Created in Birmingham

• The website for New Art Birmingham has launched and perusing it I’m reminded that it’s not just the art fair at Curzon Street Station. There are also events taking place at the Ikon Gallery, New Art Gallery Walsall, Midlands Arts Centre, The Lighthouse in Wolverhampton, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The site was designed by local company Made Media.
• Speaking of website relaunches, TAK! have announced they’ve got the commission for the Ikon gallery to recreate their site and online shop “from the ground up.”
• Paul Bradshaw’s Online Journalism Blog is proving quite a gem as he evidently knows his stuff. If you’re interested in how the media landscape is changing or just want to get a handle on how you could be using online means of communication (blogs, podcasts, video, community building, etc) I’d recommend keeping tabs on him. Paul’s the Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism and Magazines at UCE.
• Andrew Dubber was confused about how Koopa, an “unsigned” band, can get into the charts when the charts require you to be on a record label so he got in touch with Ditto Music, the Edgbaston-based PR and distribution company who acted as a de-facto label for them. How is what Ditto do different from a traditional label? The ensuing conversation is quite illuminating and well worth a read but in summary it’s not that Koopa were unsigned that’s noteworthy, more that they hadn’t signed away their rights.
• Couple of new blogs on the block. Design company Substrakt have launched their blog in advance of a site revamp. More news on them later. Meanwhile Stef Lewandowski of 3form has turned his photo portfolio into a blog where he’s started posting articles and musings about the creative scene.

If you’re a photographer you may have already come across the petition to “stop proposed restrictions regarding photography in public places” as it’s been getting a fair bit of word-of-mouth action. As well as being all over Flickr like a rash it’s been covered by photography agency Rhubarb Rhubarb and Film Birmingham. 35,000 people have signed it to date and it runs until August so that number is bound to increase.

The chap who started the petition, Simon Taylor of Farnborough, explains his reasons at length here.

I have NOT said that a bill is in preparation, or that legislation is being prepared, but am referring to the ID cards proposed by various bodies which will serve to create an ‘uber class’ of photographer, and restrict the use of cameras by normal citizens. These cards will only further the suspicion and misunderstandings that many photographers already suffer.

It’s unfortunate that the petition is rather inaccurately phrased and that he doesn’t identify these “various bodies”, but then the whole issue of public photography is something of a mess in this country. Cameras are now everywhere, from the ubiquitous cameraphone to affordable SLRs, and photography as a hobby and artform has become much more widespread. On a more prosaic level photography in public places by the public means we have a record of our society and environment like no other time in history, not to mention that these people who might not consider themselves artists are indulging in creativity and learning to see.

I think this petition is worth signing, not necessarily because it’s right but because it sends a signal that the pendulum has swung too far in paranoia’s direction.

Related to this, the UK Photographers Rights guide is a 2 page printable PDF which any photographer is advised to take a look at.

Co-production is becoming an increasingly viable option for independent producers who are looking to finance their projects. Join the Producers’ Forum for an afternoon of talks, discussion and case studies from producers experienced in this field. Guest speakers include:

• Rebecca O’Brien (Producer, The Wind That Shakes The Barley)
• JJ Lousberg (UK Film Council)
• Isabel Davis (UK Film Council)
• Christine Alderson (Producer, Ipso Facto Films)

To book your place please email Tom Norton at the Producers’ Forum or call 0121 772 6070.

Date: Wednesday 21st March 2006
Time: 14.00 - 17.30.

Cost: £100+VAT, Free to members of the Producers’ Forum PACT, NPA & Shooting People members, £75+VAT.
Location: The Electric Cinema, Birmingham, B5 4DY

Film Birmingham has a brief Interview with Tom Norton about the Producers’ Forum.

The New Generation Arts festival brings all the various UCE arts graduate shows under one banner for two weeks in this summer. It’s a neat idea allowing them to make more of an event of their varied shows and really push the creatives involved. It’s still early days but the website looks to be adding profiles and portfolios for all of the artists featured across six categories: fine arts, music, performing arts, design, animation & film and creative writing.

The slightly mind-boggling calendar of events is here and it runs from June 14th - 29th.

Hat tip to D’log.

BirminghamMusic.com, the umbrella site that attempts to cover all the musical activity going on in the city, have announced plans to run a recording studio which will be made available for free to Birmingham based musicians. As plans are put into motion over the next few months interested artists are invited to get in touch at admin@birminghamusic.com. Presumably doing so will also inform what shape the studio takes.

The Event is “a series of artist run activities in permanent and temporary spaces throughout central Birmingham” running for a fortnight from Martch 31st to April 15th.

Participating organisations are a.a.s., Capital Art Projects, Colony, [insertspace], International Project Space, Modulate, Periscope, 7inch Cinema, Spectacle, and the Springhill Institute.

There’s also a launch party on Saturday March 31st, apparently at Curzon Street Station.

More details as they emerge…

Thanks to D’log for sourcing all the links, making my job easier…

D’log went to the Birmingham Open art show and reports on the artists that caught his eye, finding links to them where possible.

Andrew Dubber, a music lecturer at UCE, gives news of a talk he’s giving for the Moseley Creative Forum on March 15th, 7pm upstairs at the Epic Skate Park. The title is “There’s never been a better time to be in the music industry”.

There’s a bit of a presupposition in there that I don’t think I entirely agree with — so let’s call that a ‘provocation’, rather than an accurate summary of what my central thesis will be.

I’m being joined by music manager John Mostyn (The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals — and, more recently, Lizzie Parks and Trio Gitano), the guys from Jibbering Records and Steve Harding from the Conservatoire.

Full details here.

The Night Times is a free 16 page tabloid covering the Birmingham club scene. I’ve seen this sort of thing before but it’s usually national and therefore quite London-centric. Bars are reviewed, club nights photographed, DJs interviewed, opinions spilt and the centre pages is a pull out calendar.

I picked up my copy at Old Skool Daze in Selly Oak but I’d imagine it’s available city wide.

No website to speak of so email info@thenighttimes.com or call 0121 440 4691 for more info.

The Images of Birmingham Photo Library is an agency run by Craig Holmes holding over 10,000 images of the city by Craig and a team of 6 freelance photographers. As well as licensing photos they also sell prints directly from their site. Craig’s own photos from around the world are represented by Crowded Gallery.

Plugged In is a one day event run by Digital Central and Neon “to debate the future of the region’s music and radio industries” on Monday 26th March from 10am to 4.30pm.

• How do we sustain a vibrant regional music industry that helps contribute to the regional economy?
• What can be done to better facilitate and develop new and existing music scenes and industry clusters in the region?
• How can regional radio better represent the region’s music?
• How can our music heritage and events enhance the West Midlands’ tourist industry?
• How can the industry capitalise on new music and radio technologies?

More details here.

A regular selection of photos from the Birmingham Flickr community.

Sarah Abnett

nobody knows anything

ikkio too

harri b

All copyright as applies.

To suggest photos for inclusion in this feature add them to this thread or leave a link in the comments.

I picked up a flyer for the New Art Birmingham art market on March 15-18th because it was very pretty and noticed that the venue is Curzon Street Station. If you’re not familiar with the name it’s this building in Digbeth:

While the building has a fascinating history as the first railway station linking Birmingham to London and is a striking part of the Digbeth landscape it has laid dormant for years now and access to the public has been fleeting. Occasionally it is used for events, notably the 7 Inch Cinema / Capsule shindig at Artsfest last year, but any chance to get inside has to be leapt at.

So, while the art market is bound to be well worth a visit there’s now another incentive. You’ll also get to see the petrified cat.

New Art Birmingham previously blogged here.

4Talent has a 6 minute video interview with Dan Read, writer/director of the previously blogged Straightheads feature film. Aimed at up and coming film makers he talks about starting out in documentaries, how this educated him in the art of dialougue the advantages and disadvantages of being a writer/director, the value of having a huge ego and ends with some tips for the aspiring writer. Well worth a look if you looking to start out in this industry.

Liquor Is Quicker is a fanzine covering the Birmingham music scene. Emphasis on the zine as this type-written, hand-crafted publication looks like a historical artifact from the early 80s. Nine issues have been published on a shockingly regular basis and all are available to download as PDFs. Print copies can be picked up at various venues and shops in the city.

Future plans include expanding their coverage to Coventry, Wolverhampton and Walsall. I’m hoping these plans don’t involve getting a DTP system.

The next Screen Forum, which exists to “showcase quality work in the region and to facilitate networking, collaboration and the sharing of information and resources”, takes place on April 19th at 7pm at the Light House in Wolverhampton. The subject is Actors working with Directors/Directors working with Actors

Screen forum is a regular meeting of practitioners and agencies who are involved in screen based creative industries within the region. This month’s forum will focus on acting: specifically, working with actors (good practice, do’s and don’ts, etc); how to attach yourself to a short film project (contacting agencies, filmmakers’ networks); what to expect in terms of payments (contracts, credits, deferred payment); how to find ‘talent’ (i.e. securing your A list celebrity). This event is aimed at actors, directors and producers and should provide excellent insights into the process of casting, getting the best from actors and for finding out about short film opportunities in the region.

The discussion panel will feature a number of professionals based in the region, including Derrick Knight from the Actors Centre and Paul Hardy, BBC Drama award winner and author of ‘Filming on a Microbudget’; others to be confirmed. The evening will include a short screening of films produced by panel members and featuring actors based in the region.

The event is free but pre-booking is advised. For more information about the programme and to reserve a place contact angela@light-house.co.uk

Another event on Thursday 22nd!

The Producers’ Forum will be holding our usual informal monthly meeting at the Midlands Art Centre on Thursday 22nd February. This is your chance to catch up on all of the news from the region and our members.

This month we are holding a special writers’ showcase evening - we are inviting some of the leading scriptwriters and novelists from the region to come and pitch thier latest projects to producers from the Forum. Script and Red Room Films have been working together on the ‘Big Screen Visions’ project, providing workshops and one-to-one mentoring to enable experienced writers of fiction or non-fiction; stage, radio or tv drama to write a full-length original screenplay. Writers from this programme, along with other invited guests, will be performing short pitches of their projects vith a view to collaborating with local producers in the future.

Representatives from Advantage West Midlands are also planning to attend the meeting as they are keen to find out how local filmmakers are being suppported in the region, so it would be great to have as many members as possible in attendance to represent the filmmaking community in the West Midlands.

Distunted Nations: Cinema Beyond the Nation-State is an academic conference run by the University of Birmingham on 27-28 April at the MAC.

Over the last few years a number of terms have been employed to conceptualise cinema beyond the boundaries of the nation-state, such as transnational cinema, accented cinema and transvergent cinema.

Such terms respond both to the emergence within international cinema of a considerable body of work in which questions of migration and passage are uppermost, and to the increasing internationalisation of film production itself, as co-financing across national borders becomes the norm, and film producers are ever more reliant on global companies and media conglomerates to get films funded. As these trends have developed, the entrenched national identities of cinematic tradition have begun to dissolve, giving way to alternative criteria for discerning and inscribing identity as well as more uncertain geographies.

More information here including contact details.

The line-up for the Moseley Folk Festival 2007 is starting to come together. So far confirmed are Fairport Convention, Kate Rusby, Davey Graham, Tuung, Alisdair Roberts, Swarback’s Lazarus, Martha Tilston, Broadcast, Findlay Brown, Jim Moray, John Smith, Clive Palmer and Voice of the Seven Woods.

The festival runs over the weekend of September 1st-2nd at Moseley Park and tickets go on sale March 1st. Last year’s debut festival was pretty unanimously declared a success thanks to an eclectic lineup (which looks to be repeated here - Broadcast!) and support from the local music community and it’s great to see this becoming a regular feature on the calendar.

My photos from 2006.

Podnosh lists some of the new radio dramas being broadcast on Radio 4 over the next few weeks that were produced in the BBC studios at the Mailbox.