Council plan funds media skills
Five-year $80 mil initiative to create 'Screen Academies'
The ground-breaking strategy is intended to make the U.K. a world leader in film skills.
The announcement was made in London on Wednesday by Film Council deputy chairman Stewart Till and the U.K. government's education secretary Charles Clarke.
The plan includes the creation of a national network of three or four "Screen Academies," plus the launch of a new film business school encompassing distribution and exhibition as well as production.
Skillset, the industry's existing training body, will take on the management of the strategy. It will provide a central service not just for supervising the education of new entrants into the business, but to give ongoing career guidance and training for people already in the industry.
The aim is to pull together all the country's existing film courses and training initiatives under a single umbrella, closely co-ordinated with the real needs of the industry.
"No other national film industry has set in place such a comprehensive skills strategy," commented Till. He said the plan "will make a very significant impact on the long-term success and sustainability of our film industry and its prosperity on the world stage."
The Film Council will provide $10.4 million from its lottery funds towards the plan's annual budget of $16 million. Roughly $1.6 million a year will come from the industry's existing Skills Investment Fund, which comes from a voluntary levy on all U.K. productions. The rest of the coin will come from the European Commission's Media Fund and various regional agencies in the U.K.
"The money's in place, the organization is in place; this will happen and it will have real impact," Till said.
The plan kicks off in March 2004 (the start of the Film Council's next financial year).
The Screen Academies will be selected from the U.K.'s existing film schools and given additional funding and industry support. The National Film and TV School in Beaconsfield, just outside London, is already guaranteed to be among the select group of elite institutions.
