Future Film Skills – an Action Plan

FUTURE FILM SKILLS An Action Plan Investing in world class skills to ensure future success June 2017 Last autumn the BFI published its five-year plan, We have created this plan for action with committed BFI2022, which included a commitment to developing financial investment, but the only way it is going a professional skills framework for new entrants. In to happen is if we all work together to open up response to growing anecdotal evidence of emerging opportunities and make it easier for people from all skills gaps across the screen industries, we convened backgrounds to enter the industry and learn the skills a Film Skills Industry Task Force, bringing together we need for the future. the BFI, Creative Skillset, and significant figures Thank you to Barbara Broccoli, chair of the Task from across the sector. The Work Foundation were Force, and all of the members of that group who gave commissioned to carry out a comprehensive skills their valuable time, guidance and wisdom to help review to inform the Task Force, with a primary create this ten point plan. Thanks also to the Work focus on the craft and technical skills in film and Foundation for their analysis of the skills landscape adjacent sectors. and to all those from across the screen industries and education sector who agreed to be interviewed. Josh Berger CBE, Chair BFI 2 FUTURE FILM SKILLS CONTENTS Foreword 5 by Barbara Broccoli, Chair of the Film Skills Industry Task Force and Amanda Nevill, CEO of the British Film Institute Skills Review of the UK Film and Screen Industries 8 The economic contribution of the screen industries 10 Critical skills issues facing the screen industries 12 Screen-related education and training 16 The great challenge of inclusion 18 Critical factors to address 20 10 Point Action Plan 22 Funding 27 Timetable 27 Film Skills stories 28 Glossary 31 FUTURE FILM SKILLS 4 FUTURE FILM SKILLS FOREWORD writer needs a pen, an artist needs companies are now deftly expanding to include the comparable developments in high-end television a brush, but a filmmaker needs high-end TV and streaming channels, and vice versa. as well as the need to sustain our growth and an army’ It is a sector in the midst of vast change, completing respond to new opportunities in world markets. Once ‘A Orson Welles the shift from analogue to digital and supported in you factor in the effects of Brexit, it is clear that even their global ambition by supportive Government more home-grown skills will be needed. This is an exciting time for the film tax incentives. and related industries. The screen sector is buoyant This report recognises the important responsibility and rapidly expanding. The creative industries as a The UK is at the forefront of much of this pioneering that we, the industry, have to futureproof the whole are one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors, creative technology. Cutting-edge VFX and software workforce through mentoring, supporting and contributing £87bn in GVA in 2015, some 5.4 per cent skills, areas in which we are global leaders, are in transferring knowledge and expertise to the next of the UK economy. Film alone makes a contribution high demand at home and internationally, not just for generation. We need to become much more open in of £4.3bn in GVA. Over the past 15 years, 48 out of film, but also for high-end television, animation and the way we recruit to make it easier for new entrants. the 200 top-grossing films globally were made in the interactive and immersive media. We are asking that the screen sector skills are UK. It is a great UK success story creatively, culturally There is huge potential for growth beyond London embedded in the UK Government’s new industrial and economically. and across the UK, but this opportunity will be strategy, all developmental changes to technical and It is important that we keep the industry vibrant by hampered if productions fear skills cannot be found higher education, and the opportunities offered by the encouraging a young and diverse workforce that is locally. At the same time, the growth in the south Apprenticeship Levy (including the need to ensure the representative of the society in which we live. We east itself will be restricted if we are unable to provide Levy is fit for purpose for the creative sector). need to provide their training to remain at the cutting affordable opportunities for those outside the region This is a skills plan which absolutely depends on a edge of the technological developments that are seeking work there. committed, proactive and collaborative pact for action redefining our sector. We estimate there will be more than 30,000 such between the Industry and Government. In an effort to achieve this we have commissioned the opportunities in the film sector over the next five Work Foundation to do a study of job shortages that years. That includes The Work Foundation’s Barbara Broccoli OBE will be facing our industry over the next 5-10 years. estimated figure of 25,000 opportunities in film and Amanda Nevill CBE adjacent industries and another 5,000 that includes The industry is diversifying as traditional film FUTURE FILM SKILLS 5 Film Industry With thanks to Task Force Barbara Broccoli OBE, EON [chair] Arts and Humanities Research Council Alex Hope OBE, Double Negative BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Faiza Hosenie, Big Talk Productions Cinematograph and Theatre Union) Damian Jones, DJ Films BFI EU Skills Sector Seetha Kumar, Creative Skillset Birmingham and Solihull LEP Callum McDougall, Assistant Director and Creative Scotland Production Manager Department for Education Fiona McGuire, Pathé Department of Culture Media and Sport Amanda Nevill CBE, British Film Institute Directors UK Ben Roberts, British Film Institute Film Distributors’ Association Marc Samuelson, Samuelson Productions Guild of British Camera Technicians Iain Smith OBE, Applecross Productions / Film Hartswood Films for the Creative Skillset High-End TV Skills Council Skills Council Mayor of London, Cultural Office National Film and Television School No 10 Policy Unit Oxfordshire Local Education Partnership Pathé UK Pinewood Studios Producers Guild Screen Yorkshire Sky TV University of York 6 FUTURE FILM SKILLS FUTURE FILM SKILLS 7 SKILLS REVIEW OF THE UK FILM AND SCREEN INDUSTRIES he British Film Institute (BFI) The research is underpinned by a rigorous nine- commissioned The Work month programme of work. This includes data Research methodology: a nine-month Foundation to undertake a Skills analysis, evidence assimilation, and a large-scale programme of research and consultation T Review for the UK’s film and programme of consultation involving over 110 adjacent screen industries, and businesses, stakeholder groups and workers within develop strategic objectives to ensure the success the film industry. of these industries over the next decade. This The work was guided by a Film Industry Task Force research includes in-depth analysis of the skills needs Action and investment planning composed of senior executives, who face skills issues and challenges facing primarily the UK’s craft and on a day-to-day basis, and a ‘Delphi Panel’ of a wider technical skills area, but the outcome has been to group of experts drawn from across the industry. develop a blue print for the film industry as a whole. This approach provided invaluable insight, enabling It aims to examine existing skills provision by the Review to go beyond talking about occupations identifying both good practice and areas that could Provision mapping and gap analysis and skills in a generic sense, to truly understand the benefit from further development. Alongside these needs, challenges and opportunities of the industry. topics, the Review looks in detail at the issue of inclusion, seeking to pinpoint the barriers preventing This short report sets out the key findings and people from entering and progressing in the industry. accompanies the full research report available at bfi.org.uk/futurefilmskills. It seeks not only to Data analysis and evidence assimilation While the focus of the review is the UK film industry, illuminate the challenges facing the industry but the the scope of the research extends to adjacent screen action required to enable the screen industries to industries (video games and animation), reflecting the continue to flourish in the years to come. commonality of job roles and skills needs. Stakeholder & employer consultations c. 50 interviews ‘The UK is a global centre of excellence for VFX... Industry roundtables and there is a huge opportunity to build on our 64 attendees success. We will only be able to seize these opportunities with the full workforce we need Film Industry Task Force and this means addressing the skills shortage.’ Alex Hope, Managing Director, Double Negative FUTURE FILM SKILLS 9 ‘It’s inevitable at a time The economic contribution Growth and contribution of booming inward of the screen industries of the screen industries It is clear that the UK’s screen industries have been The sector’s growth performance has been investment in film and flourishing. The sector is an area of true competitive impressive too, supported by the introduction of in television that the advantage; a significant contributor to, and rapidly film and other screen sector tax reliefs. The film, TV, growing part of, the UK economy; highly export- video, radio and photography sector is estimated to number of available orientated and supportive of our trade balance, and have grown by nearly 14% between 2013 and 2014 an industry that will be vital to the success of the UK – three times the rate of the UK economy – with the £1.4bn and qualified crew will economy post-Brexit. creative industries growing faster than any sector in Gross value added (GVA) the Office for National Statistics’ Blue Book.

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