Created in Birmingham

I thought I’d post my response to an email I received from someone the other day. The emailer said (and these are a couple of extracts):

I am currently looking for creative projects to get involved with in the Birmingham area, specifically film or media based projects. I have lots of transferable skills through studying film on my course and I am looking for possible work experience (unpaid) in TV, film or any kind of production, as a runner, film grip and/or any position where the skills I have may come in useful.

My biggest focus is finding opportunities, getting out there and getting involved in anything I can, from possible collaborations to arts events, workshops, anything to keep me busy and anything that allows me to be creative and continues the type of work I was doing on my course.

I couldn’t think of anything specific but gave a few starting places. I operate on the assumption that CiB readers know much more than I do, so if anyone can add anything then please do in the comments. My reply:

Hey

I can’t think of any specific opportunities at the moment. It’s a bit of a funny time for that kind of thing at the moment, what with Screen WM (who used to put on events and so on) closing down a few months back and Creative England (the body taking their place) only just getting up and running. In the meantime it might be worth looking at http://www.bsin.co.uk/ and seeing what they’re up to.

Also, have a look at these events, get yourself along and see who you meet:

• http://www.producersforum.org.uk/
• http://www.creativenetworksonline.com/
• http://www.birminghamsmc.com/
• http://www.helloculture.net/ (this is on tomorrow)

Maybe see what courses are happening at http://www.macarts.co.uk/ or http://light-house.co.uk/

Cheers

Chris

Following the closure of the Creative Partnerships Programme, Bright Space announced that they would be closing. Today’s their last day.

This from Stan’s Cafe:

It’s sad because Brightspace were behind a huge number of inspirational projects that took artists into schools to work creatively with students and teachers. Now, despite a great report from OFSTED setting out the great value of these projects, the plug as been pulled, the axe has fallen, the bubble burst, the goose cooked, the turkey plucked, the swan sung and the full stopped.

I’d lost track of what’s happening with Creative England - I thought it was going to be based on a partnership of all the screen agencies but here’s a press release:

On Friday 30th September 2011, regional screen agency Screen WM will bring the curtain down on nine years of support for the screen media industries in the West Midlands and welcome Creative England as the new umbrella body for the creative sector.

The closure of Screen WM follows the coalition government’s decision to replace the UK Film Council’s support for film-making, which core-funded the regional screen agencies, with funding through the British Film Institute.

All the best to the folks working at these organisations who are moving on.

Sadly, I’m predicting a few more posts like this over the next few months.

Today, Alex and I are at the City As A Platform event, organised by Screen WM and taking place at Aston University Business School and Conference Centre.

Building on the City as a Platform event that took place during the Conservative Party Conference 2010, this full day of panels and breakout sessions will explore these issues and opportunities, presenting case studies including Maverick Digital’s groundbreaking NHS Local project and the Screen WM/Channel 4 supported ChromaRoma, which uses the London Underground Oyster Card system as a playing piece in a city-wide social game.

The pair of us are running the liveblog there. If you’re on Twitter you can follow along on the #caap2011 hashtag or by following the liveblog below. Comments, thoughts and so on are all welcome.

Merry Christmas from one and all at Created in Birmingham!

To be honest, I’d be surprised if anyone is reading this (and to be even more honest, I wrote this a few days back anyway) but, in case it’s timely, here are a few things on TV that you might be interested in today:

• Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella, BBC2 at 3pm
• Best of European Opera 2010 (ft Birmingham Opera Company’s Othello), BBC4 at 7pm

Screen WM have done a round-up of the festive stuff they’ve been involved in, including The Brothers McLeod’s The Moon Bird (Christmas Day, 12.40am on Channel 4 – oh, bit late for that, sorry), the new series of Upstairs Downstairs (Boxing Day, 9pm on BBC 1), Toast (30 December, 9pm on BBC 1) and, later on in January, the return of Hustle.

If you’ve got some vouchers burning a hole in your pocket then Soulboy and Nativity are out on DVD.

On the radio side of things, Robin Valk’s Handsworth Evolution will be played on 30 December on BBC WM.

The Conservative Party Conference starts tomorrow, so expect a fair amount of disruption around the city centre – especially the city end of Broad Street around the ICC and Symphony Hall.

Travel advice aside, arts and culture will be getting a foot in the door a few times over the duration, including this lot:

• Jonathan Watkins (Director of Ikon Gallery) has been invited by Jeremy Hunt MP to speak on Sunday. His speech will apparently “highlight the cultural wealth of Birmingham and promote Ikon’s ambition for the creation of a new museum of modern art in the city”
• Screen WM are putting on a fringe event called City as a Platform (reminiscent of the much-referenced, lesser read Dan Hill post) on Monday
• Ed Vaizey MP will be off and about on Monday. He’ll be officially opening Zellig and later on checking out BCU’s Skillset Media Academy
• Rosie Kay Dance Company will be performing Double Points: K at the Symphony Hall on Tuesday

There’s probably more happening too, but those are the ones I’ve come across.

I’ve also been invited, with a bunch of other local bloggers, to go and meet Sayeeda Warsi (Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Cabinet Minister without portfolio) and Andrew Mitchell (MP for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development) later today.

• Producers’ Forum, 21 July at the MAC
  WIth Suzie Norton, Screen WM CEO, and her Senior Management team delivering a presentation on Screen WM’s 2010-11 strategy and the next phase of support for the West Midlands Film community
• Animation Forum West Midlands
  “Submissions for 2010′s Great Animation Challenge are now open”. Use one of the bits of audio provided to make an animation
• My five tips for bands online | Mind over Matter
  Useful stuff from Ian
• The Perfect Balti
  “One man’s search for Birmingham’s best Balti (and naan bread)”
• BBC – Have Your Say: Which UK city would be most worthy of culture award?
  A nice amount of support for Birmingham’s bid from the Have Your Say commenters. Given the general level of debate on that forum I’m not sure whether that’s a good endorsement or not…
• Birmingham Post – CBSO celebrates a record season as audience numbers grow
  “The CBSO has seen average attendances increase by 3.5 per cent in the past 12 months”
• A year in the life of a touring Company « Birmingham Royal Ballet’s touring blog
  Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Chief Executive Christopher Barron writes about the past 12 months for the Company
• Switchboard – World-class connections for the West Midlands
  “Switchboard is a network of organisations from the screen, digital, media and music industries in the West Mildands”. One to watch. (Disclosure – I’ve been invited on this)
• The New Optimists
  “We asked scientists “what are you optimistic about?” This site and the book record their amazing answers”
• Exclusive extract from local author John Dalton’s new book, Urban Nature Notebook « In Birmingham
  “His new book is a collection of short accounts of the author’s encounters with urban nature as he travels around the city”

• Screen WM – The West Midlands to play central role in new film TOAST starring Helena Bonham Carter
  “The investment means that TOAST, produced by Ruby Films for the BBC, will also be filmed entirely in the West Midlands. A fantastic local story, the film will be shot in and around Birmingham and Wolverhampton, with key scenes being filmed at the famous Black Country Museum”
• Work to your heart’s content – Home
  This is Helga Henry (Fierce, Creative Republic, all sorts of other things)’s “scrapbook of the stuff I discover on my quest for expertise on joy, innovation and fun”. Some very useful resources here
• Our 200th Post: One Year On | Blog | SMILE
  A year in review. Nice to see one of these not falling in Dec/Jan

• CRAIN report « D’log
  “A useful seven page report from the West Midlands Cultural Research & Intelligence Network conference (PDF link), held in Birmingham on 2nd June 2010″
• Audition Call « Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company
  Quick, bright female capable of playing between 18-30 wanted to perform with Stan’s Cafe in Beijing in November. Click the linky for details
• Birmingham Post – New chairman for Cre8us
  “Professor Michael Tovey, responsible for leading and co-ordinating design education and applied research at Coventry University, has been appointed to the board of Cre8us”
• Birmingham School of Media runs best courses in the country
  Huzzah!
• Screen WM & BAFTA Present: Filmmaking and Archive Workshops
  Courses. Not for horses
• Artist Talk @ Eastside Projects and Durational Performance @ The Rea Garden | Behind Closed Doors
  “We would like to invite you to the finale of Brigid McLeer’s residency at The Rea Garden on Saturday 19th June”
• art hamster in the city
  Don’t think I’ve linked to this one before, but probably should have. Contains mentions of arts stuff happening around Brum. Sarah Silverwood is the author
• Signal box L
  Someone’s built a fairly impressive model of the New Street Signal Box
• The Interview: Ben Javens « The Internationalist
  Ben did some stuff for 8th Continent, a Californian soy milk company. Someone interviewed him about that
• A seismic shift in the UK landscape
  CiB got props in PR Week at the end of April: “the artistic and creative community website Created in Birmingham, which won a Blog Award in 2008, is popular”. Not sure why that made me laugh so much, but it did. The award was 2009, btw

• Moving on Up – The Future of Film in the West Midlands
  “This event is a must for anyone who wants to find out about the strategy of the forum or who wants to feedback on ScreenWMs role within the future of film” With Natasha Carlish (Producers’ Forum) and Suzie Norton (Screen WM)
• Just Film for a Fairer World
  Monthly film night at the Midlands Co-operative Member Relations Centre at the Birmingham & Midland Institute organised by the Birmingham Co-operative Film Society. Next film is tonight, no info on the programme after that but keep an eye out for more
• Scene Not Heard Birmingham – The Saturday Matinées – CANCELLATION, 15 MAY
  Tomorrow afternoon’s gig has been cancelled due to noise restrictions that have apparently been placed on Island Bar
• Digbeth is Good » A Friday evening full of art
  Nicky went to hobbypopMUSEUM at Eastside Projects and then on to The Bordesley Centre of Contemporary Art

The good news:

Screen WM’s 2010/11 Investment Fund opens on Tuesday 4 May 2010

The bad news:

Screen WM is also announcing that the UK Film Council has now confirmed a significant reduction of Lottery funding to each of the nine regional screen agencies. They are also reallocating all skills and training funding previously distributed through the regional screen agencies to Skillset. Skillset will now handle all applications for skills and training funding, to apply visit www.skillset.org . Screen WM will continue to work closely with Skillset to ensure a smooth transition of skills funding in the region.

[...] there is a total cut of 25% to Screen WM’s 2010/11 Lottery funding from the UK Film Council

[...] the impact of these cuts mean that inevitably there is an overall reduction in Lottery funding available in our 2010/11 Investment Fund. This means that Screen WM will be funding fewer projects in total in comparison with previous years and the application process this year will undoubtedly be more competitive. As such, Screen WM has taken the decision to be more targeted in approach and provide more specific support to projects

As a result, Screen WM will specifically be investing in:

• Film and Media Education ‘Hubs’
• Film Festivals
• Film Script Development
• Regional Film Industry support networks

I’m hoping posts like this don’t become too commonplace. Fuller info over at Audiences Central.

Another batch of short films from Screen WM‘s Digishorts scheme are set to premiere next week,  featuring a hefty wedge of local film talent. There’s a free screening event  to see all six Digishorts films at Light House in Wolverhampton on Tuesday 12 January, 6.15  – 8pm, as part of Screen Forum.

The Moon Bird

Names that stick out for me are BAFTA-nominated The Brothers McLeod, who will be showing their dark animated fairytale ‘The Moon Bird‘, and Lewis Arnold, whose film ‘Stained’ is inspired by author Ronnie Thompson’s time served as a prison officer. After the screening there will be a Q&A with some of the filmmakers, so have your hand-raising and poser-posing hats on ready.

To find out more about all of the films on show, visit the Light House website here, and to reserve a free place at the screening, contact info@light-house.co.uk.

There’s been a spate of Birmingham sightings on primetime TV recently. Partly this is due to some efforts by Screen WM (and others, I imagine) to get some more filming done up here, partly it’s due to the fact that there are some darn fine restaurants in the city these days.

The new series of Hustle started on Monday and featured a bunch of local sights from around the Colmore BID – Metro, Hotel du Vin and One Victoria Square (according to the BPo).

Next week the same area will be sporting a slightly different look for the new series of Survivors.

Over on Channel 4, Lasan is doing rather well having reached the final of Gordon Ramsey’s The F Word. Unfortunately the consensus on Twitter last night seemed to be that their chef was a bit of a pillock. Incidentally, Warwick Uni have a Lasan cookbook featuring healthy versions of various South Asian dishes which you can download for free.

The latest episode of Hustle is on the iPlayer here for the next few days and is on every Tues for the next little while. Survivors is on BBC 1 on 12 January and the big final of the F Word is on Channel 4 on Thurs at 9pm.

• genzai·chi » fizzPOP: thoughts about meeting, sharing and learning
  Lots of good stuff about fizzPOP and the recent Howduino session
• My Jewellery Quarter : Birmingham designer becomes first UK jewellery maker to open in China
  “Fei Liu, who already sells his stunning designs at Harrods, Liberty and Harvey Nichols, has opened a stand-alone shop in Beijing as part of his plans to expand outside the UK”
• Tindal Street author shortlisted for Costa
  Raphael Selbourne’s ‘Beauty’ has been shortlisted in the First Novel category
• Screen WM – TV leading light unveils code of practice plansfor media interns
  “GMTV chair and Skillset chairman Clive Jones will tomorrow (November 25) set out plans to make graduate internships in the Creative Media Industries as fair and open as possible”
• Erdington Arts Forum
  Pretty much as soon as I came across it, this blog went quiet. Here’s hopeing it’s just on sabbatical (or has moved somewhere else – anyone know?)
• Chinaplate Theatre > The Optimists
  “The Optimists is China Plate’s new development opportunity for young professional makers. Bridging the gap between training and the industry The Optimists supports the artistic careers of the future”
• Hippodrome chief says stage is set to help lift Birmingham’s spirits
  Interview with Stuart Griffiths in the BPo

To parrot the official blurb:

Screen WM’s Festival of Film gives you the chance to enjoy free screenings of sensational films that have been inspired by, produced or filmed in the West Midlands

It runs from 16-29 November at venues around the region. Here’s the main list of films, and here’s what’s playing when and where in Birmingham:

• Tormented – 16 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
• Almost Adult – 20 Nov, The Drum
• Faintheart – 21 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
• The Children – 23 Nov, Electric Cinema
• Road to Guantanemo – 25 Nov, Electric Cinema
• Confetti – 28 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza
• Nativity – 29 Nov, AMC Broadway Plaza

The other films showing around the region are Special People, Clubbed, The Mandrake Root, 1 Day and Straightheads.

Snap up tickets here.

Controversial film ahoy. Here’s the synopsis:

Flash wakes up to a phone call from Angel announcing that he’s being released from prison and wants the £500k he’d left with Flash for safekeeping. Short of the full amount and pushed for time, Flash is forced to strike a deal with Evil who more than lives up to his name. 1 Day follows Flash’s race against the clock as he’s pursued by a rival gang, the police, his three irate babymothers and his granny

And here’s the trailer (warning, contains gratuitous, kinda-cool overhead shot of Spaghetti Junction):

As the Light House blog says:

1 Day, which is due for national release on 6th November has caused quite some controversy with the Birmingham Post reporting that it has been criticised for “encouraging impressionable youngsters to join violent criminal gangs” and “glamorising gun crime“  and BBC have reported that at least 2 of the big Birmingham cinemas, Cineworld and Odeon  are not going to be screening it

I’ve no idea whether that controversy is real or just marketing hype. Previous CiB contributor Danny Smith has written about his concerns – he’s coming from a position of some experience and really isn’t the timorous type. Meanwhile Screen WM are carrying an interview with director Penny Woolcock and the Guardian have profiled lead actor Dylan Duffus from Handsworth.

The film’s out nationwide next week and you’ll be able to see it at Star City, AMC Broadway and a few other places.