Following a recent announcement that BBC’s drama ‘Survivors’ will relocate to the West Midlands, Screen WM has announced today that they are investing in the next series of Kudos Film and Television’s major international TV drama, Hustle.
The investment means that Hustle will relocate to Birmingham, and the city will provide a new backdrop for the drama which is broadcast across the world. This is a major coup for the city and forms part of a wider strategy by Screen WM to secure and create a more sustainable screen media sector in the West Midlands. The series will bring an estimated £1.2 million into the regional economy and will provide jobs for local crew.
The Hustle team are due to move to Birmingham and will be living in the city for the duration of the filming. In addition to financial investment, Screen WM have played a significant role in attracting the new series of Hustle to the West Midlands, working closely with Film Birmingham, providing locations and crew support. The producers were attracted to the West Midlands on the basis of the region’s diverse locations, excellent facilities and experienced crew.
Simon Crawford Collins, Joint Managing Director of Kudos said: “We are hugely excited about Hustle’s move to Birmingham. It’s a transformed city whose cool new locations have rarely been used for TV dramas and we will hope it will become a hub for Kudos’s output for many years to come.”
On tonight’s episode of Inside Out (BBC One, 7.30pm) presenter Ashley Blake will be exploring the recent successes in the West Midlands film industry.
Ashley Blake goes on set of forthcoming Northern Soul film ‘Souled Out’ during its filming in Stoke-On-Trent, and explores other recent feature films shot in the region such as up-market chiller-horror ‘The Children’, ‘Nativity’, the semi-improvised Christmas comedy starring Martin Freeman and also Ashley Blake! as well as ‘Faintheart’, the world’s first user generated feature film which will be screened in 150 cinemas for free next week. All four films have been co-financed by regional screening agency, Screen WM through its Media Production Fund. (Thanks to Screen WM).
Vote again for CiB – last few days
Thanks to some fantastic support CiB has a slim lead in the voting. Polls close on Tuesday 13th at 10pm. Please vote daily (and encourage others) until then
Screen WM – Birmingham filmmaker shortlisted for the Auteur Award
“Birmingham filmmaker Steven Rainbow’s short film ‘A Small Silent Film About Death’ has been selected for screening at the 6th London Short Film Festival (9th – 18th January 2009) and been shortlisted for the Auteur Award”
D’log – Henry Reed
D’log has found “a huge website in memory of Birmingham poet and dramatist Henry Reed”
CMYKern » Clusta
James has a peek at some new bits and pieces from Clusta
Capsule Blog » Home Of Metal at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
The next Home Of Metal open day will be at Waterhall at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery on Saturday 7th of Feb, from 11am to 4pm. It’ll be hosted by none other than Brummie of the Year, Johnny Doom
début » Local shorts – Film Club
début has a reminder that the dates for the Local Shorts Film Club in 09 are 28 Jan (theme is Art and Politics) and 29 April (Super Eclectic Mix Special)
John Garghan, exhibition in the new year
The guy who takes the fasinating photos of torched cars. He’s getting ready for an exhibition at the Solihull Arts Complex at the Touchwood Centre, Solihull. 19 Jan to 7 March
Screen WM – Annual Review
You can get Screen WM’s annual report for 07/08 (and the past couple of years) here
Dressing-the-Pooh | Crescent Theatre Blog
Interesting from the Crescent Theatre – they’ve got a production of Winnie-the-Pooh coming in the new year. A comment on a previous blog asked whether Pooh would be played in full, semi or no costume. Here’s the answer (maybe drop them a comment on your thoughts)
Still Waiting
Not sure what this is, but it’s to do with Antonio Roberts so it’ll probably be interesting
Young People Arts Project: New Project Opportunity – Audiences Central
“Audiences Central, with arts consultant Kerry Endsor, is looking to develop and deliver a high-profile, public-facing, arts project that will encourage and inspire young people in the West Midlands to engage with the arts and culture”. If you’re interested in getting involved then register your interest on the Audiences Central site before 19 Dec
Welcome to BYPY
Nominations for the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year are open
heavy handbag
Ramjeena Aujla is a “split-second-stealing snapper” and she blogs at Heavy Handbag
B(l)og
A couple of the Audiences Central peeps have started their own blogs recently, with this one from Fiona likely to be the most, um, quirky. She has/had a secret obsession – rating the city’s (and likely other cities’) toilets. So far pubs and restaurants feature highly
Make and Do at The Edge
Antonio Roberts went to “the first Make and Do Party over at The Edge, which was hosted by Friction Arts. There were about 20 artists present and there was a strong emphasis on just having fun creating art!”. He has a quick write-up and some pics
Faintheart, the user-generated film that Screen WM had a hand in bringing through, will be shown free of charge in 150 cinemas and on MySpace on 27 Jan 09 with a DVD release a week later.
The locations for the screenings will be decided by visitors going to the Faintheat MySpace page and putting their postcode into the map widget (you may have seen bands using something similar to gauge support before going on tour).
As I write this, Birmingham and Wolverhampton are tied in third behind Bournemouth and London as the most popular locations. Have a look at this trailer and decide if you want to see the film for free round these parts.
Festive Film Showcase by Screen WM – Mon 8th Dec @ Radisson Birmingham
“On Monday, Screen WM are generously putting on a (FREE) day long series of screenings and events, leading up to the featured screening of ‘The Children’ with a masterclass and Q&A session from its director Tom Shankland”
West Midland RSS nightmares named and shamed – Birmingham Post
A list of West Mids orgs that haven’t grasped something as head-smackingly basic as making news available via RSS. For a sec I thought of doing a similar list for Birmingham’s creative types but actually I can’t think of enough ‘RSS Rotters’ to name. Which is good (but if your news isn’t available via RSS yet then sort it before Joanna Geary comes after you! If you’re not sure then email createdinbrum@gmail.com and I’ll help)
David Leach
David is “a lancastrian with a ukulele (nothing new there you might think) but i also have been known to play with, a DD-5 drum machine, a casiotone MT-46, and a glockenspiel”. I don’t tend to mention musicians here much (too many to mention) but he gets in because he knits all his merchandise. For his sake I hope he doesn’t get too big. He’s playing Bohemian Jukebox on Tues 9 Dec at the Hare & Hounds
trying to arrange a british tumblr meetup
Substrakt’s Tom Martin would like to organise a British tumblr meet-up. If you work for any sort of digital agency in the city/region then it’d be worth getting in touch and lending him a hand
Screen WM Acronym Glossary (SAG)
Might be of use to someone (this is Google’s HTML version – a PDF is available). I found this while searching for info about the AWM SIS COG, in case you were wondering
Nu Wave Interactive
Nu Wave Interactive is animator, illustrator and graphic designer Matthew Field
magicmedia
magicmedia is the blog and website for Steve Chapman, a Birmingham UK-based creative media consultant
Audio: Darcy Lange Round Table
“On Tuesday 2 December Ikon hosted a round table discussion which considered Darcy Lange’s work both in isolation and in wider socio-geographical contexts; his fractious relationship with the art world and the influence upon his life and work of the Flamenco tradition of the Andalusian gypsies”. More good multimedia stuff from the Ikon Gallery. (Ikon peeps – any chance of whacking these into iTunes as an Ikon podcast?)
Sarah Loves…
Sarah Allen (who works with the likes of the Fierce Festival, British Glass Biennale, Events With Sparkle and others) has started a blog covering her design, architectural and cultural loves. And shoes. There will be shoes.
YouTube – PsychedelicPsynema’s Channel
Speakeasy cinema people Outer Sight have a YouTube channel for collecting together event promos, trailers, previously screened shorts and other stuff. Their next event is on 6 Dec
transitions – artist action research
Alicja Rogalska ran the art/public transport survey a mentioned a few weeks back. She’s emailed to say “I have set up a project blog to share information, data, images, etc. collected during my research”
Wrote Under
Wrote Under, the open mic night for music, poetry, comedy, stories and such has a blog here. The next event is Sat 22 Nov at The Spotted Dog from 8.30pm
Punch – BASS 09 Commissions
“The aim of this year’s theme is celebrate and explore Africa’s influence on the arts scene” They’ve got plenty of info about how to put an application in
Special People, special film
News that “the Screen WM co-financed feature film Special People had won Best Film at the Moscow Disabilty Film Festival”. The film is on at the Electric from Monday 24th
Musicians Wanted
Any musicians out there want to help with a 3-day project at the Shard End youth centre? It’s with Headliners who do journalism projects for young uns and they’re offering some free publicity
Buy Art from the Underground – Fused Magazine
Nice to have Fused back and blogging. They’ve spotted that Simon & Tom Bloor and Juneau Projects were commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the roundel
Second City Gallery looking for resident artists
Mark Wilkinson and Sophie Handy weren’t impressed with a lack of collectively rentable, large studio/exhibition spaces so they’ve found their own. Give them a call if you’re interested in getting involved
FREE training – Creative Launchpad
Want to attend a course called “Business Planning for a Successful Creative Business”? You’re in luck…
Job listing for Web Editor Internship, Flatpack Festival
The Flatpack folk are looking for, essentially, a blogger with benefits. It’s unpaid but doing this sort of thing for Fierce is what started me on my journey to where I am now, and I’ve done ok
Plus+ Touring the city with the Walking Tours
I seem to remember the walking tours of Birmingham, with historian Ben Waddington as the guide, went down very well last year. Here are the plans for this year
The Flip Animation Festival (6-8 November at Light House, Wolverhampton) has been assembling a rather tasty line-up over the past little while, as documented on their nicely informative blog.
Highlights include:
A retrospective of work from Osbert Parker, best know for his cut out animation style mixed with live action; BAFTA & Screen WM Presents: Ninja Theory, the game developers behind the stunning Heavenly Sword and Kung Fu Chaos; Sita Sings the Blues, a screening of this modern classic and Indian epic; a day of Doctor Who animation treats and a real Dalek fleet will invade Light House!
The line-up is up on the Flip Festival website and tickets are available at very reasonable prices.
It’s competition time!
However, if you’d rather swipe a ticket for free then here’s your chance. There are two available, to be given separately (ie not as a pair) so there’ll be two winners.
All you have to do is leave a comment claiming your ticket, first two claimants will win. Rules are as before (except for the first one) and please use a proper email address so I can get in touch.
Debut magazine
Due to launch in 2009, debut magazine proposes to “provide a platform from which creative people, whether artists, musicians, designers or performers to showcase their talents to a wider audience”. They’re after some of those ‘creative individuals’ to be part of the first edition
Robert Lane
Robert is a musician and on his blog he documents the trials and tribulations of working the West Mids gig circuit. It’s well worth a read. He’s also a member of a comedy troupe called the new Raving Loonies Stole My Heart. Their new show, The Terrifying Tour of Terrible Terror calls at the Arena in Wolverhampton on the 30th of October. Swearing and scariness is promised
Flatpack Festival // 11-15 March 2009 -
The newly designed Flatpack Festival site has launched. There’s a call for submissions on there but because it’s one of those slightly infuriating websites that don’t have distinct pages to link to I can’t point that out to you. It’s easy enough to spot though Amateur that I am, I didn’t spot the permanent links – here’s the submissions one (ta Ian!)
PHOTOBIRMINGHAM
“A blog dedicated to creating a photospace in Birmingham and a place to celebrate photography”. Good to see this up and running. I for one will be watching developments with interest
Download Copter’s album for free
Local band Copter have made their 3rd LP free to download. It’s “12 cuts of all new, dynamite soul”. Pass the link on to anyone you reckon might like a copy
There’s a flurry of good film-related stuff going on at the moment and now Screen WM have just launched this year’s digishorts too:
the annual short film production scheme that offers new and emerging filmmaking talent the chance to develop and produce a short film with support and a budget from Screen WM
You’ve got until Monday 10 Nov to get your short film ideas in. A shortlist of 25 ideas will be developed before the final 6 go to production. Go to the digishorts website to grab an application form.
There are going to be roadshows about the West Mids with
a spectacular one day event in Birmingham on Saturday 25th October as part of Hello Digital which will include discussions, screenings and possibly the chance to pitch your project to a panel of industry experts
Which sounds jolly.
*Gratuitous plug alert*
While we’re on the subject of short films, Film Dash is a 48-hour film challenge happening 17-19 October. I’m running it but it’ll be great, honest, and anyone’s welcome to enter. Here’s the Film Dash website.
Following a recent announcement that BBC’s drama ‘Survivors’ will relocate to the West Midlands, Screen WM has announced today that they are investing in the next series of Kudos Film and Television’s major international TV drama, Hustle.
