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regional screen finance
OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH
OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH
Busy film slate for the Northern Production Fund
T hese are exciting times for us,” says Ian Cottage, the
man who runs Northern Production Fund, as he con- templates five feature films either shooting or in pre- production this year.
And he believes that what is already one of the largest regional film funders in the UK is on the point of taking a major step forward. Its great-
est success so far has been in getting projects off the ground with script develop- ment funding and seed money. Now moves are afoot to have a larger stake in film production.
Part of Newcastle- based Northern Arts, one of the Arts Council’s regional arts boards - Cottage’s title
is actually Film and Media Officer - it covers a large geo- graphical area of the North East and Cumbria.
“We develop writers and producers and directors from our region and also encourage
film-makers from outside to film here, though they must always have some relevance to the region,” he says.
“Our strength is development work,” he says. “In the four years NPF has been going, people that we have helped have gone on to bigger projects so there is a
sense of progress.”
Now the NPF also feels the need
itself to grow as well. Over the period from 1999 to 2001, it has had around £1.4m to invest and so far calculates that it has exec produced more than 100 films. The investments may be cru-
cial, but in the world of feature films, they are comparatively small.
“At the moment we can offer a maximum of £50,000 and that’s clearly not enough for the whole thing. We feel in the future we need to be getting a return on what we do, so we are pushing the idea of an investment fund being set up to attract major films on a commercial basis and at the same time generate investment from our region.”
The Northern Production Fund is itself funded by local authorities with- in the region and the Film Council, for which it receives matching funding from the European Regional Development Fund through the region’s Objective 2 status.
“Politically, things are very posi- tive up here at the moment and there is a lot of interest in what we are proposing to the Film Council. First North East, the regional development agency, are showing an interest.”
Northern Arts is planning to streamline the NPF, the Northern Film Commission and the Skillset training arm into a Northern Film Office. Training is a key objective. “We put some money into Jimmy Spud [star- ring Billy Connolly] because we were able to get Newcastle-based IMP involved with production company Samuelsons in providing facilities and to place a number of trainees on the film.”
Though Jimmy Spud is probably the biggest film they have been involved with so far, Nasty Neighbours, starring Ricky Tomlinson and Phil Daniels, and shot on location last year in Birmingham and Australia as well as Newcastle, represents NPF’s largest investment.
“We were the first to put money into Nasty Neighbours. It was a local story written by Lee Hall and it’s a wonderful script,” says Cottage. “It is produced by Ipso Facto which receives company support from NPF.
A company can choose to take up to £39,000 in any given year or a maxi- mum of £65,000 over three years to develop a slate of projects.”
Other features scheduled for this year are another Ipso Facto produc- tion, School for Seduction, and Her Last Call from Pilgrim Films, who co- produced Shadow of a Vampire, seen in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes.
Then there is Turning the Tide from Amber Films, another company with whom NPF has a long relation- ship. It is a drama-documentary exploring the effects of a declining industrial area on masculinity.
The next NPF-developed feature to go into production is Dog Soldiers, the story of a NATO trainee exercise attacked by werewolves in the wilds of Canada. Co-produced by Carlisle- based Northmen Films and Noel Gay Motion Picture Company, it is due to start shooting in September with Sean Pertwee heading the cast.
Writer-director Neil Marshall’s previous short, Combat, was instru- mental in attracting finance to Dog Soldiers, and supporting short films is considered a vital part of the fund’s remit in providing a springboard for film-makers.
“Wilfred (the Wilfred Owen film which received £35,000) is going to have such an impact that already its director Peter Kershaw can start dis- cussing the possibility of a feature.
“Recent awards for other shorts, such as Mavis and the Mermaid and Closer, are important to show the quality of the films we are making,” says Cottage, himself a former film- maker. “One day I going to take a showcase of our films down to London - and I’ve already thought of a title, London Can Take It.” ■ IAN SOUTAR
Wilfred was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos from top: on the set of Juliet McKoen’s Mavis And The Mermaid; Debbie Issit’s Nasty Neighbours; Writer/Director Neil Marshall’s Combat Girl on shoreline in Mavis And The Mermaid; Michael Higgs as Wilfred Owen in Wilfred; Three Bear Animation’s Doodvius
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