The Northern Ireland film and
television sector is looking to a future beyond the final episode of the
hit HBO show by planning to compete on the global stage.
In the decade since HBO
agreed to shoot a pilot for its new worlds series in Belfast, to the final day
of filming last month, it is no understatement to say that the industry in
Northern Ireland has been revolutionised.
Previously renowned for
documentaries but lacking network commissions – described to Broadcast
by Green Inc Film & Television owner Stephen Stewart as
“chronically under-achieving” and with no history of large, incoming
productions – the region has been transformed.
“The supply chain
infrastructure is unrecognisable from what it was then,” says Richard Williams,
chief executive, Northern Ireland Screen.
“We have two new studios
both effectively built on the optimism and value proposition of Game Of Thrones
and a depth and breadth of skilled resource from crew to post-production that
is giving a generation of talent the feeling that anything can be made here.
“Arguably the most
significant change lies in the perception and credibility of Northern Ireland,
in London and particularly in Los Angeles,” he adds.
Succession plans
Williams’ screen agency is
widely credited among indies for its ambassadorial and practical support. It
has been ambitiously planning for Game Of Thrones’ succession, with the
drama ending after the eighth series.
“It was strategically
extremely important to have Belfast Harbour Studios open before Game Of
Thrones came to an end for the simple reason that we aimed to shift from an
ecosystem that broadly supported one largescale, inward investment project to
one that supported two such projects,” Williams explains.
The privately funded,
£20m Harbour Studios comprises 64,000sq ft of soundstage. It is busy with
the second season of Warner Horizon’s Krypton, “meaning a large chunk of
supply chain companies had a degree of business no matter what happens”, says
Williams.
Post-production houses
Yellow Moon in Holywood, County Down, and Ka-Boom in Belfast, have both
benefited from Game Of Thrones’ location in the nation.
Yellow Moon has employed
more permanent staff, leased several buildings for the HBO team and installed new
kit and editing suites, while Ka-Boom has expanded into wider production
services, including being CAA-approved drone pilots.
Demand for
craft and crew facilities is being further shored up by a growing number of
UK-anchored TV dramas.
These include 3 ×
60-minute period drama Death And Nightingales from Imaginarium and Soho Moon
for BBC2 and three-parter Mrs Wilson, starring Ruth Wilson (and based on
the memoir of her grandmother), co-produced by the BBC and
PBS’s Masterpiece.
Romantic indie feature
Normal People (co-produced by Canderblinks Films and Out Of Orbit) starring
Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) is currently filming based on
a script from Irish playwright Owen McCafferty.
Later this year, BBC1’s
8 x 60-minute The Dublin Murders from Euston Films, Element Pictures
and Veritas Films will shoot in Dublin and Belfast, while the fifth series of
World Productions’ Line Of Duty will return to Belfast.
HBO’s confirmation of a
pilot for new Westeros saga (w/t The Long Night) at Titanic Studios’
Paint Hall in October is more good news. “Our hopes and expectations are that
HBO will remain in Northern Ireland for many years yet,”
says Williams.
“We are still keen on
studioscale feature projects and certainly when we ramp up to three inward
investing projects over the next four years we expect at least one of those to
be a feature.”
The estimated value of
HBO’s investment to date in the region is £206m – not a bad return on £16m in
Northern Ireland funds (see chart).
The Game Of Thrones halo
is less tangible outside of drama but has impacted nonetheless, not least in
raising the profile, skill levels and work load of location scouts to costume
designers.
“Everyone knows they can
come here and make high-end shows,” says Kieran Doherty, the joint
managing director of producer Stellify Media. “They know our crews are world
class.”
Sony joint-venture
Stellify is riding high on multiple wins, including Channel 5’s revivals of
Blind Date and quiz Gino’s Win Your Wish List, plus ITV’s resurrection of Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire?.
While the company has
made entertainment formats like Can’t Touch This for the BBC and is making
social experiment show Celebrity In Solitary for C5 in warehouse
spaces in Belfast, Doherty says the region lacks suitable studios for
larger-scale shiny floor shows.
Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire?, for example, is housed at Dock10 in Manchester.
“One benefit of the Game
Of Thrones crossover is that we can draw on set design and construction or
make-up talent to make shows here, but high-end Saturday night shiny
floors are harder to make without a dedicated TV studio,” says Doherty.
The keys to a burgeoning
entertainment and fact ent sector in the region, however, lie with network
commissioners. Locally this is known as ‘the Sean Doyle effect’ after
the impact made by the London-based, Belfast resident commissioning editor at
C5.
“He doesn’t have a remit
to look to the regions but because he knows the sector here there’s an
immediate trust and understanding of what we can all deliver,” says fellow
Stellify managing director Matthew Worthy.
Doyle recently ordered a
pilot for Celebrity Meltdown, about Britney Spears, from Waddell
Media.
“A big turning point for
all Northern Ireland indies would be if the BBC and Channel 4 could
find someone who could fit Sean’s mould,” says the indie’s managing director
Jannine Waddell.
“This is still a
relationships business. There is more engagement from those broadcasters,
but the difference is that I can meet Sean for a coffee today, whereas I’d need
a day, spend £500 and arrange other appointments, in order to catch-up with execs
in England.”
Green Inc’s Stewart adds:
“Sean has been a very successful commissioner for the community here but that’s
a direct result of him knowing who is on the ground. A lot of executives simply
don’t have that knowledge. C4 and the BBC are doing a lot of good work to
get more local commissions but there is more work to be done.”
Unfortunately, C4 recently
struck Belfast off the shortlists for its new national HQ and creative
hubs, which would likely have propelled production in the city and surrounding
regions into overdrive.
Some indies are launching
satellite offices in Belfast. Initially, perhaps, this was in anticipation of
an increased C4 presence but it is also in order to tap network quotas,
Endemol Shine’s Darlow Smithson Productions launched a Belfast base in
April to expand its factual output.
Headed by producer Anne
Stirling, who was hired from running her own production outfit, the indie is up
and running with series three and four (40 eps) of Ill Gotten Gains for BBC
Daytime.
Working together
For Green Inc and Waddell
one answer lies in increased co-pro alliances. “It’s down to finance –
broadcasters want more bang for buck,” says Waddell. “Americans tend to move
faster than broadcasters in the UK but it’s always a slow process trying to get
everything together.”
Waddell has half a dozen
returning series, including Find Me A Home, Francis Brennan’s Grand Tour
and At Your Service, all for RTÉ.
“The expectation of
broadcasters in terms of development is so high and so expensive that you can’t
compete with the big guns who have massive budgets unless you join forces,”
says Stewart.
Green Inc co-pros include
BBC4’s Hive Minds with Saltbeef and Ireland’s Got Talent with
Dublin’s Kite Entertainment.
Northern Ireland
Screen’s most recent funding incentive aims to boost co-finance deals with
Canadian producers. Around £330,000 over three years is being made available to
support development of digital media and TV projects.
Everyone is searching for
a long-running returnable series such as 24 Hours In A&E or Bargain
Hunt. “Once you have that volume of hours you can build an industry around it,”
says Stellify’s Doherty.
Waddell adds: “A few years
ago productions shooting here would have had to bring a lot of people over
here, while talent growing up in Northern Ireland would have felt the need
to move away to find work. That has changed. Now our talent can see that
there is a consistent volume of fantastic work to build their careers on their
doorstep.”
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