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Greenscreen with Envy

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

When times are tough, some actors have to swallow their pride, close their eyes and take the cheque. Never work with animals? Depends if the price (artistic or remunerative) is right.

James Stewart co-starred with Lassie in The Magic of Lassie (1978) whereas Clyde the orangutan took the cheque and decided to team up with Clint Eastwood twice, in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980). Charles Grodin, a student of Lee Strasberg (the father of method acting) had the slobbering and eponymous St. Bernard Beethoven (1992) upstage him, but became a household name.

No-one could accuse Noel Clarke of needing the cash or the kudos but he too gets upstaged in Skillset’s new promo, not by an animal this time, but rather by a giant CGI tick symbol.

I’ll explain. I’m talking about the new promo for Skillset’s “Pick The Tick” campaign which features Noel on a green-screen laden Sound Stage desperately trying to learn his lines. He nervously rehearses “Skillset is the industry body that supports skills and training” under his breath and tries to impress the crew with pretentious badinage that explains why the film is being made.

Clarke, star of Kidulthood and director of Adulthood, not to mention a role in Doctor Who, brings a level of aspirational urban cool with him. Here’s a role model for a new generation of film makers, talking about training.

Some would say there is a slight dissonance of an obviously self-made man (who studied on that old industry bugbear- a media course) – promoting a kitemark of quality training for creative media; but I’m sure Noel’s ambition would have seen him choose a course and university that had the strongest links with industry in his day. And that’s what the Tick is all about. You can see the video here.

Now to me the interesting thing here is of course the recognition that vfx has very much arrived in the public imagination. We all know what a green screen is for, even if we don’t know why it’s green. We even accept the role of the vfx supervisor, sitting at his laptop, behind the camera, as in this promo. The video playfully references the idea of precious or overbearing actors being replaced by a more malleable and accommodating CGI, and these days we can all enjoy the joke.

By stealth this video also alludes to a new priority within Skillset’s Film, TV and Animation departments. We have a programme to help the UK’s nascent vfx degrees get tooled up to industry standard; a TV bursary scheme to allow tv sector freelancers to get access to Escape Studios’ online vfx courses; and bursaries for editors to enable them to take on more advanced vfx-heavy projects. Also, as new vfx courses emerge, we’ll be building a framework to accredit the best. As a frustrated and defeated Noel storms off in the video, it’s worth remembering the Tick symbol is not to be feared, but celebrated. It’s as friendly as canine talent like Beethoven and Lassie, but without the slobbering.

Noel’s done his bit. Now here’s YOUR homework:
http://www.skillset.org/funding/individuals/VFX_Bursaries/ (till 30th Sept 2010)
http://www.skillset.org/funding/individuals/film_bursaries/
http://courses.skillset.org/pick_the_tick/what_is_the_tick

Posted in Media Academies, Skillset, creative media, higher education | No Comments »

THE BRITISH FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRIES – DECLINE OR OPPORTUNITY

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

As you’ve probably have seen from our recent press activity, the Lords Communications Committee’s report on the state of the UK Film and TV industry was out this week. Not only was it a fine report, it had a lot of very good things to say about the importance of training and skills for the prosperity of the industry and our work at Skillset.

Here is a summary of what we said about the recommendations:

1. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should encourage the Higher Education Funding Council to deploy some of its funding to support high-level, post-graduate training in the postproduction and animation sectors;
2. The Higher Education and Funding Council should encourage closer relationships between universities and the creative industries;
3. Skillset’s work on a code of conduct for internships. We are encouraged by the Committee’s support and we will soon be able to publish Guidelines for the industry that cover apprenticeships and other on-the-job training, as well as internships;
4. The film and television industries should provide more equal access to training and skills-based career development through greater use of apprenticeships and graduate internships;
5. Welcoming the continuing role played by the BBC and the BBC’s willingness to make its training more widely available through the launch of the BBC Academy;
6. Understanding the current pressures on the budgets of UK commercial public service broadcasters, but highlighting that a reduction in training budgets threatens the future competitiveness of the UK television industry and urging the Government to encourage them to revive their investment in training;
7. Regret that the UK Film Council should be forced to reduce significantly its funding for training for the next three years, at a time when training should be a priority. Skillset backs the Committee’s call for the Government to make sure that the UK Film Council is adequately funded to allow it at least to restore its former level of support for training;
8. Accepting that in an industry so dependent on freelance working and informal training, there is an urgent need to clarify the uncertainty around statutory definitions of training and asking the industry regulator to take a long term view.
9. Ofcom proposals to develop co-operation within the regulatory framework for training in TV and recommending Ofcom to publish guidance to clarify the roles of the organisations involved.

Here here!

Posted in Media Academies, Skillset, TV, creative media, higher education | No Comments »

DOES THE MILK ROUND STILL DELIVER? The demise of the degree show and why we should do something about it

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Hundreds of shows. Who can visit them all?

Producing relevant talent is just one aspect of the work of Skillset academies and accredited courses. Another is to interface and stay in dialogue with industry, and to feed back knowledge collected this way into the teaching system. In order to make this happen and lure industry into these relationships, the university needs to promote the work of its students, who are after all the output of this endeavour.

In the past it was enough to set up a shop-window and invite people to look in. On creative media courses this traditionally takes the form of the degree show, an annual rite of passage for the student, and an opportunity for industry to recruit or at least to get a drink of wine and informally network with the host institution.

But maybe now is the time to examine the degree show from industry’s perspective. A degree show is an excellent vehicle for students to test out their presentation skills, and an opportunity to take stock of their personal development, and even to learn from peers.

But as an opportunity for industry, it is increasingly anachronistic (more…)

Posted in Media Academies, Skillset, creative media, higher education | 1 Comment »