and there is only so much it can take on with current staff levels.
JD – offers to send some of the applications for work experience from her office to KFO.
JC – also mentions that she has many people that would be interested in one day a week in the office.
TO – asks for JD and JC to forward them onto KFO.
GL – comments that we find that many people who come to the office are not aware that we are mainly office based and do not like the idea of data input, filing and other admin duties etc. She also mentioned that KCC has policies that do not allow people to work for extended periods of time without proper remuneration and we do not have the budgets to pay for additional help.
KL – mentions that KCC has a scheme called Future Jobs Fund and to look into that.
JK – asks GL and TO what other help members can offer.
TO – informs the board that they can Champion Kent and continue to support KFO to make sure that we stay on the right path to support and grow the creative sector in Kent.
JK – asks if we advertise KFO.
TO – we try to where possible via press releases, MediaTree, newsletters etc.
TL – asks if he could receive newsletters.
GL – states that in future the board members will be added to newsletter distribution list, including the Mediatree one.
TO – Thanks the board.
Actions
KFO – to try and build relationships with commissioning bodies and contact production companies to inform them of the development fund.
KFO – to invite Amanda Cottrell to the Film and Television Board.
KFO – Look into monitoring issues regarding an on-line forum.
GM, EW and JD – to have further conversations regarding bringing more money into the development fund.
KFO, SW, JD and TL to be part of a steering group to discuss scriptwriting competition.
KFO – to look into possibilities for a Kent Film Festival.
KFO -- to look into Future Jobs Fund for employment opportunities in the office.
KFO – to add board members to MediaTree and locations newsletters.
KFO – to develop Kent moviemap.
KFO - to become member of PACT.