Mumbai: The National Lottery funding from the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund will now enable aspiring filmmakers across the UK to develop their skills through a number of short film schemes.
Disabled filmmakers will benefit from The Magic Hour, a new £40,000 shorts scheme being managed by 104 Films. In the first shorts programme dedicated to disabled filmmakers, ten people will receive intensive project and story development training over an eight week period and following an assessment, five projects will go into production, each with a budget of £8,800. The filmmakers will also take part in The Script Factory training programme supported by Skillset receiving a complete overview from script development to different exhibition strategies. Additional support from the UK Film Council’s Diversity team will support out-reach work to disabled filmmakers bringing UK Film Council funding to £97,000 for the programme.
4mations Digital Shorts, a partnership between Channel 4, Lupus Films, Aardman Animations and the UK Film Council, and the new online animation channel 4mations, is a national search for animated shorts from new and emerging talent across the UK. Working with 13 UK strategic partners to fund 13 animated short films, they will have an online premiere on 4mations and may also be broadcast on Channel 4 (www.4mations.tv).
B3 Media will deliver a shorts programme working with BME filmmakers from across the UK over the next two years with funding of £40,000. B3 Media also works with talent from a wide range of disciplines particularly from non-traditional routes into film, such as new media and moving image. Again, further funding from the UK Film Council’s Diversity team to support out-reach work increases total UK film Council support to £57,000 to B3 Media.
The UK Film Council has awarded £40,000 to Digicult Ltd to manage a digital shorts programme in Scotland as part of its Digital Shorts scheme. Around 12 filmmakers will receive development training through the programme which is also being backed by Scottish Screen, BBC Scotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and a maximum of six digital films will be commissioned and made.
In addition, the UK Film Council continues to work with its national and regional partners to deliver digital shorts programmes across the UK for the next two years including Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Yorkshire, South West Screen, Screen South, Film London, Screen WM, EM Media, Northwest Vision and Media, Screen East, Northern Film + Media who will each receive £40,000 to partner other funding for supporting filmmakers in their areas.
The UK Film Council is also continuing its commitment to helping entrepreneurial short filmmakers finish their films through the Completion Fund, managed by Maya Vision International. Films that have been partly shot to a rough cut stage but require finance to complete can apply for all aspects of post-production help, from hiring an editor to scoring music, or from providing visual effects to enabling essential key processes such as grade, mix and online editing.
Lifesize Pictures Ltd manages the UK Film Council’s short film programmes including Cinema Extreme, the Completion Fund, Digital Shorts, Digital Nation, the Magic Hour and 4mations until 2010 delivering around 115 shorts per year, right the way through the process from development and production to marketing, exhibition and promotion.
In addition, the UK Film Council has been running a series of events, screenings and workshops at Encounters this week including networking sessions for filmmakers to meet with industry experts, screenings of digital short films made during the past 12 months and industry discussions.
