Short Film in the UK: Screen Yorkshire and the Independents April 20, 2007
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Artfully Deranged, Short Film , trackbackThis article is written in conjunction with several others and is best read in conjunction with them. Click the below titles to read/navigate between each individual article:
1. Short Film: A brief critical history
2. Short Film In The UK: Screen Yorkshire and the Independents
3. Short Film In The UK: Film Festivals and Competitions
4. Short Film In The UK: Technology and the Tiny Screen
5. Short Film In The UK: Availability, Audience, and the Future
6. ‘Okay, we’re done’: The story of my first short film
7. Short Film Take II: The Trouble With Mr. Goldman
8. Short Film In The UK: Recommended Links
The article features my own personal interviews conducted with Sally Joynson (Head of Industry Development and acting Chief Executive) at arts funding agency Screen Yorkshire based in Leeds, and Andrew Quinn (Creator of Slack Video in Hull) who runs a screening night for new and established short filmmakers.
Short Film the Screen Yorkshire Way
Sally Joynson’s statement that short film is simply not ‘commercial’, that the film industry is ‘all about business’, sheds the most light on the argument that short film is primarily a means to further develop a filmmakers career. The BBC’s Film Network guide to making short films states that only one out of six reasons for even considering making the film has anything to do with money and even this is ‘very rare as [they] don’t usually pay financial dividends.’ Joynson says ‘people make shorts to go somewhere, to lead their career somewhere. It’s all about talent development.’ Given this, it would suggest that short film is viewed as a means to develop skills, and the government’s schemes through the regional arts partners such as Screen Yorkshire would support this.
Screen Yorkshire has a number of initiatives geared towards finding and nurturing new talent based on the idea of a ‘sustainable, robust, skilled industry, with an infrastructure that creates new opportunities and initiatives, and builds partnerships.’ Screen Yorkshire cite short film as a major way of achieving this and through a certain amount of funds each year they prove this belief. Their literature states ‘through our lottery scheme, we will support up to 12 short films per year with a maximum length of 10 minutes and with a financial contribution from Screen Yorkshire of no more than £2000.’ This then progresses for more experienced filmmakers with the Caught Short digital awards scheme of up to £10,000 and Screen Yorkshire will finance one short film a year with up to £20,000.
However, Joynson stresses that while these schemes are in place to find new talent, it is primarily a business decision to increase the skilled workforce. She says, ‘the focus is to increase production to increase jobs and opportunities.’ This is perhaps why Andrew Quinn of Slack Video felt that Screen Yorkshire supported only the business benefits of talent development, and that their focus on this might be ‘missing out on a lot of potentially brilliant work being produced by ‘some guy who just had a great idea one day’. When asked whether Screen Yorkshire supported the development of short film as an art form or for big business and making money, Quinn replied: ‘Directly, they seem to be supporting the latter’, clarifying that ‘Screen Yorkshire (and the Film Council in general) are very much of [the] thinking [that] shorts are primarily a way for new filmmakers to break into the industry.’ Quinn sees their ‘talent development’ as a way to make money. This isn’t necessarily detrimental to the industry on a business level. Yet, since Quinn sees short film as an important art form, he doesn’t believe Screen Yorkshire provide much consideration for this aspect.
Quinn is adamant that short film is not treated as a ‘stop-gap’ between other career ventures. He believes that the ‘cinematic art’ that he exhibits at Slack Video screenings is not a ‘test version for bigger plans’ and says ‘I think very few people in this area of work are interested in a feature film career.’ Theoretically, since short film isn’t commercial, Screen Yorkshire would not invest money in these sorts of filmmakers, since they don’t have aspirations to go on to anything else – namely, a type of cinema that would make money. This creates the question of what type of filmmakers are Screen Yorkshire investing in? Thus, suggesting that the short films that are made with such funding are indeed ‘test versions for bigger plans’ that would ultimately make money and create jobs.
It is interesting that any work that doesn’t fit the Screen Yorkshire criteria of what a short film should be is branded as ‘self-indulgent’. Joynson asks, ‘what aspirations do filmmakers have?’ She says, ‘there’s a danger that short film can become self-indulgent with filmmakers making such films primarily for themselves.’ It would appear that her comments are anchored by the necessities required by the agencies that fund Screen Yorkshire. Skillset and Yorkshire Forward are two of the three funding agencies and Joynson tells me that Skillset’s objectives are for ‘skills development’ and Yorkshire Forward’s objectives are purely ‘economical’. This provides a reason why Screen Yorkshire view short film in the way they do. Skillset’s primary motivation is to ‘ensure that the UK audio/visual industries have continued access to the skills and talent they require’, whilst Yorkshire Forward are ‘the Regional Development Agency behind the economic regeneration of the Yorkshire and Humber region.’ Therefore, it is unsurprising that Joynson cites short film as a way of finding the people who want to work in the industry, and separating the talented and motivated, from the rest. In a sense, their low-budget awards become bait in order for them to meet their targets and continue to get funded.
Short Film and the Independent Circuit
Creating job opportunities and building a skilled workforce are noble ideals but is it at the expense of the ‘art’ itself, as Quinn suggests? If filmmakers want to self-indulgently improve their art and experiment with the medium, as Spielberg and Lucas did without monetary gain, Screen Yorkshire and their affiliated funding agencies seem uninterested.
Andrew Quinn has run Slack Video in Hull since 2003, with the aim of promoting new short filmmaker’s work and to give people the opportunity to see films they would otherwise not be able to. However, he has run this exhibition outlet without any funding from the major agencies. As they exhibit ‘art’ films and ‘narrative’ films, he says this causes a problem as ‘the film council essentially say they won’t fund art film, and the arts council say they won’t fund narrative film.’ This causes an obvious dilemma as both agencies have their own agendas behind why they release funding. Quinn goes on to say that he applied for funds from the Hull City Arts Council but it was rejected because they don’t fund film, and interestingly, ‘The city arts unit covers art, theatre, dance and music but they don’t [cover] film.’
This displays two flaws in the system. The first is that, if the funding agencies are going to fund films, why is the support not there for the exhibitors? The second is, in funding films in the way they do, it could be argued that it stifles creativity because the freedom of the art form is compromised for new, young filmmakers who might have been given a £2000 grant from Screen Yorkshire. Any filmmaker given such a grant would have to be a first or second time filmmaker (according to Screen Yorkshire rules), and therefore very inexperienced. When put under the constraints of working under such hierarchical pressures, it would certainly put strain on the people involved. Quinn attests to this idea:
‘I’ve noticed there seems to be a bit of fear in applying to such things. I’m not sure if it’s the paperwork, the responsibility of managing a proper budget or maybe the pressure of having to produce something great because it’s your only chance. There must be something intimidating about it I guess. There are quite a few exceptionally talented animators and filmmakers who have given up at the last minute and not put a proposal in for some minor fear or another.’
Quinn believes that under such pressures, talent can be stifled, and creativity and originality can suffer. Andrew Wilson, who runs Short Circuits (a similar venue for the exhibition of short films in Huddersfield) says, ‘We just look for films that show hard work, thoughtfulness, and willingness to learn’ and it is this mentality that frees some of the burden on the creative process that funded filmmakers might have. Instead of the objective being to find more skilled workers and therefore increase productions to increase jobs, for Slack Video and Short Circuits, it is to find new filmmakers, showcase their work, and promote and push short film forward.
Monetary value is of little concern, since the only money Slack Video make is a percentage of that taken at the bar on the night of each exhibition. However, if more money could be placed into exhibitors like Slack Video, Quinn would want to do several things including setting up a video label for short films and artist’s videos, set-up a local community film training scheme, and a local production company. Yet, he believes more should be done before money even comes into the equation. He states, an ‘easily accessible advice or support network would help a lot more people. There appear to be a lot of lost graduates, not sure quite what to do with themselves. I think there are a lot of talented people being lost this way.’
‘Knitting A Love Song’: The Importance of Screen Yorkshire
Any reservations regarding Screen Yorkshire’s motives being detrimental to the freedom of short film as an art form, can be easily dispelled with the fact that for the second year running, one of their funded films received a ‘BAFTA’ award nomination. The film’s producer, Debbie Ballin said:
‘We are really excited about receiving a BAFTA nomination. Screen Yorkshire has really helped make this all happen. Their New and Emerging Talent Manager, Tony Dixon has given us a huge amount of support. As well as providing funding, Screen Yorkshire has helped during the post-production and promotional stages. They’ve been with us every step of the way.’
Clearly if Screen Yorkshire-funded productions are receiving such recognition, they are doing the right things for the industry. Additionally, since they are also given high praise from the filmmakers themselves, it does suggest that not only their funds, but also their support is of vital importance to the nature of film production.
However, as Joynson states, if short film is to succeed it has to lead somewhere, and in effect, it has to be guided towards assisting the industry to support itself. If the medium isn’t commercial, it has to be used in a way that makes it viable on an economic level, and that means creating a skilled workforce in the media industry and increasing jobs. Ballin’s film Knitting A Love Song did just that. ‘The film provided employment opportunities for thirteen regional freelances from the region.’ Joynson says, ‘we insist on getting as many locally based crew on the production as possible which helps in building skills, creating more jobs, building CV’s and means we can make more productions.’ She clarifies: ‘money that comes from productions is very important because it helps different kinds of business. If a big film crew comes to Yorkshire, they need a place to stay, they need food to eat, and that money is put back into Yorkshire based businesses.’ Head of production, Hugo Heppell concludes, the ‘BAFTA nomination for Knitting A Love Song is a great result for Screen Yorkshire and testimony to the work we are doing in developing a wealth of filmmaking talent in the region.’ However, even though Knitting A Love Song won prestigious awards and was nominated for the highest accolade in British film, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is something people want to see.
Effectively, Screen Yorkshire’s use of the short film is more practical than the independent exhibitors, but since they cannot fund every single application they receive, their output is severely limited. Therefore, they require each other to sustain the industry because their collective endevours are supporting different aspects of the film community. The independent exhibitor’s support the experimentation, creativity and freedom of low and no-budget independent filmmaking, whilst Screen Yorkshire assist those more ambitious, to prosper on an economic and society-based level. This is why it is vital that Screen Yorkshire support exhibition, because it is the only way to gain spectatorship and new audiences for short film. They have channelled their funding support of 12 short films through independent exhibitor Short Circuits, who then filter through the possible candidates, but more needs to be done to create a solid basis for short filmmaking to be exhibited regularly. As of March 2006, Short Circuits has only around eight screenings a year in Yorkshire, while Slack Video still has to work from the organiser’s own funds.
In conclusion, short film is seen in two very different lights but both ultimately agree on one thing – that it is a way of finding new talent. Screen Yorkshire from an economic and commercial aspect, see it as a way of meeting their targets (building a skilled work force and helping the region succeed on an economic level). The independent exhibitors see it as a way of finding new work from new filmmakers, who want to establish short film as something worth seeing. Essentially, under the commercial ideals of Screen Yorkshire, the short film has to be a means to something else. However, under the non-commercial ideals of independent exhibitor’s like Andrew Quinn, there’s the idea of just celebrating it for it is, without ulterior motives.
Citation:
Ballin, D (2004) Screen Yorkshire Gets Bafta Nomination For Second Year [online] available from http://www.digitalyorkshire.org.uk/news_1374.htm (accessed 10 March 2006)
BBC Film Network (2006) Why Make A Short Film [online] available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/filmmakersguidewhy (accessed 10 March 2006)
Heppell, H (2004) Screen Yorkshire Gets Bafta Nomination For Second Year [online] available from http://www.digitalyorkshire.org.uk/news_1374.htm (accessed 10 March 2006)
Joynson, S (2006) Interview conducted by Daniel Stephens with Sally Joynson Leeds
Quinn, A (2006) Interview conducted by Daniel Stephens with Andrew Quinn at Slack Video Hull
Screen Yorkshire (2006) Screen Yorkshire [online] available from http://screenyorkshire.co.uk/ (accessed 10 March 2006)
Skillset (2006) Skillset Strategy [online] available from http://www.skillset.org/strategy/ (accessed 10 March 2006)
Yorkshire Forward (2006) Yorkshire Forward [online] available from http://www.yorkshire-forward.com/www/index.asp (accessed 10 March 2006)
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