Skillset announces £600,000 funding for film projects

'A Bigger Future', Skillset and the UK Film Council's five year film skills strategy, is supporting seven innovative development schemes which will produce all or a selection of the projects developed by participants as part of their training. £600,000 is being invested from the Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of a drive to develop the skills and commercial sensibility of the UK film industry's writers, producers and directors. The funding will support more than 60 people across the seven projects for a minimum of eight months and helps to address diversity issues within the industry with projects specifically targeting the under-representation of women and black and minority ethnic individuals.

The projects receiving funding are:

Dark Light Women Direct Horror

Fast tracking ten female Directors on a year long programme developing horror feature projects for the Warp X production slate. Will include intensive mentorship, pitching and master class residentials. Delivered by Warp X and Threshold Studios Ltd.  Applications for individual places on the project are now open and the deadline is 3rd November 2007.

Breakout

Hot-housing emerging black and minority ethnic writers and directors to develop audience friendly commercial low-budget fiction features and feature length factual documentaries. Delivered by Breakout Training and Development with production partners Warp X and Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation in association with Screen East and  UEA. Applications for individual places on the project will open shortly. 

Slingshot Training and Development into Greenlight Scheme

Slingshot turns the Greenlight ON at the beginning of development process. The scheme is designed to develop the skills of writers, directors and producers as well as their projects towards production.  Addressing both the creative and commercial concerns of a project, slingshot uses a multi faceted programme of short courses, residential workshops, script editing sessions and follow-up workshops to build robust creative teams and projects.  Delivered by Slingshot Productions ltd in association with The Metropolitan Film School and PAL. Applications for individual places on the project are now open.   

Microwave Training Programme

A platform for progression into feature films providing practical training and a commercially-focused grounding in micro-budget feature film production across the value chain for 10 teams.  Delivered by Film London as part of its micro-budget features scheme 'Microwave' which is set to produce 10 films by 2008, the training programme is also funded by the London Development Agency, the UK Film Council, Film London and the BBC and will provide training through production across fiction, documentary and animation projects. There will be a second call for applications to the Microwave scheme towards the end of the month.

UK Film Council New Cinema Fund Digital Shorts Scheme

A co-ordinated nationwide training programme to support participants who have been selected to produce and direct for the UKFC Digital Shorts scheme in 2006. Delivered by the NFTS Short Course Factory.

Applications for individual places should be sent to the relevant Regional / National Digital Shorts Partner.
 

Cinema Extreme Training Scheme

Designed to run alongside the existing Production Scheme funded by the UK Film Council and FilmFour, this new training scheme will expand the skills development component to run across the whole development and production process. Delivered by the Bureau Film Company Limited.

Bridging The Gap

An open competition for seven filmmakers to produce a 10' documentary film. The filmmakers are trained to explore the creative use of digital technology in sound and image, pushing the boundaries of short documentaries for cinema. Skillset's funding will open out the competition to entries from across the UK for the first time. Delivered by the Scottish Documentary Institute at the Skillset Screen Academy at Edinburgh College of Art.  Applications for individual places on the project are now open.
 
For information on how to apply for individual places on any of these projects, click here. Successful applicants for all projects will have demonstrable experience in the film industry.
 

Judy Counihan, Director of Film at Skillset, said: "In awarding this funding Skillset was looking for project based training directly linked to production output which could bring a commercial sensibility to participants and raise the quality and commercial viability of the projects available to the industry. We encouraged creativity in the design and delivery of the projects applying and I think the successful projects achieved just that."
 
The Skillset Film Skills Fund is made up of lottery money via the UK Film Council, industry investment via the SIF training levy on production and public funding secured by Skillset.
 

For more information about Skillset, please visit www.skillset.org
For media enquiries please contact Eve Ragout on 020 7520 5752 / 07968 010 325 or eve@skillset.org.  
Alternatively contact Andrew Craske on 020 7520 5751 or andrewc@skillset.org