Broadcast
With
tax breaks for top-end drama set to come in next year, studios have
been investing in additional space to meet the expected increase in
demand. Adrian Pennington reports.
With
unrelenting demand for event TV, renewed tax breaks for the film
industry and the promise of similar carrots for top-end drama, the
studio sector finished 2012 full of confidence, at the larger end of
the scale at least.
With
TV producers expected to benefit from a 25% tax break on UK-based
productions with budgets of more than £1m an hour from April,
several studios have convinced investors of the business sense in
building more space.
“If
the government is creating incentive mechanisms for producers to work
in the UK rather than places such as Hungary or South Africa, we need
to have the capacity to handle that work here in the UK, so we are
very encouraged,” says Pinewood Shepperton chief executive Ivan
Dunleavy.
To
capitalise on this, Dunleavy is leading a major expansion of the
nation’s biggest studio complex, unwrapping a 30,000 sq ft hybrid
TV/ film stage this year and starting construction on another 30,000
sq ft space.
In
January, Project Pinewood, the group’s attempt to grow its
Buckinghamshire base with standing sets and 1,500 homes, was blocked
by the government. But Dunleavy has a new planning application before
the local authority, which, if successful, will double the size of
Pinewood’s site.
“Just
having a big box is not the be-all and end-all of what a studio is
about,” he says. “If that was the case, you could fi nd an empty
car-manufacturing plant and call it a studio.”
The
UK is now awash with big boxes, some with all the functionality a
major production would expect. These include Black Hangar Studios
near Basingstoke, which features a 32,000 sq ft space and a 5,000 sq
ft water tank, and plans to open two further 15,000 sq ft stages in
the next six months. Chief executive Carole Siller aims for 60% of
the studios space to be occupied by TV productions.
“This
is a different environment to Pinewood – it’s more bespoke and
intimate, and we can be more cost-effective,” she says.
However,
plans to convert the 500-acre former aerodrome and hangars at
Woodford, near Manchester, into a studio have been usurped by
residential development, though location filming is welcomed.
Bigger
and better
Last
month, Elstree Studios greenlit £4.5m in funding to develop a 30,000
sq ft complex, including a 16,000 sq ft stage. The Borehamwood site
will nearly double in capacity on the back of its “healthiest year
ever”, according to managing director Roger Morris.
“The
old adage is that you can always put a small production in a big
studio but not vice versa,” he says. “This year, we’ve
re-established our facilities and brand as one of the top three in
the country.” It would have been in the top two – after Pinewood–
Morris says, but for the rebirth of nearby Leavesden under owner
Warner Bros.
While
predominantly a feature film facility, four of its nine stages are
bigger than 30,000 sq ft –more than enough for the growing number
of shiny floor TV spectaculars. Elstree, regular home to Big Brother
and Dancing On Ice, hopes to entice the final live shows of The Voice
UK back for a second run in 2013, having attracted the second series
of Red or Black? to switch from Fountain Studios.
All
the right moves
Elstree
is also the main beneficiary of BBC Studios and Post Production’s
temporary relocation while TVC is refurbished. Based at the studios
from March until 2015, BBC S&PP is installing galleries, TV
floors and lighting grids across the 7,500 sq ft stages 8 and 9,
enabling Morris to market high-spec TV spaces rather than
four-wallers for the first time.
Aside
from EastEnders, which is permanently based at BBC Elstree, it is now
home to BBC productions including Pointless, The Matt Lucas Awards
and the 2013 series of Strictly Come Dancing, which will be filmed on
the 15,600 sq ft George Lucas Stage.
Wimbledon
Film & Television Studios is also hopeful of landing BBC
productions, including a 90-minute BBC2 drama about the early days of
Doctor Who.
“As
the new kid on the block in 2011, we experienced a surge of interest
and the second year might have been the acid test, but our hard work
and capital expenditure paid off,” says managing director Piers
Read.
An
array of standing sets have given Wimbledon Studios an immediate
niche in comedy, with Fast Girls, Friday Night Dinner, This Is Jinsy,
Anna & Katy and Cardinal Burns all shot there. “Our stages are
too small to get onto the list of venues for event TV shows but we
are on the lookout for a larger facility and are gauging
geographically where to put it,” says Read.
He
hopes the 8,000 sq ft HD studio, used by Twofour for Sky 1’s The
Angel in June, will encourage further lightent productions to book,
such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats. Meanwhile, the site’s tenanted production
offices are set to double in size by mid-2013.
Also
in its second year of business is The Studios at MediaCityUK, renamed
Dock10 and now home to Dragons’ Den and Countdown. ITV’s first
show from Salford will be The Jeremy Kyle Show in the new year,
although Dock10 lost Sports Personality Of The Year to Excel.
East
London studio 3 Mills’ summer was partly spent housing rehearsals
for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. “A lot of people
got the impression that we weren’t working while the Olympics was
on, but we were – and we are continuing to attract business,”
says studio executive Derek Watts.
This
has included C4’s The Million Pound Drop Live and Stand Up To
Cancer, BBC 3D drama Mr Stink, Tim Burton’s animated film
Frankenweenie and Danny Boyle feature Trance.
In
any other year, Twickenham Film Studios might not have recovered from
going into administration, as it did in February, but Maria Walker,
chief operating officer of the reborn facility, believes it could
benefit from the incoming tax breaks for drama. Meanwhile, a
delegation from the studio will head to Los Angeles to raise its
profile in the US.
For
all the hype surrounding massive 30,000 sq ft spaces, Fountain
Studios still lays claim to having the largest purpose-built (as
opposed to four-waller) TV studio in the country. Yet at 13,000 sq
ft, even this wasn’t enough to retain Red Or Black?.
“If
anything, shows are getting bigger and bigger,” says managing
director Mariana Spater. Despite this, Fountain had another good
year, she says, thanks to returning shows Britain’s Got Talent, The
Voice UK (live middle sections) and The X Factor, all of which are
pencilled in for 2013.
A
YEAR IN STUDIOS
January
Pinewood’s
£200m bid to build hundreds of homes and sets on adjacent land is
refused planning permission
March
The
Harry Potter Studio Tour opens at Leavesden as a prelude to the
launch of Warner Bros’ £100m complex featuring a clear horizon
100-acre backlot
April
The
Richard Attenborough stage, with room for a 2,000- plus audience,
opens at Pinewood. It is first used to house the film Les Miserables
May
Black
Hangar Studios opens at Lasham Airfi eld, Hampshire, following a
multimillion-pound renovation including sfx and art departments,
construction workshops and aircraft landing
July
Property
developer Stanhope acquires BBC Television Centre for £200m
Twickenham
Studios is bought out of administration by a consortium led by
hotelier Sunny Vohra for an undisclosed sum
September
The
London Studios converts Studio 3 to HD to house ITV daytime
productions Lorraine, Daybreak and Loose Women
BBC
S&PP announces 50 redundancies in preparation for life beyond TVC
November
Pinewood
reports revenues for the six months ending 30 September 2012 of
£27.1m and profit of £6.1m – a £2.5m rise year on year
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