Demos Report

North West Vision Takes Its Big Picture to Westminster

An exciting new report shows how North West Vision builds community, identity and enterprise in England’s Northwest.

Alice Morrison, Chief Executive of North West Vision, has welcomed the findings of a major new research report by Demos, launched at a Westminster reception for MPs, which highlights the Agency’s work to support the region’s film and media industries.

The report “A Big Picture” was written by Demos, a leading independent research organisation and commissioned by Screen England, which represents each of the English Regional Screen Agencies (RSAs) to look at the impact that they have collectively, and individually across England.

One of the most striking findings of the report was the amount of money that the RSAs leveraged in external investment for their regions. Overall during 2004/05 the RSAs leveraged £13.5million worth of external investment for screen industries and screen culture. Investment awards made from North West Vision’s £1million Regional Attraction Fund (funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency) in 2005 are estimated to generate over £25million for the local economy over the next two years.

The report also found that North West Vision supports the regional creative economy by:

• Providing practitioners and organisations with access to finance and business support through its diverse range of funds and signposting.
  
• Enabling and growing the infrastructure through the free support provided by its five regional film offices. In 2005 North West Vision’s film offices facilitated over 2000 location-filming days, which collectively helped generate over £50 million for the local economy.
  
• Contributing to diversity. North West Vision has awarded over £1million of lottery funding over the past 3 years to 301 beneficiaries with 34% of all funding benefiting diverse, disadvantaged or under represented groups. Candella Films has been supported and encouraged by North West Vision since it started trading. It runs a unique trail by combining independent short film production, community education workshops and festival programming with a global network of filmmakers, festivals, programmers and distributors. Lottery award of £5,000 resulted in the short film "The Flower Chamber", a production led by Candella but crewed by first time filmmakers from the Chinese community in Manchester. North West Vision continues to offer support by creating a network of communication with companies, both in the Northwest and internationally, which is now a solid source of work for Candella films.
  
• Promoting technological innovation North West Vision and the BBC forged a strong working partnership at the end of 2005 with the aim of working with UK new media talent to develop the next big thing through a series of pilot schemes designed to nurture innovation. Through BBC Innovation Labs Northwest professionals were offered seed funds to help develop groundbreaking ideas through to prototype. Ideas were then pitched to BBC commissioners with a view to funding the next stages of production.

Alice Morrison Chief Executive said:

“North West Vision plays a pivotal, but sometimes unrecognised role in helping to nurture and develop a thriving and dynamic market for film and moving image in the Northwest. We work across new media, games, television as well as film and are involved in production, training, locations, business development, education, festivals and cinema. We are an important part of the Northwest’s creative economy and today’s report shows that for a relatively small investment we are able to ensure big rewards.”

Read the Demos Report - DEMOS_12PP_AW.pdf (814.02 KB)