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Welcome
to April's Issue of the Newsletter for members of "The
Creative Networks"
'Creative Networks' at the University of Central England in Birmingham's Technology
Innovation Centre (tic) is
about bringing together all parties involved in sound
and screen-based media in the West Midlands. 'Creative
Networks' seeks to promote both successful business development
and collaboration. It also seeks to contribute to the establishment
of a strong, long-term, sound and screen-based Creative
Industry in the West Midlands. The tic
achieves this through increasing knowledge sharing and use of innovative
technologies, creative practice and business processes.
Regular monthly networking events are held at tic.
They offer opportunities for individuals and companies
to network, make pitches and identify the resources they
are seeking or support for the projects they are planning.
Visit our online portal www.creativenetworksonline.com
for up-to-date news, funding, business support, training
and tender opportunities.
In This Issue:
1. COMING UP -
April's Creative Networks Event @ tic
2. Event Reviewed
- March's Creative Networks Event CREATIVE INDUSTRIES CONVENTION
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:: Creative Industries Providers Forum |
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:: Advantage West Midlands, Screen, Image and Sound Forum |
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Key Speaker: Susi O'Neill - Screen, Image and Sound Cluster Manager |
3. The Music Network
- Monthly Networking Event held at tic
4. Creative Networks Online Portal - TENDERS NOW ONLINE*DON'T MISS OUT*
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For suppliers of creative media content, the tic now brings jobs and contracts directly to you through the Creative Networks Online portal on a regular basis. |
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...we’d also like to hear from you!
Contact Scarlet Scardanelli, the Creative Networks administrator
with any feedback, case studies, success stories, interesting projects, collaboration opportunities or news:
:: phone
0121 331 5400
:: email
scarlet.scardanelli@tic.ac.uk
:: or
post to Technology Innovation Centre, Millennium
Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG
:: or online at www.creativenetworksonline.com |
| 1. COMING UP - Apirl's Creative Networks Event @ tic *DON'T MISS OUT* |
Thursday
26th April - From 6.00pm til LATE at tic, Millennium Point
The Collaborative Networking Event for Creative Industry Professionals
The Do’s and Don’ts of Distribution
So you’ve produced a great media product, now what?
Securing a distribution deal has historically proven to be one of the biggest challenges for creative businesses. With just a few industry giants dominating the supply chain, getting content to the right people at the right time has always been a significant hurdle.
With the digital revolution shifting the balance of power back towards the small business, there are now more options than ever before. Video sharing websites, peer to peer file sharing and online shops have made it easier than ever to get your content around the world without having to consider a manufacturing deal. Even social networking sites have proven to be as effective as some £ multi-million marketing campaigns.
The question now is not so much ‘How do I get a distribution deal?’, but rather ‘Which distribution channel is right for my product?’ Our panel of experienced guest speakers will offer advice and guide you through the opportunities and choices available, equipping you with the know-how to distribute your media effectively.
The Creative Networks event is FREE. If you would like to join us, please contact Scarlet Scardanelli email scarlet.scardanelli@tic.ac.uk, or phone 07969 226 693
or register online on the Creative Networks portal www.creativenetworksonline.com
You'll be very welcome.
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| 2. Review of March's Creative Networks Event - CREATIVE INDUSTRIES CONVENTION |
Thursday 29th March - From 2.00pm ‘til LATE at tic, Millennium Point
The Creative Industries Convention welcomed a staggering 300 industry professionals to an event jointly hosted by UCE Birminghams Technology Innovation Centre (tic), the Learning and Skills Council and Advantage West Midlands.
Representatives from the region’s key support organisations were in attendance, and many creatives took advantage of this networking opportunity by finding out how they could benefit from the wealth of advice, expertise and assistance that is available across the West Midlands.
Our keynote speaker for the night was none other than acclaimed film and television director, Ken Loach, whose speech urged the West Midlands creative community to protect the integrity of their work and focus on fundamental skills development. Before we welcomed Ken to the stage, we were proud to host both the Learning and Skills Council's Creative Providers Forum and the Advantage West Midlands Screen, Image and Sound Forum for 2007.
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| Creative Industries Providers Forum |
From 2.00pm - 5.00pm
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The Creative Provider Forum
The Learning and Skills Council's Creative Industries Providers Forum saw an invited audience of Further and Higher Education training providers, as well as community and private sector suppliers, gather to communicate their plans and take stock of last year's achievements.
The LSC and their Partners delivered six presentations throughout the afternoon, ranging from Sector Skills Council updates to advice on future European Funding frameworks. An audience of over 60 found the brief overview of each subject useful and, for further information, were given more detailed materials covering each area. The attendees were also given the opportunity to feedback to LSC and their Partners, enabling them to express their views on future strategic direction.
The session proved to be an unqualified success and demonstrated the value of staging such a Networking platform. |
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| Showcase of Media Companies from the Region - 5.00pm - 6.00pm |
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The Musicians’ Union (MU) was formed in 1893 and represents nearly 35,000 performers, composers and teachers across the UK. As well as negotiating on behalf of its members with major employers, the MU offers a range of services tailored to working in the modern music industry. Benefits for our members include contract and legal advice, careers advice, learning events and free public liability insurance. |
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Creative College in the Community is a new partnership comprised of eighteen organisations offering creative industry specific adult learning in Birmingham and the Black Country.
The project aims to provide the necessary infrastructure and financial resources to increase the quality and capacity of learning programmes offered by existing community organisations. It provides funding for the delivery of new and exciting learning for unemployed adult learners, to enable them to gain qualifications and employment in areas including radio, sound, music, visual arts and media.
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Homer Creative is a full service graphic communications agency based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. The company’s experience goes back over 20 years in branding and consultancy, creative design for print and new media, copy writing and editing, photography and exhibition work for a wide range of clients in both the public and private sectors. In particular, we have clients in education, including schools, colleges and universities, and publishing and the arts. Our knowledge, inventiveness and blend of skills enables us to create effective and tailored solutions. |
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Birmingham City Council, together with key partners, has been leading the development of creative industries within the city for the past 4 years through its Creative City initiative.
This initiative has been underpinned by a number of major ongoing programmes including:
Business Support for Creative Industries (£9m) – integrated package of business support for the creative industries sector
Design Space (£270K)- shared incubator within the Jewellery Quarter.
Enterprise City (£1.1m)- entrepreneurship within disadvantaged communities, women and the youth.
SRB 6 Creative Industries project (£250k)- encourage self- employment and growth of creative industries.
The Creative Cities project (£1m) - integrated package of business support for the growth of creative industries within the region.
The Creative Birmingham Partnership Board provides an overview and strategic direction to this work. |
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Based at UCE Birmingham Conservatoire, Music for Media provides a unique brokering service to screen-based and new media SMEs.
Music Content
By providing access to some of Europe’s finest musical talent, they can help set your production apart through the addition of unique musical content.
Facilities
From sound dubbing and mixing, to recording and post-production, they can provide the expertise and personnel you need.
Training
UCE Birmingham Conservatoire is an established centre of excellence in music and music technology. Whether you’re a freelancer or part of a company, they encourage you to take advantage of their expertise to increase your audio and musical skills. |
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Screen WM is the regional agency which supports, promotes and develops a sustainable and thriving screen media sector in the West Midlands through areas such as production, education, exhibition, archive and skills development. They cover six counties in the heart of England: Birmingham and The Black Country, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
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PLOT is a Light House led project which supports the development and growth of the creative media industries in Wolverhampton and the West Midlands. PLOT provides a range of services, including mentoring, business advice, access to production resources, technical support, professional marketing, project development, networking and showcasing opportunities. Since 2002, PLOT has worked with over 150 enterprises helping them develop and improve their business outputs. The project is delivered by Light House and its partner, Black Country Business Link. The project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. |
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The Brothers McLeod are a writer-animator-direction team. Their distinctive 2D work has appeared on BBC ONE, MTV, Channel 4, E4 and at numerous film festivals. They are represented by Aardman Animations as Commercial Directors. They are currently producing a series for BBC Children’s and acting as writers for two other series. Testimonials include:"Aren’t people who make sense of nonsense wonderful." The Times about The Brothers McLeod’s animation Spamland.
“Greg and Myles McLeod's company [has] become one of the animation houses to watch." Digit Magazine. |
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Digital Central is a major development project that intends to help the West Midlands be nationally and internationally recognised for its digital media and music sectors. That includes film, television, animation, interactive media, computer games, digital imaging, music and radio. Their aim is to develop an enterprise culture for cluster businesses that will help accelerate economic growth and increase employment through the promotion of innovative new ideas, the development of new market opportunities and the nurturing of a new generation of cluster entrepreneurs. Our project represents a major collaboration between the regional development agency, the private sector and higher education. |
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The West Midlands Animation Forum has been set up with the aim of establishing the West Midlands animation industry as a key commercial and cultural force within the region's arts and media sector. By bringing together the region's animators and animation companies to share experiences and knowledge, and by encouraging collaborative working, the forum aims to promote a unified face that will help raise the region's profile on a national and international stage. |
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Film Birmingham is the city's film office, run through Birmingham City Council. The organisation offers comprehensive support throughout all stages of film and television production, working alongside other industry bodies in the region.
Through Birmingham City Council's Film Charter, Film Birmingham is able to offer a first rate service for processing filming requests - including locations support with the West Midlands' first online locations service.
To find out more about Film Birmingham please visit www.filmbirmingham.co.uk. |
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The Serious Games Institute (SGI) is intended to be a national hub for emerging serious games applications. This exciting project is a new model for industrial/Higher Education partnership combining advanced research with business incubation, digital media clustering and sophisticated networking and demonstration facilities.
The project originated from the West Midlands’ strength in the global electronic games market and pioneering work in the application of electronic games to serious business applications, primarily e-learning and simulation.
The Serious Games market forecasts explosive growth made technologically feasible by developments in areas like wireless and broadband communications, desktop animation and 3D visualisation. |
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The Producers’ Forum is an organisation set up to help push the West Midlands forward as a vibrant centre for film production by supporting the region’s filmmakers, providing them with high quality training from leading industry experts and creating a framework of networking opportunities. The Forum runs quarterly events on topics that are integral to the professional development of producers, attracting high profile guest speakers to the region to take part in workshops and seminars. The Forum also supports emerging filmmakers with a yearly apprenticeship scheme. |
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| Advantage West Midlands Screen, Image and Sound Forum |
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Advantage West Midlands Screen, Image and Sound Forum
The forum began with Susi O’Neill, AWM’s Cluster Manager for Screen, Image and Sound, providing an overview of AWM and the crucial role they play in supporting the region’s rapidly expanding creative industry.
The regional development agency does not directly finance businesses; they exist to facilitate an environment and culture where enterprise can flourish. Consequently, their public funds are invested with the purpose of providing tangible outcomes such as job creation and increased turnover. Advantage West Midlands achieves this through funding delivery projects which can deliver these outcomes.
A major part of AWM’s work has been in the field of Serious Games. These are “Games technologies and platforms which deliver a learning outcome”, and have been used in areas such as education, health, virtual reality environments, business training and military training. They use existing technologies from the gaming world and apply them to solve real world business problems, and funding from Advantage West Midlands has helped build the first Serious Games Institute in Coventry.
The network were given a summary of some of the other initiatives that AWM has successfully completed in the 2005-2008 period, including Music Live – Musicians Union, Media Production Fund and Media Development Fund - Screen WM, and IDEAS FACTORY WM – Channel 4/ Maverick TV, and outlined some of the projects which are currently being delivered: Creative Cities– Birmingham City Council/Business Link, Eastside Feasibility – Birmingham City Council, and Music for Media – UCE Birmingham.
Digital Central is one of AWM’s key projects and is being delivered by UCE Birmingham. Dave Harte, the project’s manager, joined Susi and the panel on stage to address the creative industry delegates and let them know how the initiative could help them. The strategy focuses on developing networks by bringing companies together, supporting innovation, collaboratively developing new IP, and showcasing excellence to enable companies to access market opportunities. The project is already providing significant support for the industry in the region, so if you’d like to find out more, please visit www.digital-central.co.uk
The panel opened for a lively discussion with the network, where topics covered funding, twinning with European cities, defining innovation and the importance of creative industries among regional development agencies around the UK.
PANEL - Chaired By Dave Harte
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Dave Harte
Digital Central
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Paul Howell
The Character Shop
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Tim O'Connell
Business Wizards |
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Susi O'Neil
AWM |
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| Creative Birmingham Launch |
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Creative Birmingham Launch
Pete Ashton introduced this brand new portal that offering news, events, blogs and updates about creative and cultural Birmingham. Introduced as ‘Birmingham’s best blogger’, Pete Ashton officially launched the site to the very people that he hopes will become the centre of its online community. The case was made that in an industry which is now dependent on the internet, ensuring that your website is networking is just as important as meeting people in person.
Creative Birmingham dynamically updates from a number of sources and websites, meaning that it will always have up-to-date information and listings for events throughout the city. Please visit www.creativebirmingham.com to try it for yourself.
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| Guest Speaker - Ken Loach |
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Ken Loach
In front of an audience of over 200 people from the West Midlands creative community, Ken spoke of the struggles and achievements of his 40-year career directing for film and television. The key theme was his on-going battle against bureaucracy, which manifested itself in all phases of Ken’s career.
In the 1960’s Ken sought to capture a sense of reality in television drama that he felt could not be achieved in a traditional studio-based ‘acted’ production. However, after the BBC had invested heavily in this type of infrastructure, he was initially prevented from using 16mm film to produce the socially influential television play ‘Cathy Come Home’.
Describing the bureaucracy as a “cumbersome elephant only looking one way”, Ken exploited a loop-hole in the regulations, enabling him to take lightweight 16mm cameras out on location, where he shot most of the film. The compelling originality of Cathy Come Home proved influential in both drama production and the subject matter of homelessness. Ken said: “Fight the bureaucrats, take advantage of the weaknesses in their own bureaucracy!”
During the 1970’s and 1980’s, a period where his films received less exposure, Ken painted a bleak picture of an onslaught against the working classes and what he felt to be ever-increasing political censorship. Attempting to capture what he saw to be the social upheaval of these decades, Ken produced a series of films for Channel 4, which never reached television screens after being pulled for “legal reasons”.
Whilst feeling that political censorship is an on-going struggle, Ken’s most recent films have tackled the issue head-on. In 2006, Ken won the prestigious ‘Palme d’Or’ at the Cannes Film Festival for the film ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’. This controversial film challenged what Ken saw to be the accepted notion of the Irish War of Independence.
Moving into the 1990’s Ken criticised the ‘colonisation’ of British cinema by Hollywood-produced American films, which he saw as creating an impossible battle for independent film-makers. Ken argued that this situation is exacerbated by present-day bureaucracy in the film-making process. He cited the example of young directors having to negotiate a long path through funding, producers and commissioning editors. Ken said: “Everyone has a copy of the DVD, sees the rushes and stifles the originality out of directing.”
Ken urged the audience to instead look towards the rich artistic and intellectual heritage of European cinema and made an impassioned plea for them to protect the craft and integrity of their work. He suggested that film-makers should be rigorous with content and keep control of the cut by seeking finance from a number of sources. Ken warned: “Those putting in the most money should not have the most influence; they should trust the skill and judgement of the editor”.
Looking to the future prosperity of the creative industries, Ken called for the use of apprenticeships to aid the grass-roots development of talent. Highlighting the need to focus on fundamental skills, he said: “A film can be shot and framed well or badly regardless of funding”.
Summing up the event, tic’s Head of Screen, Sound and Interactive Media, Steve Smith said: “The rapturous applause Ken received greatly reflects the impact of his speech on a packed lecture theatre. His insight provided many topics for debate during the rest of the evening. I’d like to extend my thanks to Ken, as well as Advantage West Midlands and the Learning and Skills Council for being part of our creative community.” |
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From April 2007 The Music Network will lead a monthly networking event at the tic for all music related businesses from the West Midlands region.
Running successfully for over 5 years their meetings have proved inspirational in the support, development and promotion of thousands of music related activities.
If you have news to report, events to promote, points for discussion or a pitch to make the Music Network may be useful for you.
They offer access through our network to contacts, opportunities, applicable help, advice and guidance, and even free tea and biscuits.
The Music Network is a voluntary, not for profit, social enterprise organisation seeking charitable status. Meetings take place on the last Thursday of each month, 4-6pm at The UCE Birmingham Technology and Innovation Centre (tic), Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG. |
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| 4. Creative Networks Online Portal - TENDERS NOW ONLINE *DON'T MISS OUT* |
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| ©
Technology Innovation Centre (tic) 2006
Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham B4 7XG
phone +44 (0)121 331 5400 fax +44 (0)121
331 5401
email enquiries@tic.ac.uk www.tic.ac.uk
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