Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund
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Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund A Report for Regional Screen Scotland May 2017 Regional Screen Scotland / Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund Index / 1: Introduction 1 2: Strategic Context 3 3: The Local Film Festival Fund 5 4: Impact of the Fund 8 5: Conclusions & Recommendations 18 2 | P a g e Regional Screen Scotland / Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund 1: Introduction This report describes the impact of the Local Film Festival Fund on the supported organisations and the communities they are operating in. Regional Screen Scotland The LFFF was funded by Creative Scotland Regional Screen Scotland (RSS) aims to help (£262,500), with match funding by Film Hub communities to enjoy great screen experiences. Scotland (£48,000). To achieve this aim RSS: The main objectives of the Fund are audience development, increased programme diversity and an improved cinema infrastructure. ▪ provides advice and information on setting up local screen facilities; The LFFF consists of two distinct elements: the Development Programme (DP) and the Open Access ▪ operates the Screen Machine mobile cinema; Fund (OA). ▪ manages grant funding for Local Film Festivals across Scotland; and The Development Programme supported five festivals with three-year grants of up to £37,500: ▪ advocates for the social and economic benefits of cinema for local communities. ▪ Screenplay (Shetland) ▪ Dunoon Film Festival RSS works with individuals and organisations in communities with no or limited access to screening ▪ Hebrides International Film Festival possibilities to start or develop a local cinema. ▪ Cromarty Film Festival RSS works together with a range of partners, including Film Hub Scotland, UK Cinema ▪ South West Picture Show Association, Cinema for All and Film Mobile Scotland. The Open Access Fund awarded 22 grants of up to £3,000 to be spent in one year to 16 separate The Local Film Festival Fund festivals. In 2013 RSS was successful in accessing three-year Study Objectives funding to set up the Local Film Festival Fund (LFFF), which became operational at the 1st of April 2014 RSS commissioned Social Value Lab to undertake an and runs till the 31st of March 2017. evaluation of the Fund (April 2014 - March 2017). The LFFF’s aims were to: The main objectives of the evaluation were: ▪ design and manage a Development Programme ▪ To assess whether the Fund has achieved its for five festivals; stated goals; ▪ manage an Open Access Fund dispersing £20k ▪ To evidence the impact of the fund on grant funding annually with applications for a audience development, programme diversity maximum of £3k. and cinema infrastructure development; and ▪ To suggest further improvements for future funding programmes. 1 | P a g e Regional Screen Scotland / Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund Study Method The study was carried out by Social Value Lab between December 2016 and March 2017. It was based on a mixed research design that involved a number of main stages: ▪ Desk-based review of application forms and quantitative monitoring data and the end of project evaluation forms. ▪ Desk-based review of strategic policy context. ▪ A survey completed by all five Development Programme festivals and ten Open Access Fund festivals. ▪ Semi-structured interviews with representatives of all five Development Programme festivals and three Open Access Fund festivals. ▪ Attendance at the Development Programme event on 28th February. ▪ Semi-structured telephone interviews with four key stakeholders. In the report we have included quotes taken from the survey responses from Development Programme and Open Access festivals. We have ensured quotes from all five DP festivals and the ten OA festivals that responded have been used equally throughout the document. The findings of the evaluation are set out in the following pages. 2 | P a g e Regional Screen Scotland / Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund 2: Strategic Context This Section details the frameworks and policy documents in which the Local Film Festival Fund operates. There are a number of policy and strategy documents that guide the development of film festivals and that set the context for the LFFF. Creative Scotland: On Screen Scottish Government Cultural Strategy On Screen is Creative Scotland’s strategic document on the development of film in Scotland for the In 2016 the Scottish Government announced the period 2014-173. development of a National Cultural Strategy which will be based on the principles of access, equality Creative Scotland is the public body that supports and excellence1. the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, The four key Scottish Government aims include “to works or visits. It distributes funding from the improve meaningful access to culture and the arts Scottish Government and The National Lottery. for all of Scotland's people so that more people enjoy more forms of culture more regularly than at The main aim of the strategy is to: “generate the present.” conditions necessary to position the film sector at the heart of Scotland’s economic and cultural life.” The Scottish Government’s website2 states as two of its four main aims to: The ‘Distribution, Exhibition and Audiences’ strand of the strategy includes to: • focus on the contribution that culture can make to improving the health, wellbeing, confidence • broaden cinema access and programming in and quality of life for our communities Scotland for as wide and diverse an audience as possible and to encourage and deepen audience • raise the profile of Scotland at home and engagement with film. abroad, and ensure that as many people as possible in Scotland and overseas are able to • work with the key film festivals and cultural benefit from, be inspired by and enjoy the very cinemas across Scotland to provide more best of Scotland's creative, cultural and historic opportunities for broadening engagement with wealth film and the moving image. It is clear that a film fund that brings film to The LFFF has helped in achieving these objectives. Scotland’s remote communities without mainstream cinema provision fits well with the strategic aims of Screen Sector Leadership Group4 the Scottish Government. In 2015 the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee of the Scottish Parliament published a report into the economic impact of the film, TV and video games industries, in which one of the key recommendations was the establishment of a 1 A Plan For Scotland: The Scottish Government's Programme 3 On Screen, Film Strategy 2014-17, Creative Scotland, 2014 For Scotland 2016-17, September 6, 2016, ISBN: 4 Report to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations 9781786524393 Committee, Final Report: January 2017, Screen Sector 2 http://www.gov.scot/Topics/ArtsCultureSport/arts Leadership Group 3 | P a g e Regional Screen Scotland / Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund leadership group to make recommendations on how the industry’s needs could be better met. In 2017 the group published a report which included a number of recommendations, including: • Review the opportunities for enhancing cinema provision across Scotland. • Establish a commissioning fund to support the development and promotion of live cinema and events, tours and local film festivals. Although the Group mainly focussed on the development of the film industry, one of its key objectives for the next five years was: ‘film exhibition reflects diversity of programming and distinct voices with growing audiences in a range of settings across all communities in Scotland.’ BFI 2022, Supporting UK Film BFI 2011 is the strategic plan of the British Film Institute (BFI) for the period 2017-225. The BFI is the UK-wide organisation for the film industry in the UK. The Plan states that ‘We believe that everyone, everywhere in the UK, should have the opportunity to enjoy and learn from the richest and most diverse range of great British and international filmmaking, past, present and future.’ The Plan mainly focuses on reaching the 16-30 age group. The BFI aims to ensure ‘that a diversity of film culture is readily available to audiences across the UK, both in venues and on demand.’ 5 BFI 2022, Supporting UK Film, BFI Plan 2017-2022 4 | P a g e Regional Screen Scotland / Evaluation of the Local Film Festival Fund 3: Local Film Festival Fund This Section describes the Local Film Festival Fund and its activities. The Festivals TABLE 3.1: OPEN ACCESS FESTIVALS The LFFF supported five organisations for a three- Organisation Festival year period under the Development Fund and 16 Africa in Motion Film organisations with 22 festivals under the Open Africa in Motion Festival (outreach Access Fund. programme) Callander Film Society Callander Film Festival Comrie Cinema Club Comrie Film Festival The Development Fund festivals were: Drimnin Sheep Film Drimnin Hall Festival Cromarty Film Festival – a festival run by Cromarty Eastgate Theatre and Arts Peebles Outdoor Film and Resolis Film Society at various venues Centre Festival accompanied by workshops, Q&A sessions Fife Cultural Trust Kirkcaldy Film Festival specialising in the choices and presence of Heartland Film Society Aberfeldy Film Festival individual film makers. Ickle Film Fest Limited Ickle Film Festival (Dundee) North Glasgow Community From Milton to the World Food Initiative Dunoon Film Festival – run by the Dunoon Burgh SKALD, The Caithness North Highland College Hall Trust to organise screenings with an inter- Creative Festival generational and / or local theme in a range of Scottish Paranormal Rob Roy Films venues across the town in the period that the Burgh Festival (Stirling) Scottish Youth Film Festival Hall was closed for refurbishment. Scottish Youth Film Festival (Armadale) Seaboard Film Society Hebrides International Film Festival – Rural Fling (Tain, Highland) Nations Scotland CIC organised high quality Southside Film Southside Film Festival contemporary screenings of films from across the Take One Action Film Take One Action Film world on the themes of environment and islands, Festival (outreach Festivals across the Isles of Lewis, Harris, North Uist, South programme) Uist and Barra.