april 2010 news 

Screen East Locations hosts a familiarisation visit to Essex for location managers in film & television.

Screen East led a familiarisation trip in March to showcase the wealth of locations available in west Essex to leading UK film and TV location managers. The visit illustrated how the county is not only an ideal destination for filming, but it also offers a genuine alternative for productions wanting to film close to the M25 and away from the expense of shooting in the capital.

In 2009/10, film and TV location filming was worth an estimated £2 million to the Essex economy. Essex County Council is keen to promote the county to upcoming productions and as such sponsor Screen East’s activities to encourage productions to come to Essex and film at the diverse locations available.

The familiarisation trip began at Tilbury Docks, with the cruise terminal and its magnificent art deco interiors, the 1920’s old station building and the passenger landing areas over The Thames proving a hit. The location managers were particularly impressed with the dockland areas themselves. This site is particularly film-friendly having featured in a variety of productions as a backdrop including 2005’s Batman Begins.

Next was Coalhouse Fort, which was also used in Batman Begins providing a double for a South East Asian prison. With its unique tunnel network and surrounding flat marshland landscape there is much scope for future filming possibilities. The tour continued to The Bata Factories which have dominated the town of East Tilbury for over 70 years and was where, along with the factory, a small town of Modernist style housing was constructed for its workers known locally as Bata-ville. As property developers convert or demolish old factory and office buildings these types of locations are becoming in short supply hence the site was included on the tour.

The Headley, an elegant 2 star Michelin pub situated in the picturesque corner of Headley Common, provided an ideal luncheon venue for the group as well as the potential for a future filming location. After lunch, the tour progressed to Hylands House, which doubled for the White House in 2004’s Chasing Liberty.

Then it was off to the woods for a tour of Epping Forest, hosted by the Corporation of London who pointed out locations in the forest which had successfully been used as filming locations in the past, including 2000’s Essex Boys. Epping Forest has previously offered a backdrop for a variety of both English and foreign landscapes given its diverse mix of wood and heathland.

The final location on the tour was a visit to Copped Hall, a well-preserved shell of what had been a fine Georgian mansion. Copped Hall also has an interesting network of underground cellars offering the potential for a unique filming backdrop. Previous filming at Copped Hall has included 2007’s Flyboys where a complex World War I shoot was accommodated.

Location managers attending the familiarisation trip said: “Fam trips provide Location Managers with invaluable information and contacts for future shoots” - Mick Ratman; “Filming in any area can be stressful. Screen East, with their specialist local knowledge, local council contacts and location database make the process so much easier, allowing for a more pleasant and efficient filming process. I look forward to returning to the area with another production soon” – Richard Godfrey; and “It’s always difficult to know when we are going to require a particular location but knowing what a county has to offer and that the region is film friendly, naturally puts it at the top of my research list. An excellent trip with lots of new locations” – Roland Caine.

Screen East has hosted previous familiarisation trips to Essex as well as other counties in the East of England. Kerry Ixer, Head of Locations at Screen East said, “Hosting familiarisation trips is one way in which Screen East can market the diverse locations available to filmmakers and show firsthand how film friendly the region is. A location manager’s job is to find the most suitable location to satisfy the director’s vision, a search that can take months of research and scouting. Our familiarisation trips aim to showcase hidden gems for future film related projects”.

Screen East is also a partner in the North Sea Screen Partners (NSSP), an activity funded under the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme, working towards strengthening the European digital content industry and ensuring the North Sea Region obtains a significant share of a dynamic and growing market. One of the partners’ objectives is to attract inward investment through film and television into the North Sea Region which includes Essex. It is therefore anticipated that this familiarisation visit will help encourage productions to film in the county.

Essex’s location filming show reel includes many other exciting films and television dramas such as Oscar winning ‘The Queen’, staring Helen Mirren who was born in Ilford in Essex, which filmed at London Southend Airport and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ which was filmed at Tilbury Docks for the Venetian speedboat chase scene.

Cambridge filmmaker Mark Wong triumphed at the Jameson’s Empire Awards – Done in 60 Seconds Competition for his remake of eighties classic, Top Gun.

Out of 5,000 entries and against very stiff competition from around the world, Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), who headed the Done in Sixty Seconds jury, awarded Director Mark Wong the Jameson Empire Award. Wong wrote, produced, directed, edited and starred in the £500 remake which was filmed on location in the East of England. Volleyball scenes were filmed in Norfolk near Walcott, Top Gun Naval Flying School scenes were filmed at RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire and the fighter jet scenes were shot at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. To achieve the true Top Gun look, Wong managed to get co-operation from the Public Affairs Office at RAF Lakenheath to allow him to film around a real United States Air Force F-15 fighter jet!

This is the first year that the competition was open to entries from Holland, Ireland, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey. However, this is the third time Wong has entered the competition having previously honed his skills on the mini blockbuster versions of Pearl Harbour and Speed. On winning his award, Wong said: “I’ve been doing this competition for three years now so you have no idea how much this means to me. I want to thank Jameson, Empire, Edgar and the guys for making the right decision as far as I’m concerned. I want to thank my co-director who got us access to a real fighter jet and made incredible things happen”.

The five finalists and fifteen shortlisted videos can be viewed online at www.empireonline.com/awards2010/donein60seconds/. Skillset is a proud partner of the Jameson Empire Awards: Done in Sixty Seconds competition. Keep an eye out for future news on entering the competition.

To find out what popular film and television programmes have filmed in the East of England please visit Scene on Screen – www.sceneonscreen.co.uk - an interactive movie map which promotes the accessible locations. From the early silent and first ‘talkies’ produced by Directors such as Hitchcock to well known war time classics such as 633 Squadron and the Battle of Britain, leading attractions in the region have appeared on both big and small screens around the globe. Blockbusters such as George Lucas’ Indiana Jones trilogy and the first four Star Wars movies have all been filmed here. As a result leading locations have played host to some of the world’s best known screen characters including James Bond, Batman, Bridget Jones, Blackadder, Dr Who, Harry Potter, Del Boy and even Dracula!

Head of Locations & Inward Investment for Screen East, the regional screen agency, Kerry Ixer, said: “Popular film and television programmes provide an unparalleled opportunity to showcase filming locations around the globe. Production companies pay the location owners a fee to use the location after which they can experience free, and potentially worldwide, advertising for their location if they are accessible to the public. The Scene on Screen website aims to show visitors where filming occurred enabling them to follow in the footsteps of popular screen characters.”

• New £15m Film Fund opens for business
• Experienced team appointed as gatekeepers of the Film Fund
• Producers to receive equity share of UK Film Council recoupment
• Tim Bevan to Chair Think Tank to identify ways to grow UK film companies of scale
• Most significant revision of UK Film Council activities in 10 years

LONDON – 1 April 2010: The UK Film Council today publishes its three year plan and launches its new £15m Film Fund. In developing the final plan, the UK Film Council spent three months consulting on the proposals, engaging with hundreds of people from across the film sector, facilitating more than a dozen consultation sessions and attracting almost 1,000 responses. The plan specifically:

• opens up for business a £15m-a-year Film Fund (topped up further by film recoupment) for emerging, experimental and world class filmmakers;
• ring-fences money for development;
• confirms production companies will for the first time automatically receive a significant share of the UK Film Council’s recoupment from all feature film investments they are involved in, following State Aid approval of the measure by the European Commission;
• sets up a think tank chaired by Tim Bevan to identify new policy initiatives to grow independent UK film companies of scale;
• proposes a national web-based talent showcase, to be launched in Autumn 2010, to unearth fresh talent and to broaden the diversity, reach and the opportunities available to all filmmakers who are keen to engage with one another in a national filmmaking community;
• confirms £5m is allocated to the new Innovation Fund, which will launch in Autumn 2010 (more details to follow);
• provides £500,000 for film exports for each year of the plan;
• confirms that 100% of recoupment from the Prints & Advertising Fund - which widens and supports the distribution of selected specialised films and British films - will, like the Film Fund, top up that fund’s budget.

Alongside this plan, the DCMS have been leading merger discussions between the UK Film Council and the BFI. These discussions have been underway since August 2009 and continue.

Launching UK Film: Digital innovation and creative excellence, Tim Bevan CBE, Chairman of the UK Film Council, said, “We’ve set out a renewed mission, a new set of priorities, and a new way of working. With the right level of support, a successful British film industry can continue to help get the UK out of recession, drive innovation and create more highly-skilled jobs. Further tough choices probably lie ahead, but having reduced our overheads by 20% and positively responded to the needs of British filmmakers we’re now in the best place we can be to support and promote UK film in the years ahead.”

John Woodward, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Film Council, announced that the new £15m-a-year Film Fund had opened its doors for business. Managed by a new team of experienced senior production and development executives, the fund has introduced a brand new online application process in which applicants will set out their creative and strategic visions for their film.

Woodward commented: “The new Film Fund’s primary focus is creative excellence. Tanya and her team will support filmmakers who want to put British filmmaking at the centre of our national culture and on the international map. The aim is for the Film Fund to attract the best talent, encourage creative risk taking, and deliver great films to audiences.

“Joining Tanya in the search for creative excellence will be a team of three Senior Production and Development Executives with an impressive and broad range of film industry expertise. Natascha Wharton, Lizzie Francke, and Chris Collins each have big production successes under their belts – together, it’s a team that will provide a wide range of expertise and tastes as well as a supportive, energetic and ambitious home for British filmmaking talent.

“The team will all work across the full range of projects in production and development, but individually they will also have specific responsibilities.”


• Natascha Wharton (starting 4 May 2010) will focus on development;

• Lizzie Francke will focus on experimental feature length films, national engagement and showcasing new talent;

• Chris Collins will focus on ideas for future film practices for both emerging and established filmmakers, from micro/low budget features and shorts, through to 3D blockbusters.

The Film Fund is open for applications from 1 April, but it will be presenting a more detailed strategy to the UK Film Council Board in the coming months. It has already been agreed that a portion of the £15m budget will be ring-fenced for development – although there will be no automatic assumption that projects developed will become films that the fund would then invest in at the production stage. The remaining budget will be safeguarded for the Film Fund’s own production investments. Further details will be announced in the coming months, in addition to details of the Film Fund’s non-London investment target and how the new online showcase will operate.