makers - Real insight Into Global Production #13

REAL INSIGHT INTO GLOBAL PRODUCTION

CANNES 2024 #13 SUPER POWERS

Will learning disabled or ND talent be normalised on screen and off?

MONEY FOR NOTHING

What does an A­list Executive Producer actually do?

01−05−2024−13

COULD THE RELEASE OF THE APPLE VISION PRO KICKSTART A NEW ROUND OF IMMERSIVE VR EXPERIENCES AND HERALD

A NEW ERA FOR CREATIVE STORYTELLING USING DEPTH, HAPTICS AND DATA SUCKED FROM THE VERY MOVEMENT OF OUR EYES?

EDITOR

Adrian Pennington

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Chris Evans

LOCATIONS EDITOR

Kianna Best

CONTRIBUTORS

Jeremy Lee, Jordan McGarry, Mike Shaw, Neil Hatton

ART DIRECTION & COVER IMAGE

Les éditions du bois du Marquis

HEAD OF PRODUCTION

David Lewis

INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGERS

Jo Tait, Rodrigo Carrasco

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

Clara Lé

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Chloe Lai

The media and entertainment industry is still facing existential questions about its future in the age of AI but it is in better shape than reports suggest. Global revenues will top USD1 trillion in 2024, according to the latest Omdia analysis, and if online video streaming takes the lion’s share (USD367 billion) then traditional television is not done yet. It is expected to rake in USD345 billion this year.

What’s new is the business model. Advertising will make up the bulk of that money: 62% of all online video revenues and 43% of TV money will come from ads not subscriptions. Even a third of revenue from games this year will come from ads.

All major studios are moving ahead more forcefully with ad-centric strategies like Free Ad Supported TV (FAST) channels and premium AVOD tiers.

Expect too a rise in shoppable television (see page 40). Driven by the penetration of Connected TV (CTV), the drain of audiences from linear television, and changing consumer behaviour, the path between brand exposure and direct purchase can be short circuited. Most importantly, consumers seem

DATA & MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Daniele Antonini

FINANCE

Desmond Kroats, Farhana Anjum

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jean-Frédéric Garcia

CONSULTANT

Ben Greenish

FOUNDER

Murray Ashton IN MEMORY OF

Sue Hayes

PRINTERS

Gemini Print, UK

to like it. Over half of CTV users wish they could shop online using their television, according to a recent survey by LG.

As a retail first platform Amazon is in prime position. It has already experimented using on-screen QR codes to offer discounts on its store with predictions it could leapfrog Netflix to make over USD2 billion in ad revenue this year. All this means that brands and agencies heading to Cannes are going to have to get creative with more personalised campaigns than ever before.

The new free and freemium online video landscape has also seen the era of peak television (2013-2023) replaced by a programming line-up of reality TV, sports and longer running episodic shows that looks a lot like the network television of old (see page 52). Some things never change.

But other things do. Could the release of the Apple Vision Pro (see page 80) kickstart a new round of immersive VR experiences and herald a new era for creative storytelling using depth, haptics and data sucked from the very movement of our eyes?

Adrian Pennington, Editor

The Location Guide, 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK

T (44 20) 7036 0020 E info@thelocationguide.com

written

of the publisher.

publisher has taken all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information presented is accurate and correct, but cannot take responsibility for any omissions or errors, nor take any liability for any misuse of images or of the information

085 >NEWS

008 News In Brief

Production news from around the world

010 The World At A Glance

Mapping global production trends

012 Tech & Facilities News

From cameras to studios, the latest in production technology news

040

>CLOSE UP

017 Report

FOCUS 2023

022 Around The World

GRAFFITI, GUNFIRE & TROPICAL RAIN

With location manager David Park

029 Profile

EARTH ANGEL

030 Making Of CIVIL WAR

037 Comment

DEVELOPING UK TALENT

Jordan McGarry discusses Film London’s involvement

039 Interview With ZELDA PERKINS

Co-founder of the campaigning group

Can’t Buy My Silence

051 Profile

SPUD GUN STUDIOS

054 Making Of UP IN SMOKE

056 Report

CANNES FILM 2024

073 Profile

BOOKS OFFICE

>FEATURES

024 Hitting The Universal Funny Bone

Celebrating the art of humour in branded communications

033 In Tune With Music Licensing

Music plays a crucial role in the world of film, television, commercials & gaming

040 Cultural Crossover Found In Translation

FX series Shogun has won plaudits for its culturally sensitive storytelling

063

>AROUND THE WORLD

From incentives, studios & virtual production to location highlights & recent productions, makers offers an insight into some of the world's filming hubs.

045 Florida

The tide is turning in the sunshine state

063 France

Going for gold

087 Hungary

Wanting more

makers speaks to the BBC about retaining trustworthy news in the age of AI

makers looks at the challenges of filming in sea, rivers, lakes &

Recognition is widening about the potential of people with neurodivergent abilities

NEWS in brief

PRODUCTION NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

SPOTLIGHT ON FRAGILE ENVIRONMENT

Conservation photographers Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen (pictured above), co-founders of campaign group SeaLegacy, and Academy Award-winning dp Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant) travelled to Western Australia to make short film The Knowing documenting an endangered species of whale. The short was commissioned by Sony to promote its new digital cine camera Burano.

FRESH LONDON MINT

Danish outfit Mint Copenhagen has opened a London office headed by Rob Doherty as SVP of Business Development and Shane Keane, Head of Growth.

Mint has had a number of animated and live action series on air across the Nordic region including Darkness Between Us (Mørket Mellem Os), a mini for DR, and two seasons of First Time (Første Gang) for media house Aller Media on YouTube. On the agency side, Mint has worked with brands including Epic Games, Funko, Pokemon and Topps.

Doherty said: “Mint draws on the strong Nordic tradition of storytelling to bring fresh ideas to its content. I’m looking forward to developing our slate of creative, original IP working with new partners both in the UK and across Europe.”

Ghana entices with tax

Ghana’s film sector has received a significant vote of confidence from the country’s government with plans to introduce a new tax rebate system for productions.

The country will offer a 20% tax rebate for productions alongside a series of film financing reliefs, including exemptions on import duties for film kit. The proposed incentives also include an exemption on port taxes and other cash levies, which are usually required upfront by authorities.

JUST JOHN LAUNCHED

Actors Kate Phillips, Amber Anderson and Rosie Day (pictured below) have launched indie Just John Films. Its initial slate includes a feature adaptation of Annie Garthwaite’s 2021 novel Cecily, and an untitled Sylvia Plath project with Silver Salt Films.

Just John is aiming for “a unique artist-led viewpoint creating diverse and compelling stories whilst recognising that a welcoming, joyful environment enhances the creativity and quality of everyone’s work.”

Day said, “We don’t have to compromise exceptional quality by ensuring everyone’s well-being and mental health is prioritised. Female-centric tales have weaved their way through my work and I’m so excited to be developing like-minded projects with two brilliant women.”

AMPLIFY: THE REGIONS PILOTED

WE DON’T HAVE TO COMPROMISE EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY BY ENSURING EVERYONE’S WELL-BEING AND MENTAL HEALTH IS PRIORITISED.

It’s another initiative from the National Film Authority aimed at positioning Ghana as a leading film hub on the continent. Its Shoot in Ghana campaign drew in international productions like the NFL Super Bowl spot Born to Play produced by TD Afrique Films (Beasts of No Nation).

UK indies Afro-Mic Productions, Blazing Griffin, Bowled Over, Drummer TV and Hello Deer have been matched with ITV commissioners and given funding to pitch to a brief, as part of the broadcaster’s initiative Amplify: The Regions project.

The five companies will receive a brief. As part of the initiative, each chosen company will be given GBP5,000 (EUR5,800) to develop any potential ideas. If ideas are greenlit, they will go through the standard ITV commissioning process. If not, then the indies are free to pitch their ideas to others.

ITV’s wider initiative called Amplify: The Companies, is working with ten companies that are led or owned by People of Colour and/or Deaf, Disabled and/or ND people that have been matched with genre commissioners and are being funded through The Diversity Development Fund.

BROADCASTERS ARE INCREASINGLY ASKING FOR IDEAS IN THE CLIMATE SPACE AND I HOPE TO WORK WITH PRODUCERS TO OFFER INNOVATIVE & ENTERTAINING CLIMATE CONTENT.

WHO’S HOO

Sachini Imbuldeniya and Darren Smith (pictured below), former executives at content agency Nemorin (the branded content arm of television production group Argonon), have established full-service content House of Oddities (HOO) in London.

HOO says it will “bring brands to television in a way which eases the budget constraints faced by most commissioners without compromising on quality or editorial independence.”

HOO claims it can craft “juicy bonus content” surrounding a show to drive bigger audiences –“and build the right strategy to make sure every chunky bite of content delivers a shitload of bang per buck.”

“While it breaks my heart to see people suffering in the industry, I think this reckoning has been a long time coming,” Imbuldeniya says. “There is another way in which television can adapt, survive and actually get even better, by embracing brands in the right way.”

BIGGER IN JAPAN

All3Media International has partnered with TBS in Tokyo to co-develop new entertainment formats. First off the block sees All3Media indie North One Productions develop Lovers or Liars?, a new studio format which premiered in Japan. The collaboration is part of All3Media’s drive to grow and diversify its formats line-up and to represent more Asian content.

Shunsuke Fukaya, head of format development commented, “Two companies with totally different TV cultures have collaborated without compromising on the content until we reach a consensus of “This sounds fun!”

GOLDEN STATE LANDS GROGU

One way to persuade Disney to shoot the next Star Wars movie in your state is to give it tax incentives. The Mandalorian & Grogu will be the first Star Wars feature ever filmed in California thanks to an award of about USD21.8 million in tax credits

Other upcoming productions recently qualified for California’s Film and Television Tax Credit Programme include two untitled Disney movies, a sequel to the 2016 Ben Affleck thriller The Accountant and sci-fi film Mercy starring Chris Pratt.

Together they are set to boost the state’s economy by USD408 million. Directed by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian & Grogu stars Pedro Pascal alongside the creature better known as Baby Yoda (pictured above).

CLIMATE SPRINGS’ NEW FUND

Screen industry climate advocacy organisation, Climate Spring, has launched a development fund for unscripted fact-ent content that “entertains and updates the conversation on climate change.”

“Broadcasters are increasingly asking for ideas in the climate space and I hope to work with producers to offer innovative and entertaining climate content that reaches under-served audiences,” said fund chief David Leach, formerly of Boom TV. “I also want to offer indies space to take more creative risks especially in fact-ent.”

Lucy Stone, founder and director, Climate Spring, said she wanted the Fund to “harness the power of TV to accelerate the creation of content that shows us new social norms, normalises climate solutions and makes low carbon the default. This is about more than showing individual actions; it’s about creating new cultural norms.”

Strikes hit production spend

The combined spend by film and high-end television production (HETV) last year was down a third from 2022, a result of the Hollywood strikes, according to BFI figures.

The lion’s share of the total GBP4.23 billion production spend was contributed by HETV shows with GBP2.87 billion, or 68%; with feature film production contributing GBP1.36 billion, or 32% of the total spend.

Inward investment and co-production films and HETV shows combined, delivered GBP3.31 billion, 39% down on 2022.

Of the total GBP1.36 billion spend on 207 film productions in 2023 inward investment films contributed GBP1 billion, a 40% decrease on 2022; domestic UK films accounted for GBP150.2 million, a 13% decrease on 2022; and co-production spend accounted for GBP162.8 million, more than two and a half times the spend in 2022.

“THE PRODUCTION AND BOX OFFICE FIGURES THAT WE HAVE PUBLISHED TODAY REFLECT THE DIFFERENT DYNAMICS AT PLAY ACROSS OUR SECTOR.”

Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive said: “The production and box office figures that we have published today reflect the different dynamics at play across our sector. Whilst a level of film and HETV production in the UK was disrupted by strikes, our industry continues to contribute billions to the UK economy and support a huge range of jobs.

“Despite notable recent successes such as The Great Escaper and Rye Lane (pictured above) we cannot ignore that the statistics also highlight concerns for lower budget UK films, increasingly challenged in securing finance and visibility. Our work and commitment in this area continues.”

Rye Lane © Disney.

The Mandalorian & Grogu © Disney.

The world at a glance

RIDLEY SCOTT NETFLIX

CARIBBEAN

St Vincent and the Grenadines has established a National Film Commission to attract more movie and reality television productions to the island.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Alcon Entertainment and Ridley Scott Productions’ limited series Blade Runner 2099 for Prime Video will shoot at the Czech Republic’s Barrandov Studios in Prague from June.

GEORGIA

Season 4 of Netflix drama Sweet Magnolias films on location in Covington, Georgia which stands in for South Carolina.

NEW MEXICO

Katharina Rivilis’ directed feature I’ll Be Gone in June, produced by Wim Wenders’ Road Movies has shot in the state.

TEXAS

Taylor Sheridan’s latest Paramount+ opus Landman about the West Texas oil boom films with Billy Bob Thornton and Demi Moore.

MALTA

World Productions’ six part factual drama Lockerbie, about the 1988 bombing films in Scotland, Malta and Toronto. The series has BBC and Netflix distribution.

UTTAR PRADESH

Filmmaker Boney Kapoor’s Bayview Projects and Bhutani Group will jointly develop a new studio complex in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India.

POLAND

Cold War thriller Winter Of The Crow starring Lesley Manville and directed by Kasia Adamik for Wild Mouse Production is shooting in Warsaw.

NEW YORK

The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodovar’s next feature, shoots in Madrid and New York with Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and John Turturro.

WALES

Hulu thriller The Man in My Basement – based on the novel by Walter Mosley – shoots at Llandybie, Carmarthenshire for director Nadia Latif, starring Willem Dafoe.

SCOTLAND

HanWay Films’ period survival thriller Tornado from filmmaker John Maclean, starring Tim Roth; and Left Bank Pictures’ Department Q, a police series for Netflix, both shot in and around Edinburgh.

AUSTRALIA

Amazon Prime Video’s Caribbean-set period feature

The Bluff starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Karl Urban shot in Australia for director Frank E. Flowers and Russo brothers’ label AGBO.

GERMANY

Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s father-daughter drama

Sentimental Value received

EUR200,000 from the German Federal Film Board and will shoot in Germany, Norway and France.

tech & facilities

DARK SLOPE’S NEW VOLUME

Dark Slope, a Toronto-based virtual production and spatial gaming company, and SideFX, makers of the popular Houdini VFX software have opened a virtual production stage in Toronto.

FROM CAMERAS TO STUDIOS, THE LATEST IN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY NEWS NEWS

Post and VFX house Coffee & TV, whose work includes a recent campaign for Calvin Klein featuring Jeremy Allen White (above), is now part of advertising and marketing conglomerate, Omnicom.

The buyout is intended to bolster Omnicom’s content offer and will fuel international expansion for Coffee & TV in New York, LA and Austin. The acquisition includes long-form picture finishing facility, Residence Pictures.

CINESITE GOES IMMERSIVE

Immersive, the new immersive services branch of Cinesite, now includes an in-house visualisation (VIS) team focused on pre-viz, virtual production, tech-viz and post-viz services.

The new division will align with Cinesite’s concept and pipeline departments and follows last year’s investment in performance capture studio Imaginarium Studios.

The team behind Cinesite VIS is led by head of Visualisation Richard Clarke, who joins from NVIZ where he was head of Post-viz. Also joining from NVIZ is Eduardo Schmidek, a Visualisation and Real-Time supervisor whose shows include The Midnight Sky and Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical.

“The vision for our smart stage is to redefine how quality entertainment can come to life,” said Dan Fill, president of Dark Slope. “Our expertise at the forefront of spatial technologies and creative development, uniquely positions us to drive innovation in virtual production.

ANIMATION SKILLS BOOST

The cap for the Animations Skills Fund has increased by GBP2,000 with contributions capped at GBP54,000 per production. Since 2016 the Fund

AXA BUYS BBC ELSTREE

French global investment management firm AXA Investment Managers (IM) acquired BBC Elstree Centre, home of Eastenders in a deal which sees the BBC lease part of the studios for 25 years. Oxygen Studios, which advised on the acquisition, will act as developing and operating partner going forward. The BBC announced the sale of the 16 acre site in 2022, seeking EUR72 million.

“This is possibly the most established studio location in the UK. We like the idea of something that works, but also something that can be improved,” said Axa IM’s global co-head of real estate John O’Driscoll.

Kim Davidson, President & CEO at SideFX Software commented, “Dark Slope’s mastery of Unreal Engine and their ability to integrate high-quality hardware and software into their workflow positions the company for great success as the market embraces real-time technologies. This synergy of storytelling prowess and technical expertise is exactly why we believe this partnership is a strategic step to advance the future of virtual production.”

has raised more than GBP 850,000, with more than GBP200,000 raised in 2022-23 alone, from 15 animated productions for investment in training and development programmes across the UK.

The

Clarke said, “What we do allows clients to explore a variety of ideas, to bring the pages of a script to life, to inform every step of the filmmaking process. Together with Cinesite, we will strengthen and extend that creative partnership throughout the entire process, from script to delivery.”

The immersive division was nominated for a Visual Effects Society award for its work on Rembrandt seascape (pictured) with London immersive art venue, Frameless.

Cinesite VIS is currently working on feature film projects as part of an integrated offering, but will also operate as a standalone visualisation vendor, with more projects slated over the coming months.

acquisition is the second big studio purchase by AXA, which paid EUR150 million for Bry-sur-Marne Studios, east of Paris.

THE NEW STUDIO IS SLATED TO BEGIN HOSTING PRODUCTIONS FROM 2026 AND WAS GREENLIT THREE YEARS AGO TO DRIVE NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS INTO THE STATE.

PACT’S AI GUIDE

UK producers body Pact has issued a list of principles and guidance on the implications of using Gen-AI for TV and film projects. It welcomes the opportunities that AI brings to the sector – such as creating efficiencies and enhancing the creative process – while acknowledging risks that need to be navigated carefully.

NIKON BUYS FINCHER’S FAVOURITE CAMERA COMPANY

Japanese camera company Nikon has bought US camera manufacturer RED Digital Cinema. The deal brings high-end cinema cameras like the 8K capable V-Raptor to Nikon which is better known as a stills and lens maker.

Nikon also own Mark Robots Motion Control, a robotics systems developer, enabling synergies with RED cameras within Virtual Production environments.

RED was launched in 2005 and helped propel the industry toward digital cinematography. Its cameras were used to film Netflix House of Cards (pictured above) for director David Fincher who has continued to use the technology on all his features since including Mank. Other RED camera shows are Squid Game, Navalny and The Queen’s Gambit. Its products also include the video compression system Redcode Raw.

Nikon said it would use the acquisition to expand the professional digital cinema camera market and promised exciting future of product development.

DNEG LAUNCH IMMERSIVE DIVISION

DNEG IXP (Immersive Experiences) is a new division from the VFX powerhouse aimed at “super- premium” content across gaming, live events, theme parks, retail, product launches, location-based experiences, and more.

The division is headed by Josh Mandel who has previously worked for The Mill, R/GA and Wieden+Kennedy. He said, “No-one knows the ambitions, desires and needs of a brand’s key audiences better than the brand itself. Through DNEG IXP, brands can work directly with the entertainment industry’s most talented thinkers and makers to create immersive experiences across a range of media that resonate with and feed the passions of their most important audiences.”

DNEG IXP’s work is focusing initially on the worlds of gaming, virtual concerts, and theme park ride experiences.

TRG ADDS STAGES IN OHIO

Cleveland, Ohio based TRG Multimedia has spun off TRG Sound & Vision, a sound stage and film production boasting 160,000 sq ft of studio space.

Facilities include a sound stage, sets and a 40 ft by 60 ft infinity wall with a volume stage planned. The company is led by head of creative Geoff Yaw and head of production Ryan Kelly.

“For years we've heard that Northeast Ohio needs better infrastructure to make it a true hub for the film industry. Our sound stage and production capabilities will boost our region's offerings in a location that's convenient for studios and on-the-ground talent alike," said Adam Wilde, TRG ceo and president.

“TRG Sound & Vision will help solve the labour problem studios face when they film outside of Hollywood, including access to gaffers, electricians and other skilled industry professionals.”

Birmingham gets major BBC boost

Building is underway at the new BBC’s broadcasting centre in Digbeth, Birmingham. Spun Gold TV is among indies moving out of London to the location and bringing BBC daytime format Garden Rescue with it.

Nearby Digbeth Loc. Studios is also home to a purpose-built studio which will host MasterChef, made by Shine TV from this autumn. The relocation of the series (comprising 65 hours of peak time television) will bring 130 new jobs to the city. Birmingham will also be Banijay’s largest production base out of London. This includes their scripted partnership with Steven Knight’s Kudos Knight. Clear Cut have established a new post facility there too.

BBC Studios shows Sister Boniface Mysteries, Father Brown and Silent Witness (pictured above) are relocating later this year. Other scripted commissions include Guz Khan comedy Man Like Mobeen and CBBC drama Phoenix Rise which is made in Coventry.

BBC Writers and Create Central have allied with other West Midlands’ creative organisations to find the next generation of script writers from the region.

WEST AUSTRALIA DIGS STUDIO

The former CEO of screen agency Screenwest, Ian Booth and producer Jamie Hilton are behind the new EUR143 million state funded screen production facility being built in Western Australia.

The new studio is slated to begin hosting productions from 2026 and was greenlit three years ago to drive national and international productions into the state.

Home Fire Creative Industries, the consortium behind the facility will build four sound stages and ancillary space including an art department, workshops, and backlot.

West Australia’s Production Attraction Incentive investment has attracted productions including The Surfer, The Twelve and We Bury the Dead.

House of Cards © David Giesbrecht/Netflix.

Silent Witness © BBC Studios/Kevin Baker.

Meeting the Makers

The ninth edition of FOCUS attracted a record number of creative screen industries professionals for two days of prime networking and insight.

Delegates, exhibitors and sponsors from 84 countries helped make the last edition of FOCUS the best yet with opportunities to network rated highly by those that came.

Keynotes, panels and workshops addressed key talking points, from the challenges of financing and structuring projects in turbulent times, to diversity, creating content sustainably as well as insights into the biggest productions like Succession and Napoleon. A new strand focused on the red hot topic of AI.

The conference programme was delivered in conjunction with an expanded range of partners including Pact, PGGB, BFI, ScreenSkills, Advertising Producers Association, British Film Commission, UK Screen Alliance, Directors UK, LMGI, MediaXchange, Stage 32, Global Entertainment Awards, BAFTA albert, Producers Without Borders, Shiny, UK Global Screen Fund, Olsberg SPI, The Film & TV Charity, CIISA and Beano Brain. FOCUS also hosted the ICDA Semiramis Award for Excellence in Casting.

On the show floor, attendees were able to meet with 258 exhibitors (up 25% from 2022), including international film commissions, agencies, film-friendly locations and production service

companies from every continent. First time exhibitors included Film USA, AFCI, United Airlines, Western Australia and Kazakhstan.

Delegates from Lucas Film, Netflix, Warner Bros, Amazon Studios, Sony Pictures and Sky were also among those present.

The event culminated with the makers & shakers Awards at BAFTA, celebrating excellence in global production, presented by makers magazine and The Location Guide.

“Last year was an exceptionally challenging one for the industry, and we hope our conferences and networking events brought new opportunities and inspiration to our guests for the year ahead,” said FOCUS MD Jean-Frédéric Garcia. “Heartfelt thanks to the content advisory board and all our speakers, exhibitors, partners and sponsors for contributing to such a successful show.”

FOCUS returns to the Business Design Centre, Islington this year on 10/11 December. Check http://focus.london for more details.

KEYNOTES, PANELS AND WORKSHOPS ADDRESSED KEY TALKING POINTS, FROM THE CHALLENGES OF FINANCING AND STRUCTURING PROJECTS IN TURBULENT TIMES, TO DIVERSITY, CREATING CONTENT AND SUSTAINABILITY.

If you're looking for networking events that are more than just exchanging business cards, this is one worth adding to your diary. Forget stuffy conference rooms and stale name tags – this was an immersive exhibition-style extravaganza that buzzed with creative energy and genuine interactions.

JENNI DREW GALLOWGLASS LTD

It was definitely worth the investment to travel from the US to the UK for the incredible networking I experienced here. It was my first time at FOCUS but I plan to return in 2024.

MIRANDA CARNESSALE

LOCATION MANAGER

UNITED STATES

FOCUS remains the best place for producers to explore the practical possibilities of co-production such as meeting film commissioners and obtaining clear, essential information about tax incentives.

BUNMI AKINTONWA

PRODUCER

LITTLE BLACK BOOK CO

FOCUS IN NUMBERS

2874 TOTAL VISITORS IN 2023

673 EXHIBITORS & INTERNATIONAL DELEGATIONS

39 CONFERENCE SESSIONS

258 EXHIBITING COMPANIES IN 2023

84 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED

ON THE SHOW FLOOR, ATTENDEES WERE ABLE TO MEET 258 EXHIBITORS, INCLUDING FILM COMMISSIONS, AGENCIES, FILM­FRIENDLY LOCATIONS AND PRODUCTION SERVICE COMPANIES FROM EVERY CONTINENT.

Attending FOCUS at The Business Design Centre in London was an absolute game-changer! The dynamic mix of meetings, networking, and insightful conference sessions across film, TV, advertising, and games opened doors to global opportunities.

ZOKIFLI ABU BAKAR

DIRECTOR, FIMI FINAS MALAYSIA

A valuable event for production, locations, film commissions and service professionals to meet, network, learn and exchange in London, one of the top production hubs in the world.

NNEKA LUKE

SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST OLSBERG SPI

FOCUS UK put our offices front and centre with location professionals from around the world and began generating business for us almost immediately. This event was worth every penny we spent. By far, this is one of the best trade shows we’ve ever attended.

PETER CATALANOTTE

DIRECTOR, FILM TUCSON UNITED STATES

FOCUS IN NUMBERS

56% OF ATTENDEES WERE PRODUCERS, EPS & PRODUCTION HODS

95% OF VISITORS WOULD RECOMMEND TO A COLLEAGUE

33 NETWORKING EVENTS

19 EXHIBITOR PRESENTATIONS IN 2023

209 SPEAKERS IN 2023

Around the world

Graffiti, Gunfire & Tropical Rain

SIX LOCATIONS CHOSEN BY LOCATION MANAGER DAVID PARK

2 In 2010 I was very excited to work on In Time as I was a huge fan of director Andrew Niccol and cinematographer Roger Deakins. I was tasked with setting up eight blocks around LA’s 6th Street Bridge to be transformed into a dystopian neighbourhood. There were 40 properties to make deals with to paint, add signs, add fencing and set extensions, and change outdoors.

3 I love to scout properties and hear the stories of the homeowners and business owners to find hidden perspectives. Even if a property does not end up working for the project, often inspiration and information provided from scout photos can be priceless in the way someone has posters on the wall or books on the shelves. Some of these details can’t be made up and I love that.

4 Much of the end of Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths took place in the desert between Palmdale, Palm Springs, and Joshua Tree National Park. This shot is of Martin at an overlook in Palmdale with my old white Chevy Tahoe on the road standing in for the picture vehicle.

Growing up in the suburbs of Claremont on the edge of LA County, parking lot culture and traveling by car was the norm for David Park. He took up photography as a teenager using his father’s Canon AE-1 35mm camera equipped with speedy 1.8 50mm lens.

David’s passion for traveling and exploring was born on trips to Italy with his family. His love for movies and television was inspired by seeing A View to Kill starring Roger Moore in the cinema. “Little did I know that all the seeds were planted for me to embark upon an exciting career in Location Scouting and Management,” he says.

1 David Ayer’s Netflix thriller Bright (2016) used a million-dollar location packed with apartments in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown. We had two weeks of night work with gunfire and stunts during Thanksgiving.

We cleaned the entire block of trash only to litter it all with our clean movie trash. We worked with local neighbour affiliates to remove existing graffiti and put our own up on walls, sidewalks and even the street. We handed out USD300 gift cards for turkeys to neighbours for goodwill. Film scenes with gunfire each night would trigger the call and response from real gunfire echoing near where we stood.

5 Scouting for a Jonathan Nolan project is always a dream for a location manager. Free reign to explore and bring back cool images and locations. Although it ultimately was too restrictive to film, it was a lot of fun to scout these potash ponds in Moab, Utah for the Amazon series, Fallout

6 Visiting the Philippines after completing filming for Westworld I was enamoured with the mall culture where massive shopping centres are connected to each other via skywalk bridges so you never have to leave air conditioning. The beaches of El Nido were picturesque and I loved being in the ocean during the tropical rains.

Scandinavian agencies (and particularly Norwegian ones) have a drole, self-deprecating (slightly noir) humour –such as the Smart House spot for the no-frills Norwegian retail chain REMA 1000.

Hitting The Universal Funny Bone

AS PART OF ITS ANNUAL REINVIGORATION OF THE CANNES LIONS, ORGANISERS HAVE INTRODUCED A NEW HUMOUR CATEGORY INTO THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL TO CELEBRATE THE ART OF HUMOUR IN BRANDED COMMUNICATIONS. IT MAY ALSO BE A REACTION TO THE ACCUSATION OF BEING TOO EARNEST AND THAT SOME LIONS WINNERS WERE USING BRAND PURPOSE FOR VERY SHALLOW REASONS. JEREMY LEE REPORTS FOR MAKERS

Work entered into a new category at Cannes Lions “should use wit and satire to provide amusement and create memorable, laughter-inducing connections with audiences.”

It forms part of the Lions’ mission to reflect the prevailing advertising landscape, and anecdotal evidence does suggest that humour as an advertising trope is on the rise against a backdrop of and as a reaction to the global cost-of-living crisis and unrest in the Middle East and Ukraine. But equally there has also been criticism that brand purpose had become the dominant way for brands to win a Lion – in 2022, and after years of brand purpose being in the ascendancy, a remarkable 28 of the 32 Grand Prix winners included purpose or sustainability within their submission. In short, Cannes Lions was accused of being too earnest and that some of the winners were using brand purpose for very shallow reasons.

Whether humour becomes the new brand purpose is something that depends on many factors – not least on how universal “funny” is and whether it can transcend national and cultural borders to appeal to a global panel of judges in the same way that brand purpose has done for much of the past decade. So, does humour travel? And what’s more, will it travel as far as the bunker-like judging panel rooms in the basement of the Palais des Festival on the Croisette?

Andy Jex, the chief creative officer at TBWA\ London, who also runs global accounts, thinks that historically humour didn’t translate but that things are changing. “In the past it was commonly thought that only visual or slapstick humour resonated globally, and these types of humour often found success at Cannes,” he says. “However, I believe this perception of humour is now outdated.” Jex credits the internet – and social media in particular – for effectively shrinking the comedy world by allowing people to share and find they have more common ground than ever before – including what tickles their funny bones.

“With the increasing rise of memes, it's demonstrated that humour isn't solely reliant on slapstick; it's about tapping into truths, offering unexpected perspectives, or exploring the bizarre and surreal – techniques which are frequently used in meme culture. So, we now find ourselves in a world where diverse forms of humour can thrive and where audiences (including jurors) are increasingly receptive to a broader spectrum of comedic styles,” Jex concludes.

But Ian Heartfield, founder and chief creative officer at New Commercial Arts, thinks that there’s a danger that ‘humorous’ ads might still include the lowest common denominator. “Physical comedy is timeless and universal, so there will be no issue with work from across the world competing for Gold if it involves someone slipping on a banana skin,” he says. “But it’s not a level playing field. I remember working

in the US and seeing an ad where a Granny was pushed out of a moving car with the driver shouting, ‘Duck and roll Grandma!’. In the UK you can’t even open a car door on the roadside when it’s parked.”

Trevor Robinson OBE, founder and executive creative director at Quiet Storm, points out that while humour can be universal there are sensibilities that are particular to different communities, cultures, and countries. This has informed his approach when working on the agency’s global account Haribo.

He says: “I grew up in South London, and what I find funny probably wouldn’t translate in, say, Germany. For each market in Haribo’s global campaigns, we used real conversations local kids were having, rather than just working from our own idea about what would be funny. This helped the campaign resonate more deeply in those markets. The kids came up with dialogue we’d never have thought up, and this made the campaign funnier and more authentic. In Japan, we found that the children we worked with brought out the humour through slapstick antics rather than in the dialogue, so we used sumo wrestlers in the campaign to keep that focus on physical and visual comedy.”

“HUMOUR ISN'T SOLELY RELIANT ON SLAPSTICK; IT'S ABOUT TAPPING INTO TRUTHS, OFFERING UNEXPECTED PERSPECTIVES, OR EXPLORING THE BIZARRE AND SURREAL TECHNIQUES WHICH ARE FREQUENTLY USED IN MEME CULTURE.”

The Epica Awards – a creative awards scheme awarded by journalists who write about advertising and marketing – has been handing out gongs for ads in a humour category since 2015. Its editorial director Mark Tungate says that while some local references might be lost on an international jury, universal themes on humour emerge within the confines of national generalisations, which also have wider appeal and have won awards.

He points out that Scandinavian agencies (and particularly Norwegian ones) have a drole, self-deprecating (slightly noir) humour – such as the Smart House spot for the no-frills Norwegian retail chain REMA 1000.

Created by Oslo agency Try Reklamebyrå, it shows a smug guy living in a smart house that responds to his voice commands. But when he returns from a visit to the dentist the house fails to understand his commands and leaves him locked out in the pouring rain. And even when he does get inside, a request to turn up the heating just results in louder music. ‘Better to keep things simple, like Rema 1000 supermarket’, is the simple but humorous message.

Another ad from Try Reklamebyrå, for Canal Digital uses a similar – if darker humour – to play on FOMO. The Silver Hand spot focuses on an everyman called Bjorn who finds that wherever he goes everybody is talking about the Silver Hand, a funny scene on television. To promote Canal Digital's Weekly Archive, which auto-records everything on television, the ad follows Bjorn's life as the perpetual outsider, forever punished for making the mistake of missing an episode.

Thailand, too, has a humour that appeals beyond national borders – it’s absurd and slapstick and very visual. In 2019 an ad for Thai Health Promotion Foundation by Leo Burnett Thailand picked up a Gold at the Epica Awards and won a Silver Lion at Cannes two years later. It was created to show that not all vegetables are available all year round – and that there’s a danger in eating those that have been grown with chemical assistance. A young woman goes in search of bok choy at the request of her ailing grandfather. A woman at the market warns her that it's out of season, but she persuades a farmer to grow some chemical plants. She returns triumphantly to fulfil what turns out to be her grandpa's last wish.

Shelley Smoler, the chief creative officer at Droga5, thinks that humour doesn’t and can’t sit in isolation – and could equally apply to any of the other Lions categories. “Why pigeonhole humour into a corner with its own category? Can't we craft beauty and hilarity in one seamless blend? It's high time we break free from the mundane and let humour roam wild and free!” she says. Moreover, she says humour as being the way that the ad industry can be revived among the affections of the public. “A mere category won't suffice. Let's be real – humour can rescue our industry! So, this new category? It's just the beginning of a wild comedy revival!”, she says, optimistically.

WHY PIGEONHOLE HUMOUR INTO A CORNER WITH ITS OWN CATEGORY? CAN'T WE CRAFT BEAUTY AND HILARITY IN ONE SEAMLESS BLEND? CAN'T WE BE RIOTOUSLY FUNNY AND PURPOSEFUL? ADVERTISING CREATIVE AWARDS

The 2023 Smells Blocks Socks ad by Bangkok agency Rabbit’s Tale for the apparel brand GQ Apparel uses a similarly slapstick and OTT approach to everyday scenarios and promotes its socks that are designed to eliminate food odour.

Tungate says: “I remember the great Thai creative Suthisak Sucharittanonta told me the word for it was ‘zab’, which means it has a tangy flavour.

Other national stereotypes ring true too, he says –the Brits excel at irony. New Commercial Arts (NCA) has entered the agency’s Nationwide spot into this year’s Cannes festival. NCA undertook a major relaunch of the building society last year and introduced a new brand platform that focuses on Nationwide’s commitment to keeping branches open. The television ad features Dominic West as a comically objectionable fictional rival banking boss.

Heartfield ponders: “Will a global jury find a blundering, out of touch, big banker, played by Dominic West funny? Or will it pass people by? He was in The Wire if that helps?”.

The US ad industry, meanwhile, is good at ads with a snappy dialogue with a sitcom feel to them. “All these are sweeping generalisations, but the fact is that a surprising portion of the world can laugh at the same thing. We’re all human, after all,” concludes Tungate.

Some creatives argue that our common humanity –and shared sense of the ridiculous – might mean that putting humour into an awards category of its own risks ghettoizing it (particularly if, as is expected, it becomes a more popular trope across categories as brand purpose and ‘sadvertising’ recedes. What’s more there aren’t Lions categories for the five other basic human emotional responses – surprise, fear, sadness, anger and disgust.

Others think that humour has always been a way to win at Cannes. Rich Denney, joint chief creative at St. Luke’s, thinks that it’s surprising that it hasn’t been introduced as a category sooner. “I remember when we creatives eagerly waited for the SHOTS Cannes showreel to arrive so we could see what had won,” he says. “We especially took note of the international work that was intentionally funny.”

“THE FACT IS THAT A SURPRISING PORTION OF THE WORLD CAN LAUGH AT THE SAME THING. WE’RE ALL HUMAN, AFTER ALL.”

Among the previous global Lions winners from distant memory – that just happened to also be funny – he cites Nissin Cup-O-Noodle Moa Ostrich spot by Japanese agency Hakuhodo, which won a Grand Prix in 1993; Little Caesars Pizza's Pleasers Training camp, created by Cliff Freeman & Partners, which won a Gold Lion in 1996; and Leo Burnett London’s Bear spot for John West from 2000; which is credited with being one of the first viral ads – by 2006 it had been viewed more than 300 million times online. In 1997, a special jury in Cannes voted Collett Dickenson Pearce's Photo Booth for Hamlet cigars, the ad of the century.

Dörte Spengler-Ahrens, non-executive creative chairwoman of Jung von Matt and German Art Director Club (ADC) president, concludes: “The idea of creating a humour category is a good one, because it supports a deep need that prevails among today’s advertising audiences: light-heartedness. I have been a jury member on many international awards and my colleagues and I could clearly see that in a crisis-shaken world, there was an urgent need for work that was simply cheerful, full of humour and brought a touch of lightness.

“As for the question of whether humour works internationally, in all these years of wonderful campaigns that have delighted us worldwide, in all juries there has been no discussion of countries. Humour is universal and powerful, as illustrated by the example of many brands who rely on it internationally and are super successful.”

Perhaps using and awarding humour in advertising will, in a small way, work an antidote to the conflict and crises that are – at the moment – equally universal, as well as help build stronger brands.

The 2019 ad for the Thai Health Promotion Foundation by Leo Burnett Thailand.

Nationwide spot.

Earth Angel (EA) is Hollywood’s leading full service sustainable production services agency. Its team of experts provide the skilled labour and supplies necessary to reduce the environmental impact of entertainment. Primarily operating throughout North America with hubs in New York, LA, Atlanta, Toronto and Vancouver, EA also works with international partners to provide services globally. Earth Angel received recognition as Highly Commended in the Sustainability Award category at the 2023 makers & shakers Awards.

For over a decade, EA has been instrumental in pushing the needle on sustainable production within the entertainment industry on all levels. It faces challenges on almost every production but probably the biggest is not having enough time in prep to strategise the sustainability plan with the production team and department heads.

“Often we are brought on the production too close to principal photography when vendors have already been hired, sets already built, and non-environmentally products already purchased,” says Jennifer Sandoval, director of business development. “Also, crew members tend to be confused about any last minute changes to their work process. We consistently encourage our clients to bring us on as early as possible so that we have enough time to meet with each department to recommend best practices, source sustainable materials and set up comprehensive waste management systems and access cleaner power options.”

Despite the short lead time, EA does its best to create customised strategies that are as realistic and impactful as possible. Earth Angel works with a wide array of green vendors in every major film hub as well as in other film locations around the globe.

“We also familiarise ourselves with the local infrastructure and regulations so we can create efficient waste and energy strategies.”

PROFILE Earth Angel

Another challenge is that sustainability is often not included in film budgets making it difficult to institute sustainable practices such as hiring a recycling vendor, purchasing eco-friendly materials or cleaner fuels which sometimes come with a premium cost. EA provides a sustainability budget template that lists all potential costs for greening a production. They review the costs and benefits with the production team so that they are fully aware of where their dollars will be best spent to result in the most significant impact.

IMPACT

Since 2023 Earth Angel has recorded the following impacts:

Total emissions avoided: Over 16,016 MtCO2e

Total waste diverted: Over 19,000,000 lbs

Total meals donated: Over 241,000 meals

Total materials donated: 365,372 lbs

Total single use plastic water bottles avoided: 3,987,850 bottles

Total trees saved by using digital apps: 901

CLIENTS

EA has worked on over 150 productions including Killers of the Flower Moon (AppleTV+), The Iron Claw (A24), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Studios), Black Panther (Marvel), The Staircase (HBO) and Evil (Paramount+)

“We realise that a production cannot do everything, but we try to make recommendations that are realistic and reduce waste and emissions as much as possible,” Sandoval says.

A third challenge is underdeveloped infrastructure that can limit a production’s ability to achieve higher diversion rates or access to clean energy sources such as EV chargers and alternative fuels such as renewable diesel. EA is on top of this in terms of understanding the local landscape in the hubs it operates in. So, going into the production, they can make recommendations based on what is available.

“Each location has its own challenges and every crew is different so there are many levels of knowledge and experience and we find that we need to constantly educate and raise awareness. We do not always have the specific expertise for each department, so we must rely on crew members to provide information about how we can best implement sustainability initiatives.”

Sandoval says, “Sometimes crew members are reluctant to put forth any extra effort to try to be greener, as they are used to doing their jobs in a certain way. Our Eco Reps and service teams constantly approach these challenges with a positive attitude and seek to find creative solutions for any issues that arise.”

“We encourage the crew to be as engaged as possible by sharing educational materials, creating fun competitions between crew members to raise awareness and be a resource to all the crew. We track and monitor performance throughout the production and if we notice an issue we rely on our own experts to help troubleshoot. That way we can be as efficient as possible.”

ALEX GARLAND PROVOKES BY REPURPOSING IMAGES OF MODERN WAR

ONTO AMERICAN SOIL

Making of Civil War

Writer director Alex Garland (pictured below on set) describes his dystopian action movie Civil War as “a war film in the Apocalypse Now mode.” Like Coppola’s classic it is structured as a road movie in which photojournalist Lee (Kirsten Dunst) must make her way upstream and across enemy lines encountering surreal and violent events to capture the ‘money shot’ of the execution of the commander in chief (in this case, the US President).

A24 gave Garland its biggest budget yet, USD50 million, to give the film the scale needed to showcase the destruction of landmarks and monuments as the battles permeate countryside and city streets alike.

Filming for Civil War largely took place in Atlanta and Hampton, Georgia, also employing sites in Philadelphia (seat of the Union’s democracy) and Pennsylvania. The cityscapes of Washington, DC, and New York feature as backdrops.

Garland with DOP Rob Hardy took the decision to shoot the film chronologically and using lightweight,

flexible handheld cameras, in order to build impact toward the final scenes and bring out the actors’ best performances.

The entire final third of the film which depicts the storming of Washington, DC and the White House was shot at the Tyler Perry Studios, a 330-acre lot in Atlanta on the historic grounds of the former Fort McPherson army base.

The film also includes shots of Atlanta’s Alonzo Herndon Stadium, and the Big Bethel AME Church. The location manager was Kellie Morrison.

Images courtesy of A24 & Murray Close.

In Tune With Music Licensing

From evoking nostalgia to creating ambience, music plays a crucial role in the world of film, television, commercials, gaming and more. makers explores all the new ways that songs and scores are being synced with expanding content platforms.

Whether it’s John Travolta’s strut to the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive in Saturday Night Fever, the electric guitar belt of Metallica’s Master of Puppets in season four of Stranger Things, or the power of Andrea Bocelli’s Festa for John Lewis’ 2023 Christmas commercial, music is a driving force of emotion, embedded in screened content. At the foundation of this pairing between the industries sits sync licensing.

From publishing and masters to library and commercial music, understanding the many facets of sync is crucial for an infringement free relationship, but it is “rarely a priority for filmmakers and drastically misunderstood,” insists Katy McIlvaine, music supervisor and owner of Dawn Patrol Music, which offers licensing for artists.

On the one side you have the publishing rights, which is the copyright holders’ right to control the use of a song in a particular format or geographical territory, and on the other is the master, which is the intellectual property of the recorded song. With two sides to the licensing, and an intricate line of ownership to get through, the manual process of attaining clearance can be complex and time consuming.

PITCH TO PAYMENT

“From pitch to payment it takes over a dozen steps, countless emails, and anywhere from three months to over a year,” says Jon Mizrachi, head of sync at Bodega Sync. “This could definitely be improved by minimising the amount of unnecessary or redundant paperwork, perhaps creating an industry standard for automating the administrative side of licensing to be a collective process instead of one that has to be done in parallel with all rights holders.”

Within the many catalogues provided by sync licensing companies, there are both signed and independent artists’ materials available. The latter tend to be the preferred licensing choice for filmmakers due to ease, efficiency and cost effectiveness.

“Licensing an artist that is signed to the majors and works with writers and producers who are also signed to major publishers is definitely more difficult, expensive, and time consuming,” insists Mizrachi.

Companies like Bodega Sync that work with independent artists are able to aggregate the two forms of rights needed to legally use a licensed song for screen, whilst more famous tunes require multiple spread out negotiations and a higher price.

“A one-stop artist who controls a hundred per cent of their masters and publishing is usually much easier to license and negotiate with,” adds Sam Loughlin, creative licensing and production services manager at Music Gateway, a 360 music industry marketplace. “Whereas, you'd likely have to negotiate with multiple publishers and a record label to license an established artist. Independent music can be just as good if not better than mainstream tracks.”

holders. With catalogues providing access to thousands of commercial and library-based content across genres, variety for those searching for copyright free music is abundant but artists can find themselves overshadowed by others or more established creators.

Loughlin adds: “Anyone can create music these days and supervisors/productions have limitless options in terms of music they can license – great for them, tough for artists.”

ANYONE CAN CREATE MUSIC THESE DAYS AND SUPERVISORS/PRODUCTIONS HAVE LIMITLESS OPTIONS IN TERMS OF MUSIC THEY CAN LICENSE ­ GREAT FOR THEM, TOUGH FOR ARTISTS.

Some companies are trying to make the process smoother and give easier access to all. For example, social music platform BandLab allows creators to not only share their music but also their creative process with fans and other musicians. They’ve created a direct channel between creators, collaborators and consumers. Last November, it launched a sync licensing arm, providing their 60 million registered users with new opportunities and creating a one stop service for those working in the creative industries seeking rights-cleared content.

“More artists and more music generally leads to more diversity in style, which offers great options creatively when you’re looking to license music for your project,” says Grace Hewlett, creative sync manager at music library Soho Production Music. “What it comes down to when looking at having your music matched to a sync opportunity is what the music supervisors and editors are looking for, for their particular project.”

“Sometimes they will have a very specific idea and sometimes they’ll be more open to inspiration that they hadn’t previously considered. In terms of competition for opportunities, there is more music out there but there is also much more media being produced than ever before, so I’m optimistic about the outlook for commercial and library artists.”

A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE MARKET

The 2022 Global Sync Licensing Trend white paper report, commissioned by music licensing platform Songtradr and Digital Music News, highlighted the expanding scope of sync licensing with the value and possibilities of emerging placement opportunities in gaming, long-form web content and even fitness platforms.

“The way music is used on various platforms greatly differs from the linear usage we've understood for years in television and film,” says Loughlin. “Games such as Fortnite have experimented with in-game concerts with Travis Scott and Marshmello; brands are partnering with artists more often (Just Eat with Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg, for example). In this way, sync is becoming more interactive and artist-driven with music being the focus as opposed to a song simply being used in the background.”

But as the music industry gets increasingly saturated, sync remains a highly competitive market for rights

Technology is set to make the process more efficient for creators, licensers and those seeking music. There are more streamlined platforms, such as BandLab, and artificial intelligence based solutions, like Musiio (which has partnered with Audio Network, one of the best known providers of production music).

AI SIGN OF THE TIMES

AI tools have already found their way into the music industry such as helping musicians to write, record and mix music, as well as discovering new artists.

“I would imagine at some point AI will get good enough to do complex searching based on a mix of references and will become the main way people search for music,” predicts Mizrachi. “Since there’s a strong reliance on this discovery process in the sync space to find the right song for the right scene, this will likely reduce the influence of gatekeepers like pitchers and music supervisors. If this is accompanied by solutions for rights management that facilitates and standardises licensing, then it might be possible for more independent artists to get syncs without the direct involvement of music industry professionals.”

“AS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY BECOMES INCREASINGLY OVERSATURATED, SYNC REMAINS A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE MARKET FOR RIGHTS HOLDERS.”

At this moment, AI is yet to pose a total threat to those working in sync licensing. Whilst there is a desire for improvements in the predominantly manual industry, the personal skills of specialists effectively pointing screen projects in the right direction for their musical accompaniments, is still hugely important.

“There’s a low ceiling to how well AI-driven search methods can work at identifying music that is appropriate for media,” says Mizrachi.

“AI is a controversial subject in sync as it creates complicated copyright infringements and, without the correct systems in place to identify these instances, it's reasonable for artists to be concerned,” adds Loughlin. “There’s no doubt that technology will keep sync on its toes. That will be governed by the music users or platforms rather than the music owners. Both sides must work together to ensure that all effort is made to proactively eliminate copyright infringements and to ensure artists are paid for the use of their work.”

Discovering & Nurturing Talent Across Media

WHILE MANY INDUSTRY INSIDERS KNOW FILM LONDON FOR ITS EXPERT LOCATIONS KNOW-HOW, IT’S THEIR WORK DEVELOPING TALENT THAT HAS CREATED THE MOST THRILLING RIPPLES ACROSS SCREEN INDUSTRY WATERS, SAYS JORDAN MCGARRY

For many years, sourcing talent was quite straightforward – we sent out a call for applications to one of our funds, and people applied. Whether it was making London Calling short films with talent including Riz Ahmed and Hope Dickson Leach; or Microwave features from Hong Khaou and Georgia Parris, the path was clear: short film, debut feature, off you go.

These days, we still bring incredible talent into the industry through the BFI network short film fund banner. Our short film alumni include Dionne Edwards (Pretty Red Dress) and Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane). But these days talent development is more complex, less predictable and dare I say it, much more interesting. We search more varied terrain, we dig further left of centre, and we still strike gold. (I would say that of course, that’s the bit my department looks after. If any of my colleagues would like to arm wrestle me over this, game on).

The New Talent strand of our Production Finance Market has showcased many gems. This year’s SXSW Best Documentary Feature winner, Grand Theft Hamlet, was at PFM New Talent in 2023. It’s a documentary shot entirely within Grand Theft Auto. The winner of 2023 Un Certain Regard Prix de la Nouvelle Voix at Cannes was Baloji’s Augure (Omen). He brought Augure to PFM New Talent in 2019 and while we loved the rich visual style of his short films, Baloji was better known as a musician when we first met him.

We’ve recognised that we need to look to other forms to source the next generation of talent. The possibilities for creative expression have exploded over the last decade, and creators find switching between lanes smoother than ever. Producers and commissioners have always known that a strong story from one field translates well to another, so adaptation rights are as important as original content development. With this in mind, we’ve built a new bridge through which to connect talent to the industry. UPStream, launched in 2019, is designed to enable cross-pollination between creative fields and to offer early-stage IP from other forms that had potential for film or television adaptation. Everyone loves a pun, so we called the people behind the projects ‘IPsters’.

So far our IPsters have included TikTokers, podcasters, game creators, illustrators, authors, and a sprinkling of filmmakers. We’ve worked with Soho Theatre, Talawa Theatre, Wattpad and Vimeo to source projects ripe for adaptation, and attended events and festivals like B3 Frankfurt, Gotham Week and the Miami Media and Film Market. We’ve also found IPsters on Instagram, in a local arts and crafts market and in the queue for the loo at a wedding. It’s a diverse mix, however you look at it.

Many of those creators are now in development with Upstream attendees. By definition, the early-stage projects are trickier to talk about than the Production Finance Market’s alumni of finished films. For now, we can say that podcasts have been picked up by television producers, projects we thought would be feature films have been selected by games studios, and artist filmmakers are developing feature films.

We’ve also recognised that IP and talent moves quickly, and the best won’t wait for an annual showcase. So UPstream is now available year-round as an online platform for development execs and producers, with new IP and creators delivered to inboxes each quarter.

We’re pretty proud of UPstream, it demonstrates the fun and flexibility of the creative world and the increasingly fuzzy boundaries between disciplines, and it’s also a great showcase of truly diverse talent. We can’t wait to see the results of their work.

Jordan McGarry is Film London’s Head of Talent Development and Production, heading the department that supports and develops filmmakers in London and beyond through BFI network, PFM New Talent, Film London Labs and UPstream. She has never won an arm wrestle in her life, but she’ll always give it a go.

Planet City by Liam Young, one of Film London’s IPsters for 2024.

interview withderspici Zelda Perkins

Zelda Perkins has been campaigning since 2017 when she was the first woman to break a nondisclosure agreement (NDA), signed decades earlier, with Harvey Weinstein. She brought the systematic abuse of NDAs to the attention of the British Government and international press, giving evidence at two parliamentary inquiries, which have uncovered an epidemic of misuse. Her actions have inspired others to come forward to break their NDAs. Zelda was named a Person of the Year by Time in 2017 and by The Guardian in 2020. In 2023 the UN Women UK recognised her for her outstanding contribution to gender equality. She co-founded the campaigning group Can’t Buy My Silence with Canadian law professor Julie Macfarlane in 2021 and spoke about its progress at FOCUS 2023.

MAKERS MAG

What is the goal of Can’t Buy My Silence?

ZELDA PERKINS

Our aim is simple: legislative and regulatory change that will make NDAs unenforceable for anything other than their original purpose –the prevention of sharing confidential business information (IP) and trade secrets.

NDAs are unnecessary for protecting victim identity which can be protected with a simple one sided confidentiality clause, catastrophically damaging to

innocent parties, and immoral when they hide harmful information from the public. The reality is they are a form of coercive bullying.

Are NDAs really still such an issue today?

There’s still a large underground use of NDAs in every single sector. They are seen as an entirely standard way of operating. I see NDAs with the same clauses that were in my NDA being used by broadcasters today. People in the creative industries are especially vulnerable. There’s still a culture of ‘if you don’t sign, you can’t get work.’ The central issue is that the law has been weaponised. We are campaigning for regulatory change to provide better guidance for lawyers and to root out the problem with legislation reform.

How do NDAs impact people?

An NDA can prevent you from speaking about your time at a company. You can often be stopped from even speaking to friends or family, other lawyers, a therapist or a doctor. The pressure that builds up on a person’s life after signing is often hugely damaging not only to their professional life but to their mental health and personal relationships. The process of being silenced is often worse than the original source of complaint. One of the most common feelings is that you have become complicit and enabled an abuser’s future crimes.

How have CBMS provoked change?

Surprisingly higher education is one of the worst perpetrators of NDA use. In 2022 we created a voluntary pledge for universities to stop misusing NDAs. So far, 69% of key institutions have signed up to the pledge which, because of our work, has passed into legislative reform. It means millions of UK students and staff are now protected from entering into NDAs in relation to complaints of sexual misconduct, abuse, bullying, harassment or discrimination. This is the first law of its kind in the UK and sets a precedent to move into all sectors.

What has been the response of UK broadcasters?

We’ve been trying to encourage broadcasters to follow the BBC’s lead in not using NDAs for anything other than intellectual property. I have had meetings with the heads of ITN and Channel 4 among others. Although initially the pledge is met with enthusiasm we have only got so far with the conversation which usually stalls with the legal and HR department! None have yet signed this voluntary, nonenforceable pledge from CBMS but I am optimistic about pushing this forward. By committing to the pledge, they will be bringing their business in line with the legal reform that is already underway across the world. It will make them

leaders in the UK, signaling to shareholders and employees that workplace ethics are taken seriously.

Has the dial moved at all since the mid-2000s?

In 2017 the attitude was ‘if you keep quiet after agreeing a settlement then what is the problem?' We faced a brick wall from government, the law sector, and movie industry. There’s since been a huge sea change of people’s knowledge and understanding. Tech companies including Google, Apple and Microsoft have expanded the protections of California and Washington states' Silenced No More Act, to all their US employees. This Act prohibits the use of NDAs in cases of discrimination and sexual misconduct. NDA has become a toxic term in the public discourse, one which businesses increasingly do not want to be associated with but NDAs are still at the root of the majority of scandals reported on.

Are you hopeful of lasting change?

If we could get legislation changed to protect all employees within the next 18 months, as we did with higher education and finally reform guidance for lawyers I believe we will have almost achieved my goal. With the creation of brilliant initiatives like CIISA to regulate the creative industries the changes will be fully encompassing for those with more precarious freelance status.

Image courtesy of Gareth Iwan Jones.

East West Cultural Crossover Found In Translation

All we want to do is find ways to subvert the gaze. We would never be able to properly invert the gaze, because we’re western filmmakers, just like James Clavell was a western writer.

IRONICALLY FOR A PRODUCTION THAT NEVER ACTUALLY SET FOOT IN JAPAN THE FX SERIES SHOGUN HAS WON PLAUDITS FOR ITS CULTURALLY SENSITIVE STORYTELLING. SHOWRUNNERS JUSTIN MARKS AND RACHEL KONDO WENT TO PAINSTAKING LENGTHS TO RE-CREATE FEUDAL JAPAN INCLUDING WITH ACCURATE TRANSLATIONS OF CLOSED CAPTIONS IN A PROCESS THAT BEGAN IN THE WRITERS’ ROOM.

The first television adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 historical fiction novel Shogun was a global hit helping to spawn the miniseries genre that continues to this day. Inevitably, it was also, of its day.

Made in 1980 by Paramount for NBC, starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune the epic 17th Century West meets East clash was a template for later ‘stranger in a strange land’ narratives but was somewhat reductive in its depiction of Japanese culture.

The 10 part revival made for Disney division FX by husband and wife team Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks aimed to set the record straight.

“When I heard that Justin and Rachel were involved I knew that they would want to turn the trope of a strange man in a strange world upside down,” editor Maria Gonzales tells makers. She cut the pilot and episodes four, seven and ten.

She recalls her childhood in the former Yugoslavia with Shogun on television in the background. “The original series was structured solely from the point of view of the (hero) character and the world is explained through him. Nor did they use subtitles. Everything in Japanese was translated.”

The filmmakers of the new series intended to upend these elements – albeit based entirely in Canada. Locations in Japan were scouted but found to have little in common with the wooden built cities and wilderness of Shogun’s 16th Century setting so they stayed in Vancouver, building large sets at Mammoth Studios, and using locations included at Ucluelet on Vancouver Island and at Rocky Point in nearby Port Moody for opening scenes of the shipwreck.

They revisited Clavell’s novel which paints its story over 1000 pages from the points of view of multiple characters. The English pirate Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis), for example, is depicted in the book as a savage who comes to respect the more civilised Japanese society. Shipwrecked on foreign shores he comes with an attitude of not understanding cleanliness, but he is won over by the ‘novel’ idea of taking a bath.

These elements are reflected in Shogun’s script which gives equal if not more screen time to Japanese warlord (principally Yoshii Toranaga played by Hiroyuki Sanada) while the lead female character, Mariko, reduced to romantic interest in the first adaptation, is here given greater agency (as played by Anna Sawai). The ‘white saviour’ narrative of the first show was ditched in favour of something more representative of the truth.

Historical advisers were employed for guidance on feudal Japan, everything from architecture in the build of sets to seating positions for the many ritual ceremonies on show. Sanada himself was elevated into the dual role of producer to advise on script and scene detail.

“Our strategy was pretty simple: Empower the people who actually know what’s authentic, and then listen to them,” Kondo told The Hollywood Reporter

Marks continued, “All we want to do is find ways to subvert the gaze. We would never be able to properly invert the gaze, because we’re western filmmakers, just like James Clavell was a western writer. What we are hoping to do is to subvert the gaze enough to surprise the audience –like, let’s see Blackthorne as the Japanese see him.”

“OUR STRATEGY WAS PRETTY SIMPLE: EMPOWER THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT’S AUTHENTIC, AND THEN LISTEN TO THEM.”

The process of adapting Shogun to screen with due respect for Japanese culture and historical accuracy led them to create a complex workflow that exchanged ideas and translations back and forth with local experts and creatives.

The script, written by Americans (albeit some were Asian American) was sent to Tokyo for translation. From there, it was sent to a Japanese playwright who specialises in ‘Jidaigeki’ (Japanese period drama set during the Edo period of 1603 to 1868) who retouched the script for period accurate dialect – much like Shakespearean English sounds to modern audiences.

The show’s Japanese producers, Eriko Miyagawa and Sanada oversaw the process of taking the playwright’s version and giving it to the actors to perform.

All images courtesy of FX Networks.

The show dailies were translated to include Japanese subtitles with them supervised by assistant editor Masami Kagayama. “She made sure the dialogue was translated correctly and also marked anything that was incorrect [from a Japanese audience point of view] in a scene or that veered from the script,” Gonzales says. “I felt that all that work really allowed me to approach dailies as if [they] were in English.”

Once an episode edit was ready to lock Miyagawa and Sanada would watch the cut and provide notes. “Hiro would give notes down to the sound of a sword being pulled from its sheath, or ensuring the ambience really does sound like Japan, that they had the right crickets [insect] noise. It was very, very in depth.”

THEY CHOSE TO POSITION THE SUBTITLES HIGHER UP ON THE SCREEN THAN NORMALLY, BRINGING THEM CLOSER TO THE EYE LINE AND INTENDED TO REDUCE AUDIENCE FATIGUE. CINEMATOGRAPHY

Episode one introduces Toranaga and the court in a fairly lengthy scene which is all told in Japanese. “Doing so makes a statement that this is what we’re doing in the show,” Gonzales says, “There will be lot of intrigue and a lot of subtitles.”

They also chose to position the subtitles higher up on the screen than normally, bringing them closer to the eye line and intended to reduce audience fatigue. They were also fastidious with the colour grade behind the subtitles, to make sure that the words were always “jumping off the screen and you don’t get that white-on-white problem that we all remember from watching classic foreign films in black and white during our college days,” Marks explained in an interview given to The Playlist podcast.

To do all this Kondo and Marks felt they had to empower their Japanese collaborators to speak up “and speak outside of the traditional hierarchy when they noticed something was wrong” (which is not natural to many Japanese for whom deference to ‘the boss’ is ingrained). They also ensured that the crew on set in Vancouver were open to hearing suggestions and willing to respond to it.

Christopher Ross BSC helped establish the look of the show by shooting the pilot for director Jonathan van Tulleken.

“We talked a lot about the form of the traditional Jidaigeki film such as the use of long focal lengths and low camera positions and an eclectic mix of cultural references but the one thing we came back

to time and time again was that we wanted the story to feel very present, very first person and visceral,” Ross explained to British Cinematographer.

Ross was aided by production designer Helen Jarvis who had built scale models of all the sets based on concept art that was itself the product of research. Landing in Vancouver for 10 weeks of prep in Autumn 2021, Ross used those to model how light would bounce around inside the sets.

“LOCATIONS IN JAPAN WERE SCOUTED BUT FOUND TO HAVE LITTLE IN COMMON WITH THE WOODEN BUILT CITIES AND WILDERNESS OF SHOGUN’S 16TH CENTURY SETTING SO THEY STAYED IN VANCOUVER.”

“What I took from a light study of these spaces is that the rooms are generally lit by a soft light from the sky,” Ross says. “I also noted the way the wood panelling of the walls leads into the wood panels of the ceilings. The ceilings are dark wood and the flooring is covered with beautiful bamboo and cotton tatami mats. This means you must invert the western lighting protocol by having light bounce from the floor while the wraparound shadow reflecting skin tones comes from the ceiling.”

Aside from the ethical value in creating drama which respects cultural roots, there’s an economic determinate here too. International streamers are casting their net wider away from Western English language stories in a bid to drive greater revenues. The U.S and most of West European markets are saturated with streaming service subscriptions but there is plenty of room for growth in other markets.

It’s why Disney, Netflix, Amazon and the rest are focusing funding on local language commissions but ideally ones with universal appeal. Given that the original 1980 series proved deeply unpopular with Japanese audiences, Kondo, Marks and FX have managed a hit with a formula that works from West to East and the other way around.

Tide Turning in Sunshine State

The latest Mission: Impossible and Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 film are among a growing spate of projects heading to Florida, despite the lack of a state incentive.

Everyone knows Florida is a hot location, not just in terms of year round sunshine, but also as a place for filming. The list of film and television projects to shoot in the state (from Cool Hand Luke to Iron Man 3) is long and impressive.

But in recent years, without a state-wide incentive since 2016, the US Studios have mostly headed elsewhere in the US, choosing places like Louisiana with its potential 40% tax incentive or Georgia offering 20%.

TIDE TURNING

There are signs, however, that the tide could be turning once more, helped by a suite of county incentives and sales tax exemption for production related items.

“OTHER REGIONS OF FLORIDA ARE ALSO ENTICING PROJECTS WITH LOCAL INCENTIVES AND STUNNING FILMING LOCATIONS.”

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise have been filming two high-profile movies in the state. The former was in town earlier this year to shoot scenes for a F1 racing film directed by Joseph Kosinski, including sequences at the Daytona International Speedway.

While Cruise filmed parts of the opening sequence to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 at the Litewave Media studio in St Petersburg, last May.

“They had some of their A-team here, including Tom and the DoP, Fraser Taggart, to shoot part of the scene in which his character Ethan receives his instructions from a self-destruct message in a safe house,” enthuses Christian Cashmir, founder of the studio, to makers. “They shipped the sets over from the UK and then wrapped a month later in June.”

The 12,000 sq ft facility, offering three sound stages and a virtual production LED wall, is proving popular. Following Cruise’s departure, since February this year, the site has been hosting sci-fi movie Mother Nature and the Doomsday Prepper, starring Mickey Rourke, which is set in Ancient Greece.

“We’re doing a lot of the filming at the studio and around St Petersburg, including in front of the LED volume, which will show scenes like the gates of Olympus and Zeus’s veranda,” explains the film’s producer Cameron Brumbelow, owner of Angry Elf Entertainment. “We’re even building the full deck of an old Galleon ship, which will be used to transport people from Olympus in the movie, with the LED wall used for the water and clouds backdrop.”

The production team has been using about 95% local crew and filming in surrounding locations, including across Tampa, which has helped it access the local county financial incentive (Film St Pete/Clearwater’s Business Development Marketing Programme), which pays 10% to 30% on qualified local expenditures above and below the line.

“We’ve managed to scale up to 30% for this movie,” says Brumbelow. “It’s a very tourism driven incentive, so you use local hires, hotels and caterers, and showcase identifiable spots across Pinellas County (made up of 24 municipalities), like we did drone shots of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.”

“Productions are starting to realise you can do some cool stuff here. Aside from the studios, we have beautiful beaches, the urban atmosphere of downtown Tampa and countryside just 30 minutes away where you feel like you’re in the middle of

Image courtesy of St. Pete/Clearwater Film Commission.

PRODUCTIONS CAN ALSO GET THE SMALL TOWN LOOK FROM PLACES LIKE DUNEDIN AND GULFPORT, AND WE CAN HELP THEM CREW UP AND GET FREE PERMITS TO SHOOT ON PUBLIC PROPERTY.

nowhere,” says Cashmir, who is working on another sci-fi project with Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn), which will shoot at the studio, as well hosting a number of commercials.

Lisa Dozois, film commissioner for St Pete & Clearwater, agrees: “We are proving really popular, hosting a lot of films and commercials, drawn to our great beaches, including in St Petersburg, which offers rare, protected green spaces on the seafront, year-round sunshine, and a lot of undeveloped park land, which can double for the jungles and rainforests of South America.

“Productions can also get the small town look from places like Dunedin and Gulfport, and we can help them crew up and get free permits to shoot on public property.”

COUNTY INCENTIVES

Other regions of Florida are also enticing projects with local incentives and stunning filming locations. For example, Miami-Dade county, which consists of 34 cities, including Miami, attracts 70% of the state’s television and film production, partly thanks to its new multi-million dollar High-impact Film Fund Programme, in the shape of a 20% cash rebate.

“It’s an immediate infusion of cash,” enthuses Marco Giron, chief of film & entertainment at the Miami-Dade County Office. “We’re talking to all the big studios like Netflix, Warner Bros and Disney.”

Productions must spend at least USD5 million in the county and 90% of the production that occurs in the state of Florida must happen in Miami-Dade county to qualify.

The county’s landscapes can also double for several locations. “We have sections of downtown Miami that can read for New York or Chicago, while in the south there’s agricultural land and homesteads that can double for middle America. As well as parts in the north that have a Moorish look, plus swamp land, and beach areas that can double for Spain, like Espanola Way on Miami Beach,” enthuses Giron.

That Spanish-language connection is noticeable in the county with the presence of major networks NBCUniversal Telemundo and TelevisaUnivision, and Media Pro. “We are considered the gateway to Latin America,” adds Giron.

LOCATIONS FILM

INCENTIVES

One of the biggest series to film in Miami-Dade recently was Warner Bros. Television and Apple TV’s Bad Monkey, starring Vince Vaughan as a former detective drawn into a world of corruption. “They filmed all over Miami-Dade and were housed at a soundstage near the city of Doral with hundreds of crew and a transportation team of over 200 vehicles. It was all hands on deck to shut down roads and manage the logistics, but it was fun,” says Giron.

Miami-Dade has also recently hosted reality TV shows The Real Housewives of Miami and Love & Hip Hop. Its county office can help productions navigate the various permitting rules and requirements of the 34 different municipalities, including liaising with agencies like the Coast Guard and FAA.

Neighbouring Broward County (representing 31 municipalities) is another good option with a similar variety of locations, some of which can double for Miami, and plenty of water, including hugemansions on the ocean and many canals, giving it the title ‘Venice of the Americas’.

Permits to shoot at these locations can be obtained in as little as two days through Film Lauderdale (the film commission for Broward) and there are often no permit fees.

“WE HAVE SECTIONS OF DOWNTOWN MIAMI THAT CAN READ FOR NEW YORK OR CHICAGO, WHILE IN THE SOUTH THERE’S AGRICULTURAL LAND AND HOMESTEADS THAT CAN DOUBLE FOR MIDDLE AMERICA.”

“We are a one-stop-shop, sorting out the permitting for 26 of the municipalities, and liaising with all of them to encourage a film-friendly attitude with local residents onboard,” Sandy Lighterman, film commissioner for Broward County. “There are federal and state permits. If you’re in the Everglades it’s federal, so we try and encourage productions to use alternative, unincorporated marsh land, which is easier. It’s one of the tricks of the trade. Our accommodation options are also a lot less expensive than Miami.”

Images courtesy of Litewave Media Studio.

The Downtown Hollywood Mural Project courtesy of Film Lauderdale.

BUT IT TRIES TO MAKE UP FOR THAT WITH AN IMPRESSIVE ARRAY OF LOCATIONS, INCLUDING GRAND HOUSES, STUNNING BEACHES, MARSH LAND AND A VAST EXPANSE OF GREEN SPACE.

Broward offers a menu of incentive programmes, including a Multiple Project Guarantee, which consists of a 30% rebate capped at USD2.5 million per project.

“The great thing is productions can pull from the incentives in Miami-Dade and Broward, as long as they meet the local criteria,” adds Lighterman.

Nearby Palm Beach county (39 municipalities) is also an attractive prospect, drawing in a number of commercials, television shows and branded content to achieve record-breaking production revenues last year, tracking an annual economic impact exceeding USD238.7 million.

“We offer diverse locations from the Glades to our cityscapes at West Palm Beach, and the historical town of Jupiter in the north of the county, with its striking Jupiter Inlet lighthouse,” says Michelle Hilliery, film commissioner for Palm Beach County.

Other stand-outs include the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens (a traditional tea house), which recently hosted a Matsuda Eyewear branded video and the Lion Country Safari, where you can cheat the look of an African plain and small village complete with animals, which hosted a recent Nick Jr show.

Permits to shoot at these locations can take as little as one day, insists Hillier, “but we ask for three business days to facilitate”.

Hillier admits though that it’s frustrating not having a state incentive causing many feature films and television series to head elsewhere. "Amazon Prime Video's Road House (starring Jake Gyllenhaal) is set in Florida, but filmed in the Dominican Republic. While the TV series, Apples Never Fall (starring Sam Neill), partly filmed here, but most of it was filmed elsewhere. That was a USD15 million budget that didn’t film in Palm Beach.”

Some of the counties don’t have incentives either, like Collier County, which consists of Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades National Park. But it tries to make up for that with an impressive array of locations, including grand houses, stunning beaches, marsh land and a vast expanse of green space, including the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

“It’s the high life meets the wildlife,” enthuses John Melleky, Arts & Culture Manager for the tourism division of Collier County. “We have everything from natural beauty to streetscapes to agricultural areas.” “Plus our fees for renting places is small,” insists Sandra Rios, Communications Manager of the county’s tourism division.

ISLAND LIFE

In the archipelago of the Florida Keys it’s a little trickier to film because of the lack of infrastructure and incentives. But the unique look of the county with its mangrove islands and palm trees makes it a draw for projects. “The Keys is a character in itself,” says Chad Newman, local film commissioner.

The county also partly hosted Bad Monkey, including Vaughan’s character’s house, although they faced some unique local issues. “The shoot went really well, but they were filming on a turtle nesting beach, so if one came over they’d have had to shut down. Equally, there were protected Key deer around. So the crew had to build a protective barrier around the houses,” explains Newman.

WE’RE DETERMINED TO GET THE STUDIO BUILT. AT THE MOMENT WE HAVE PLENTY OF WAREHOUSES AND A COUPLE OF SOUNDSTAGES, BUT THEY’RE MOSTLY FOR SMALLER PRODUCTIONS.”

There is also the challenge of only one main road through the islands, which can’t be shut down for long periods, But a Maserati commercial recently managed it for a few hours. Netflix show Bloodline also filmed in the county “in the upper Keys, so the crew could live in Miami and just drive down every day,” adds Newman.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND CREW

Most of the counties offer studio space, including around Orlando with Universal Studios Orlando, containing seven soundstages, and Chapman/ Leonard Studios. While around Miami, there’s Telemundo Center, HQ of NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language television network, EUE Screen Gems/Viacom International Studios, with two 15,000 sq ft soundstages, and M3 Studios.

There are plans for a new studio complex with ten soundstages in Fort Lauderdale too. “We’re determined to get the studio built. At the moment we have plenty of warehouses and a couple of soundstages, but they’re mostly for smaller productions,” says Lighterman.

There are also plenty of experienced crew available across the state (despite many leaving for other busier parts of the US in recent years) with about 800 active members of film, television and theatre union IATSE, making for a crew depth of between three and four.

The industry just needs the state incentive to attract more projects, keep the crew and fill the locations and studios. “Every year we petition for it to the governor and everybody who has political influence. Hopefully it will happen soon,” concludes Cashmir.

The Morikami Teahouse west of Delray Beach courtesy of Palm Beach County Film & Television Commission.

Image courtesy of St. Pete/Clearwater Film Commission.

Upfront payments in installments Scouting programme

Porto Santo © Henrique Seruca

PROFILE Spud Gun Studios

The Connected Set is the creative force behind Mashed, one of the biggest online animation channels in the world. Last year it launched Spud Gun Studios to capitalise on the growth and popularity of shortform animation.

Jason Mitchell and Jake Cassels founded youth content specialists The Connected Set in 2010 in the days when digital was the future. Since then, the industry has merged linear with digital and the company has changed with it.

On the linear side it recently produced 9 x 30’ of BBC Education’s long running Live Lessons and BBC Three documentary Porn Laid Bare and continues to champion emerging talent.

For Channel 4’s digital team it recently made online chat show Don’t @ Me Babes with TikTok superstar Chezablonde. Previous launches for E4 have been with Daz Black and Munya Chawawa. Another is Unreal! With Olivia Neill – a pilot for BBC Three and BBC NI presented by Belfast-born social media star Olivia Neill.

“We’re trying to make content for the generations that don’t necessarily watch television by helping bridge the gap between creators making stuff on their phone for TikTok and television which requires commissioners, paper work and higher production values,” says creative director Tom Payne.

Recently, the appetite for digital creator to linear television crossover has diminished. “Broadcasters have found that transitioning audiences from TikTok to iPlayer is tricky,” says Payne. “C4 are still strong

FOUNDED 2010

MD – JAKE CASSELS

CREATIVE DIRECTOR – JASON MITCHELL

11-15 EMPLOYEES WWW.SPUDGUNSTUDIOS.COM WWW.THECONNECTEDSET.COM

in digital commissioning and want to bring new talent through but the opportunity for a YouTube star on television is not what it once was.

“The approach now is finding talent to fit an idea rather than taking huge social media talent to develop television formats around them.”

In parallel to unscripted live action the company have produced over 750 original animations and generated over two billion views for clients mostly for long running Channel 4 brand Mashed.

Mashed started in 2013 with Channel 4 as an end of year mash-up of current affairs. That transformed into a YouTube channel for shortform animated comedy content still funded by Channel 4.

The firm is headquartered in Bristol but the core team of 15 is split across the UK. One production executive is based in Madrid. Six of them work on Spud Gun.

“Through Mashed we’ve got this incredible worldwide network of new, exciting animators, writers and voice actors which we will try to harness when it comes to creating our own content as well as working with broadcasters to identify the next generation of creative animators,” Payne adds.

The nature of fast turnaround, relative low-cost animation has proved a great breeding ground for new talent. “We’ve given many of them their first professional jobs.”

Other animation clients include Beano Studios, BBC and games developers. A video produced for Warframe generated 12 million views on YouTube, 377,000 likes and had a 73% retention rate.

“Animation has always been a core part of our business but we decided to launch Spud Gun Studios as a dedicated label. We recognise the growing importance of how animation can connect with audiences where live-action can’t.”

Spud Gun immediately inked deals with Channel 4 to continue its investment in Mashed and with other branded and third-party publishers.

The label is overseen by executive producer Tom Jenkins, who launched Mashed on YouTube and Payne, who joined the company from Studio71 in 2021.

It is moving into podcasts and developing a slate of original IP targeting young adult pop culture. Having built Mashed to over 5.5 million followers the team feel they understand the audience.

Finding fewer opportunities for animation commissions in the UK, the team are making a push into Europe. “We’re looking to partner and to develop content for the US market. That’s a big part of our strategy this year.”

BALDUR’S GATE III

Future Publishing reached out to Spud Gun to create an animated short about new video game title Baldur’s Gate III (pictured above). Game developer Larian Studios wrote the script and provided access to the game’s voice actors which made the short stand out for fans of the series.

Spud Gun handled storyboards, character design, 2D animation, backgrounds, postproduction, music and sound. The animation aired during PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show 2023 livestream and was posted on Larian Studios’ YouTube channel before launching on the Mashed YouTube channel.

Back to the Precinct

Squid Game: The Challenge © 2023 Netflix, Inc.

With streamers under pressure from investors to slash costs and turn a profit the decade of rampant content spend is over. Appetite for new shows remains high however if producers can find the right project to sell them.

The word is out that streamers want comedies and police procedurals – formats that work with new ad supported models,” says producer Sam Sokolow (Genius), speaking at FOCUS. “Programming that fits with patterns we might have seen on television ten years ago.”

After years of seemingly spraying cash as if from a fire hose, streamers are now being more judicious in their content investments. Some, like Disney+ and Max, are shrinking their overall spend with high-end drama and features seeing most cuts.

But it’s not as if the all taps have been turned off. Ampere Analysis forecast global content spend will increase by 2% this year following a plateau in 2023. Netflix will increase its pot from USD13 billion to USD17 billion training its focus on unscripted, local language television and animated films. Squid Game: The Challenge and reality series Physical 100 and a dating series for women in their fifties from Sex and the City creator Candace Bushnell are examples.

“You will always see leveraging of high prized IP and chasing big name talent but I do think there’s a seat at the table for any kid of creative,” says Sokolow. “Netflix and Disney will continue to spend many millions of dollars on one project but they also want character driven ensemble pieces that are well acted and don’t cost an arm and a leg.”

The move toward AVOD, FAST channels and ad-supported premium subscription tiers is fuelling demand for content more familiar to broadcast television.

“The move into advertising models means that news of the demise of the traditional programme format is premature,” Sokolow says. “There’s a need for commercials to be placed within the content and procedural or case of the week type of shows lend themselves to four to five acts for neat ad insertion.”

AFTER YEARS OF SEEMINGLY SPRAYING CASH AS IF FROM A FIRE HOSE, STREAMERS ARE NOW BEING MORE JUDICIOUS IN THEIR CONTENT INVESTMENTS.

Tom Sherry, MD, Headline Pictures agrees that there is a “move towards populism within drama,” but adds that trying to predict what streamers will want “is the wrong way of looking through the telescope.”

“It is about what you give to them,” he says. “You’ve got to find authenticity that connects with audiences and make the argument to the streamer or traditional terrestrial broadcaster why you are most qualified to tell that story.”

He advises producers to focus on packaging a product “to make it feel more valuable beyond its initial premise. Package it with known onscreen talent. See if you can spin it in a way that allows you to make a documentary version alongside the drama. This creates more noise and more bites of the cherry around the same idea and helps creating a brand identity around a title.

“Ultimately this is what any commissioner at a platform or broadcaster is looking for. How to make this content stand out from the rest?”

Streamers are also on the hunt for a global hit that resonates with its local market. “A way of telling story that feels special to its home territory but has a way of communicating to a global audience in its themes,” says Sokolow.

Squid Game may be produced in Korean but has at its heart “themes of greed, survival and fame that we can all tap into,” he says.

“If you’re telling a story from an emotional standpoint that everyone can understand then it has a great chance of breaking through and being carried around the world by these massive distribution platforms.”

The proliferation of platforms has also created a new complexity for funding content. Where once a producer would primarily talk to the handful of broadcasters in their market “you can now talk to the whole world,” says Sherry. “There are any

number of funding models available for you to build a project in a way that financially suits your belief in its future value.”

London and Paris-based Headline Pictures’ output includes Ten Percent, Amazon Prime’s remake of French comedy Call My Agent!, and Dublin-based drama Kin (RTE, AMC, Viaplay).

“The cost of money has increased which has changed the funding models,” Sherry says.

“A year ago, models were based on post broadcaster licensing to pay back of a three year period which is fine when the cost of money is small. It doesn’t stack up when the inflation rate is 6% over three years.”

“IT’S GREAT TO BE STEVEN SPIELBERG BUT IT’S NOT SO BAD TO BE ROGER CORMAN EITHER IF YOU CAN MAKE CONTENT AT A LOW BUDGET THAT REACHES AN AUDIENCE.”

“Making good programmes cost-effectively is the core skill of a producer,” says Sokolow. “It’s great to be Steven Spielberg but it’s not so bad to be Roger Corman either if you can make content at a low budget that reaches an audience. If you know how to keep costs down and you have everything in a package so you can sell it forward for acquisition then this is still a good business.”

As for whether the current television landscape makes it easier or harder for start-up or newer producers to get their ideas made the answer was unequivocal.

“Streamers receive hundreds of unsolicited proposals,” Sherry says. “You need to find a way of getting on top of that pile to be the next thing they look at. Perhaps that’s by great packaging or somehow landing rights to a bestseller with a built-in audience but the reality is you do need to be repped [by an agent] and in association with a credible experienced production entity before you get in front of any commissioner.”

UNSCRIPTED BUDGET

COMMISSIONING

Making of Up In Smoke

WHEN CRAFT IS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF THE ISSUE BEING COMMUNICATED

Following two previous collaborations with the WWF, London-based production company Nomint partnered with the international environmental NGO to launch another technically challenging and heart-rending PSA. Up In Smoke tells an apocalyptic story of a young girl whose world becomes polluted by a dark cloud of smoke.

Up in Smoke was shot entirely in camera using a blend of stop-motion animation and real smoke. Nomint employed a full-colour 3D printing process to create over 700 unique poses of the main

character. For the smoke effects, various types and viscosities of smoke were used, controlled through several techniques like shooting upside down and using transparent blocks to control the smoke.

Explains director Yannis Konstantinidis, “The absurd difficulty of trying to control smoke in combination with stop-motion, which notoriously requires control, reflected the uncontrollable and devastating nature of pollution in real life. We wanted the underlying message to inform the production design and overall look and feel of the film.”

Finneas, Billie Eilish's brother who wrote When the Party's Over, gave Nomint “a soft yes” on the sync rights of the song (reinterpreted by Margate-based Social Singing Choir.

“You cannot stop ice from melting if it gets too hot, you can't control fire once it starts spreading, and you can't order pollution (smoke) around just because you will it. It's the ultimate case of the craft reflecting the message.”

Cannes Heat

The 77th Cannes committee will have reviewed more than 2,000 films submitted this year and it is not always the ones deemed to be ‘good’ that will get an official slot.

It’s the gaze of critics and spectators that builds the prestige of films,” explained Festival director Thierry Frémaux. “What guides us isn’t ‘I like’ or ‘I don’t like,’ and even less ‘it’s good’ or ‘it’s not good.’ What guides us is, ‘Should this film be presented at Cannes or not?’ or ‘What does the selection of this film say about the state of world cinema?’ The Official Selection gives, year after year, a strong indication of what cinema has become, its changes, evolutions and what remains immutable. It’s as important to make aesthetic discoveries as it is to show films that will have an audience right away.”

That could explain why Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project Megalopolis will premiere in competition on May 17. It has reportedly received mixed reviews among Hollywood buyers but Coppola is a legend, a 1979 Palme D’Or winner for Apocalypse Now and someone, according to Frémaux “who survived all the battles, and yet kept an appetite for life and for cinema that is extraordinarily stimulating. Megalopolis, he added, is a project that Coppola “wanted to achieve for so long and he did it independently, in his own way, as an artist.”

Highlights include director Andrea Arnold's return to narrative filmmaking after nearly a decade. Bird was shot in Kent last summer and stars Barry Keoghan. Ali Abbasi, the Iranian-born, Swedish-based director known for 2022's Holy Spider, returns with The Apprentice depicting how a young Donald Trump and lawyer Roy Cohn built Trump’s real estate empire in 1970s and 80s New York.

Also competing for the Palme d'Or are David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope, Sean Baker’s Anora and Yorgos Lanthimos who returns with his third Emma Stone-starring drama Kinds of Kindness.

In keeping with the Festival’s support of American New Wave auteurs (like Scorsese and Coppola), Paul Schrader’s latest Oh, Canada is also in the mix reuniting the American Gigolo director with star Richard Gere.

There are fewer American films than in previous years, a direct result of the strikes in 2023, which delayed productions. Many US productions that were initially planned for 2024 will be released in 2025.

Apple made a splash last year by premiering Killers of the Flower Moon but movies that are not given theatrical release are still not being considered.

“We favour films that come out in theatres because France is a great country for cinema and must remain a great country for theatrical exhibition,” Frémaux said. “If [a film] doesn’t come out in theatres it’s different – and if it’s different, it’s being treated differently when it comes to the competition.”

Quentin Dupieux’s comedy The Second Act starring Léa Seydoux will open the Festival, the same day it opens in French cinemas via Diaphana Distribution.

DURING THE PANDEMIC, WE HEARD A LOT OF STUPID THINGS ABOUT THE SO­CALLED ‘DEATH OF CINEMA.’ BUT THERE’S NO SUCH THING. IT’S MORE ALIVE THAN EVER.

George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga gets an out of competition gala screening ahead of its theatrical release on May 22 internationally. The Warner Bros title stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth and is the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road which premiered at Cannes in 2015.

Greta Gerwig presides over the main competition jury – the first female American director to do so. She said Cannes had "always been the pinnacle of what the universal language of movies can be". Festival bosses Iris Knobloch and Frémaux said in a joint statement: "This is an obvious choice, since Greta Gerwig so audaciously embodies the renewal of world cinema, for which Cannes is each year both the forerunner and the sounding board." The Barbie director was further described by organisers as "a heroine of our modern times" who "shakes up the status quo" in the cinema world.

Xavier Dolan is jury president for the Un Certain Regard sidebar. The Canadian filmmaker and actor has a long track record of premiering his films at Cannes. In 2015 Dolan was a member of the main competition jury at Cannes, chaired by the Coen brothers and his It’s Only the End of the World won the Grand Prix in competition at Cannes in 2019.

He said, “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the

12,500

members of the Un Certain Regard jury on an essential aspect of the art of film: stories told truthfully.”

Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont presides over the Queer Palm jury. The director won the award himself in 2015 with his debut feature Girl as well as picking up the Camera d’Or. Dhont will also mentor the inaugural Queer Palm Lab later this year where five young filmmakers participate in a yearlong residency with their first queer feature film. Last year, the Queer Palm was presented to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster.

More Hollywood royalty will be celebrated with George Lucas set to receive the Honorary Palme d’Or for “bringing together great entertainment and innovation, mythology and modernity and cinephilia and technology.”

Also launching is Cannes Immersive, a new programme aiming to position Cannes as a global hub for immersive creations and the emerging artistic use of artificial intelligence. The new competitive strand will feature eight immersive works plus a curated selection of non-competitive works, "illustrating the synergy between immersive experiences and cinema.”

Frémaux concludes, “During the pandemic, we heard a lot of stupid things about the so-called ‘death of cinema.’ But there’s no such thing. It’s more alive than ever.”

Thrilling Love Match

Co-productions dominate drama financing with producers having to get creative to piece together the right package for funding and editorially that suits all partners. A case in point is forthcoming eight-part drama Cicatriz that unites production in Serbia and Spain for the first time. It’s a successful model that could be replicated its execs tell makers

Cicatriz (aka Scar) has become a hot property across Europe, with RTVE and Prime Video Spain joining forces with Telekom Srbija in a first of a kind large scale co-production. The 8 x 50 minute drama is an action thriller adaptation of Juan Gómez-Jurado’s best-selling novel. It is being led and produced by Spanish production company, Plano a Plano jointly with Mexican Dopamine, and packaged by pan European production studio Asacha Media Group.

The story tracks a young tech entrepreneur who falls in love with a woman with a dark secret. Madrid-based Plano a Plano and Mexico’s Dopamine secured rights to the novel and were looking for a partner to finance the project. With the option coming up for renewal, they called on Asacha’s CEO Marina Williams, to help.

Williams explains, “I knew it was a really exciting thriller with strong characters and full of intrigue, revenge and passion but when I searched where the book was most popular I discovered it was a bestseller in the Adriatic. So we sought a co-production partner in that region.”

The story features scenes set in Russia and initially they thought of approaching partners there until the political situation made that unrealistic. The project gained momentum when Telekom Srbija (TS) came aboard. The telco serves 1.7 million subscribers and operates streaming arm TS Media across South-East Europe.

“Editorially we decided to stick close to the story in the book in terms of having a Ukrainian-Russian girl as our heroine. Even though we didn’t have a Serbian character in our drama we landed a deal with TS on the basis that we would cast Serbian actors in the show and also changed the story to shoot scenes on location in Serbia.”

The drama is not only an original production it can offer to local subscribers but means it can present Serbian actors and Serbian locations to Spain and internationally.

Serbian actress Milena Radulovic plays Irina opposite Spanish lead Juanlu González. In the drama Irina trains ‘Nikita’ style in the Serbian woods before going to Spain to exact revenge.

WE LANDED A DEAL WITH TELEKOM SRBIJA ON THE BASIS THAT WE WOULD CAST SERBIAN ACTORS AND CHANGE THE STORY TO SHOOT ON LOCATION IN SERBIA.”

Principal photography was four months from November 2023. Just before shooting began Asacha pre-sold the series to Canal+ in Poland, who also came aboard as co-producer.

“They saw the potential but requested that we add in a Polish element so that it would sell better to their subscribers,” Williams says.

Alvaro Benitez, Plano’s exec producer, adds, “We presented some ideas to the Canal+ team and they liked one where we changed the nationality of one of the main characters from American to Polish, (casting Polish actor Maciej Stuhr). The character is ceo of a multinational so it was an easy switch to make. It was a little stressful since we had to cast with just a few days before shooting.”

Most of the drama is shot in and around Bilbao taking advantage of a new incentive offering up to 60% tax credits on productions that shoot in the Basque territory. It is also a region that is underrepresented on international screen. Locations for Cicatriz included the iconic Guggenheim Museum as well as city streets, houses and office buildings which are far removed from the stereotypical view of Spain.

“We liked the industrial appeal of the city and also that Bilbao has modernised considerably over the past few decades which plays perfectly into the story,” he says. “Gómez-Jurado has a way of writing that is so cinematographic you can easily imagine how it would look on screen.”

In Serbia, near Belgrade, they filmed flashbacks for Irina’s back story, including scenes set in Russia. This is the first time that Spanish producers have worked with counterparts in Serbia. Williams says, “For productions of this scale to work these days you need to put together co-production deals for different territories, working with free and pay television in the same market and same language

while ensuring the interests of cross border clients are addressed. You have to be creative to make it appeal to everyone.

“It means you have to manage that relationship and also people’s expectations. The Spanish team had never worked in Serbia and there was a little nervousness about working with the local crew [from Serbian production partner Adrenalin]. Everything has been amazing and professional. We even had Spanish crew learning Serbian.”

TS is the biggest producer in the Adria region with more than a hundred locally produced 100 titles under its belt including Golden Boy (aka Zlatni Decko) which sold to Prime Video. TS is a producer and distributor owning its own studios with stage space, backlots and pool.

Aleksandra Martinovic, director of the Multimedia Division of Telekom Srbija says, “The next step in our strategy is international coproduction of which Cicatriz is the first,” she says. “We are excited to show what we have to offer including great locations and to promote our own language and to send a message that we are open for international projects.”

“MOST OF THE DRAMA IS SHOT IN AND AROUND BILBAO TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A NEW INCENTIVE OFFERING UP TO 60% TAX CREDITS ON PRODUCTIONS THAT SHOOT IN THE BASQUE TERRITORY.”

Canal+ is a serial coproducer but what attracted its Polish division was the opportunity for creative collaboration. Magda Błasiak-Bielinska, Canal+ Poland's Director of Film Acquisitions, “We were a latecomer to the project but it was an easy decision to get involved. Cicatriz has great IP and potential for including both West, Eastern and central European elements. We were fortunate to meet flexible partners and writers quite open to managing this overall commercial model by including important Polish elements in the show.”

FRANCE going for gold

France continues to draw in hundreds of productions thanks to its potential 40% rebate, great locations and expanding studio base. But how will it cope with the forthcoming Olympics and move of production activity away from the capital?

Steven Knight’s The Veil is one of many projects to choose the French capital as a location, including more than half of the 95-day shoot at the Studios of Bry-sur-Marne, which has previously hosted Hunger Games and Marie-Antoinette.

“The story starts in Turkey then moves to Paris for the bulk of filming,” says Adrian Kelly, producer on The Veil. “Therefore, it made sense to have a largely French crew which we could continue with in Paris. They were really great. I found them motivated, extremely skilled and driven by creativity, so much so that we brought them to the UK for the final few weeks of shooting.”

The Veil team, with the support of local company Trimaran, also took advantage of the 30% tax rebate for international productions (TRIP), as well as the additional 10% VFX rebate bonus for productions that spend at least EUR2 million on VFX work in France.

“THE 10% BUMP FOR VFX­INTENSIVE PRODUCTIONS HAS BEEN A GAME CHANGER WITH SOME LONG LASTING PRODUCTIONS BASED ENTIRELY IN FRANCE.”

“The 10% bump for VFXintensive productions has been a game changer with some long lasting productions based entirely in France,” comments Xavier Roy, producer at Paris-based outfit Froggie Production.

“That’s what we’ve seen in the last two to three years with projects from Apple, Netflix, Disney and others. It means more business for the whole French industry and it’s also much more interesting and rewarding for the crews working on these international productions.”

LOCATION HIGHLIGHT

In the charming Burgundy countryside the village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain has captivated visitors for centuries. Its cobbled streets and medieval houses, adorned with colourful shutters, lead to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Pierre. Its serene cloisters and ancient stone walls provides a backdrop for historical dramas or romantic films set in a bygone era.

Chocolat (pictured above) starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp shot there in 2000. The surrounding countryside features rolling hills, lush vineyards, and tranquil meadows, perfect for capturing sweeping panoramas or intimate outdoor scenes.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon © Stephanie Branchu/AMC.

Chocolat © Miramax Films.

Pauline Augrain, digital director at the CNC (France’s National Cinema Centre), adds: “The boosted tax rebate has been a significant factor in getting productions not only to come but to stay here. For example, John Wick: Chapter 4, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1, and The Nun II spent several months shooting in France and did all their VFX work on site. France gives the opportunity to shoot an entire film on location thanks to the fiscal incentive that makes it a preferred choice for filming and making VFX.”

AMC drama series Monsieur Spade, directed by Scott Franck, originally scheduled its French shoot for 10 days in Occitanie. However, production ended up spending almost three months in the

ESSENTIAL FACTS

TAX INCENTIVES

30%

France offers a 30% tax incentive for international productions capped at a spend of EUR39 million. This rate can be increased to 40% for projects that make significant use of visual effects. Productions must spend a minimum of EUR250,000 to be eligible and live action projects are required to spend at least five shoot days in the country.

ATA CARNET

YES

VFX STUDIOS

Android – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 videogame MPC – Napoleon, Atlas

The Seed – Samsung Ultra, Nike x Snipes Unit Image – Terminator Dark Fate, Star Wars Eclipse

The Knight Works – Spasmine commercial Circus – LEGO Friends: The Next Chapter

TIME ZONE

country, with additional filming at Bozouls in Aveyron, Gard and Hérault, with the assistance of Haut et Court as the local production service company.

“This production involved the recruitment of many local technicians, actors and extras,” says Augrain. “It benefited from TRIP and the support from Occitanie Films, the film commission (part of the Film France-CNC network) and logistical and technical support from the towns of Bozouls, Sauve (Gard) and Pignan (Hérault).”

In addition to the locations, the expanding studio facilities are also meeting the ever growing demand of productions. Monsieur Spade not only filmed at the locations mentioned, but also made use of V Studios in Vendargues, which offers three soundstages and one virtual production stage. Studios de Paris welcomed Todd A Kessler’s The New Look to its 102,000 sq ft facilities; Tim Van Patten’s Franklin shot at Studios de la Montjoie; and The Nun II took advantage of the 22 acres of backlot space at Provence Studios in Martigues. The latter is due to open three new studio spaces this year.

This influx of productions is undoubtedly a huge boost. But inevitably the arrival of the Olympics this summer will have an impact on activity. International producers are being advised to stay out of the capital for a few months. But the expectation is that productions will move elsewhere in the country during this period.

“The spring of 2024 will certainly be slower than usual as Paris attracts the majority of shoots, but shooting outside the capital will be easier than ever,” insists Roy, adding that popular cities like Marseille are able to double for Barcelona and the mountains of north Cannes for Afghanistan, the surrounding cities and regions will come into their own.

He also expects that by the end of 2024 and into 2025 the whole country “will be hot again with international projects.”

THE SPRING OF 2024 WILL CERTAINLY BE SLOWER THAN USUAL AS PARIS ATTRACTS THE MAJORITY OF SHOOTS, BUT SHOOTING OUTSIDE THE CAPITAL WILL BE EASIER THAN EVER.

SOMETHING ELSE

While Paris is known as the City of Lights, it’s interesting to note that light is also deeply rooted in French cinema history. Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière were pioneers and key figures in the development of French cinema. In 1895, they unveiled the Cinématographe, a camera and projector system which recorded and projected moving images.

The groundbreaking invention marked the birth of modern cinema. The Lumière brothers conducted the first public screening of their films at the Grand Café in Paris with simple yet mesmerizing scenes of everyday life captured in Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory and Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat. These not only showcased the brothers’ technological prowess but also captured the essence of realism and documentary-style storytelling, influencing filmmakers for generations to come.

Monsieur Spade © Jean-Claude Lother/AMC

Next Generation

Digitally native, brand focused and unmoved by marketing gimmicks, Generation Alpha is already dictating the future of marketing. With the oldest of this new generation still only halfway through their teens, makers looks at how the socially conscious and tech savvy consumers are being engaged.

As the post school day routine unfolds, screen times reach their highest peak as Generation Alpha kids up to the age of 14 flock to their devices, tapping into YouTube, online gaming, and their recently allowed social media feeds. While Gen Z have had their own impact on the new wave of marketing techniques, Gen Alpha’s technological prowess is set to take these standards to a completely new level.

“They’ve always had the world at their fingertips. They’re more connected than previous generations, they have more access to information, to career choices and they’re more aware of their wellbeing and mental health,” says Emma Lambourne, senior strategist at performance marketing agency Journey Further.

“SET TO REACH APPROXIMATELY 2.2 BILLION GLOBALLY THIS YEAR, GEN ALPHA HAVE ESTABLISHED A NEW LANDSCAPE IN THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY AND MEDIA, AND MARKETERS ARE TAKING NOTE.”

Set to reach approximately 2.2 billion globally this year, Gen Alpha has established a new landscape in the world of technology and media, and marketers are taking note.

This new generation take YouTube influencers over traditional celebrities, view gaming as a creative outlet rather than a simple pass time, and have ramped up the social consciousness of their predecessors, forcing a shift in traditional commercial content.

“Gen Alpha has grown up in a world saturated with technology as the norm,” Lambourne adds. “Things such as language and cultural context are also different for Gen Alpha vs Gen Z. To remain relevant, brands must stay agile and attuned to the shifting preferences and attitudes of their target audience and their context.”

Coined ‘I-Pad kids’, the new generation is tapping into technology at a much earlier age with a recent study from interactive agency Razorfish reporting 43% having a tablet before the age of 6 and those as young as 10 years old owning smartphones.

But it’s also important for brands and marketers not to generalise, as there are very different Generation Alpha communities living vastly different lives, depending on their socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicities, behaviours and perspectives. It is important for brands to take this diversity into consideration to effectively appeal to the gimmick conscious generation.

“To truly connect with Gen Alpha, brands must craft content that is genuine, concise, and purposedriven, demonstrating a commitment to the values important to this generation and those within it,” comments Polina Haryacha, founder & CEO at gaming influencer marketing agency Cloutboost.

“We often encounter a familiar challenge inherent in generational categorisation: the tendency to oversimplify and stereotype based solely on age,” adds Lambourne. “By pigeonholing individuals into generational boxes, we risk overlooking the nuanced complexities that define who they truly are or who we, as a brand/agency, need to target.”

INFLUENCER IMPACT

That said, there are noticeable trends and signs. For instance, Generation Alpha tend to be much more immersed in social media from a younger age, whether it be through traditional platforms such as TikTok or content on more age accessible platforms like YouTube Shorts. They are absorbing influencer content in a way that is creating a shift in their consumer practices.

GROWING UP IN AN ERA DOMINATED BY THE CREATOR ECONOMY MEANS THAT FOR GEN ALPHA, INFLUENCERS ARE NOT JUST DIGITAL CELEBRITIES BUT A NATURAL AND INTEGRAL PART OF THEIR MEDIA CONSUMPTION.

Many are drawn to the influencers online, often their own age, creating relevant content, like the Kardashian grandchild Penelope Dissick and YouTube creator PreppybyCalls who are attracting millions of viewers.

Many are also gravitating to the millennial created high-end skincare brand Drunk Elephant, originally used by their parent generation. They have been drawn in not only by the minimalist yet pastel-heavy branding, but also the many videos showing teens who have numerous products in the entire line.

“Growing up in an era dominated by the creator economy means that for Gen Alpha, influencers are not just digital celebrities but a natural and integral part of their media consumption,” says Haryacha. “To them, these content creators are akin to the television shows of previous generations. This shift signifies that influencers are not just passing trends but central figures in Gen Alpha's daily digital interactions, setting the stage for how brands will need to adapt their marketing strategies to connect authentically with this new generation.”

“You only have to look at the brands, creators and content that’s popular amongst this generation (Ugg, Stanley Cups, Squishmallows, Star Face) to see that the peer-to-peer relationships these brands have with creators and audiences is why they succeed,” adds Lambourne. “Unlike previous generations, who looked up to celebrities that they could only access at cinemas or in magazines, Gen Alpha has the power to influence just as much as any influencer.”

Although most of Gen Alpha might lack the direct funds to make purchases on their own, their spending power should not be underestimated. Redirecting the parents’ focus away from gimmicky toys and towards more sophisticated products like the newest technologies and beauty products, birthday wish lists are driving a pretty penny. According to McCrindle, the brand aware demographic’s economic footprint is expected to reach USD5.46 trillion (GBP4.32 trillion) by 2029.

Haryacha adds: “Emphasising short-form video content, leveraging platforms like YouTube for brand discovery, and ensuring a presence in the gaming world are crucial. Engaging this demographic involves creating content that empowers them to shape their world, reflects sustainability and inclusivity values, and acknowledges their preference for authenticity over fame.”

MORE THAN A GAME

Millennials have Facebook and Gen Z have TikTok, but Gen Alpha are redefining what it is to be social on virtual platforms with the popularity of Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox. Whilst Gen Z might draw similarities between the much talked about Roblox and 2005’s Club Penguin, the magnitude of the former is incomparable. With a reported figure of 71.5 million daily active users, Roblox is dominated by Gen Alpha, making up 60% of users.

These proto-metaverse platforms are not only points of entertainment for the new generation, but are also starting grounds for the exploration of their own creativity. With the ability to create their own avatars, create homes, host music concerts and other social events, entire worlds are being developed by the youngest minds today, and brands are finding their way in.

“Platforms like Fortnite and Roblox have become a part of Gen Alpha's daily routine, blending learning, entertainment and socializing,” states Haryacha. “Advertisers have recognized the opportunity to also ‘blend’, seamlessly integrating gaming with social interactions and brands.”

“PROTO-METAVERSE PLATFORMS LIKE MINECRAFT, ROBLOX AND FORTNITE ARE MORE THAN GAMES, ACTING AS THE STARTING GROUNDS GEN ALPHAS’ CREATIVE EXPLORATION.”

From Nike to Gucci, Chipotle to Spotify, brands have started navigating their way through the heavily used platforms, acquiring advertising real estate in the virtual world and attracting an even wider audience. Targetting gaming creators who were active members of the Roblox community, Spotify launched Spotify Island on the immersive gaming platform. With the addition of celebrity gamer Mr Beast attracting 3 million views in one day, the music streaming brand was able to connect with younger audiences whilst increasing its subscriber base.

Whether it’s billboard, video or portal ads in Roblox or branded skins in Fortnite, marketing schemes have drifted away from the intentional scripted sells of past generations, and have taken on a more approachable and prevalent presence to tap into the new wave of consumers.

Can content credentials combat deepfakes before it’s too late?

The idea of media provenance or data integrity has been gaining ground recently as a way of combatting the onslaught of AI generated fakes.

THE COALITION FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE AND AUTHENTICITY (C2PA), IS AN ORGANISATION DEVELOPING TECHNICAL METHODS TO DOCUMENT THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF DIGITAL-MEDIA FILES, BOTH REAL AND FAKE. IT WILL REQUIRE A CRITICAL MASS OF MEDIA PRODUCERS, PUBLISHERS AND TECH FIRMS TO WORK. MAKERS SPEAKS TO THE BBC ABOUT RETAINING TRUSTWORTHY NEWS IN THE AGE OF AI.

In April 2022 a BBC news report claimed that Ukraine was behind a missile attack on a Donbas station that killed 57 people. The video opened with a BBC logo and had the broadcaster’s watermark in the corner. It was a fake, but it was also a wake-up call to the broadcaster to do something about rising deepfake disinformation.

“Everyone was horrified to see the fake video but the only thing we could do was tweet denials,” says Laura Ellis, head of Technology Forecasting, BBC. “For some it was the ‘Aha!’ moment when they fully realised we needed to do more.”

Fortunately, the Corporation was already pioneering efforts to go beyond flagging deepfakes after the event and to show audiences the source of video it publishes up front.

“The work of BBC Verify is key in terms of fact checking and signalling to the audience if we’ve not been able to check it but we wanted to raise the bar by turning the question on its head. We want to positively assert media provenance by showing audiences how this media came to us and how it was made.”

The idea of media provenance or data integrity has been gaining ground recently as a way of combatting the onslaught of AI generated fakes. News media is particularly vulnerable to this sort of attack (truth being the first casualty of war and also of political elections). To take the initiative the BBC, Canada’s CBC and the New York Times joined forces to ensure their own integrity as a trustworthy news source did not fall victim.

PROJECT ORIGIN

They formed Project Origin in 2018, later joined by Microsoft. Meanwhile Adobe established its own Content Authenticity Initiative. In 2020, they combined efforts into the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) to work on a set of open standards which would allow content to contain provenance details.

A first technical standard for attaching cryptographically secure metadata to image and video files was released in 2021. It is a free, open source implementation released under the Linux Foundation.

Images that have been authenticated by the C2PA system can include a ‘CR’ icon in the corner. Users can click on it to see information (the BBC calls this

‘signals’) such as when and how the image was created, who first published it, what tools they used to manipulate it, how it was altered, and so on.

Santiago Lyon, head of CAI advocacy and education, Adobe, explains; “When digital files are published, metadata can sometimes be removed, so we are also actively working with news publishers, social media platforms and others to retain and display this underlying provenance information through a universal icon displayed next to each published asset.”

This icon and the underlying provenance information are the Content Credentials, which Lyon says are the equivalent of a digital ‘nutrition label’ on food.

“The consumer can then inspect the Content Credential published alongside each digital file and better understand where it came from and what changes have been made to it. Over time, our hope is that consumers will naturally expect to see Content Credentials displayed alongside online images, videos, audio recordings and other file type, to discern what is trustworthy.”

“WE WANT TO POSITIVELY ASSERT MEDIA PROVENANCE BY SHOWING

AUDIENCES HOW THIS MEDIA CAME TO US AND HOW IT WAS MADE.”

Dozens of vendors have begun incorporating the standard into their product with more announcements pending. They include Sony, joining Nikon and Leica, in developing cameras capable of capturing CP2A data at acquisition. Sony has likened content credentials to a “birth certificate for an image.”

Most significantly, OpenAI is implementing the C2PA digital credentials for images generated by DALL-E 3, the latest version of its AI-powered image generator. It said this was to prevent the use of its Gen-AI products for misinformation ahead of the US Presidential Election in November. OpenAI is also experimenting with a “provenance classifier” for detecting images generated by DALL-E.

Innovation incubator

BBC News Labs is testing the integration of C2PA signals on the BBC website. This work has being developed by Media City Bergen. One aim is to prove that a third party can come in and work with ‘signals’ off-the-shelf.

“We need to make the tools as low friction as possible and to automate the process so the journalist has the minimal amount to do,” says Ellis.

Another consideration is for the journalist to redact information from the signals for instance in order to protect the identity of a source or a vulnerable person being interviewed.

The idea is to build a range of options through which organisations can employ provenance signals directly at the point content is published and using functionality offered by manufacturers.

“Our research team has found evidence that adding provenance to images increases trust in content amongst those who don't typically consume our content,” Ellis says. “We also found evidence that provenance evens out trust across a range of images we use (editorial, stock and user generated content).”

BUILDING A STANDARD

Standards are effective when widely adopted and C2PA is hoping for a critical mass to achieve its goal. One aim is to get the standard ratified by international standards bodies such as ISA which details professional standards for the auditing of financial information.

THE POINT IS THAT AS A TRUSTWORTHY BROADCASTER WE WANT TO PUT THESE SIGNALS IN TO SHOW THAT OUR CONTENT IS TRUSTWORTHY AND TO GIVE USERS THE ABILITY TO INTERROGATE THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS. AUTHENTICITY

“We’re talking to everyone,” says Judy Parnall, BBC head of standards and industry. “A number of groups have come together and many are not yet announced or are working out how to integrate it into their system. The bigger the organisation the more complicated this is.

“This is a gradual rollout that needs to be introduced in every part of the ecosystem and therefore requires a lot of collaboration,” Parnall says. “Having the ability to drill down and nest all this material together so people can access all the information about the way the news they are consuming is produced is important but it is not a quick fix.”

Companies including Nvidia, Publicis Groupe, AFP, Reuters and AP and Intel are filling in the gaps at different points in content production. AWS is another member.

Adobe, for example, generates the relevant metadata for every image that’s created with its image-generating tool, Firefly. Microsoft does the same with its Bing Image Creator.

“It will take a while for all of these components to knit together properly but why C2PA is so utterly essential is that if you’ve got open standards and a body of people that want this to work then you have a chance of making it happen.”

Fox Corp has diverged from this path and developed its own system called Verify, an open source protocol which, like C2PA, is also designed to establish the history and origin of registered media.

“With this technology, readers will know for sure that an article or image that purportedly comes from a publisher in fact originated at the source,” Fox

explained. It also claims Verify creates new commercial opportunities for content owners “by utilising smart contracts to set programmatic conditions for access to content.”

None of these efforts will have much impact if social media platforms don’t get onboard. Social media are the “key problem space,” says Ellis.

“The preference is for social media platforms to take credentialled content and continue to display those credentials. They want to know there’s enough movement in the standard before they go,” says Parnall. “They are very aware of [CP2A] and the work we have been doing.”

CHAIN OF TRUST

The reliability of C2PA certification is vital. If somebody spoofs the C2PA it is “instantly a disaster for us,” warns Ellis. “We need our output to have integrity so we’re putting a lot of effort into making it as secure as possible and also that people understand what it is.

“It is not a watermark,” she underlines. “It is a way of communicating with the audience that this media is from the BBC and that this is how we made it. Similarly, if you don’t see those signals or those signals are broken that is the time to be alert. The point is that as a trustworthy broadcaster we want to put these signals in to show that our content is trustworthy and to give users the ability to interrogate the various elements.”

“THE ICON AND THE UNDERLYING PROVENANCE INFORMATION ARE THE CONTENT CREDENTIALS ARE THE EQUIVALENT OF A DIGITAL ‘NUTRITION LABEL’ ON FOOD.”

Getting that message across demands a huge programme of media literacy. “It is a mammoth task,” says Ellis. “We hope to use [BBC] airwaves and websites to explain but the issue of enormous interest to everybody including in the regulator sector, at Ofcom, the Government and the House of Lords.”

Partners are needed to help educate the wider public and universities. “It’s like running a startup and what we’re trying to do next is scale up,” she says.

The principals of content authentication are being enshrined in the EU AI Act and the Biden administration issued an executive order that required labelling of synthetic content. Nonetheless, is this too little too late.

“What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift in the media ecosystem that we needed to act on,” says Parnall. “I kind of wish the elections [including UK and the US] were not this year. We’ll be in a better position in 2025 when efforts set in train a few years ago really come to fruition.”

Judy Parnall, BBC head of standards and industry.

Laura Ellis, BBC head of Technology Forecasting.

Some of the biggest screen hits of all time have come from the pages of a book – but aside from the top bestsellers, how can the film and television industry find a story if it’s hidden among millions of published titles? Put another way, how many more original stories told in the pages of a book never make it to the screen?

In an era where Hollywood seems increasingly devoid of new ideas, resorting to existing IP to sequel or prequel or remake, comes a novel way of bringing new storytellers to the fore.

BooksOffice is the brainchild of Elaine Sturgess, a business woman and author with a background in marketing, publishing and television. Realising that the huge number of self-published authors on Amazon have little or no visibility, in 2019 she established an online platform that would give their stories a pathway to the screen.

BooksOffice.com is a platform for finding and promoting new and unrepresented self-published and indie authors. It also hands the power over to the audience to vote for which ones they want to see start the journey to screen. For these initiatives alone, the concept won the makers & shakers Production Tech Award in 2023.

KEY PEOPLE

ELAINE STURGESS – FOUNDER/CEO

LEVI ESTELLER – TECHNICAL LEAD

ORIOL HIDALGO – LEAD DEVELOPER

SEBASTIAN SOSA – DEVELOPER

STUART BLACKBURN – PRODUCER, WRITER

LESLIE ASH – ACTRESS

ANNA GARCIA CUARTERO – ACTRESS, WRITER, DIRECTOR

PROFILE BooksOffice

“With BooksOffice I want to change the prevailing business model in publishing and the way people benefit from storytelling. Amazon’s algorithm driven system makes it almost impossible for self-published authors to gain any significant visibility – but there are thousands of diamonds in there that could make a great film or television adaptation. One aim is to build a community able to like, comment, vote and crowd promote stories from books.”

Elaine Sturgess.

Evolving alongside BooksOffice is another format which enables viewers to ‘watch a book’. The idea stemmed from an attempt by Sturgess to present a story she had written at a book store in Barcelona, where she lives.

“I don’t speak Spanish too well but my wife who is an actress suggested that she perform the book in the store with other actors. In a book store this comes across as a mix between book and a play but taking this to an online environment we have had up to 20 actors performing live.”

Some 150 hours of programming have been made for BookStreams, mostly done during the pandemic via Zoom. The concept is now being taken to its next stage with higher production value performances shot in a studio.

“It allows you to showcase the story in a screen format and to showcase actors and even producers and directors. It’s a low-cost way of proving a screen opportunity.”

Another idea to find a 'Killer TV Series'. This is being developed as an X Factor style talent show and is intended to open people’s eyes to the possibilities.

She says, “People experience books in a narrow way, text oriented and not visually exciting. We wanted to develop a format that allows the public to vote for stories they want to see on television. First we had

to prove to ourselves that we could engage authors and readers and that we could find strong enough talent to take that journey.”

With producer Stuart Blackburn (Eastenders, Emmerdale), Sturgess has taken new treatments from new authors to the market, generating interest from Lionsgate, Channel 5 and ITV.

“Self-published authors don’t have a route to screen. You need an agent, a publisher, distribution then back to the agent. It’s a long, convoluted process which we wanted to shortcut and create much closer ties between authors and producers.”

“On the other side, production is a very closed environment and very difficult for indies to break through. The publishing industry and the film and television industry are separate. I think there is room for us to break down some of those barriers by filtering and matchmaking.”

She continues, “Indie producers don’t realise that they can work with an indie author. Whereas most look for scriptwriters to create an original script there is huge potential for shorts to be adapted from indie authors so both parties benefit from IP.”

“A book’s sales may benefit from a television production but it is the publishing company that reaps the reward. For me the opportunity is to bring indie authors and indie producers together to benefit in building IP and from the process of building audience symbiotically.”

DID YOU KNOW?

l There are over 30 million books on Amazon

l There are over one million self-published authors on Amazon

l Less than 1% of authors are traditionally published

l Over 1500 authors are registered with BooksOffice

l 70% of the 20 top grossing films of all time are based on books and comics

l A film or television show adapted from a book will, on average, generate 50% higher revenues

Taking The Credit

With A-listers and celebrities increasingly being attached as executive producers to projects, even after completion, makers takes a look at what they actually do and how the role has changed.

Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan are among many A-list directors to be named as executive producers (EPs) on feature films, documentaries and television series of all budgets and sizes.

This is obviously pretty standard when they’re overseeing projects as the creative figurehead through their own production companies.

Equally, where they are the showrunners of a series and more actively involved, as is the case for Fincher on Boardwalk Empire and Mindhunter. “David [Fincher] was the guiding force behind the scripts, the look, and helped all the directors through the series,” confirms producer, Bill Doyle, who has worked with Fincher on films and television series, including Mindhunter.

But where the EP role can become slightly more blurred is their attachment to other people’s films and series. “David enjoys executive producing projects like the series Love, Death & Robots, instead of directing them. He’s still intimately involved in discussions being made, but not in day to day turning things around. He lets others do it.”

Sometimes they are even brought in after the film has been completed for promotional purposes, often on documentaries. “Suddenly, it becomes ‘presented by Scorsese’, which seems to be much more of a marketing thing,” says Robert Mitchell, director, theatrical insights at Gower Street Analytics.

They’re not alone either. Many well known figures, like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, and top name actors, like Leonardo DiCaprio, are also muscling in on the executive producer credit on projects.

“We had that with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie who both got EP credits on The Night Manager series,” says Rob Bullock, an executive producer at Left Bank Pictures. “But it was a reflection of their involvement in getting the project financed and because they are so in demand as talents and such key elements of its value or future success they have the leverage to get the credit in their deal, giving them greater creative involvement and more financial reward.”

More of these EP deals are being done by other behind-the-scenes figures too as the market has got more competitive. “It’s a sellers’ market, so writers can expect to get an EP credit because that’s the norm, including young, first time writers,” says Bullock.

MANY WELL KNOWN FIGURES, LIKE OPRAH WINFREY AND BARACK OBAMA, AND TOP NAME ACTORS, LIKE LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ARE MUSCLING IN ON THE EP CREDIT ON PROJECTS.

Even non-production people are landing the credit. “This can include the person who bought the rights to the book, but didn’t have anything to do with the production, or managers of the actors that helped fund the movie, or those that helped get the sales done for smaller projects. So there are plenty of EPs that are not really hands-on,” says Doyle. It can also be about pure artistic admiration, as in the case of the Scorsese executive producer credit on British director Joanna Hogg’s two Souvenir films.

Many actors are lending their star quality and support as EPs to shorter format films too. Take a look at the shortlist for this year’s Oscars short film contenders and you’d see the likes of Emma Thompson, John Travolta, Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin and David Oyelowo tagged as executive producers on a few of the projects.

One nominated short that benefited from a sprinkling of star dust is The One Note Man, directed by George C Siougas and narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, about a bassoonist in an orchestra (played by Jason Watkins) who decides to step out of his comfort zone.

The film’s producer, Michael Stevenson, who’s also an actor, was able to not only access money from McKellan’s own funding scheme for emerging producers (usually reserved for plays), but also turned to his high-profile friend Sam Claflin (they went to drama school together) for support.

“He wanted to get involved in a Christmas film and loved the script, so he’s been great at giving advice and putting us in touch with people,” says Stevenson. “And now, afterwards, having his name attached to it as an EP is invaluable to the promotion side.”

Stevenson insists “it’s no skin off the noses” of huge stars to support projects from up and coming filmmakers, especially the shorts, which often don’t take up much of their time. “As long as we put together the right package and look after them, they’re amazing advocates for up and coming filmmakers,” he says.

Mitchell adds: “It also gives the films an extra edge and advantage with the awards voters and audiences, having the likes of Martin Freeman (executive producer of short film The Little Giant) onboard because they’re like ‘ooh, this should be good’.”

The same applies to Emma Thompson for Tom Stuart’s Good Boy, starring Ben Whishaw as a desperate man who has to ferry around his mother

(Marion Bailey) and a dead pigeon in the back of his VW van after a heist gone wrong, which managed to shoot at the Glastonbury Festival grounds. Thompson actually only joined the project in January this year after it had been made.

“We’re only a small film and have never been shortlisted for an Oscar before,” says Elettra Pizzi, producer of Good Boy. “It’s a lot to get your head around, so we brought Emma onboard for advice and support as she’s been there before and to give the film a stamp of quality. We don’t have a big studio behind us doing lots of publicity and PR, we are independently financed, so having someone like Emma promoting the film really helps.”

“I WORK ON PROJECTS WHERE THERE ARE A RIDICULOUS NUMBER OF PRODUCERS AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS… A LOAD OF THE MONEY GOES STRAIGHT INTO THEIR POCKETS.”

But adding star quality to the executive producer credit is not always well received. An unnamed producer told makers: “I work on projects where there are a ridiculous number of producers and executive producers, half of whom do nothing or very little, just turn up to meetings during or even after the production to show their face. A load of the money goes straight into their pockets. I recently worked on a project with A-listers attached as producers or executive producers, one of whom is an ‘adviser’, but really it’s for marketing and promotional purposes.”

This is a common tactic, especially on documentaries where star power backing can make or break a film. “If you’re doing a sports doc, for example, and you get LeBron James to support it, he may not have diddly squat to do with the dailies, but he’s going to help you get the money and exposure,” says Doyle.

This is a far cry from the typical executive producer role of someone like Bullock working for a production company involved in the entire journey and vision of a project (creative, financial and logistical), from idea generating through to delivery.

But Bullock insists this traditional approach will still continue, adding that “EP credits aren’t given out for nothing. The recipient will still in some way add to the equity of a project, whether that’s creative or financial, their value will be important.”

The Night Manager © 2016 AMC Network Ent LLC.

Making of Testament: The Story of Moses

FINDING THE EXACT SPOT WHERE GOD REVEALED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS TO MOSES

For the new Netflix docu-series, an Outstanding Creative Use of a Location category finalist at December’s makers & shakers Awards, director Benjamin Ross wanted to capture a scene on Mount Sinai, Egypt and tasked his location crew to find the perfect spot for sunrise.

“Mount Sinai has been around for thousands of years, but no one really knows the exact spot where God spoke to Moses,” says Magdi Omar, Supervising Location Manager of Bedouin Films.

“Since the mountain is huge and 7497ft high we were commissioned to try and locate a spot that fulfilled the vision of the scene.

“We divided our recce team into three groups, each accompanied by a local Bedouin guide, and each using a separate path to hike up the mountain. The teams first ascended the mountain by day capturing photos and footage of possible locations. After reviewing the footage, we narrowed down the locations to three. The teams climbed again, this time at night, to reach the three locations before sunrise to capture some footage of the sun rising. The three options and all the photos and footage were then sent to the director in the US, who made their choice accordingly.”

With Production Manager Sherif Hossny and Location Manager Medhat Adel, Omar hired 60 camels with 60 Bedouin guides and by midnight the caravan had started the ascent. “It was like a scene from an epic historical movie,” he says.

“At one point during the climb, I even played the Lawrence of Arabia theme from my phone which reverberated throughout the mountain, giving everyone a nice laugh before deciding maybe a silent climb was more suitable for the occasion.”

The Karga Seven/Nar Pictures production is out this fall and also shot in Jordan, the West Bank and Turkey.

Images © Bedouin Films & Netflix.

Communication Breakdown

The industry rides into this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with the brand and creative agency relationship under significant strain.

The headwinds of a global recession have exposed tensions between clients and agencies frustrated marketers pointing fingers at ‘play-it-safe’ leadership.

The Lions’ only research in its annual State of Creativity reveals that there are glaring discrepancies in how brands experience the agency-client relationship compared to their agency partners.

Analysis of close to 3,000 global responses shows brands expressing a more positive attitude towards relationship, while creative partners painted a starkly different picture. It suggests that brands are less in the know of the reality of their situation.

Spencer Fox, SVP, Business Lead, Advisory, Lions said, “What we’re seeing is that although the sentiment is outwardly optimistic, inwardly the industry is at odds. There’s optimism around progress and investment, but tensions that need to be worked through if we’re going to realise the potential of creativity as a growth driver. Essentially, there’s a communication breakdown.”

On the plus side, businesses are reporting promising growth and an increase in marketing investment, with 51% of brand and agency respondents saying they anticipate stronger growth this year. However, the opportunity to capitalise on this with groundbreaking creative work might be at risk, with responses revealing two growing tensions driving a wedge between key creativity stakeholders.

Senior leadership was also criticised. Brands expressed difficulty in getting executives to embrace creativity. This was attributed, in part, to an absence of creatives in the boardroom, with more traditional,

risk-averse marketers taking seats. Despite the majority of people wanting to push the boundaries of their creative work, conservative leaders make them feel like they can't.

Titled Communication Breakdown On The Road To Recovery, the study sets the backdrop for the great and good to ride into Cannes for the International Festival of Creativity.

Among the 29 Jury Presidents, Tor Myhren serves as the Film Lions jury president – the first time Apple has been represented. Gut's Anselmo Ramos is the Brand Experience & Activation Lions president after a series of major wins in 2023, and Debbi Vandeven is jury president of the Dan Wieden Titanium Lions, representing the largest creative agency network in the world, VML.

Additionally, after leading its first jury, Cindy Gallop returns as the Glass: The Lion for Change president for its 10th edition, while previous honouree, Prasoon Pandey, is the Film Craft Lions president. The Awards are tweaked each year to ensure they reflect current trends. On that note the Mobile Lions have been consigned to history. Mobile devices are embedded in work across every channel and discipline, and over a number of years, device-driven creativity has been expanding into almost every Lion. “For many, mobile-first thinking is the norm,” say organisers. “There will still be places for mobile-first creativity across the Lions – it just won't have a standalone Lion.”

Last year, Cannes introduced a question about cultural context, to help jurors better understand the nuances of work. That proved so valuable it’s now a compulsory element for every entry.

MOBILE DEVICES ARE EMBEDDED IN WORK ACROSS EVERY CHANNEL AND DISCIPLINE, AND OVER A NUMBER OF YEARS, DEVICE­DRIVEN CREATIVITY HAS BEEN EXPANDING INTO ALMOST EVERY LION.

As the use and misuse of AI gains ground there is also a compulsory disclosure or disclaimer about whether AI was used in the work, and if so, to explain how. This is to help “judge the work fairly, with the full picture.”

There’s also a new option for the jury to see the responses to sustainability and DE&I questions. The aim is to encourage those making progress in these areas “to share their success and to ignite conversations in the jury room.”

New for this year is the Luxury & Lifestyle Lions recognising the most impactful creative work and business solutions for this sector. The Innovation Lions are expanded to include spaces for environmental, societal and financial innovation; and the Social & Influencer Lions have been adapted to better recognise and the pivotal role that content creators play in shaping and amplifying brand messages.

There’s also a new category to celebrate the art of humour in branded communications, which makers covers in this issue on page 24.

Speakers include the usual mix of c-suite execs from mega-brands P&G, Lego, and Unilever who will mix with slightly more left of field personalities. They include Deepak Chopra founder of non-profit Chopra Foundation who talks about the intersection of science and spirituality; Jo Shoesmith the Global Chief Creative Officer at Amazon and passionate advocate for women’s sports; Duolingo’s first marketing chief in India, Karandeep Kapany; and Pranav Yadav, founder and CEO of Neuro-Insight who says he is committed to improving our understanding of the subconscious.

Look out too for Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media who speaks to how content creators tell stories through authentic portrayals of the population in entertainment. Mike Cessario, the Co-Founder and CEO of Liquid Death, one of the fastest growing non-alcoholic drink brands of all time, will share the secret of his success.

There’s even room for the glitz and glamour and business nous of hip-hop's first lady, Queen Latifah. As we learn from her official bio, her name means "delicate and sensitive" in Arabic, but she has often been anything but in her rhymes.

CANNES LIONS IN NUMBERS

48% OF GEN Z CONSUMERS ACTIVELY WANT TO ENGAGE WITH BRANDS ON SOCIAL PLATFORMS*

53% OF CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS LIONS ENTRIES IN 2023 USED PARTICIPATION AS A CREATIVE STRATEGY

ENTRIES USING AI DOUBLED FROM 2022 TO 2023 FROM 3.7% TO 7.3%

USD102 BILLI0N VALUE OF CREATOR ECONOMY**

71% OF ENTERTAINMENT LIONS FOR GAMING 2023 WERE COMMUNITY RELATED

33%

29 RISE IN AMOUNT OF SHORTLISTED WORK THAT REFERENCED INCLUSION IN 2023 VS 2022

THE NUMBER OF JURY PRESIDENTS

70% INCREASE IN NUMBER OF ENTRIES IN 2023 VERSUS 2022 CONTAINING THE WORD HERITAGE

*SOURCE: EUROMONITOR // **MAY 2023

CANNES LIONS AWARDS NINE TRACKS & 30 SPECIALIST AWARDS

DAYS OF THE FESTIVAL, FROM 17-21 JUNE

Majority Report

Spatial computing promises to open up new content creation possibilities in which virtual experiences and content will interact with the physical world. In turn, new head-mounted and hands-free internet gateways could spell the end of the smartphone.

The era of spatial computing has arrived,” declared Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO promoting the launch of Apple Vision Pro, the USD3500 headgear that could ultimately usurp the iPhone’s place in our lives.

The term spatial computing has been around at least as long as the metaverse but is being given a new lease of life by the second coming of headmounted goggles that overlay the internet on the real world.

Apple, Snap and Sony are just some of the companies with new XR wearables which are upgrades in terms of comfort and technical specifications on the early round of hardware led by Google Glass, Meta’s Oculus and Magic Leap.

But where Meta still concentrates on occluding the real world with a virtual reality gateway to the Metaverse, Apple’s vision for spatial computing is more about blending the digital with the real world. The key is a new form of user interaction controlled by a user’s eyes, hands and/or voice in which they manipulate virtual 3D objects in three dimensional space.

As Apple puts it, “The three-dimensional interface frees apps from the boundaries of a display so they can appear side by side at any scale, providing the ultimate workspace and creating an infinite canvas for multitasking and collaborating.”

In Sony speak, it “aims to empower spatial content creators to transcend boundaries between the physical and virtual realms for more immersive creative experiences.”

Sony is marketing its development as a Spatial Content Creation System which aside from the headgear includes software and an interface featuring a ‘ring’ controller designed to be worn on one hand as well as a pointing controller held in the user’s other hand.

The combination is intended to allow creators to precisely point and manipulate objects in virtual space while wearing the head-mounted display.

The Apple Vision Pro © Apple.

SINCE VISION PRO ONLY NEEDS YOU TO LOOK AT A TEXT BOX AND SPEAK WHAT YOU WANT, USERS WILL BE ABLE TO CONTROL LIGHTROOM AND FIREFLY AI WITH JUST THEIR EYES AND VOCAL COMMANDS.

“Whereas Apple Vision Pro is targeting the general consumer market Sony is targeting B2B,” says Sony’s project lead Hirohito Kondo. “It’s a tool for creators.”

Sony is initially targeting industrial engineering, for example designers of automotive parts, but has its eyes on supporting creators in sophisticated 3D content creation.

Kondo, who works in Sony’s metaverse business development unit, says, “We are in conversation with Sony Music, Sony Pictures and Playstation team.

“After the first product release later in 2024 we plan to expand to entertainment. The detail is not decided nor future application but we think this area is going to be huge.”

In video game creation, for example, the Spatial Computing system “could provide a better 3D viewing experience for designers needing to check 3D modelling and rendering,” Kondo says. “For movies, we think such a system would benefit previsualisation. For example, actors and a director [and DP] could wear [the headgear] to block scenes with objects, backgrounds and other actors as virtual 3D assets.”

Virtual previz is becoming a regular part of filmmaking (featured in this issue on page 145) and you could see how this technology might fit in to existing workflows.

Kondo adds, “Games and movie production are separate now but we think CG games creation and movie creation are merging because they both use the same software, such as Unreal Engine, Blender or Autodesk. That is why we believe games and movie industries will start to develop a new kind of spatial 3D entertainment content.”

There are no plans yet to integrate Epic’s Unreal Engine into Sony’s system, nor for Sony to release a consumer version of its technology. The product

does though work with Sony-developed mobile motion capture system ‘mocopi’. This comes with small and lightweight sensors to enable full-body motion tracking. Remote collaboration in which users in different offices could interact with 3D animations in real-time using the headgear is possible.

The system also connects with monitors, either real (conventional PC and keyboard) or virtual (mimicking the conventional screen’s view) enabling users to tweak 3D software in virtual or real realms.

“WE BELIEVE THE GAMES AND MOVIE INDUSTRIES WILL START TO DEVELOP A NEW KIND OF SPATIAL 3D ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT.”

The virtual monitor can be placed anywhere in space using the handheld controllers, in a motion which looks remarkably similar to the way Tom Cruise’s character in the 2002 sci-fi Minority Report, was shuffling frames of video.

It doesn’t take much of a leap of imagination to see how such gesture-based control could be used in future by film editors to cut movies in arguably a more intuitive fashion than using keyboard strokes.

IMMERSIVE VIDEO CONTENT

The consumer focussed Vision Pro features the ability to view video captured on the latest iPhone but translated to Spatial 3D (i.e. with depth) when viewed on a Vision Pro. The media will still be two dimensional (flat) viewed on any other device.

FaceTiming is also possible in a new 3D style experience. In addition, Apple had loaded Vision Pro with television and film apps from Disney+ and Max as well as its own movies like Oppenheimer to be viewed “on a screen that feels 100 feet wide with support for HDR content.” Director James Cameron has called the product “revolutionary” and described the 23-million pixel display as writing “the equivalent of the resolution of a 75-inch television into each of your eyeballs.”

SPATIAL COMPUTING

Paramount Game Studios, The Gene Roddenberry Estate with developers OTOY have created ‘The Archive,’ – an exclusive app for Apple Vision Pro.

Sony’s System in use for film production with 3D technologies © Sony.

SOME MAY FIND THAT TOO INVASIVE. DO YOU WANT APPLE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT? IF SO, EXPECT HYPER­PERSONALISED ADVERTS PINGED TO YOUR APPLE ECOSYSTEM WHEN YOU DO.

More significantly, Apple is touting a new entertainment format “that puts users inside the action with 180-degree, 3D 8K recordings captured with Spatial Audio.” Among the interactive experiences on offer in this format is Encounter Dinosaurs where users get to interact with giant, three-dimensional reptiles as if they are bursting through their own physical space.

But it could be a creative tool too. Adobe has written versions of its creative tools and generative AI (Adobe Firefly) to support creating in the spatial computer. Users can generate and render artwork on the headset's big, immersive displays, arrange images in different ways, dragging them out of the main app window to place them on walls, desks and real-world spaces.

Photo editing programme Lightroom is also available. Adobe promises immersive photo editing experiences, allowing users to edit photos at a larger scale than on a traditional screen in order to get closer to details, experience wide-frame panorama images, and “relive video memories”.

Adobe says there's more to come. It plans to add the ability to generate wrap-around panoramas. All content generated on Vision Pro will automatically attach Content Credentials labelling it as AI.

Notably, spatial computing interfaces rely on eye tracking to facilitate interaction with the digital world. Apple’s system projects “invisible light patterns onto the user’s eyes.” Since Vision Pro only needs you to look at a text box and speak what you want, users will be able to control Lightroom and Firefly AI with just their eyes and vocal commands.

Some may find that too invasive. Do you want Apple to know exactly what you are looking at? If so, expect hyper-personalised adverts pinged to your Apple ecosystem when you do. Or as tech commentator Cathy Hackl observed, “AR glasses will turn one marketing campaign into localised media in an instant.”

POST­SMARTPHONE WORLD

While the mobile phone unshackled the user from the desktop advances in spatial computing promise to free their hands too by connecting our brains (heads first) more intimately with the internet.

Some think that this heralds the beginning of the end for the traditional PC and smartphone.

“Eventually, we’ll be living in a post-smartphone world where all of these technologies will converge in different interfaces,” says Hackl. “Whether it’s glasses or humanoid robots that we engage with we are going to find new ways to interact with technology. We’re going to break free from those smartphone screens.”

Eventually you’ll have a spatial computing device that you can’t leave the house without, she predicts. It will be “the only way that you can engage with the multiple data layers and the information layers and these virtual layers that will be surrounding the physical world.”

The Vision Pro is considered to be a virtual reality device because video of the wearer’s surrounding is streamed from cameras on the headset and displayed on a high resolution screen in front of their eyes. They are not actually seeing the real world but a nearly live video of, say, the high street or living room with apps (for directions or instructions) superimposed.

Meta’s USD500 Quest 3 headset also works using such real-time passthrough technology.

Previous research out of Stanford University highlighted problems with passthrough video technology because the cameras introduce distortion and lack the remarkable high resolution in which our brains are capable of seeing the world. What that means is that everything looks mostly real, but not quite.

“WHEN

THEY TOOK THE HEADSETS OFF IT TOOK TIME FOR THE RESEARCHERS’ BRAINS TO RETURN TO NORMAL. FOR INSTANCE, THEY WOULD MISJUDGE DISTANCES.”

When they took the headsets off it took time for the researchers’ brains to return to normal. For instance, they would misjudge distances. Many also reported symptoms of simulator sickness that will sound familiar to anyone who’s spent much time using a VR headset.

More problematically, Apple and Meta are marketing their spatial computing devices as ones to be worn every day, Ready Player One style—to write e-mails or code, to make video calls, to work or watch football games.

Long time experts in this space think that socially isolating ourselves in this fashion from other people, no matter how realistic the experience, won’t be used for anything more than niche applications. The psychological effects of experiencing virtual and mixed reality for long periods have not been properly examined.

Microsoft executive and VR pioneer Jaron Lanier for example declared of the Vision Pro, “Life within a construction is life without a frontier. It is closed, calculated, and pointless. Reality, real reality, the mysterious physical stuff, is open, unknown, and beyond us. We must not lose it.”

IMMERSIVE VIDEO EDITING

Sony’s system envisaged for use for 3D CG creation © Sony.

The Apple Vision Pro © Apple.

interview with Johnnie Burn

Sound designer, editor, and mixer Johnnie Burn created the sonic world for films including Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and Poor Things, Jordan Peele’s Nope and Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. He was recently Oscar nominated for Glazer’s The Zone of Interest having previously sound mixed numerous Glazer-directed music videos and commercials including Unkle’s Rabbit in Your Headlights, Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity and the Guinness Surfer ad. A member of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), the Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS), The European Film Academy, and BAFTA, Johnnie relates that childhood trauma temporarily deafened him and sparked his interest in sound.

MAKERS MAG

How did you set about creating the soundscape for The Zone of Interest?

JOHNNIE BURN

In Jonathan’s script we never go inside the camp. We had to figure out how to show it only in sound. The responsibility was heavy both out of respect for the victims and their families and also because the film would not actually work until late in postproduction. To have it all hinging upon an enormous layer of sound made me panic. I did a

ton of research beginning with access to the Auschwitz archive. I scoured for witness testimonies which used descriptive language to describe what they had experienced and built a giant file from that and from drawings left behind by survivors. It was then a process of either re-enactment or trying to find sounds similar to what we needed.

What is Jonathan Glazer like to work with?

Sort of a genius. Rigorous, very hands on and a really lovely guy to hang around with. We talk football and food. Looking back, he really was my film school. I had one of the best directors in the world telling me why he filmed a shot the way he had. I’ve been very lucky to spend an enormous amount of time with him. The downside is he will not stop until something is perfect. I must be a bit like that too.

How did your obsession with audio begin?

When I was 17 I wedged a water bottle under a running tap. I was just going to leave it for a minute but I went for a run and forgot. When I got back, the bottle was only half full but when I touched it, it blew up into shards of plastic. I suddenly went deaf. In my bedroom which was filled with music kit and electronic gadgets, I couldn’t hear a thing, only feel the wobbling of the speaker. I was convinced I’d permanently damaged my ear drums. About

20 minutes later my hearing came back but it focussed my mind and made me realise what I liked. I did a term of University but my passion lay elsewhere. I dropped out to get a job as a runner.

What was your big break?

This post facility had the most amazing version of all the stuff I had in my bedroom so when everyone left at 6pm it was all mine to play with. I slept at work for six months and stayed up every night as late as possible playing with all the kit. One day a client came in to record an actor’s voice for an Abbey National commercial but our sound engineer was sick. I was there with a cup of tea and said I knew how to do it. That led to other work with the client’s ad agency. That got my foot in the door. After that I met Jon and we did commercials and pop videos together until he said he had a film coming up. Birth (2004) starring Nicole Kidman was my second big break.

You’re the sound of Skype. Do you own any IP?

Sadly no! In 2003 Skype was a tiny Scandinavian start up who moved into the street next door to Wave. Because of Guiness’ Surfer they asked me and music producer Peter Raeburn to make them a ring tone and a log-in sound. We went round to their tiny room and they showed us their software. Peter suggested just saying Skype so we had 20

people saying the name which became the iconic sound. The Skype phone ring is me going ‘ring’ and I also mouthed the hang-up noise.

How is Wave Studios doing?

Warren Hamilton and I set up based Wave in a basement in London in 1999. Now we are 30 people on four floors. We opened Wave Amsterdam 10 years ago, a Manhattan studio in 2018 and still predominantly do commercials. I work from my studio in Brighton. Our locations are all about serving directors. LA is on the list. Dubai and Sydney are interesting too.

What was the Oscars like?

I am delighted that the film is getting a wider audience. I’m also personally thrilled. It was quite a daunting undertaking which myself and my team put two and a half years into making. I took my family to LA. After the ceremony we went on some rollercoasters.

What’s next?

With Yorgos we have already made Kinds of Kindness, the third in a trio of films made with Emma Stone [shown in competition at Cannes]. It is written by Efthymis Filippou who wrote Killing of a Sacred Deer so expect something more in the vein of those films. I’m also talking with Jordan Peele about his next project.

HUNGARY wanting more

The country continues to draw in major projects, like Dune Part 2 and Poor Things, thanks to its 30% cash rebate, period architecture and growing studio base.

Hungary is one of the most popular European filming hubs for good reason. Producers have spoken highly of its great locations, including castles, forests, villages and cities that can double for other parts of Europe, as well as the expanding, experienced crew base and growing number of high-quality studios to choose from.

“We have seven studio complexes in the centre of Budapest alone, so you can access these spaces with ease,” says Hungary’s film commissioner Csaba Kael.

“THE PRODUCTION TEAM FOR DUNE: PART TWO CREATED 40% MORE SETS THAN THE FIRST FILM, INCLUDING CONSTRUCTING

HARKONNEN’S BLACK AND WHITE

HOMELAND OF GIEDI PRIME.”

Stand-out facilities include Korda Studios which offers six soundstages and 10 hectares of pre-existing backlot sets – New York, renaissance and medieval. Plus, the National Film Institute studios in Fót, which are undergoing a massive expansion with four new 27,000 sq ft soundstages being built on 10,000 sqm increasing total studio capacity to 107,600 sq ft. The complex already has three soundstages, the largest of which is 19,400 sq ft. It also has medieval town and Second World War barracks backlots.

Another popular facility is Origo Studios with nine soundstages and a greenbox stage, which has recently hosted both Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things and Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two, having previously also hosted the first part of the sci-fi series.

The production team for Dune: Part Two created 40% more sets than the first film, including constructing Harkonnen’s black and white homeland of Giedi Prime. They took over six stages for more than 30 weeks, and utilised the 301,000 sq ft backlot space.

“During prep, we did a couple of walkthroughs inside the studio perimeter with DOP Greg Frasier, production designer, Patrice Vermette, and the producers to find the perfect location for some desert scenes [because we had to put a lot of sand in the stage],” explains Origo’s head of studio and rentals Tamás Wisinger. “Another important factor was the angle of the sun. Greg wanted to use natural light instead of a massive amount of lighting equipment, so we used the backlot.”

The film’s supervising location manager Duncan Broadfoot and his team were also able to find otherworldly locations in alternative sites around Budapest, including at the Varga Márton Museum and the Labour Movement Mausoleum in the Kerepesi cemetery. Both locations formed part of the Emperor’s world as the Imperial Gardens and Sardaukar Tabernacle respectively.

“It was important that the locations reflected the design and architecture of the Imperial world,” says Broadfoot. “The challenge was finding locations that complemented the beautiful design that already existed. These fitted the bill and we managed to shoot both on the same day.”

There are plenty of other productions that have chosen to shoot in the capital (and elsewhere around the country) recently, including Death of a Unicorn, starring Paul Rudd, and Modi, directed by Johnny Depp and starring Al Pacino, which shot near Károlyi Garden, for which the streets were decorated to look like Paris in 1910. The as yet untitled Brad Pitt-led F1 movie directed by Joseph Kosinski also filmed at the Hungarian Grand Prix. A full garage and pit wall were built, as well as a hospitality unit, which served as the base for the production crew.

“We have a special DNA when it comes to filmmaking thanks to our knowledge and over 100 years of filming experience which is why so many productions choose to keep shooting here,” concludes Kael.

Poor Things © Disney.

Diving Into Water Worlds

Image courtesy of Malta Film Services.

From shark infested waters to sinking boats and planes, makers takes a look at the challenges of filming in sea, rivers, lakes and water tanks.

Picturing a giant shark swimming down the river terrorising Parisians seems hard to do, but that was the challenge facing the film-makers of the new Netflix film Under Paris (Sous la Seine).

The ambitious project about a scientist, Sophia (Berenice Bejo), who joins forces with the Seine river police commander Adil (Nassim Lyes), to tackle a genetically modified shark during the Olympic Games, has been filming across Europe in different water settings.

One of those locations was the Ciudad de la Luz Studios and surrounding coast in Alicante, Spain (which offers a Valencia region grant equal to 25% of local expenditure and the 30% national rebate for incoming productions). “They came here from May to June 2023 to use our water tanks (indoors and outdoors) for shark chase sequences and scenes on the river bank,” says Marta Bellod, coo of the studios, which is also currently hosting Alejandro Amenabar’s The Captive and Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment’s Venom: The Last Dance in its tanks.

LOCATIONS MAY ALSO SEEM IDEAL AT THE TIME OF THE RECCE, BUT NOT WHEN SHOOTING. THIS COULD BE THE CASE FOR TIDES WHICH CAN CHANGE DRAMATICALLY.

The Under Paris production team initially spent four days shooting in the sea on the Vila Joiosa coastline, 30km north of Alicante, for the film’s opening sequence where Sophia is studying the sharks. “We had one feature boat, but we needed about 10 boats around it (camera, safety, stunt divers, crew, catering etc), and we had to factor in waves. It was a huge undertaking,” explains Fernando Victoria de Lecea of Meñakoz Films, the producers of the film in Spain.

They then moved to the water tank for explosion scenes and shark attacks, which was a lot easier to manage. “You can work in the water there up to your waist and can easily change the camera, train the actors and give them breaks, as opposed to on the sea where you’re on the boats all day. It’s safer, more practical and efficient. One day in the tank would take about two days in the open sea,” adds de Lecea.

PREP WORK

Safety and support are key on or in water, which is why proper planning is so important.

“On a movie like Under Paris, you’ve got rescue boats, storm conditions to create, actors and doubles in the water, (fake) blood affecting visibility, divers and special effects everywhere, which means safety is paramount. It’s a huge undertaking requiring hundreds of people all knowing their responsibilities,” insists Wim Michiels, head of Belgium’s Lites Studios, which also hosted Under Paris at its water tank facilities last year.

“I always do a lot of prep and testing for water shooting together with the director, first AD, production designer and DoP,” he says. “You have to foresee everything and find good solutions. Once you’re shooting, you cannot stop. It’s one effect after another. That’s often why our rehearsal period is longer than the actual shoot.”

It’s a lot of time and money. “Shooting underwater costs twice as much as on land and takes twice as long,” insists experienced underwater camera operator and marine co-ordinator, Dan Travers,

whose credits include White Lotus and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, for which he assisted with a VFX explosion by a submarine in a temporary tank in the UK using a high speed Phantom camera.

All underwater projects start with a recce and a wish list, says Travers. But there are so many factors to consider, including what’s at the location, visibility, lighting available, quality of local crew and divers, logistics of getting in and out. Often locations are considered and then dismissed.

LOCATION CHOICES

Locations may also seem ideal at the time of the recce, but not when shooting. “This could be the case for tides, for example, which can change dramatically. It might be ten metres of shore from the water one day then suddenly be 30 metres, so you won’t have a consistent shooting day where things look the same,” says Travers. “You’ve also got to consider potential equipment damage in bad weather conditions out at sea. If the tech fails it could be the end of a shooting day.”

“SHOOTING UNDERWATER COSTS TWICE AS MUCH AS ON LAND AND TAKES TWICE AS LONG. THERE ARE SO MANY FACTORS TO CONSIDER, INCLUDING VISIBILITY, AVAILABLE LIGHTING, QUALITY OF LOCAL DIVERS AND LOGISTICS.”

One of the stand out locations for open water shoots is Australia, with its stunning coral, but is a long trek, so Egypt tends to be a preferred choice. “It’s only a four hour flight, so you can shoot the next day, and the water visibility is good,” says Bafta-winning producer Trevor Evans from Watertight Films, whose credits include Captain Phillips. “Another great location is the Cayman Islands, but that’s also a long journey.”

WAVE MACHINES

An actress in training for the German Perwoll spot © E+P Films Germany & Digital Spirit.

On the set of Black Demon © Julio Cedillo & Highland Film Group.

WE BOUGHT A WHOLE BOEING AIRPLANE AND CUT IT INTO TINY PIECES TO USE AROUND THE TANK. IT'S AMAZING HOW INVENTIVE PRODUCTIONS CAN BE IN WATER.

The Dominican Republic is growing in popularity thanks to its beautiful beaches, clear sea water, tropical rainforests, and improving infrastructure, most notably the local Pinewood Studios, which has three stages and a water tank with a 20 ft deep section and wave machine, and an infinity horizon view of the sea.

Recent projects to shoot at the tank, and take advantage of the exemption from VAT and income tax on filming and equipment, include the MGM film Road House, The Avenue’s The Black Demon and Netflix’s Nyad, about Diana Nyad who swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida aged 60.

“For Nyad, most of the open water scenes were done in our tank, including where she is fighting the elements,” shares Albert Martinez Martin, COO of Lantica Media, owners of Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios. “This required the use of our airplane fans to do the wind, and tip tanks and wave machines to create the movement of the water.”

While for The Black Demon they managed to build an oil rig structure in the tank, and on Road House “there were a lot of stunts and effects, including flipping boats, cars dropped from cranes, even people fighting alligators,” says Bo Sanchez, head of Diving Services DR who support all productions shooting in the tank. “With so much to manage, I have to co-ordinate with the AD and special effects guys to see how long things are going to take, and handle safety issues, battery changes, how much air is in the divers’ tanks, lighting requirements etc because I’m working with a lot of people. That’s why I insist all communication from everyone comes to me or a supervisor on set who’s working with the AD before the comms goes underwater.”

Communication underwater is done via speakers. “I hold the microphone for everyone to listen. This could be a note from the director to the cast, but the operator and safety divers will need to know if they’re changing direction or coming to the surface etc.”

Institute Studios in Fót, Hungary, which offers two stages and is adding four more as part of a massive expansion. Combined with a huge outdoor water tank specifically designed for large and deep sets, which has hosted See-Saw Films’ The North Water.

HANDLING ACTORS

Bo Sanchez, Diving Services DR

For the cast we have a set training programme. We don’t certify them as scuba divers, but want them proficient in using scuba gear. Then do a private rehearsal so they’re used to the tank, then it’s full blown rehearsals. The focus is on allowing them to do their craft and we ensure that the diver/instructor that trains them is also their safety diver throughout the film.

On Nyad, Annette Benning wanted to swim in the ocean, so that added a layer of jet skis with sleds so she could be calm and get in and out of the water.

Dan Travers, camera operator

The actors can find the scuba equipment intimidating, but soon find it easy to use. Then it’s getting used to taking a breath and holding it to perform (just 15 seconds will often suffice).

Wim Michiels, Lites Studios

“We train the actors ourselves, both in apnea (without breathing apparatus), so keeping them calm and concentrated, and using oxygen regulators. In the old days, we had problems with productions saying don’t worry the actors are being trained by X and Y, and then on the first day of the shoot it’s clear they’re not ready.”

Camera angles also need to be considered. Filming in water is freeing because the cameraman can go up, down and around subjects in a way that can’t be replicated on land. Travers warns, “Be mindful of the background, especially in tanks. You’re attached by an umbilical cord from the surface, and have to be wary of filming crew members, gantries, exit signs etc above. These can be digitally removed afterwards or by agitating the water so it blurs the objects.”

TANK AND STAGE COMBO

Many projects choose to shoot at studio facilities that combine stages and water tanks. “We get a lot combining the two,” says Detre Klacsmann, manager of production operations at the National Film

RESCUE OCEAN

LOGISTICS

Studio Babelsberg in Germany also accommodates productions that shoot in its stages and freestanding, steel water tank within stage 20. “We originally hosted the Liam Neeson film Unknown Identity in the tank and stages and have had about 100 productions since, including Matrix: Resurrections, which did its bullet time effect shots underwater using special cameras,” enthuses Eike Wolf, director of studio operations and marketing. He also points to Without Remorse, starring Michael B Jordan, which managed to shoot a scene involving a plane crashing into the ocean in the small tank. “We actually bought a whole Boeing airplane and cut it into tiny pieces to use around the tank. It's amazing how inventive productions can be in water,” adds Wolf.

Malta Film Studios plans to build a sound stage to accompany the current three water tanks – a shallow tank for surface water filming, a deep concave one for filming underwater, and an insert tank for close-up shots.

A water tank at Studio Babelsberg, Germany.

On the set of Black Demon © Oliver Mota & Highland Film Group.

Several big projects have filmed at the facilities over the years, including Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion; and forthcoming Gladiator 2 and Highland Film Group’s Not Without Hope.

He also highlights visibility issues. “Lake water is muddy and it’s hard to build things underwater, so it’s best to do the construction of sets on land and then put them on lifting bags, especially if it’s heavy scaffold construction.”

Equally, if filming off a beach or muddy bank, to avoid sand and mud getting in the camera housing, Travers insists it’s best to shoot from a boat, rather than have cables and pulling focus from shore. “Then we can stream video wirelessly with minimum amount of people on the boat and everyone else staring at a monitor on shore.”

LAKE WATER IS MUDDY AND IT’S HARD TO BUILD THINGS UNDERWATER, SO IT’S BEST TO DO THE CONSTRUCTION OF SETS ON LAND AND THEN PUT THEM ON LIFTING

BAGS, ESPECIALLY IF IT’S HEAVY SCAFFOLD CONSTRUCTION.

“We had a hero boat, two capsize boats and a security boat, which were specially treated to avoid hurting the actors while in water because boats in a tank during storm conditions, although man-made, can be very dangerous,” explains Vadim Fortunin, owner of Malta Film Services, who worked on Not Without Hope. “We had between 16 and 24 people above water and eight safety divers underwater. Plus, a crane to cover the sun.”

“I’ve done a load of action sequences in the Malta tanks over the years,” adds Travers. “You can build big sets there dry [they built and submerged an entire village for the feature Renegades] and do all your rigging, then they’ve got huge turbines that drag the sea water in to fill the tank.”

The island can double for the Caribbean (as it did on the film Deep Fear recently) and there’s the added appeal of the 40% cash rebate.

Further afield, the Docklands Studios in Melbourne, offers two permanent water tanks within its stages, one of which is 15 feet deep, giving productions the flexibility to film dramatic underwater scenes and special effects. While in Asia, the Iskandar Malaysia Studios offers sound stages and three sizable tanks, which are filled using existing lake water for energy efficiency. The tanks will be hosting a big Australian film and a major Asian period drama in the coming months.

“We are also investing in state-of-the art water effects equipment – wave machines, dump tanks and more to assist productions further,” says Rashid Karim, CEO, Iskandar studios.

LAKE AND RIVER SHOOTS

Alternatively, some productions choose to shoot on the lakes and rivers, which comes with its own challenges. “It’s important that you get a water analysis and toxicity report done to ensure the water is safe, especially if it’s somewhere hot where the bacteria can multiply freely,” says Travers, who’s been working on Netflix series Kaos on the lakes in Spain.

It’s similar logistics for river shoots. “We filmed the AppleTV+ Varsity on the river in Ely where we took a camera boat with cranes and an extra camera boat rigged to the eight man skull boat, so that we could film the artists while they were rowing,” explains Evans. “Shooting on the river is actually quite controllable, but you need a lot of light in the water to shoot below the surface and safety is paramount.”

WHAT’S NEW IN TECH

Vadim Fortunin, Malta Film Services

We use the Chapman hydroscope waterproof cranes, which allow you to shoot underwater without the need for divers. They can move fast, smooth and get any angle in the water. The DoP and director can control it from land, but they need to be well trained because it’s not easy to manoeuvre.

Wim Michiels, Lites Studios

We use the new smaller Alexa cameras, which are easy to handle with better colour metric and more sensitive. For Under Paris, we had to do shots from the shark’s point of view, which required circular movements and darting in and out for attacks, supported by scooters.

We’re also considering experimenting with a virtual production water stage, but need to make sure the LED screen is fully water proof. The waves cannot hit it, so they have to be kept away while maintaining the look with the horizon. It’ll take a lot of preparation.

He highlights that in the UK you can only film underwater with people who are HSE trained, which is not the case in the rest of Europe.

COST EFFECTIVE?

Overall, there are a lot of positives to filming scenes underwater. “You don’t have to lay a track or use a dolly because the cameraman is doing all the work and can move freely in the water around the actors, taking just minutes to move from one angle to another,” says Evans.

But it’s not cheap. “To fill our exterior water tank costs about USD10,000,” says Klacsmann. “Smaller indie productions or commercials might struggle to afford it.”

Image courtesy of Malta Film Services.

Image courtesy of Lites Studios.

Relief for UK VFX But Gen-AI Questions Remain

NEIL HATTON, THE CEO OF THE UK SCREEN ALLIANCE, THE TRADE ASSOCIATION FOR VFX, ANIMATION AND POST PRODUCTION, ANALYSES THE LATEST IMPROVEMENTS TO THE UK’S FILM AND TELEVISION TAX CREDITS AND THE PROSPECT OF SIGNIFICANT GROWTH FOR VFX IN THE UK.

In the space of one hour in early March, the strike-induced gloom hanging over much of the UK’s film and television industry through 2023 and the start of 2024, lifted considerably. The event which cheered us was the UK’s Budget Statement in Parliament, which included a package of improved tax relief for Visual Effects (VFX), a rebate on property taxes for film studios, a brand-new incentive for limited budget films, and investment into creative hubs outside London.

This came after the modernisation of the UK’s screen sector tax system in January 2024, to be compatible with recent international agreements on the taxation of multi-national companies. The new Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) offers net effective rates of 25.5% for film and high-end television, and 29.25% for animation and children’s television. A campaign by Animation UK, which is part of the UK Screen Alliance, managed to extend the 29.25% net rate to animated feature films too.

“LIKE THE UK’S ORIGINAL SYSTEM OF TAX CREDITS, AVEC CAN ONLY BE APPLIED TO A MAXIMUM OF 80% OF A PRODUCTION’S CORE EXPENDITURE.”

Like the UK’s original system of tax credits, AVEC can only be applied to a maximum of 80% of a production’s core expenditure, if spent in the UK. VFX has always been an eligible expense, but once a production had spent up to the 80% cap, there was no more tax relief available. As VFX spend is highly portable, productions would routinely place it

outside the UK, to seek further tax incentives in other territories. Some productions might have performed just VFX in the UK, if they had shot elsewhere, but it was rare for both the majority of a production’s filming and its VFX to happen in the UK.

The UK Screen Alliance has campaigned over many years to remove the unintended consequences of the 80% cap, which presents a significant barrier to growth and investment for VFX. Research undertaken by film accountants Saffery, showed that over a three-year period, on films and television series claiming the UK tax credits for filming, GBP1 billion (EUR1.17 billion) of VFX was performed outside the UK. This means that almost half of the total VFX spend on British qualifying productions is leaving the UK.

There was clearly a big opportunity for the UK if this issue could be rectified, and this year’s budget announcements did that, although there is still a period of consultation on the scope of VFX expenditure to which the improved incentive will apply.

From April 2025, for films and high-end television, the VFX spend in the UK will be immune from the 80% cap, and the expenditure credit on VFX work will increase to 29.25% net after tax. In the most common scenario, when a production used to cap out of relief, there will now be a huge leap from effectively 0% tax incentive for VFX, to almost 30%, putting the UK in a much more competitive

The Netflix sci-fi 3 Body Problem was primarily filmed in and around London.

THERE WILL NOW BE A HUGE LEAP FROM EFFECTIVELY 0% TAX INCENTIVE FOR VFX, TO ALMOST 30%, PUTTING THE UK IN A MUCH MORE COMPETITIVE SITUATION.

situation. There have already been encouraging signs that this will allow the UK to capture a greater market share for VFX, and the UK Screen Alliance has predicted that this will increase VFX spending in the UK by GBP175million (EUR204 million) per year, creating 2,000 jobs directly and a further 800 indirectly.

Also in the Budget and greatly welcomed by the filmmaking community, was a new Independent Film Tax Credit, giving almost 40% rebate for films of under GBP15 million (EUR17.5 million) core expenditure. The 80% cap also applies here, and unfortunately no exemption for VFX has been built in. This feels like a missed opportunity, as even limited budget films sometimes spend GBP500,000 on VFX, and retaining that spend in the UK would boost boutique VFX companies and those outside London. We will gather data on this to make our case for a VFX cap exemption for all sizes of film budget.

Following the Budget Statement in March, the Treasury (the UK’s finance ministry) launched a 10-week consultation into the scope of VFX expenditure which would be allowed to claim the increased AVEC incentive. The UK Screen Alliance had proposed using the existing definition in the cultural test for qualification for tax relief. It would be confusing to have another definition apply to the eligibility for the enhanced VFX tax credit.

The Treasury agreed with us that the cultural test definition should be the starting point, but very unexpectedly they added that the expenditure for the use of generative AI would be excluded. It appears that the Treasury have misinterpreted the definition of VFX as only applying to the modification of filmed material. The cultural test definition reads as follows: “Visual effects is defined to mean the digital alteration of a film’s images….” But what about a high-angle establishing shot of mediaeval London which is likely to be created as CG using traditional 3D modelling, and contain no filmed elements at all? To everyone in the industry, this would be indisputably categorised as visual effects.

The Treasury have then strictly applied their interpretation of the cultural test definition to exclude generative AI, as in their view, it does not involve filmed material. If that is their only rationale for the exclusion, then it is easily remedied. The cultural test definition is slightly ambiguous and needs to be expanded to account for established practice. It will also be extremely difficult to audit and separate generative AI costs from those for more traditional methods. We will work through this with the Treasury during the consultation period.

Generative AI or machine learning has been used in VFX for years; well before the current buzz around ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion or Sora. It has been used for instance for creating digital crowds and fluid simulations. There’s also analytical and organisational AI being used to optimise and automate workflows for greater productivity. There’s no suggestion that types of AI other than generative, will be excluded from the tax credit.

Generative AI will rapidly become ubiquitous in VFX, and most companies are already using or exploring it within their pipelines. Tools like generative fill, under the control of skilled and creative artists, will allow space for greater innovation and creativity within ever decreasing budgets and timescales. While Sora creates some impressive images, it is far from perfect and currently lacks the degree of controllability necessary to be a useful tool for artists needing to meet the exacting requirements of big budget film and television.

“THIS FEELS LIKE A MISSED OPPORTUNITY, AS EVEN LIMITED BUDGET FILMS

SOMETIMES SPEND GBP500,000 ON VFX.”

VFX has always been the combination of human creativity and cutting-edge technology, coming together to create the most inspiring and ambitious imagery, and I can’t see that changing in the future. The VFX tax credit should be engineered to support that aim. The Treasury’s consultation will continue until 22nd May and UK Screen Alliance will definitely be responding.

We expect to see draft legislation published in the summer and the first VFX spend to receive the enhanced credit will start in April 2025. We hope that with a few careful tweaks, the new enhanced VFX incentive will prove to be hugely successful in attracting additional international production, and maintain the UK’s reputation as a world class hub for VFX.

Neil has been involved with UK Screen Alliance as a director right from its inception in 2004 His background is in broadcast post-production where he was an editor/MD/owner for 20 years and he was a pioneer of non-linear editing. He was appointed CEO in 2016 and is the organisation’s principal spokesperson and policy advocate.

Union VFX picked up the BAFTA for Special Visual Effects on Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things.

Nothing About Us Without Us

TAPs vision is for no disabled talent to ever be excluded but real progress will only be made with inclusivity embedded in the writers’ room. Recognition is widening about the potential of people with neurodivergent abilities to have their lived experience respected in the workplace and on screen.

It may have taken a screenwriter with the profile of Jack Thorne (Help) to put a flame under broadcasters to do something other than “fail” the disabled but two years on from his scorching MacTaggart lecture and genuine change is in the wind.

Thorne’s speech was heralded by disabled advocacy groups as a catalyst. It led to the creation in August 2022 of the TV Access Project (TAP) supported by the UK’s main broadcasters and streamers who pledged to work together to create “a substantive and permanent structural shift” in ensuring access provision for disabled talent.

A landmark report by diversity body Diamond published at the end of 2022 laid bare the issue. It found just 5.8% disability representation off-screen and 8% on-screen in 2020/21 which would need to see a rise of 13,519 people to be truly reflective of the UK workforce and population.

“The movement to change began before lockdown but there’s been a more strategic move since Jack’s report galvanized people at Edinburgh to take this seriously,” says Nick Llewellyn, founder and artistic director of learning disabled and autistic consultancy and television company Access All Areas. It partners with TAP and delivers access coordinator training with ScreenSkills. “Without the will and the resources from broadcasters it’s often seen as a secondary need but we now feel it’s becoming a priority.”

“I think we’re in an important moment for disability and inclusivity,” says Luke Seraphin, head of diversity and inclusion, Sky Original Programming. “That’s not to ignore the huge challenges when it comes to ethnicity, gender and age but disability has been the area of representation that has lagged behind the most. Part of that is because when disabled people come to work in our industry they don’t find a welcoming place – or even a place it is possible for them to work. It’s a systemic issue.”

Bruce Fletcher & Peter Beard’s feature-length documentary Otto Baxter: Not A F***ing Horror Story, detailed the making of a 30 minute film by Baxter, who has Down Syndrome, called The Puppet Asylum. Baxter was an exec producer on the project, produced by All3Media-backed Story Films, in association with Sky Studios & Archface Films.

THERE WILL OFTEN BE A CALL OUT FOR FIVE DISABLED WRITERS TO PITCH AN IDEA BUT THAT SAME PITCHING PROCESS IS ALREADY EXCLUSIVE.

I Used To Be Famous © Sanja Bucko & Netflix.

INCLUSION BEGINS IN THE WRITERS’ ROOM

The representation of learning disabled or neurodivergent (ND) talent is even smaller and not yet tracked by the industry. Within advertising and marketing, neurominorities are thought to be relatively well represented, thanks to their reputation for having high levels of innovation and creativity. Yet there is still much to be done to empower them.

Line of Duty star Tommy Jessop and his filmmaker brother shone a light on just how hard it is to break into Hollywood when they pitched producers with a Down’s syndrome superhero movie. Their efforts were recorded in a BBC documentary.

TAP takes a broad view of disability which includes those with chronic health conditions. “The challenge for people with so called invisibility disabilities is in many ways similar to those with more obvious disabilities in that a difference needs to be made to the environment in which they work,” Seraphin says.

Sky Studios is in the final year of a seven year partnership to develop an accessible Writers’ Lab to give learning disabled and autistic talent a voice in television scripting. Separately, last year AAA launched a new production outfit, co-led by ND talent, and focused on improving learning disabled and ND representation in television and film.

“If learning disabled, autistic and ND people are working alongside showrunners in the writers’ room it should mean that representation is not tokenistic but one of cocreation,” Llewellyn says. “Once we get in at that level we can start to write and cast a broad range of dynamic and provocative characters that identify as learning disabled, autistic or ND.”

AAA provides training for productions to support an accessible casting process based on TAPs own five step guide to inclusion.

This includes awareness and assessment of personalised plans for cast or crew based on a discussion of their access needs. In turn this might

mean adjusting the size of the script’s font and colour of its paper, perhaps removing any long winded descriptions of scene transitions, and establishing a quiet or darkened space on location. Adjustments could be made to the filming schedule or the sound and lighting on set.

“It’s putting the performer and their lived experience at the centre of the production right from the beginning as opposed to having to retrofit access once the show is written,” Llewellyn says.

The mantra ‘Nothing about us without us’ means having disabled people in the room. “Producers won’t achieve authentic storytelling otherwise,” says Seraphin. “The most successful examples of representation always have a representative of that community in the creative process.”

Llewellyn explains that there will often be a call out for five disabled writers to pitch an idea but that this process is already exclusive.

“PUTTING

THE PERFORMER AND THEIR LIVED EXPERIENCE AT THE CENTRE OF THE PRODUCTION FROM THE BEGINNING AS OPPOSED TO HAVING TO RETROFIT ACCESS ONCE THE SHOW IS WRITTEN.”

“The ideas and creativity are there but some ND people might need additional support either linguistically or administratively so we need to factor that in from the get-go so we get a broad range of experience and not always the same group of people.

CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES

He elaborates, “Often the access support needs of the learning disabled community is quite nuanced. We advocate for people’s broad range of experience to be placed in production because often it is lost in a broader conversation around disability.”

Inclusion in the writers’ room for ND talent should avoid the trap of dramatic stereotypes. The autistic characters in Rain Man and Forrest Gump might be derided now but similar tropes still exist. Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory, for example.

DIVERSITY ACCESS

NEURODIVERGENT

Dinosaur © BBC & Two Brothers.

ACCESS IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERYBODY ON THAT SET FROM DIRECTING TO CASTING AND PRODUCING. WE’VE ALL GOT TO WEAR THAT HAT.

“Even recent screen productions have the savant genius or the socially well-adjusted young man who can’t do things in certain ways or a story arc about a not so good person who sees the error of their ways through a learning disabled person,” says Eden West. He graduated from AAA’s drama training programme and is one of a company of artists that work in AAA productions as well as co-leading training. “Savants are very much a minority in the neurodiverse community. There’s a greater breadth and depth to us than just those extremes.”

Getting into the writers’ room is the first step to helping productions escape putting one dimensional characters on screen. “We can open up a conversation and go a little bit deeper around what is means to place a learning disabled person in a story that creates interesting dynamics,” says Llewellyn.

Eden shares further insight, “One thing that a lot of us with autism do is mask, or pretend, to be someone we are not in social and professional situations. Sometimes we only show our true selves to that small group of people we trust. On screen, though, our inside and outside world are presented without that dichotomy.”

West recently supported the pilot for new BBC sitcom Dinosaur and says, “It felt truthful in the way the actress portrayed neurodiversity that resonated with aspects of my life. It felt true and not a fraud.”

Seraphin also calls out the idea of autism as being “a monolith of experience” noting that onscreen portrayals also tend to feature white males.

“What you don’t see are women or people of colour with autism and that’s a problem because in wider society the rates of diagnosis among women and black people with autism is far higher than average. We could change that with better media representation.”

Seraphin doesn’t believe that anyone is consciously pushing back against the idea but says education remains vital to knocking down entrenched perceptions such as that inclusivity costs.

“The doors are opening but slowly with a bit of a creak,” agrees Llewellyn. “People still see Access as a budget addition.”

There are government Access to Work grants available for physical or technological support “but sometimes the turnaround of that can be slow,” he reports. “Once people start to see the solutions they start to open up their minds. For instance, there are inexpensive ways of presenting an easy read production schedule (with pictures to support the concept, for example). Once producers, production coordinators or second ADs have had some training they can implement it at quite low cost, in minimal time and it has a positive impact among everyone in production who might have felt comfortable opening the conversation before.”

By factoring in Access at inception rather than making it an add-on “the costs drop significantly,” says Seraphin. “Thinking about Access early means you have it baked into a budget and you plan with Access in mind not as a last resort.”

TAP’s vision is to see full inclusion by 2030 – that is to say, a television industry where no Disabled talent is ever excluded because barriers have been removed and equity created.

“In one sense that seems a long time to wait for something that shouldn’t even be a question - but it is indicative of the scale of the challenge,” they add.

So what will inclusion look like in 2024? West hopes that the performing arts community will be a lot more conscious about making positive decisions for inclusivity. “I want people to have that thought at the forefront of their minds not just at the end of process,” he says.

Llewellyn underlines that the role of Access Coordinators are important in ensuring Access is embedded across the production but they cannot do it alone. “It is the responsibility of everybody on that set from directing to casting and producing. We’ve all got to wear that hat.”

DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT

To date there has been very little formal exploration of embracing the talents of autistic people and those with dyslexia, ADHD and other forms of neurocognitive variation within workforces in the creative sector. It is said that up to a quarter of 25% of CEOs could be dyslexic but according to autism.org, just 16% of autistic people are in full time paid work.

“THINKING ABOUT ACCESS EARLY MEANS YOU HAVE IT BAKED INTO A BUDGET AND YOU PLAN WITH ACCESS IN MIND NOT AS A LAST RESORT.”

There’s increasing recognition that world-changing ideas come from people who think differently. By 2027, a quarter of Fortune 500 companies will actively recruit ND talent to improve business performance, according to analysts Gartner.

“Neurodiversity and cognitive diversity are superpowers for organisations,” said Gartner’s Leigh McMullen. “When you have cognitively diverse people, they see problems in different ways. They see opportunities in different ways.”

That means there are hundreds and thousands of stories yet to be told. BooksOffice (featured in this issue on page 73) helps indie producers unearth unsigned authors and represents several who identify as neurodiverse. Elaine Sturgess of BookOffice reports one author has created a “highly realistic” crime scene investigator character with Aspergers, based on their own experience, and another with ADHD who has written an “incredibly detailed” fantasy novel ripe for screen adaptation.

As Llewellyn puts it, “we need to stop looking at the learning disabled with a neurotypical gaze since their views and experiences reaches out to humanity and to our collective lived experience. That is where we need to get buy in. It’s a faster process than it has been historically but there’s work to do.”

Tommy Jessop Goes To Hollywood © BBC Studios.

The Puppet Asylum © Kevin Baker & Sky.

IRELAND the double master

The Emerald Isle's stunning locations and growing studio base are hosting an increasing number of local and international productions, including Netflix’s Irish Wish and hit feature Cocaine Bear

Ireland’s varied landscapes and enticing 32% tax credit are proving a huge draw for many projects. Among them; Netflix’s In the Land of Saints and Sinners, which depicts 1970’s conflict-ridden Ireland in County Donegal, and the streamer’s romantic comedy Irish Wish, which took in the Cliffs of Moher, Lough Tay, and the 17th century, 800-acre Killruddery House in County Wicklow.

Killruddery House, a historic private estate and working farm on the southern outskirts of Bray, features heavily in the film, and has been used by several projects over the years including Excalibur, The Tudors and The Count of Monte Cristo.

“WE WANTED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IRELAND’S SCENERY AND UTILISE ITS STUDIOS. COMBINING THOSE WITH THE TALENTS OF THE CREW AND THE APPEALING TAX CREDIT.”

Another project to film in the grassy plains and mountainous region of County Wicklow is the upcoming family drama Bring Them Down, starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott. The production team had to enter deeply forested and uncertain terrain, but were able to do this thanks to the support of local bodies like the National Parks & Wildlife Service and Coillte, a state-owned commercial forestry business that manages approximately 7% of the country’s land.

“My main focus lay in finding mountainous regions to film in, that would also include large forest areas and blanket bogs,” says the film’s location manager Niall Milton. “The terrain that we were looking for

LOCATION HIGHLIGHT

Luggala, also known as Fancy Mountain, is only Ireland’s 230th highest peak at 595 metres, but is staggering nonetheless.

Situated in County Wicklow, which has hosted many big projects, from Braveheart to Canadian drama Vikings, the granite mountain is easily accessible and overlooks Lough Tay –location for 2004 feature Irish Wish

Nearby is the Luggala estate, home to the late Guinness heir Garech Browne, which has hosted two Arthurian classics Excalibur (1981) and King Arthur (2004).

Cocaine Bear © 2023 Universal Studios.

needed to be steep, rugged and give the sense of real danger with drop offs either side. We weren’t looking for anything manicured, it had to feel like we were up on top of a mountain and let the viewers feel that this was a real place that was full of beauty but was hard and rough.”

“We filmed at a location called Kippure in the Wicklow mountains. This area is a particularly sensitive location that took weeks of planning and working with national bodies, local authorities and ecologists to devise a method of filming in this amazing location.”

Universal’s hit comedy thriller Cocaine Bear was also made in Wicklow, doubling for Georgia in the US, while Subotica Productions’ Freud’s Last Session, starring Anthony Hopkins, depicted scenes of World War 2 battles, as well as flashbacks of the life of Freud’s last patient CS Lewis, in the county.

The film also doubled parts of Dublin for war time London, including around the famous psychoanalyst’s Hampstead house, although the actual home and famous couch were recreated in Ardmore Studios in Bray.

“A lot of bigger productions that don't necessarily depend on actual locations just want the studio,” says Aoife O’Sullivan of Subotica Productions.

ESSENTIAL FACTS

TAX INCENTIVES

32% ATA CARNET

YES TIME ZONE

“But we really wanted to take advantage of Ireland’s stunning scenery, and utilise the studios. Combine those with the talents of the crew and the appealing tax credit and you’re able to shoot a lot, from bigger sci-fi flicks to animated projects.”

The doubling factor is also a key draw. “Ireland doesn’t just ‘do’ Ireland but has doubled for many films from British period dramas, Scandinavian landscapes, European cities and rural locales, to the US and even outer space,” says Michael Byrne, Screen Ireland’s inward production and sustainability executive.

Screen Ireland recently appointed industry veteran Keith Potter as head of film with a mandate to continue growing the industry. The agency is planning to launch a new sustainability fund that will offer incentives to international filmmakers.

The national film body manages the 32% tax credit, which has no annual limit on the number of projects, 90% early payment available, and the cap per feature film has been increased to EUR125 million spend. It has also launched a regional fund, which international productions can apply for and receive up to EUR750,000 in backing on top of the tax credit.

Ireland is renowned for its skilled technicians, but Screen Ireland is looking to secure the future and boost the regions by launching crew development hubs in Wicklow, Galway and Limerick to expand the crew base and make sure there’s not a skills shortage in any part of the country.

Key studio spaces include Ashford, Troy Studios and Ardmore Studios, which recently added a 22,000 sq ft stage to its offering. There’s also an expanding VFX sector. The country recently hosted big projects like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Stranger Things and The Mandalorian at its facilities, including SSVFX, Screenscene and Egg VFX.

There’s also the impressive EUR84 million Studio Ulster facilities being constructed in Belfast boosting Ireland’s virtual production presence. The site is supported by an integrated research, development and innovation Centre for Excellence in real-time and virtual production to pug the skills gap in VP.

IRELAND IS DOUBLING FOR BRITISH PERIOD DRAMAS, SCANDINAVIAN LANDSCAPES, EUROPEAN CITIES AND COUNTRYSIDES AND FROM THE UNITED STATES TO OUTER SPACE.

SOMETHING ELSE

While Cillian Murphy made history this year as the Academy Awards’ first Irish-born winner of the Best Actor prize, Ireland’s history with the Oscars dates back much further. Dublin born art director Cedric Gibbons started his film career in 1915, becoming one of the 36 founding members of the Academy.

Just over 10 years later, the MGM art director would not only go on to win his first honour for The Bridge of San Luis Rey directed by Charles Brabin, but would in fact design the statuette as it is known today. Fashioned as a knight standing on a reel of film gripping a crusader’s sword, the trophy was originally made by Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley. Following this impactful contribution, Gibbons would go on to win 11 Oscars from 37 nominations.

Irish Wish © 2024 Netflix, Inc.

Underground Railways to Textile Mills

Gentleman Jack © BBC/Lookout Point/HBO/Sam Taylor.

From quarries and tunnels to old breweries and the Queen’s former private jet, makers provides insights from experts on some of the weird and wonderful alternative studio spaces available in the UK as production activity picks up again.

ELDON HILL QUARRY, CHATSWORTH ESTATE, DERBYSHIRE

This was a secluded limestone quarry on the Chatsworth Estate in the Peak District National Park until a few years ago. Then Hollywood descended. Tom Cruise and his Mission: Impossible team came recently to inspect the 470 metre limestone hill for the latest film in the franchise. HBO shot some scenes for House of the Dragon there, and Apple filmed the first season of its sci-fi show Invasion on the site.

The Chatsworth Estate is no stranger to film and television productions having hosted several productions in its house and gardens, but now

there’s growing interest in the expansive parklands, lakes, caves and the quarry in question. It’s a vast space for action sequences with easy access (just 15 miles from the M1) and permission from the Chatsworth Estate.

“We needed somewhere in the middle of nowhere (during Covid-19) to film a sequence for Invasion in which a bus full of school children runs off the road and crashes into a quarry,” says Christian McWilliams, supervising location manager. “The brief was for somewhere steep with sheer sides that would be hard to get out of and this fitted the bill perfectly.”

YOU JUST HAVE TO BE CAREFUL BECAUSE IT’S NATIONAL PARK LAND, SO YOU HAVE TO PRESERVE THE LANDSCAPE. THEY WERE INITIALLY A LITTLE BIT RETICENT ABOUT US HAVING PYRO EFFECTS AND SMOKE IN THE QUARRY BECAUSE THEY WERE CONCERNED ABOUT BATS.

They also managed to film meteorites striking earth at nearby Mam Tor with its desolate limestone and heather strewn landscape and broken roads, from which the bus falls. As well as plenty of drone shots.

“We were in the area for a month and it’s only a short journey from Manchester, so an ideal production hub for the region,” adds McWilliams. “You just have to be careful because it’s national park land, so you have to preserve the landscape. They were initially a little bit reticent about us having pyro effects and smoke in the quarry because they were concerned about bats (but they’d moved on). Overall, it was a fabulous experience. No one for miles around except a farmer and a few sheep.”

STAG BREWERY, MORTLAKE, LONDON

This disused brewery and bottling plant on the river Thames was converted into a production base for Sky series Temple, starring Mark Strong, and again more recently for the forthcoming Disney+ 12-part drama A Thousand Blows, set in the Victorian underground world of gangs and boxing, starring Stephen Graham and co-written by Stephen Knight which finished filming the first series in December.

The Stag has been leased by The Story Collective, a UK-based global content studio that supports script development and early stage production companies in scripted television. They have set up a new company called Story Works, which will run the site as a studio. They are producing A Thousand Blows, alongside Water & Power Productions and Matriarch Productions.

“It’s a huge 22-acre site in West London,” says Maja Wlodarczyk, production manager on A Thousand Blows. “All the old brewery and warehouse equipment has been stripped out and we’ve actually managed to build two soundproof stages within the brewery buildings and a big backlot on site, as well as props, costumes, construction and production offices – everything in one place.”

The larger stage was used to construct the main pub for the series and the other stage has been used to build various different sets, while the backlot has been turned into an entire 19th century period London town, which is being kept and available for future series of the show and other productions that want to film there.

“We want to rent the space out to other films and television series to use the soundstages and backlot,” says Amy Mobley, head of production, The Story Collective. “The site is actually owned by Reselton Properties with plans to build flats, schools and shops etc. But we’re looking to take on a five-year lease, and sub licence it out to other productions, and bring in revenue for it.”

RAF CHURCH FENTON

This is an ex-RAF training airfield in North Yorkshire and now Leeds East private airport. The site has three hangars available for filming, and there are plans to construct three new soundstages and offices. Recent projects to film there include the ITV series Victoria and series two of BBC and HBO’s Gentleman Jack.

“THE

HANGARS ARE AS THEY WERE WHEN THE RAF USED THEM, BUT PRODUCTIONS CAN COME IN AND SHOOT, AND THE GREAT THING IS THEY’RE HUGE, SO LARGE SETS CAN BE BUILT.”

“The hangars are as they were when the RAF used them, but productions can come in and shoot, and the great thing is they’re huge, so large sets can be built,” says Chris Hordley, Production Liaison & Development, Screen Yorkshire.

For Victoria, the filmmakers managed to construct several parts of Buckingham Palace, including the state room, the kitchens, a long state corridor, the throne room, ball room and a bedroom. “And they used the country houses nearby - that area of Yorkshire is awash with them - for other parts of the Palace,” adds Hordley.

Chris Makin, MD at Makins, who are behind the 15,000 sqm development of new film making facilities at Church Fenton, says they plan to “transform the aerodrome into a thriving multi-use destination for television production, events and businesses”.

House of the Dragon © Home Box Office, Inc. Temple © Sky UK Limited.

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL’S SERVICE TUNNEL

Hundreds of thousands of people travel on the Eurotunnel trains every year. Most of them are oblivious to the service tunnel that runs alongside it in case of emergencies and for repair work to the shuttles. Amazingly, productions have managed to fit into this narrow space to film.

The service tunnel is in an airlock, so there are huge doors that look like a safe from a City bank to get in. “It’s extraordinary,” says McWilliams, who filmed the second season of Invasion there. “We did a sequence where the kids have to walk to France because the tunnel has been destroyed by aliens.”

MARTINS BANK

There are plans to upgrade this iconic 19th century building in Liverpool into a workplace for businesses of all sizes. But until then it is available for filming, recently hosting projects like Paramount + series Sexy Beast, ITV drama Nolly and Sky Max’s Funny Woman.

“Several scenes for Sexy Beast were shot in Martins Bank, including a robbery that takes place in a casino, which was constructed in the basement and second floor of the building,” says Lauren York, CEO of UKLocations.co.uk. “It has kept many of the original period features, including the main banking hall, which are ideal for filming in.”

IT’S NOT A CONVENTIONAL BUILD SPACE, BUT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF FILM AND TV PRODUCTIONS ARE CHOOSING TO SHOOT BOTH INTERIORS AND EXTERIORS AT THE SITE.

The logistics are obviously a little tricky, with it running alongside a busy train line and being such a confined space. “There are Mercedes vehicles which can be driven from both ends that we used to get back and forth down the tunnel. And we could only bring up to about 25 people in to the tunnel at one time, so we used handheld cameras and lights a lot. That was challenging, but very rewarding with the shots we got,” adds McWilliams.

MOUNTFITCHET CASTLE & NORMAN VILLAGE, STANSTED, ESSEX

This medieval theme park consists of the castle and Norman village re-constructed on its original historic ancient site, complete with buildings, siege weapons and animals roaming throughout the ten acre site. It has been used by various productions over the years, including BBC show The Apprentice.

The impressive site could potentially be used by a major US studio for a Ridley Scott type historical drama as it looks very realistic and is ideally located.

“This is an excellent site close to London and Stanstead airport, so good for the logistics of bringing in crew and equipment for productions that want a Norman village,” says Tim Beasley, director of UKFilmLocation.com. “We had a computer game manufacturer who used it for the launch of one of their medieval battle games recently and they found it great.”

Filming would ideally need to take place in the winter though when the park is closed to the public.

HEATHROW TERMINAL 5’S UNUSED RAILWAY STATION

Heathrow has a secret ghost train station hidden beneath T5, which was completed in 2008, but never used. The cavernous space is as long as 33 London buses with platforms in place. The intention is for it to be used by 2030 once the track and signals have been put in place. In the meantime, it’s a hidden filming location.

“We scouted it for the latest Sonic the Hedgehog film. It’s an incredible cathedral like concrete station about the height of 20 double decker buses waiting to be used,” says supervising location manager Christian McWilliams.

For Nolly, about actress Noele Gordon, the main banking hall was transformed into a Birmingham hotel, the exterior of the building was used as a London backdrop, and one of the large boardrooms doubled as an Italian restaurant!

DEAN CLOUGH MILLS, HALIFAX

This huge former textile mill is a striking complex stretching over 22 acres, consisting of 16 Grade II listed Victorian buildings, now occupied by leisure and retail businesses and offices.

It’s not a conventional build space, but an increasing number of film and television productions are choosing to shoot both interiors and exteriors at the site. The most notable was the Marvel series Secret Invasion, which amazingly doubled the old mill for parts of Moscow at night.

“They also filmed parts of Happy Valley there, including constructing the interior of the police station inside the old mill,” says Hordley at Screen Yorkshire. “It’s easy to set up production offices inside and permitting is straightforward. Plus, you’re in the centre of Halifax, so transport and logistics of bringing crew and equipment in is easy.”

There’s plenty of floor space, but the challenge is filming around the old columns (some productions have deliberately incorporated them into the set).

THE QUEEN’S FORMER PRIVATE JET

This stylish jet with plush interior, previously owned by the late Queen, has become available for filming through UKfilmlocation.com.

“Private jets like this one are quite technical filming locations,” says Tim Beasley, head of UKFilmLocation.com. “You need to know what people are wanting to do, how they want to use it, if they want to move it for different backdrops (because it can’t fly), or shoot from drones around it.

“We did a fashion shoot for an urban brand inside this jet recently and they had helicopters coming in, which they booked through a local airfield, and filmed on the roads. It was a big job.”

Nolly © ITVX.

Secret Invasion © Des Willie & MARVEL

interview withderspici Neeru Khera

With no formal technical training Neeru Khera produced her first short film at the age of 50. The Untold Story of Paperboats (2014) was selected for the Short Film Corner at Cannes after which Neeru established production house The Creative Gypsy and a YouTube channel of the same name.

The Creative Gypsy has produced more than 12 award winning short films, the first LGBTQ Web series in India and a series of shorts shown on NDTV. She continues to make Public Service Announcements (PSA) promoting, for example, cochlear implants and cornea donations, and makes films with Warwick Medical School and NIHR, UK to raise awareness of mental health. Having recently completed her first two animated films and with a record of mentoring young women in the industry, Neeru received the Maker Award (pictured left) at the makers & shakers Awards in December. makers catches up with her in Delhi.

MAKERS MAG

Hello Neeru. Can you share some of your background prior to creating your first film?

NEERU KHERA

I was born in 1960 in a country where women are expected to take a back seat to men, stay at home. Girls from educated backgrounds were meant to be either a teacher, doctor or engineer if they had a career at all. Very few went into theatre and

drama. My parents encouraged me to do drama and I made my first school play aged eight years old but when it came to career they wanted me to pursue a vocation. I studied economics and was married with children by the age of 22 but I never lost my love for theatre.

Did you love cinema also?

People go crazy for film in India and I was no exception. Because of the economic conditions here the one escape that everyone can make, whether rich or poor, is the cinema. Even now someone with no money to eat will find enough rupees for a cinema ticket.

What prompted you to make films?

I was asked by an old friend to act in a film but on the point of production the funding was pulled. The script, about child soldiers, touched my heart but more importantly it was being made by students who just needed a break. I wondered if I could help them bring their story to screen. I used my own savings to produce the 20-minute film Paperboats and learned on the job. I made mistakes but we got it made and when I walked the red carpet at Cannes I got a boost to make more films.

Your films aren’t conventionally commercial. How difficult is it to fund them?

They deal with difficult, controversial or taboo topics which is why even today, I use my

own money – or that of friends and family – to fund a project. I tend to get the investment back later but it is a risk. As my films have won awards around the world I am able to generate sponsorship. I take care to make films with high production value. Provided I have a platform such as YouTube or a broadcaster, then sponsors are interested. I will even write scenes that feature the sponsor so that everyone wins. Sometimes actors or composers in Bollywood will work for a fraction of their normal fee because they believe in the topic.

How rewarding is it to work with young talent?

I want to give them the chance I didn’t get at their age and particularly with girls who are just out of school. They have a very fresh perspective. People of my age are jaded. We’ve seen so much of the world but if you involve the young they are so passionate and can make things work. I am proud of being part of a growing movement of female filmmakers who are trying to make Indian cinema richer with their original and diverse stories.

What has been the hardest project to get off the ground?

For the NIHR I wanted to dramatise the story of a man who hears voices that tell him to rape his own daughter. He decides he can’t control it, so castrates himself. Nobody wanted to make it. In the end I decided to direct

it myself. Command and I Shall Obey did very well and the lead actor (Satyakam Anand) won awards. The medical community loved it for the light it shined on schizophrenia. The NIHR gives me creative freedom. I listen to the science and then create a drama so that it is not a dry representation but a mix of fact and fiction.

Your continuing mission has led to you being named Maker of the Year. Congratulations!

This award is huge for me as it brings me a far wider international profile and will help me a lot in funding future projects. When I was nominated as a finalist I was unsure whether to come to Bafta in London but I am so glad I did because just to be in such good company was a true honour.

What keeps you going every day?

My films are not only artistic expressions but also social interventions which are used as a platform to amplify the voices of newcomers, women and other who are marginalised or underrepresented in the mainstream media. I love going to small towns and talking to people. Everybody wants to be heard and it can make a lot of difference to them just by listening. Then, maybe, you can show their story to the world and you can effect change in their situation.

TABOO INDIA

Behind the Spiderverse

Sony Pictures FX and look of picture supervisor Pawel (Pav) Grochola gives makers exclusive insights into how they crafted the animated world of Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse, including the complexities of creating Miles Morales and his web wielding friends, and experimenting with new tech tools.

At the beginning of his 20 year career in the VFX industry, Pav Grochola could not have anticipated where he would be taken. Starting out as a fine arts major, the world of computer graphics had barely opened around him. But he did his research into the new creative medium, which took him from working in Melbourne on commercials to the film world in London and now residing in LA overseeing major studio projects, including Best Animated Feature nominee Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

Grochola explains to makers how they pushed boundaries of two dimension art during the creation of the latest animated Spiderman film.

DIFFERENT STYLES

“We had to create different styles for each world in the film,” Grochola explains ahead of his presentation at the Rendr Festival in Belfast, “so just being able to change up the visual style as you're entering all these different environments was a challenge. The R&D alone was a challenge but that’s what made it exciting for me and the crew, doing something that hasn’t been achieved yet. No matter what style we're in, we're always trying to achieve a 2D look. Each book has its own comic book style, but essentially there's still a flat element so there are certain visual qualities that medium shares.”

A linework generation tool developed inhouse at called Kismet allowed the animation and FX team to recreate ink lines in different styles, creating a sense of cohesiveness while giving a different look and style to characters and locations. The film moves across timelines too and into different ‘spiderverses’ which range from an India-themed Manhattan to Queens 2099. The essence of the original comic book styling is maintained, facilitated by the consistent use of this line art.

To help achieve this look, the team enlisted the creative team at Slovakian studio Escape Motions which has developed a hyper-realistic painting application called Rebelle. Developing a water colour solver in this software and new brush stroking systems Escape Motions were able to emulate a wet-on-wet watercolour world. The idea was that it changes in every shot like a mood ring keyed to Gwen’s emotional state.

Sony’s animators built 3D visualisation tool FlixiVerse, allowing them to explore the diverse worlds as if they were real life film sets. This software enabled them to determine the best angles to capture each shot from, as well as the focal length in minutes. Traditionally, when done drawn by hand, this process could take two days. Using a video game controller, the film’s directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin Thompson could use FlixiVerse to block scenes even when those scenes dive between dimensions of the spiderverse.

All images courtesy of Sony Pictures Imageworks.

WE

USED TECHNICAL GAGS TO ENSURE THAT TEXTURES RESEMBLING THOSE FOUND ON A COMIC BOOK PAGE APPEAR CORRECTLY ON OUR 3D ANIMATED CHARACTERS.

SPIDER­PUNKED

Another demonstration of the leap forward from the first film is the introduction of new character SpiderPunk. The character is unlike any other that has been featured in the film or animated by the team. He explodes on screen, soundtracked by a shrieking guitar riff as a rock-star-slash-runway-model and animation designed to resemble a poster for a punk rock concert. With a different texture and frame rate of movement to all the others, Spider-Punk, also known as Hobie (voiced in a very recognisable London accent by Daniel Kaluuya), pushes the limits.

Frame rate is a significant element shared throughout both movies. Most animated movies, 24 frames per second (fps) is standard. Typically, animators will change poses and details every second frame – or “on the 2s.” But in the case of Hobie, his body pose changed every third frame, making his movement more staccato than the characters around him. But with the introduction of Hobie, the frame rates are played with significantly as the animators experiment with having separate elements – his vest, his outline, his guitar – move on separate frames.

“He’s a non-conformist by default,” says Grochola. “Different parts of his body are offset in animation at different times. So, when he is in his jacket, he might be on threes (fps), but his guitars will be on twos, along with his body moving at different rates. That all adds to his non conformity as he doesn’t just fit one style. The way that character evolved was such a difficult technical challenge because there are so many little elements to him.”

With a perpetual paper cut out around him, Hobie is forced to maneuver differently to the characters around him. Grochola described this as “copy and pasting” throughout the scene with every step he takes. This created a “knock on effect through the pipeline” of production since the character had to be monitored throughout every stage of his animation process.

From Hobie’s gritty and slightly staccato movements to the water colour world of heroine Gwen inspired by the comic book art of Jason Latour, the creative choices did not come without risk. Grochola and the rest of the team often questioned how the final product would translate on screen but relished the risk this entailed.

“There are so many artists drawing by hand on the frame and that's part of the aesthetic that makes our films look more imagined, active and creative. It's really, really hard to fake that creative intensity and genuine creative spirit.”

IMPACT OF AI

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse is an exemplar of the creative use of technology to service story and the deliver something new. The development AI tools (such as DALL-E 2, ImageFX and DreamStudio) could make high-end animation cheaper and more accessible than ever, but also call into question the future of the artform. Right now, Grochola remains unphased at the technology potentially overtaking the capabilities of the artist.

“YOU PACK YOUR BAGS, YOU MAKE YOUR PLAN AND THEN AT EVERY STEP, YOU LOOK BACK AND THINK, WHERE HAVE I BEEN AND WHERE AM I GOING?”

“As an artist who has used AI, I find it very unsatisfying. When you're creating artwork, you're going on a journey. It's like climbing a mountain. You pack your bags, you make your plan and then at every step, you look back and think, where have I been and where am I going? What does this look like? You're constantly making decisions at each step and learning about yourself along the way. All those choices are then baked into the final outcome of the work. It's so different with AI technology – that process doesn't exist. You’re teleported straight to an ending. It's deeply unsatisfying because there is no room for personal or artistic growth in that process.”

He continues, “Anyone that thinks that AI would be able to generate something like Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse has never been to a review session with a director. There are so many specific minor details that are being constantly combed over and questioned, adjusted and fixed. All these little decisions that you make create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

“It’s like the old saying: ‘A good painting is a thousand small decisions.'’ I think AI will never replace artists, because artists create in order to understand themselves, and their place in the world. Audiences sense that authenticity. AI simply can't create that kind of work.”

MYSTERY DRAMA SET IN ALASKA SHOOTS IN PRODUCTION

FRIENDLY ICELAND

Making of True Detective: Night Country

The fourth instalment of HBO's murder mystery franchise is set in a remote outpost of Alaska but the show was filmed almost entirely in Iceland. The production chose it as a proxy in large part because of the country’s superior filming infrastructure and active film community. The crew could base themselves in Reykjavík and not have to travel far outside the capital to film scenes that required remoteness. The country’s favourable film tax incentives played a part too.

The show’s fictional town of Ennis is composed of locations including at a former American airforce

base and at Dalvík, a village in the north of Iceland. Ennis high street is on the road to Reykjavík airport. A second unit shot some plates in Alaska including aerials of cars on snowbound highways.

Photography began in September 2022 for two months on stages and then 50 days of location shoots, half of which were night exteriors.

Cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister used an innovative Infrared technique involving stereo 3D cameras to capture night scenes in the perma-dark polar landscape.

“We were doing prep for the show in Iceland in August when the sun doesn’t set until midnight but planning to shoot in October for a story that is set in almost endless darkness,” he says. “Iceland has such amazing scenery but everyone had to remind themselves that we will not see it because it’s going to be dark.”

True Detective: Night Country stars Jodie Foster and the director of all six episodes is showrunner Issa López.

Images © Lila Jons / Michele K. Short / 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved.

ITALY timeless charm

From The White Lotus to Mission: Impossible, Italy is hosting a variety of projects drawn to its atmospheric locations, expert crew and enticing 40% incentive.

When asked to list some international projects that have shot in Italy in the last couple of years, Tina Bianchi, secretary general of the Italian Film Commissions, sent two pages of titles. To name but a few, there’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, House of Gucci, Ferrari, Lift, The Old Guard 2, The Witcher, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Equalizer 3, Empire, The White Lotus and Mr & Mrs Smith. Exteriors for Kenneth Branagh’s murder mystery for Disney A Haunting in Venice were shot in the eponymous city.

Most were not just popping in for a few second unit shots either, but really taking advantage of the variety of locations on offer. The Amazon Prime series, Mr & Mrs Smith, starring Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane as spies who pretend to be married, is a perfect case in point.

“MOST WERE NOT JUST POPPING IN FOR A FEW SECOND UNIT SHOTS EITHER, BUT REALLY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE VARIETY OF LOCATIONS ON OFFER.”

“We filmed at the end of 2022 a load of action sequences for an episode on and around Lake Como involving speed boats, car chases, planes and an explosion at a safe house,” says Marco Valerio Pugini, series EP and CEO of production service company Panorama Films. “Then we headed north to the snowy peaks of the Dolomites in the village of San Cassiano [for scenes in another episode where the spy couple are tracking a married couple].”

Pugini continues, “The locations and local crew were great. Aside from the stunt coordinator and doubles for the actors, the rest of the team were

LOCATION HIGHLIGHT

Castello degli Schiavi, in the coastal town of Fiumefreddo, is a privately owned castle which gained notoriety when it was used for the famous wedding scene in The Godfather. Since then it has hosted a number of other film and television productions.

Built in the 1700s by a doctor given the land by the King (after he cured his son of a deadly disease), the Sicilian Baroque style villa and courtyard is in a picturesque countryside setting, approximately 30 minutes’ drive from Taormina and just 2km from the stunning coastline.

The building can hold up to 200 people and productions are allowed to customise the site to their needs.

The Godfather © Paramount Pictures.

The White Lotus © Home Box Office, Inc.

Q&A

MARCO VALERIO PUGINI PRESIDENT OF APE

Q: How do you collaborate with film commissions across Italy?

A: We have to be across what the 20 film commissions are doing in each area, so we have a representative here who deals with them. Every territory has a film commission and lots have small funds to support local and international projects with scouting and during the production period. You can always get some help, sometimes material and other times with contacts and connections, which are both vital.

Q: Which are the stand-out filming locations?

A: Naturally, Rome is a focal point, but also because most of the key studios are here too, including Cinecitta. There are plenty of other places proving popular like Sardinia, Tuscany, the Dolomites, Piedmont, Turin and Milan. It’s difficult to find regions where somebody has not been filming recently.

Q: What impact has the government’s decision to cut EUR933 million of funding for film production per year had on the industry?

A: In regards to the tax credit for international productions not much. Up to now we’ve never had a problem with it. It will remain at 40% for eligible expenses but might reduce to 30% on above the line costs for non-Italian talent.

Q: Are there sufficient studio facilities to accommodate incoming productions?

A: There are facilities around Rome and elsewhere (like Turin and Milan), although not many. But it is important to point out that Cinecitta is expanding and will receive funding to build new stages. That will be huge. But in order to really become a cluster in the worldwide map we need a few more soundstages here. Between the tax credit and the crew, we have a great Ferrari and driver. What we need is to improve the structural work to run it and that is the facilities.

Italians. I’ve worked on big projects in the country many times before, so getting permission to shoot was pretty straightforward. It just might take a little more time and effort for special permits. For the car chase sequences running through villages we had to close roads, and a sea plane landing on Lake Como meant closing down that section of the lake for a few hours, so that required good communication with the local authorities.”

HBO’s second season of The White Lotus was filmed extensively in Italy across Sicily, including in Palermo and Noto, the Castello degli Schiavi in the coastal town of Fiumefreddo as well as the beachside La Cambusa restaurant in Giardini Naxos.

Paramount’s M:I – Dead Reckoning Part One filmed across Rome, including the Spanish Steps where “we turned this wonderful square into an open-air set and it was fantastic,” according to the film’s star Tom Cruise.

Netflix series Ripley filmed in Rome, as well as Venice, where the original Patricia Highsmith novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, was set. While 20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man shot around Turin doubling for Sarajevo.

“All of these titles prove that from big cities to the countryside you can find the right location to tell your stories and any permits needed are easy to obtain without hassle,” says Bianchi.

The twenty members of the Italian Film Commissions can assist productions with the logistics of finding and shooting at various locations, obtaining the permits and any qualified crews and service providers required, as well access to regional funding options worth about EUR70 million this year.

These can be combined with the impressive 40% national tax credit, which has no ceilings for a single project, although an individual company can only receive up to EUR20 million annually (provided it does not exceed 80% of the total budget).

SOMETHING ELSE

Italians use more than 40 hand gestures a minute when speaking, according to research from scientists at Lund University.

The over-the-top hand gestures used by the likes of Vito Corleone in The Godfather and Sophia Loren in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, seem to ring true in the real world. The scientists got 12 Swedes and 12 Italians to retell the story of a 90 second clip from Pingu to a friend who had not watched the cartoon and found that the latter used hand gestures twice as much as the former, and more as a kind of running commentary on what they were saying.

Previous studies have found Italians speak around 188 words a minute, which would involve 41 gestures.

STUDIOS AND CREW

Many projects come to Italy for the stunning locations, but an increasing number also choose to use the studios. The most notable being the historic Cinecitta Studios, which has been undergoing a EUR300 million revamp (expanding to 24 stages by 2026 and eventually 32), recently hosting Netflix’s Old Guard 2, Joe Wright’s television series M, and Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood, which also used the studios’ new T18 virtual production stage with a giant LED wall.

There’s also Lumina Studios near Rome where part of the The White Lotus was filmed. The studio, which has four sound stages, recently signed a six-year strategic pact with Cinecitta.

Italy boasts an abundance of production service companies and crew, although they were stretched in 2022 when several of the projects mentioned above, and more, were shooting in the country.

“We had so many projects shooting here a couple of years ago,” says Pugini, wearing his other hat as president of the Association of Production Service Companies (APE). “Things then quietened down with the strike, but we’re getting back on track again and there are plenty of films, television series and commercials starting up. We have enough crew to accommodate between three and five major productions at the same time.”

Ripley © Netflix.

Formula for Success

Narrative-driven sports content built on behind the scenes access is a booming market with the IP being seized on by digital platforms and sports federations alike where audience crossover is beneficial to both. makers talks with the genre pioneer Box To Box about the formula for their success.

Before they started seriously investing in live rights streamers tapped into the massive worldwide sports audience with behind the scenes documentaries. During the pandemic, when sports were played, if at all, behind closed doors, the demand for archived sporting action accelerated. But it was the roaring success of Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive To Survive in actually boosting the motorsport’s global fanbase which opened the floodgates.

Box to Box, the production company behind Drive To Survive, has cornered the sports docuseries market and says building trust is one of the keys to its success.

“Trust is one element we have in our favour over conventional press coverage,” explains co-founder James Gay-Rees. “There a lot of cameras at all sports and we want to capture the moment that no one else does.”

The British indie behind six seasons of the breakout F1 docuseries followed up with tennis Break Point, golf with Full Swing (both renewed for second series) and rugby with Six Nations: Full Contact

Gaining access to the locker room is crucial and differs depending on the sport. “If a golfer and their agent is up for it you can crack on whereas in a team environment it can be more challenging. Rugby lives or dies on a successful team culture so you’ve got to make sure you’re not a disruption.”

Warren Smith, head of sport & factual, points to its teams of producers who “know how to read the room and how to generate stories.

He says, “It’s a trust driven process where everyone from head coaches to players’ families have to got to believe you will tell a fair story and get the balance right.”

Drive to Survive is credited with building the profile of the motorsport in North America so the benefits for teams and federations are clear. As Gay-Rees puts it, “If [Red Bull team boss] Christian Horner understands the value then you are good to go.” But audiences also expect more than a PR messaged highlights reel.

“We make character driven shows, looking behind the façade with narratives about what is really going on in athletes’ lives and what it really means to be at the heart of the circus.

“If you are in a F1 team you know what you are signing up for. There may be things that happen you will not be particularly excited about sharing but we can say ‘Look, the story is in the public domain, but you can tell your story through us’.”

“The balance is about how you manage it. As long as your intentions are good and you’re not deviating too far from [what you agreed]. Modern sport is all about presentation and optics are important.”

IT’S A TRUST DRIVEN PROCESS WHERE EVERYONE FROM HEAD COACHES TO PLAYERS’ FAMILIES HAVE TO GOT TO BELIEVE YOU WILL TELL A FAIR STORY.

The genre employs cinematic production values that give the team’s brand a high gloss. Smith says the Box To Box formula is more about the intimacy between director/producer and athlete that ultimately translates to the viewer.

“The problem with other doc makers working in this space is that when they don’t have access they have to fake it, for instance by shooting on a long lens. We work hard to achieve access, often starting off camera by just having a conversation. Building relationships is key.

“Once you have the athlete on your side you can introduce cinematic language. The beauty of all sports is that they take place in fantastic locations, ideal for drone shots.”

Gay-Rees produced Asif Kapadia’s feature docs Senna (2010), Amy (2015) and joined forces with producer Paul Martin to set up Box To Box, making Kapadia’s Maradona (2019) and says they targeted sports docs to fill a gap in the market “in a hit and hope kind of way.”

“Senna was a very different type of sports doc – all archive and no talking heads,” he says. “It was looking at events in retrospect whereas we are documenting the moment now by being able to tell the story from the inside and the athlete’s perspective.”

“Most sports stars are used to being filmed pretty much all the time,” Gay-Rees says. “It’s just about getting them to not just basically repeat those cliched PR answers. With Formula 1, you’ve got 20 daring young, attractive men risking their lives every weekend and we just need to shine a light on that.”

The long ten-month season of most major sports suits a desire from streamers for series with dramatic arcs and changing storylines. Even though events are in different countries the co-founders joke that it’s like Seinfeld’s apartment or Del Boy’s flat in Only Fools and Horses

“It’s got all the ingredients of a returning sitcom or soap opera,” says Gay-Rees. “When I first came into the industry no one was buying sports programming. Senna changed things because it had passion, drama and emotion. It’s what we all want to watch.”

Netflix were already plotting a F1 tie-up when Box To Box pitched their idea based on a chance encounter with Red Bull racing principals. “We really were right place, right time. We had to make a ten-part series having only made feature docs at that point.”

Having opened up the market “now every film company in LA has an unscripted arm chasing pop stars and sports stars narratives,” Gay-Rees says. “It has made huge competition for us. There aren’t many stories that haven’t been told.”

There are some that have yet to crack. No producer or streamer has managed to convince the English Premier League to open all areas, although individual teams continue to let cameras film behind closed doors. Perhaps the most anticipated is the doc currently following Liverpool FC in the year of manager Jurgen

“NOW EVERY FILM COMPANY IN LA HAS AN UNSCRIPTED ARM CHASING POP STARS AND SPORTS STAR NARRATIVES. IT HAS MADE HUGE COMPETITION FOR US.”

Klopp’s departure, produced by Lorton Entertainment. The Olympics has yet to agree either, although Box to Box has filmed a series charting elite 100 metre runners.

Alongside more docuseries including one with AppleTV charting a season with Lionel Messi in the Major League Soccer, Box To Box is also producing a standalone film about Lewis Hamilton while making a move into scripted television. The company has a first-look deal with the World Surf League that included potential scripted projects and is also making non-sport scripted docs including Apple’s Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn

It has raised EUR35 million from Bruin Capital, whose founder George Pyne, is a former senior executive at sports agency IMG who commends the team’s “ability to turn insider’s access into definable business growth” adding, “we see limitless potential for the company to capitalise on a gamut of opportunities with athletes, teams, leagues, federations, and brands for collaboration and business development.”

Adds Gay-Rees, “Sport does seem to be one of the verticals that is sustaining in a pretty major way and we’re lucky to be marching ahead of the pack.”

Full Swing © Netflix, Inc Break Point © Netflix, Inc

Messi Meets America © Apple TV.

Imagine a world where fans can put themselves in their favourite shows, create new episodes with just a voice prompt and compete to create the best episodes ever made. Fable is about to unleash Generative television.

If you were annoyed by the final episode of Game of Thrones then imagine if you could ask your AI to make a new ending that goes in a different direction, and maybe even put yourself in there as a main character.

That prophesy, by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, may be coming faster than you think. Later this year a new animated series produced entirely by AI is scheduled to launch. It comes from Fable which has written an AI tool called Showrunner. Fable intends to put a select group of creators in charge of a second series who will use Showrunner to develop it, with the original episodes serving as the training data.

It then plans to have future episodes generated by viewers themselves who will also use Showrunner to create and consume storylines of their own devising.

BASED IN SAN FRANCISCO

FUNDED BY FOUNDERS FUND & 8VC

COFOUNDERS – EDWARD SAATCHI & PETE BILLINGTON

CTO – FRANK CAREY

HEAD OF ENGINEERING – CHRIS WHEELER

SHOWRUNNER LEAD – PHILIPP MAAS

WWW.THESIMULATION.CO/SHOW-1

WWW.FABLE-STUDIO.COM

PROFILE

Fable Studio

Fable’s co-founder, Edward Saatchi, predicts a future where some sort of ‘Netflix of AI’ will allow viewers to customise episodes of their favourite shows or choose from an infinite variety of previously customised ones.

“You could speak to the television to say, ‘I’d like to have a new episode of the show, and maybe put me in it and have this happen in the episode,’” suggests Saatchi.

As you might guess from the name, Saatchi is no neophyte. His father is advertising legend Maurice Saatchi and he was educated at Oxford and the Sorbonne. The 38-year old is also a businessman at the bleeding edge of media having been a founder member of the virtual-reality filmmaking division of Oculus VR in the year it was acquired by Facebook. In 2018, when the VR market proved tough to crack, he left to found Fable saying “AI is the next art form” – long before OpenAI’s ChatGPT opened the possibility up to the mainstream.

Fable won an Emmy for the creation of VR experience Wolves in the Walls in 2019 which starred a virtual being called Lucy. Her creation subsequently won Fable a Peabody award and is being developed by a spin off company called Simulation where the goal is to build “the world’s first genuinely intelligent AI virtual beings.”

Showrunner is one result of the R&D in Simulation and with it Fable claims a new approach to generating high-quality episodic content for IP using AI. Its white paper published last year outlined what it saw as the creative limitations of existing Gen-AI systems such as Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT. “While these excel at short-term general tasks through prompt engineering,” Fable’s researchers said, they are less able to generate longer form content such as narrative arcs.

Instead, Showrunner uses a number of data points such as a character's history, their goals and emotions and localities “to generate scenes and image assets more coherently and consistently aligned with the IP story world.”

To showcase what it could do, Fable released AI-generated episodes of South Park. It did so without permission but since it was going to commercialise it Fable has so far avoided any lawsuit. Each episode was generated by a simple text prompt. Showrunner essentially wrote, produced, directed, cast, edited, voiced, and animated the rest.

Saatchi acknowledges that the crude visual style of South Park lends itself to the current limitations of image generation systems, with more sophisticated animation and visual fidelity being possible in future.

“AI generated content is generally perceived as lower quality and the fact that it can get generated in abundance further decreases its value,” Fable argues in its white paper. “How much this perception would change if Disney were to openly pride themselves on having produced a fully AI generated movie is hard to say. What if Steven Spielberg, single handedly generated an AI movie? Our assumption is that the perceived value of AI generated content would certainly increase.”

Saatchi has also thought about the business model for what he has dubbed “generative television,” where AI creates television shows either for IP holders or creators/actors, or fans.

He argues that studios like Disney could embrace technology like Showrunner to empower fans to generate their own personalised content based on their favourite shows or characters. If anyone were to do this now – say commandeering Superman in a movie published online without authorisation –they can expect to be swiftly sued.

But Saatchi thinks times are changing and that this could be a new revenue stream. For example, owners of the Superman IP (DC/Warner Bros.) could sell people a subscription to something like Max and behind that paywall, people can create their own episodes with DC characters.

Saatchi airs the possibility of AI syndication, where after a couple of seasons of a show there is enough data established for a tool like Showrunner to take over. He told Venturebeat, “Whether that’s the studio controlling it, or whether that’s people wanting to actually fix the final season of Game of Thrones. You just give it a prompt, and it’ll generate.”

Edward Saatchi.

Shoppable Television Moves to the Checkout

IN STREAMING, A PROFOUND SHIFT IS UNDERWAY PROPELLED BY THE EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF RETAIL MEDIA AND THE EMERGENCE OF SHOPPABLE TELEVISION, ALSO KNOWN AS T-COMMERCE. THIS CONVERGENCE OF RETAIL AND MEDIA IS RESHAPING THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY, SAYS MIKE SHAW, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL AD SALES FOR ROKU, OFFERING NEW AVENUES FOR BRANDS AND ADVERTISERS IN TERMS OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT AND MONETISATION.

In the past few months, retailers have emerged as a powerhouse for media and advertising, largely driven by the demise of third-party data (cookies) and their ability to leverage extensive troves of consumer data that provide unparalleled insights into consumer behaviour and spending patterns. This transformation not only fuels targeted advertising but also positions retailers as influential advertising platforms in their own right. By investing in branding initiatives and transforming digital platforms into advertising hubs, retailers are redefining the boundaries of traditional advertising.

Conversely, as social media platforms extend beyond content sharing platforms into marketplaces, media companies are embracing a new found role as retailers, integrating e-commerce capabilities directly into the viewing experience. Furthermore, bolstered by the ubiquity of television streaming platforms and devices, consumers can transition from content consumption to digital transaction, creating a seamless shopping experience. This convergence heralds a transformative era in shoppable television.

THE PIVOTAL ROLE OF THE TELEVISION SCREEN

Central to this is the power of the television screen. Beyond serving as a conduit for entertainment, the internet connected television has evolved to combine the creativity of ‘the big screen’ with the data capabilities from digital. It empowers brands to engage audiences and measure success, on a mass scale. An example can be seen through immersive branded

experiences, such as when Roku and Warner Bros teamed up to add the Barbie Dream House, equipped with a dance floor, hot pink slide, and extensive shoe closet, to the Roku City screensaver, and included a QR code to purchase movie tickets.

The emergence of shoppable television on CTV devices also offers immense potential for advertisers, creative agencies, and content producers alike. By enabling viewers to browse and purchase products directly from their television, shoppable television removes traditional barriers between advertising exposure and consumer action in a more organic way by offering new interfaces such as voice recognition and motion sensing.

INNOVATIONS IN TECH

A streamlined CTV shopping experience depends on strong technical infrastructure, encompassing integration with e-commerce platforms to facilitate real-time updates of product inventory and transaction processing. Advanced data analytics will continue to play a pivotal role in monitoring user engagement and refining shoppable ad campaigns. Personalised algorithms curate tailored shoppable content based on individual preferences and behaviour.

Future innovations will centre around utilising the remote control, moving beyond dependence solely on screens such as smartphones or tablets. This is because the remote control serves as the primary interface for television interaction, offering consumers a more direct and seamless experience to engage with

shoppable content. By integrating shoppable features directly into the remote control, television streaming aims to simplify the shopping process and improve convenience for viewers, ultimately leading to increased conversion rates for advertisers.

Likewise, innovation in voice-enabled shopping will allow users to verbally command their CTV to add items to their shopping cart or make purchases directly through voice assistants. And whilst we are just at the start of the television commerce journey, we confidently expect more partnerships between retailers and platforms to capitalise on the scale of this opportunity.

FUSION OF RETAIL DATA AND TELEVISION STREAMING

As retail media matures, so will relationships between retailers, media companies, and television streamers. Collaborations such as Roku's partnership with Shopify epitomise this synergy. However, the success of shoppable television hinges on more than just technological innovation; it also relies on building trust and credibility with consumers. To do so, advertisers and content creators must prioritise transparency, authenticity, and user privacy to foster long-term relationships with their audiences.

As retailers evolve into media powerhouses and media companies embrace their role as retailers, the fusion of retail data and television streaming promises a new era of advertising effectiveness. Moreover, the collaboration between retailers, broadcasters, and streaming platforms forms a robust foundation for a data-centric advertising future where the television screen moves beyond the role of delivering branding messaging and drives performance too.

By embracing the evolution of shoppable television and prioritising consumer trust, advertisers and brands alike can unlock the full potential of T-commerce and usher in a new era of engagement and monetisation in the streaming era.

Mike joined Roku in 2019 from dataxu. He was previously vice president of sales UK at comScore and part of the media team at Forrester Research.

He has co-authored several papers around digital advertising effectiveness and was recognised by the Advertising Research Foundation.

LOUISIANA for all your needs

An increasing number of productions are heading to Louisiana and it’s not just for the locations, from the water ways of the Bayou region to the Baton Rouge, but also for the state­of­the­art studio facilities and a 40% incentive.

You name it, Louisiana can be that location,” insists Chris Stelly, executive group director for entertainment and media at Louisiana Entertainment.

That’s no hyperbole either. The Pelican State has doubled for the streets of Tokyo, Mexico, The Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Miami, Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City, LA, Kansas, Chicago, and even outer space in recent film and television productions.

One of the stand-out doubling filming locations is the state’s capital city Baton Rouge, situated on the Mississippi river, known for its cultural and culinary scene. “Baton Rouge is unique in the fact that you can find a variety of looks,” says the city film commissioner Katie Pryor. “You can still do the swamp scenes in the old South, but we've also had people shoot downtown to double for a number of cities or as a futuristic cityscape. There’s a variety of options to make it look like what you need. It’s a very versatile city for filming.”

“LOUISIANA’S 40% INCENTIVE HAS ATTRACTED A NUMBER OF PROJECTS, INCLUDING THE RECENTLY RELEASED THE IRON CLAW, DOUBLING BATON ROUGE FOR TEXAS.”

Another huge draw is the 40% incentive, which is split into a 25% base credit on qualified expenditure, 10% for Louisiana screenplay productions, and 5% increase if outside the New Orleans Metro statistical area. “Our tax incentive is game changing at really attracting productions,” says Pryor.

LOCATION HIGHLIGHT

The French Quarter, nestled in the heart of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a cultural gem renowned for its rich history, vibrant atmosphere, and distinct architecture. Founded in 1718 by French colonists, it stands as one of the oldest and most iconic neighbourhoods in the US, earning recognition as a National Historic Landmark.

Its bustling streets, lined with charming buildings adorned with intricate wrought-iron balconies and colourful facades, recall its European heritage.

Films shot there include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Green Book.

Q&A

JOAN CUNNINGHAM PRODUCER

National Treasure: Edge of History

Q: Where did you film?

A: National Treasure was based and shot mostly in Baton Rouge although, since we were so close, we shot several days in and around New Orleans as well. Baton Rouge’s Celtic Media Centre gave us everything we needed in terms of large office space and plenty of stages.

Q: What was a stand-out moment for you?

A: We shot in both the swamp and bayou regions – the majesty and beauty was amazing.

Q: How was your experience?

A: Our show shot at a time when the industry was at its busiest and finding crew was difficult across the globe. But we were able to build almost our entire crew from New Orleans due to their depth of numbers and experience. I was happily surprised to find great SPFX teams and even a stunt coordinator. Grip, electric and camera equipment were also fully supplied out of the city. We used LED screens for all our driving work and as backdrops for many sets and got the best deal from a local company called Pix-El, which beat bigger companies facilities out of Atlanta, New York and Florida and saved us the shipping costs.

Q: Were there any challenges?

A: We were planning scenes that were set at The Alamo and we found a great location to do the ‘cheat’ in downtown Baton Rouge. The location was attached to some government buildings and our requests to shoot there were initially denied. We reached out to Katie Pryor at the Baton Rouge film commission and she was able to reach the right people to explain our requests and cut through some red tape to secure the location for us.

Both were key in attracting the BBC Film/ A24/Access Entertainment sports drama The Iron Claw set in the 1980s about the wrestling Von Erich brothers, which doubled Baton Rouge for the Texas-based home of the brothers. The production team also came for the quality local crew and utilised alternative studio space, including a repurposed furniture warehouse to recreate the infamous Dallas Sportatorium, which provided ample space for the full-size wrestling ring and bleachers.

“Getting the occasional small road closures and working with the local municipality was no problem whatsoever thanks to the Baton Rouge film office,” says Angus Lamont, producer of The Iron Claw. “Filming in the state, we were able to double a lot of the locations really well, achieving the look we would have if we had actually gone to Texas.”

STUDIO SPACE

There’s also plenty of regular studio space in the state. One of the stand-outs is Celtic Media Centre Studios, with nearly 150,000 sq ft of design-built stage space and 80,000 sq ft of covered support space.

“Our facility sits on 29 acres of gated property which allows the production to have full control of its environment,” says Celtic Studios executive director Corey Parker. “Baton Rouge and its surrounding area gives productions the opportunity to choose from one of the most diverse landscapes and film friendly communities you can find.”

The Celtic Studio’s most recently hosted Disney+ film Crater, predominantly in its Stage 5, which measures 70 foot high, so ample space for lighting, stunt and VFX work, which helped the film qualify for the 5% incentive boost.

“We built a huge ‘sandbox’ taking up most of the ground floor leaving enough space around for equipment, stunt rigging and fire lanes, which served as our lunar surface,” says Kevin O’Neal, assistant director of Crater.

Louisiana’s own Jimmy Ryan was key grip and rigged two 360 degree green screen tracks from the ceiling around the sand box, one for green screen and the other for solid black, “allowing quick changes between the two (like pulling a curtain open and closed) depending on which shots we were working on,” says Ryan. “The vastness and well circulated (exhaust vents) stage also made it easier to manoeuvre and work with large set pieces and vehicles such as the lunar vehicle in Crater.”

Pryor says this was their first large project coming out of Covid-19, “so there was this spirit of camaraderie on the project. They really tied into the community. It was a magical experience working with the producer John G Scotti and Disney.”

National Treasure: Edge of History © Disney/Brian Roedel.

Crater © Disney.

Interview with the Vampire © Larry Horricks/AMC.

ESSENTIAL FACTS

TAX INCENTIVES

40%

Louisiana state offers a Motion Picture Production Tax Credit of 40% for qualifying in state spend. In addition, for projects that make use of the local VFX services, a 5% credit is available where at least 50% of the VFX is performed in state or a minimum of USD1 million of qualified VFX expenditure is made.

ATA CARNET

YES

STUDIOS

Celtic Media Centre, Second Line Stages, Sterling Studios, Louisiana Wave Studio, Deep South Studio, Orwo Studios and The Ranch Film Studios.

TIME ZONE

GMT -5

OTHER RECENT PRODUCTIONS

Daisy Jones and the Six (Prime Video), Interview With the Vampire (AMC) and Haunted Mansion (Disney)

There’s also Second Line Stages in New Orleans with three soundstages, Sterling Studios with two stages and a 20 acre backlot and the Louisiana Wave Studio in Shreveport. Its 80ft x 100ft x 10ft deep wave tank contains 750,000 gallons of water and can generate computer controlled multiple wave and swell pattern effects.

Don Ross, the studio’s MD says, “From ocean simulation to special camera work underwater or on water, the tank is quite capable of facilitating anything. Ultimately controlled by computer, it can generate waves up to ten foot high.”

Louisiana’s crew base has more than quadrupled over the past couple of decades with more than 1,200 members of film and television unions such as SAG-AFTRA, Directors Guild of America and Teamsters.

Most of the state’s air travel is through Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which offers direct flights to London, LA, New York, Toronto. But there are also smaller airports in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Shreveport.

SOMETHING ELSE

Mardi Gras, French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, is the exuberant carnival synonymous with New Orleans. It marks the final day of indulgence before the solemnity of Lent begins in the Christian calendar. While its origins lie in medieval Europe, Mardi Gras has evolved into a unique fusion of cultural, religious, and social elements.

The festivities of Mardi Gras are characterised by elaborate parades, dazzling costumes, and lively music, all of which contribute to the celebratory atmosphere. Revellers don masks and costumes, embracing the spirit of anonymity and freedom that the occasion offers.

Daisy Jones and the Six © Amazon MGM Studios.

Haunted House © Disney.

Making of Constellation

CRYPTIC SCI-FI KEEPS

EVERYONE GUESSING BY JUGGLING PARALLEL REALITIES

Psychological science fiction drama

Constellation moves from space to earth, and across time, as we follow Noomi Rapace’s astronaut struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of an accident aboard the ISS. Michelle MacLaren, series EP and director of the two of the eight episodes, decided to shoot on location to give the AppleTV+ project authenticity and scale.

In the story, the Soyuz capsule lands in Kazakhstan to which the production sent a scout but Morocco proved logistically easier to access and service. They shot aerials there to capture the descent of the capsule and

employed German racing drone specialist Skynamic to make passes between ground vehicle convoys.

Scenes set in a remote forested part of Sweden were shot on location in northern Finland close to the Swedish border at a time of year when the sun barely extends over the horizon. Exteriors here were shot day for night with DoP Marcus Förderer using powerful LED lights to light the atmosphere above the actors with a greenish hue to hint at the northern lights.

Interiors of the cabin as well as extensive sequences aboard the ISS were shot on a Berlin soundstage

where production designer Andy Nicholson constructed a 1:1 replica of ISS modules.

Skynamic were also directed to fly a Komodo through the ISS set intercut with shots captured handheld, on Steadicam and by a stunt person on a wire to create the floating in space vibe.

Car driving scenes were shot as plates and replayed on a small volume stage in Berlin at the end of production. This allowed the production to pick up shot they did not have time to grab on location.

Images courtesy of Apple TV+.

MOROCCO a beautiful friendship

Stunning desert locations, an enticing 30% incentive and quality crew make Morocco still one of the most popular filming destinations.

Morocco always hosts a steady stream of international projects. Notable recent examples include Paramount’s Gladiator 2, starring Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington, Vendome Pictures’ Lord of War sequel, starring Nicolas Cage, season four of Netflix’s Outer Banks, Vigil series 2 for BBC, and a Netflix/BBC series about the Lockerbie bombing.

Many projects, including Gladiator 2, choose to shoot in Ouarzazate, the gateway to the Sarah desert. “We call it the Hollywood of Morocco. Any project that is set in the Middle East, Far East or has a biblical theme, tends to film there,” says Khadija Alami, owner of K Films and president of the Ouarzazate Film Commission, who has also hosted productions at her Oasis Studios. It has one sound stage and a backlot on the outskirts of Ouarzazate.

“WE CALL IT THE HOLLYWOOD OF MOROCCO. ANY PROJECT THAT IS SET IN THE MIDDLE EAST, FAR EAST OR HAS A BIBLICAL THEME, TENDS TO FILM THERE.”

But it’s not the only popular location. There are plenty of others, including Casablanca, which is where most of the production service providers and crew are based; Marrakesh with its old narrow streets; and the old port town of Essaouira is growing in appeal.

Even Fez has muscled in on the action, hosting Universal Pictures’ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was due to shoot in India when Covid-19 struck. “We looked at all the big cities across Morocco, but the director, producers and production designer all wanted Fez, which was doubling for Tangier,” says Driss Gaidi, production supervisor on the film. “Fez is ideal as it has an Asian look, is only two hours from Rabat and has international airports and quality accommodation options.”

LOCATION HIGHLIGHT

Petit Socco, also known in Spanish as Zoco Chico, is a small cobble stoned square in the medina quarter of Tangier. It has a pleasant blend of European and North African architecture with popular bars and cafes.

Close to the Grand Mosque, it has long been the focal point of the old city and in recent years has undergone a significant renovation, with a clean up of the streets and a lick of paint on the buildings.

Productions will just need to plan any filming in advance, especially if closing down streets as Petit Socco is now a popular tourist destination. “Tangier is growing as a filming location and has been considered almost as a European city. I have cheated many cities in Europe there over the years,” says Hicham Hajji, owner of H Films.

Image courtesy of Ozz Films.

The logistics of filming Indiana Jones in the main streets of Fez’s old town were huge and required a lot of planning, bringing in equipment and support from the local authorities. The previous major film to shoot there was Jewel of the Nile in 1986. “We had a crew of about 2000 Moroccans and foreigners and about 900 vehicles all working in the narrow streets. But it proved to be successful and the local people, businesses and police department were hugely welcoming and helpful when we had to shut down the streets to do car chase sequences,” adds Gaidi.

DOUBLE TAKE

Morocco can double for a variety of countries. “We’ve doubled Casablanca for Beirut, Mohammedia (on the west coast) for Tehran and the centre of Morocco for the south of France,” says Alami. “For the last job I worked on, Paramount Plus TV series Special Ops: Lioness, we even managed to double locations around Marrakesh for Texas (a highway crash sequence) and Kuwait city (an oasis compound and military camp).”

Gaidi adds: “I’ve doubled Morocco for so many different locations, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey. That is the advantage we have here, there is such a variety of landscapes, including palm trees, deserts, archaic architecture, even snowy mountains that look like Switzerland.”

“You can go to the north of Morocco, like Tangier, and double it for Spain, you can shoot Greece, while in Casablanca you can double houses in Beverly Hills or interiors of bars and restaurants because it’s so modern,” says Hicham Hajji, head of H Films, who’s worked on several of his own films as producer and director, including Redemption Day, as well as servicing international productions in Morocco.

“We have such cinematic landscapes, from the grandeur of the Moroccan coast and Atlas mountains to the supernatural beauty of the Sahara Desert, ancient Moroccan cities and well-preserved historic sites suitable for a variety of genres,” adds Said Andam, owner and producer at local production service outfit Ozz Films.

Travelling between the different locations is also easy. There are plenty of flights into the country (it’s just three hours from London) and between the cities. Plus, there’s an extensive “network of good motorways, which are safe to drive on, for the production vehicles,” assures Alami.

The one challenge is if a production wants to shoot desert and water scenes within a short distance of each other. “We were asked for that recently for a commercial, but it’s about five hours between the dunes and lakes. The only chance is if it’s been raining in the area,” says Hajji.

“But whichever location you shoot in, the people are always welcoming, especially in the poor areas. If you’re filming in their village, they’ll welcome you into their homes to share bread. This makes the production experience even better,” adds Hajji.

Q&A

CHRISTIAN MCWILLIAMS LOCATION MANAGER

Christian lived and worked in Morocco for nearly 15 years on big projects, including Syriana, Mamma Mia, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Dune, and still shoots there occasionally.

Q: What makes Morocco such an appealing filming location?

A: Productions have been filming there since before the Second World War and it continues to attract around 15 big projects a year. It’s ideally located close to Europe, just three hours from London to Marrakesh, and yet it seems a million miles away in terms of culture. There’s also great light and a much improved transport system. Plus, it’s a safe Muslim country to film in.

Q: What was the last project you did there?

A: John Wick 3 with Keanu Reeves. It was an incredible shoot in the desert of Essaouira, which is an old port city on the Atlantic coast. Logistically speaking, it was straightforward to shoot there. The local market people and authorities are so used to productions turning up it’s like a well-oiled machine. They are happy to receive you. And the standard of the local hotels has improved drastically over the years – there are five star places ideal for Hollywood stars. And everybody loves being in the desert where it’s so calm, nothing disturbs you, and you can create huge sets for cheap.

Q: What projects do you have coming up?

A: I was there over Christmas and New Year’s scouting a project that may shoot in Morocco this year. It’s a big secret.

MOST EQUIPMENT IS ALSO AVAILABLE LOCALLY, INCLUDING DRONES, TOP SPEC CAMERAS, LIGHTING AND SPECIAL EQUIPMENT FOR STANDS.

SOMETHING ELSE

The Radisson Hotel Group is looking to more than double its portfolio of hotels all across Morocco by 2030. It already has 11 sites in operation or development in Morocco, mostly in Marrakesh and Casablanca, but is aiming for 25 across all the major cities, including Rabat, Tangier, Agadir and Fez.

“In light of the 2030 FIFA World Cup in Morocco, we have identified significant potential within these cities to establish a diverse portfolio consisting of ideally located business hotels, efficient serviced apartments, premium mixed-use projects, and expanding our portfolio of exceptional resorts,” says Erwan Garnier, senior director, development, Africa at Radisson Hotel Group.

Morocco saw 35% growth in accommodation types from 2022 to 2023, according to the latest Hotel Market Report 2024 from business advisory group Aninver.

Impressively, 4-star and 5-star hotels saw growth of 35% and 28% respectively, while hotel clubs experienced a 44% increase. Guest houses had the highest growth rate at 79%. The ‘Others’ category, which could include alternative lodging options, witnessed a remarkable 107% increase.

Permits to shoot are usually straightforward thanks to local support. But before obtaining one, “you must identify a Moroccan production partner who has an ‘Autorisation d'exercice et agrément de production’. Not every company in Morocco has this; it’s a regulated professional activity subject to having an operating license,” warns Andam. “The identified production partner acts as a legal intermediary between the foreign production company and the local crew to ensure that all professional regulations, security and safety measures are implemented correctly.”

COST­EFFECTIVE

Aside from the locations, another key draw for international productions is undoubtedly the lower costs. “Morocco is cheaper than most Western countries,” says Andam. “Plus, there is the 30% uncapped cash rebate on eligible expenditure.”

The incentive is managed by the Moroccan Cinema Centre (CCM), which can also support incoming international productions with other requirements like local crew, permits and location choices.

To apply for the incentive, productions need to explain to the CCM the nature of the project, distribution, length of work in the country, investment programme, financial support requested, and eligible expenses in Morocco.

To qualify for the rebate, there’s a minimum spend requirement of about USD1 million and the applying production company must do at least 18 days of work in the country, including set building.

“Approval for the rebate takes between a week and a month, usually closer to the latter,” says Alami. “It’s quick and easy to set up a local bank account, then once you have all the documents in hand it takes 24 to 48 hours maximum to receive the rebate.”

Productions can also benefit from an exemption on VAT. The only thing that takes a bit more time is the import of weapons, pyrotechnics and explosives.

“But if you follow the rules and give yourself time, then the process should still be straightforward,” says Alami.

CREW AND INFRASTRUCTURE

The local crew are renowned for being experienced and productive, having worked on several major productions over the years, and there is a new generation coming through also proving their worth on set. “They are readily available and at budget-friendly rates lower than most other film production hubs,” assures Andam.

This is why most productions use majority local crew. “In the old days, the big US productions would bring in like 80% American crew and use 20% Moroccans. Now it’s the opposite way round,” says Hajji.

“RUNNING

The local knowledge from the Moroccan crew and production service providers is vital in the region. “Running a production in the cities of Casablanca or Rabat requires a very different approach to running a project in the desert or mountain regions. Our practical knowledge of the terrain thanks to years of hands-on experience can be applied in the breakdowns and location scouting propositions,” adds Andam.

A PRODUCTION IN THE CITIES OF CASABLANCA OR RABAT REQUIRES A VERY DIFFERENT APPROACH TO RUNNING A PROJECT IN THE DESERT OR MOUNTAIN REGIONS.”

Most equipment is also available locally, including drones, top spec cameras, lighting and special equipment for stands. “We have everything from cameras to good grips and gaffers, even ADs. Everything an international production needs,” concludes Hajji.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny © Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Making Locations Work

MAKERS FINDS OUT WHAT TOP UK LOCATION MANAGERS NEED FROM SCOUT TO SHOOT.

Emma Pill, Harriet Lawrence and Ben Ahmed have contributed to some of the biggest recent film and television releases. Here we uncover all the tools they needed when searching for the perfect backdrops and facilitating smooth shoots.

EMMA PILL MASTERS OF THE AIR

For Emma Pill, preparation is key. In her 20 years of location work, every experience has brought its own asks, but the essentials remain constant. These include an organised image filing system, scouting locations at certain times of the day to ensure the best quality images are sent back to the production team, or simply making sure that toilets are accessible to everyone on shoot. Keeping a mental note and track of locations used/not used is also key.

“As scripts are written, or schedules change, often you have to find new scripted locations, even when you have started shooting, especially on such a long project. So I revert back to what was scouted, and possibly discounted at the time for a specific location, as it may be suitable for something else that has just been written.”

For Apple TV+ World War II mini-series Masters of the Air, Pill and the production team needed to bring to life the experiences of members of the 100th Bomber Group as they flew in their Flying Fortress

Masters of the Air © Apple TV+.

over enemy lines. Impressively, they managed to double a lot of the German scenes in the UK, including Pitchcott Farm, just north east of Aylesbury, and at the industrial Didcot Railway Centre.

“Each location manager has many suppliers that they build a good working relationship with, who understand the changes of schedule and can accommodate last minute requests.”

HARRIET LAWRENCE SALTBURN

Salacious thriller Saltburn has been a huge talking point, not only for its infamous bath scene, but also the striking locations matched to the sadistic narrative.

From Oxfordshire to Northamptonshire, Harriet Lawrence, with her trusted Nikon SLR in hand and two sets of waterproofs to contest the typical British weather, navigated the various locations, including Oxford university and stately Drayton House (which has seen tourist visits skyrocket since the film’s release).

EACH LOCATION MANAGER HAS MANY SUPPLIERS THAT THEY BUILD A GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH, WHO UNDERSTAND THE CHANGES OF SCHEDULE AND CAN ACCOMMODATE LAST MINUTE REQUESTS.

Abingdon airfield also doubled for Thorpe Abbotts control tower and runway, and Pill’s team had to arrange additional locations around Hemel Hempstead and Oxfordshire to fulfill the historic narrative.

She reports, “I used an Olympus OM-D - M10 camera, and a selection of lenses to photograph locations, and I find it really helpful to also grab a few short videos on the I-phone as well. Stills are great, but it’s always helpful to have a few 360-degree videos when scouting a location.”

Scouting at the right time of day is also important. If it’s going to be a night shoot, for example, then the recce needs to be done at the same time, in case anything is missed during the day, insists Pill.

Once the locations are chosen, she then secures permissions to shoot and ensures the smooth running of filming, including dealing with local communities.

“We rely heavily on a good security team on a daily basis. Film security is an extension of the location team. They have to have great communication skills, as you never know how the day might unfold, whether it is dealing with an upset resident on a street or diverting dog walkers from their normal woodland walk. A good security company can make your job much easier,” says Pill.

Shooting during the pandemic produced its own set of challenges and requirements to follow for optimal safety, including supersized marquees to accommodate the social distancing of the production’s 250 supporting artists in costume, makeup and catering.

“Oxford is a masterpiece of architecture in the UK, and it isn't easy to work in its medieval city. It's not designed for the sort of film crews and the size of what we bring with us, but what you get from Oxford on screen is worth it in every single way.”

To manage the shoot, Lawrence finds the internet a useful tool, but insists the traditional, in-person approach still proves most beneficial. Working with the Oxford Film Office, Lawrence and the production team were able to have firsthand guidance from a team who are well versed in filming at the university, juggling shoot periods between academic term time and busy tourism periods.

“I THINK IF YOU KEEP GOING BACK TO THE SCRIPT, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE SEARCHING FOR LOCATIONS, YOU CAN’T GO WRONG.”

“There's nothing that beats actually standing there, feeling it, seeing what's around you, seeing how the light falls, seeing how different elements of that location relate to each other. You can't get that from your desk.”

Driven by sheer curiosity, but with 30 years of location references in mind, Lawrence decided to take a fresh approach to filming Saltburn. With Aigle wellies on, she would set out at 8am before the tourists flocked to Oxford’s historical sites, even taking the unique approach of scouting from the rooftops and spires of the college where the lead characters, Felix and Oliver, study in the film.

The OS and Tide apps, proved helpful for Lawrence’s scout and shoot periods, but she insists that a traditional map is always a must (along with a square of dark chocolate).

On set for Saltburn courtesy of Harriet Lawrence. Saltburn © 2022 Amazon Content Services LLC.

THERE'S NOTHING THAT BEATS ACTUALLY STANDING THERE, FEELING IT, SEEING WHAT'S AROUND YOU, SEEING HOW THE LIGHT FALLS, SEEING HOW DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF THAT LOCATION RELATE TO EACH OTHER.

“A willingness to chase down any hunch is also key. You need to go through that door that says ‘no entry’, not leaving any stone unturned. Any slightest hint of something that could be interesting, nine times out of ten, it may lead to nothing but it just takes that one chance to find something mind blowing that can actually make a difference to that film. I rely on maps. I rely on the Internet. But I'd say curiosity is up there at the top of any scout’s toolkit,” concludes Lawrence.

BEN AHMED

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT

Filming for Apple TV+ series The Boys in the Boat involved capturing 1920s, 1930s and 1940s America and Germany using the UK’s rural landscapes and historic buildings.

Good examples included rebuilding a replica of the famous ASUW (Associated Students of the University of Washington) Shell House on location at Cleveland Lakes in Swindon, Wiltshire, alongside structural sets to double for Seattle, New York and Hooverville.

“I was really lucky because a good amount of the scouting had already been done by the unit production manager of the show,” says supervising location manager Ben Ahmed. “It gave us a great jumping off point as we had a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short space of time.

Adapting Daniel James Brown’s number one New York Times bestseller, the George Clooney directed The Boys in the Boat is an account of the 1936 University of Washington rowing team’s journey to competing at the Summer Olympics in Berlin.

The Cotswold Water Park lake next to the duplicated ASUW building stood in for Lake Washington and was later dressed as the Berlin Olympic course.

To find and capture these locations, Ahmed combed his own portfolio, but also trekked to the sites with fresh eyes, taking in Swindon, Ashton Keynes and Wiltshire.

“I love using (image sharing and hosting site) SmugMug because it’s quick and I can upload photos on the go. I shoot from an iPhone, which I know will split the room a little, but it’s so easy to upload photos and send folders across to people and get almost instant feedback and then move on. It’s a great practical tool to use.

“Another big thing I rely on is what’s actually written on the page. I think if you keep going back to the script, especially when you’re searching for locations, you can’t go wrong.”

“WITH DECADES WORTH OF EXPERIENCE, NO TOOL IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR THESE LOCATION MANAGERS THAN THE SHEER CURIOSITY TO DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW WITH EVERY LOCATION EXPLORED.”

Securing locations and ensuring their full potential aligns with the narrative is no easy feat, Ahmed concedes. One particular site that took a lot of work was Kings Cross, especially shutting down a portion of the station for scenes. Another logistically troubling place was the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre at the University College London, which needed to double for a US lecture hall. But they got there in the end conscious that the locations were strong and a perfect fit.

“I think it’s safe to say that the locations did a lot of the heavy lifting in the show. We really assisted with the storytelling, making the characters and plots believable.”

TELEVISION FILM

PRODUCTION

Behind the Scenes of The Boys in the Boat courtesy of Bern Ahmed.

Behind the Scenes of The Boys in the Boat courtesy of Bern Ahmed.

An Immersive Experience For All

New pre­visualisation and virtual viz 3D technology is democratising content creation for filmmakers at every level.

Audience demands climb, while Hollywood budgets fall. So preparation is key. Old pre-viz models with long periods of rendering (back and forth between the tech guys and director making changes) are being challenged.

“We’ve all seen dragons, so they have to look top notch. But the US studios want to pay less for dragons than they did before, so, execution becomes key with more control over planning,” Paul Becker, former film lead at Unity Accelerate Solutions who oversaw the first all-CG production on the Apple Vision Pro for the immersive format called Prehistoric Planet, tells makers.

“We use real time 3D to render 77,000 frames overnight in 8K stereo, 90 frames per second. That’s a quantum leap forward and potentially very disruptive,” adds Becker.

“WE USE REAL TIME 3D TO RENDER 77,000 FRAMES OVERNIGHT IN 8K STEREO, 90 FRAMES PER SECOND. THAT’S A QUANTUM LEAP FORWARD AND POTENTIALLY VERY DISRUPTIVE.”

UK outfit Phantasm have been equally disruptive with its real-time visualisation platform ‘Virtual Viz’. Alistair Williams and Alex Fabre, who lead the company, have used the technology on projects from narrative led series productions to blockbusters, including Fast X and M:I – Dead Reckoning Part One.

“We do digital recces with local teams supplying scan data that can be processed into a 3D environment in one day,” Fabre tells makers. “For

exterior shots we’d usually use a drone, and for interiors we can just use a phone or digital camera. Then processing is easy using cheap tools like Polycam [a 3D scanning app].”

The footage is uploaded into Phantasm’s server, and can be updated with new art department models and location scans throughout the production process.

MULTI­USER

On Fast X, Williams and Fabre were on their laptops with the directors (Louis Leterrier and Justin Lin) and DoP Matt Windon, planning SFX shots the day before or morning of the shoot. “We could understand how to capture a given effect, then use this tool to plan camera positions on cranes, drones and fixed positions, setting lens sizes and camera moves,” Windon explains.

The feedback loop with a pre-viz company taking instruction and implementing changes from creatives can take months. “Our tool can implement changes immediately in real time,” enthuses Williams. “If you’re on set and want to grab another camera move, you can rehearse it quickly digitally.”

The software has geo locators, so can show where the shadows are going to be throughout the day. “You can also zoom out on the maps and see local fields or car parks or other infrastructure that location managers can use to show the crew,” says Williams. “It’s useful in giving a overview of where you are and what’s expected on the day.”

Plate from The Marvels courtesy of Marvel.

MOST INDIE FILMMAKERS HAVE NEVER EVEN USED PRE­VIZ BEFORE BUT OUR SOFTWARE IS EASY TO USE AND YOU COULD JUST HAVE ONE PRODUCTION PERSON ON IT A WEEK FOR A LOW NUMBER OF LOCATION SHOOTS.

Tech like this can also save location costs. “We scanned a location in Italy recently using drone footage to show the director that it’s not going to work and they would need to blue screen off most of the background. They went elsewhere saving them potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars,” says Fabre.

They stress that their tool will not replace pre-viz. It’s the real time aspect that has not been introduced in film before. They now want to make the software available and affordable for all producers. “Indie filmmakers could have one production person on it a week for a low number of location shoots,” says Fabre.

To date, previz has been the preserve of the top 10% of filmmakers making multi-million dollar projects. But that’s changing.

Federico Cascinelli, technical art director and developer at Proteus and previously virtual production lead at pre-viz company The Third Floor (TTF), has been developing his own software using game engine Unity, code named NGARD (Next Generation of Augmented Reality for Designing), which allows creatives to enter a virtual environment via a headset, while still seeing the reality around them.

Cascinelli explains, “It’s like the old cardboard stages where the pencil camera moves inside, but it’s virtual, so they can immerse themselves in the miniature set using augmented or mixed reality. With the headset, they can interact with the environment, but they can also view it from a mobile phone or tablet.”

In mixed reality, wearing the headset, the brain is tricked into thinking the 3D object is actually there, solid in a real setting.

Cascinelli continues, “I did a pre-viz of a car crash on a street using this software for a short film. Once we were happy with the dimensions and set up (camera, cranes and drones positions etc), we used the head-mounted display to project the crash on to the actual street, so if you’re not happy, you can stop and change the animation.”

TFF is constantly innovating new tools for projects. For the second season of The Mandalorian and other productions they built a visualization pipeline to work between Maya’s 3D virtual space (where they generate each scene’s environment and elements) and Unreal.

“We did all the original work in Maya (animation and cameras) and then replicated it in Unreal, using an interchange pipeline we created called Mercury,” explains Eric Carney, company co-founder. “This allowed the show-makers to do virtual blocking for an entire episode from a storytelling perspective.”

TTF used a Virtual Camera called DragonFly made by Glassbox Tech which directors and cinematographers can manipulate on an iPad using games controllers. “They work with an operator in Unreal to lay out the camera angles for an episode or scene,” says Carney.

TTF also did a load of pre-viz and V Cam work on dragon sequences for HBO’s House of the Dragon, and built an AR simulcam app on Unreal called Cyclops. This allows filmmakers, via an IOS app, to see what digital creatures will look like in a shot while filming or scouting on set or location. They can scan maps, get sun positions, fly a camera around a map like a drone, orbit a camera around a selected spot, and composite CG elements into the live camera feed.

The effects viewed in the app (and in pre-viz or ‘virtual viz’) aren’t perfect and lack some detail, but it gives the production team a good idea of what the scene will look like when the digital creatures or set extensions are added.

“TO DATE, PREVIZ HAS BEEN THE PRESERVE OF THE TOP 10% OF FILMMAKERS MAKING MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR PROJECTS. BUT THAT’S CHANGING.”

“We’re trying to make it as good as possible, to provide capabilities that are cheaper and faster with simple solutions,” says Carney. “Anybody can download Cyclops on their iOS device and can load in their own assets, so directors and DoPs can create photo boards to plan out a shoot.

“Visualization can be based on custom-built models and environments, scans of locations and Google images. And with somewhere like New York, we’ve built it so many times, we’ve got a good scan we keep using for films.”

CRYSTAL BALL

The Phantasm team is working to incorporate generative-AI into its product. “You can choose your lenses, 3D environment, framing of the subject etc and run it through video to video generative AI tools, maintaining the same amount of creative control over the cameras,” says Fabre.

While Becker foresees the democratising of immersive environments. “You’ll go into interactive environments with Disney characters and the like, but they’ll be controlled by the IP holders. For real creativity, you need to allow people to use the tools to create their own experiences using their media,” he says.

“The next Tarantino isn’t going to come from a Marvel movie, Fast and Furious or some other IP that’s been beaten to death, but from a great creative mind that conceives something original using these tools without spending millions of dollars.”

Cyclops images (above and below) from House of the Dragon courtesy of HBO.