BCre8ive – Blog | Creative notes to explain and inspire

Funding Your Creative Work Part 1. Grants

Posted on 11/01/2017 by Phil

A new year and new creative projects beckon, but how to fund them? Following on from the previous blog on crowdfunding this one looks at public funds available to creatives in the UK. Future blogs will look at private investment, and competitions – for up dates on current competition go to https://www.bcre8ive.eu/competitions-and-events.

A few words of warning with respect to grant funding.

a. Grants tend to be for very specific purposes, and aimed at very specific types of creator. Therefore, do not expect to find a grant for your project or try to make your creative work fit a programme it is not a fit for.

b. Grant applications take time to research, and write. Even talking at length with the grant administrator does not guarantee success. Therefore, weigh up the time commitment against your own creative output to see if it is worth it.

c. Grant applications, like competitions, work to their own timetables. Some like Grants for Arts are open all the time but this is rare. Therefore, ask yourself does the timetable work for your project?

Arts Councils

Arts Council England

Grants for the Arts programme has been running for some time and supports individuals and small groups with grants from £1000 -£100,000.

They also have a funding finder option to help you with others sources of support http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/other-sources-funding#section-2

Creative Scotland

The general funding body for arts and media work in Scotland with a good weekly newsletter for opportunities opportunities.creativescotland.com

Arts Council of Wales

Funding ranging from literature to film http://www.arts.wales/what-we-do/funding/apply/individuals

Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Support for arts in Northern Ireland http://artscouncil-ni.org/funding/funding-for-individuals

Arts Council Ireland

A programme of awards ranging from street art and film to writing and dance. http://www.artscouncil.ie/available-funding/

Other Organisations

British Council

Looking for an international link up then this is probably the place to start https://www.britishcouncil.org/study-work-create/opportunity/funding-creativity

NESTA

For those with a science bent or in search of a major loan for an arts project then this isa good destination. http://www.nesta.org.uk/get-funding

Creative Skillset

Aimed at film and TV companies there are training and development opportunities via various seperate funds. http://creativeskillset.org/who_we_help/creative_businesses/funding_for_creative_businesses

Film London

Annual micro budget and short film competitions http://filmlondon.org.uk/funding

Creative England

Funding for film, games and digital projects outside London http://www.creativeengland.co.uk/about/who-we-are

The Princes Trust

If you are 18-30 the Princes Trust could advice on how to start up your creative business https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-for-young-people/support-starting-business

Wellcome Foundation

Grants £5,000 -£3m for health-science related arts projects https://wellcome.ac.uk/funding/public-engagement-fund

Grants for Specific Creative Work

UK Games Fund

Support for games developers http://ukgamesfund.com/uk-games-fund/

Getty Images

For photographers Getty run a series of grant competitions currently emerging talent and editorial http://wherewestand.gettyimages.com/grants/

Dorothea Lange – Paul Taylor Award

An annual grant for documentary collaborations between writers and photographers http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/awards/lange-taylor

CENTER – Advancing the photographic arts

Sante Fe based series of grants for various photographic projects http://visitcenter.org/call-for-entries/

Don Freeman Awards

Two annual awards for illustrators for children’s books in development prior to contracts http://www.scbwi.org/awards/grants/work-in-progress-grants/don-freeman-illustrator-grants/

General Grant-Aid

For European Union support check out the Creative Europe site

For a more general overall assessment of how you individually may obtain financial support they possibly try out Turn2Us

For a large list of international film and video grants check out http://videoandfilmmaker.com/wp/index.php/category/funding-2/

For a large list of international photography grants etc see https://www.david-campbell.org/photography/grants/

All the best for your applications and projects.

Posted in Creative industries, Creative Policy, Funding | Comments Off

Visions of Inclusion – more practical steps

Posted on 28/11/2016 by Phil

In the previous blog the issues around building trust, and the initial steps towards an inclusive creative community were addressed. This week the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation published their report on BAME talent and the barriers to entry in UK theatre – Centre Stage :The Pipeline for BAME Talent. In the light of this I am looking at the issues of recruitment, progression and visions of inclusion across the creative industries.. All of these points are part of the bigger picture addressed in earlier discussions around the issues and solutions facing the creative industries in the UK.

Nepotism is the enemy of inclusion and quality

One of the major problems facing any creative team, be they part of a large media company or a small start up, is the lack of skills and/or experience to be found in the current workforce. This combined with a lack of advertising spend in the early stages of start ups has led to musical chairs at the senior level of company development, a reliance of on who you know when it comes to temporary staff or talent recruitment, and networking within small self-defining communities when looking to develop new teams.

Some of this is understandable when you consider the myths and misunderstanding about the nature of creativity – see previous blog on making content development work. However, beyond these basic issues the narrow basis from which most recruiting is done needs to be widened if inclusion is to be our goal, and talent is genuinely going to be the real decider.

Starting from the Inside

You cannot be inclusive toward excluded individuals if you are not already inclusive inside your organisation.

“When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless.” Ed Catmull : Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Developing an open structure where everyone in the team – including the cleaner, is able to contribute to new ideas, developing a product and helping rescue projects is vital to an inclusive approach, working. It means that when a traditionally excluded group member enters the team they are equal terms with people from the off. This can be seen in one of the most successful and largest international design companies Arup to the small team operations of Supercell one of the world’s leading games companies.

First Encounters

Most people can remember those who were good at exams in school, and those who were not, those who are quiet in groups, and those that dominate, those who are good with words and those who seek to find the right ones. Given these difference it becomes critical to be open to different levels of skill, experience, and confidence – doubly so when dealing with individuals who have experienced discrimination, or know they are from a traditionally excluded group.

In the last blog I emphasised the need for open introduction sessions, and short introductory courses. However, the interview or the recruitment process needs to follow a similar inclusive agenda. Always ensure more than one person is present at all interviews, and that they reflect a diversity in their presence. One male and one female is a good start, but asking a representative of an excluded group to be part of the process will again build trust into the process.

Equally do not assume the lead interviewer will be the most senior person present, as often as not this will be a white middle class man. Let the person from the excluded community take the lead. You will gain the same information from the interviewee but the fact that someone other than the white middle class man is leading, matters. It helps build trust.

Striving for Quality

Often when people discuss issues of inclusion you hear the fear of ‘positive discrimination’ or worse ‘political correctness’ leading to an undermining of quality – token gestures leading to bad appointments. The real problem is that current practice has led to bad appointments, and the exclusion of talent, thus undermining the quality of the creative industries. Evidence of this runs from UK acting talent flourishing in the US to the decline of the UK dominance in games development on the global stage, and the ongoing failure of UK films to make profits.

Quality is continually undermined if you do not include the best people available, and have an open and diverse approach to the global audiences which now dominate our digital worlds.

Visions of Inclusion

Trust is hard to build in a team, especially in a culture riven with fear of the other, and the insecurities of freelance and temporary contracts. If we want quality, we have to be inclusive. To do this we need to overcome these fears. The easiest way to achieve this is to respect each other, and include everyone in the goal of creating better.

Quality sometimes is achieved by accident, but as Pixar and various other companies and teams have proved it is largely by design. So as Ed Catmull puts it :-

“Always take a chance on better, even if it seems threatening.”

Posted in Art of development, Creative Collaboration, Creative industries, Creative Policy | Comments Off

Inclusivity in the Creative Industries – first steps

Posted on 14/11/2016 by Phil

The question of diversity, or lack of, within the creativity industries has been an issue for a long time, and over the last few years has steadily taken center stage in many discussions. As a response the idea of inclusivity has gained ground, and was part of the solutions posted in a previous blog. This blog seeks to look at a step by step approach to being inclusive both in an educational/training environment and within Creative companies.

Trust

Building trust amongst excluded, or under represented, communities is the biggest initial problem faced by anyone or any organisation seeking to be inclusive. Years of token gestures, institutionalised discrimination, or simply indifference has created a culture of mistrust amongst many communities. Examples range from expecting Black stories from Black writers, who may have wanted to write sci-fi or action thrillers, to never asking why no women were in heads of department positions or teams were 90% plus male to say nothing of why so many Oxbridge graduates dominated creative positions in the arts etc.

The cumulative effect of this has been to see many excluded individuals, or whole groups, feeling it s pointless to apply or train for a post as it will ultimately lead no-where. In this context it is not enough to merely create targeted schemes, quotas or adopted an inclusive policy. The aim has to be a strategy of long term development aimed at quality, and fair representation.

Step 1. Reaching Out

The first step is to go to the under represented communities where they are – not wait for them to apply to join you. All the groups which are currently excluded have organisations and/or networks which connect them together. Setting up short introductory courses to feed into your larger educational or training programme, or your company’s specific skills base. This may need to be done in a town, city or area away from your base but the cost of an overnight and travel expenses for one or two people to provide a weekend introductory course is a sign of real commitment. It goes a long way to building the all important trust needed for any strategy to work.

Step 2. Choosing the right Ambassadors

Sending a really senior person to be part of the initial conversation with groups, or to run an introductory course is a sign of commitment. So if this is the right person they should go. Why might they not be the right person? Trust is a difficult thing to build in the face of a history of discrimination. Therefore, it is critical in these first encounters that someone, in the team reaching out, fully understands the issues within the community you are seeking to include. It may be that they have direct experience themselves of discrimination but critically they must be aware of the specific issue relevant to the group/s being addressed, and be able to engage with questions raised in conversations.

Failure to understand or recognise issues, a defensive attitude, or simple ignorance will undermine any potential trust. It might appear obvious that the person who recruits staff, or runs a particular company, is the best person to send out as your ambassador but if they cannot reach out in a credible way then the strategy will fall at its first hurdle.

Step 3. Low Cost Access

We are not discussing here just physical access – as this should be taken as a given, and is legally required in most cases.. Access in its wider sense is about the cost of developing skills and issues of progression within a given creative environment.

To be cost effective initial steps have to be low cost. Hence the idea of very short courses which are open to relatively large groups or specifically targeted groups. By running them at weekends or as evening courses they become open to those who have existing jobs, only have child care for some out of work hours, and can only afford limited fees.

Where access involves specific skills in the use of particular sofware or technical equipment then access to these facilities needs to be on offer as part of the initial plan. This can be achieved by bulk purchase subscriptions on behalf of groups, sponsorship from equipment suppliers, grant aid (see below)or granting access to existing facilities. Many companies and educational institutions have equipment and facilities which are not in use at the weekend or for short periods. Setting up a network of these would be a great new step towards providing an inclusive environment.

Step 4. A ladder of Progression

To be attractive there needs to be a clear ladder of progression set out within the initial offer of the introductory sessions. This may be obvious within a big company, and for degree based education, etc. where routes to careers are part of the appeal. However, much of the creative industries is dominated by freelancers and the life of a freelancer has to be part of any offer being laid out to these excluded communities.

In the later context the importance of competitions, and the use if social media, etc. not only for connections, information, and in some cases training, but also as a means of distribution, and sales of work, need to be emphasised.

Step 5. Acts of Inclusion

The fear is always that you spend the money and time and its benefit goes to someone else or ends up producing no new entrants into your creative set up. The point is here we are a long way from developing our wider potential inclusive creative base and any shift in the inclusivity will sooner or later benefit everyone as the creative industries as a whole increase and the quality of work improves. Your contribution will pay off – you may just not see it at first.

In order to off set the costs involved in these endeavours then the use of grants from the lottery fund, arts councils and various charitable and not for profit organisations is an important part of the strategy, especially for small companies and freelancers.

These are the initial steps beyond these are the issues of recruitment, progression and visions of inclusion, but these are for another blog. Se Practical Steps https://blog.bcre8ive.net/visions-of-inclusion-more-practical-steps/

Posted in Creative Collaboration, Creative industries, Creative Policy | Comments Off

Collaborative Education in Practice

Posted on 02/11/2016 by Phil

In a previous blog I have written about the importance of collaborative education, and how in Scotland a portal and resources have been set up for people to use to enhance this in schools. In this blog I will set out the experience of running a collaborative workshop at MA level, and its impact on screenwriting education in the UK.

The MA Screenwriting course

In 1994 I set up an MA Screenwriting course* at the London College of Printing (now the London College of Communication), part of the University of the Arts,London. This was at a time when the majority of the people in the industry did not believe you could teach screenwriting, despite the existence of successful courses in the USA. The structure of the course was one day a week in college over two years. A structure which allowed the fees to be kept low(below £400p.a. initially)**. The majority of students were over 30, with an intake of 8 in the first year climbing to 24p.a. from the sixth year onwards.

The course was structured around three writing projects in year one – a short film, a 30 minute TV series, and a 30 minute adaptation, and in year two a major project – an original feature film or TV Series.

Creating a Collaborative Workshop

At the heart of the course was a series of workshops in which writers’ works were reviewed under very strict conditions. This involved every member of the workshop reading the work , and making notes on the work, in advance of the workshop. Each work was then allocated an equal amount of time for responses,and everyone in the group was given the same amount of time to verbally respond to each work. The session was chaired by a lecturer who had read and written a report on all the work under discussion.

Obviously, in practice some people spoke a lot, others said little, in their allocated time, at first, and some projects took longer to review than others. However, as the series of workshops progressed this tended to even out and the crucial thing was many people gained confidence in their own analysis, and all people became better at understanding how a narrative could be improved. Eventually, the students were able to chair their own workshops – though to varying degrees of success!

The key point was that if anyone identified a problem they had to provide an answer. It was this positive critical approach that made the whole venture collaborative.People were contributing to each other work, without credits, and in the process learning how to solve creative problems.

The Outcomes

Within five years of starting the course one student had won a Palme D’Or and another been Oscar nominated, while several were writing regularly for British television. By the end of ten years there were numerous BAFTA winners and over 70% of graduates were either commissioned, or agented, within two years of leaving the course. In one year three of the four BAFTA nominees for best new TV writers were from the course. While both the Millenium episodes of ‘EastEnders‘ and ‘Coronation Street’ – the two most watched TV dramas were written by course graduates.

THhs approach became the benchmark for other UK courses later accredited under Creative Skillset’s Tick programme.

Why does it work?

Emotional issues are addressed.

There are two key emotional issues which ensure that during the course of a workshop that not only do the writers gain enormously in terms of their ability to write better screenplays, but the projects themselves move on to a radically different level of achievement.

a. The issue of creators being too close to their work.

Creating a critical distance from work is very difficult, and allowing for a lapse of time is often seen as the only option. The workshop process however, enables creators to see problems in other people’s work and thus start to identify the same problems in their own.

In addition, the process of providing solutions to a range of different problems in other projects then provides a creator with a new range of solutions for problems in their own work.

b. A matter of opinion is changed into how to make it better.

In developing work – especially with creators who do not have vast experience or in some cases only a limited range of experience, it is inevitable that there will be problems with the project. The problem is that if this is aired in a one-to-one environment it is easy for the creator and the other person to end up feeling, if not stating, that the problem is merely a matter of opinion.

However, if a problem is identified as a problem by several other people, and they provided a range of solutions to resolve it, then the creator is less likely to merely see this as a matter of opinion.

Problem solving can stall, or stop, a good project in development

All projects have problems in development. The key is finding solutions to them and avoiding going around in circles, or the creator and the rest of the team working at odds on the same project.

The workshop not only identifies problems, it provides solutions, and one creator who might be good on one aspect will help another creator who might be good on another. Thus each project benefits from the best of everyone in the workshop not just the creator’s own abilities.

Using this collaborative approach, here used in a creative context, pays benefits across the board in all forms of education where problems in approach, structure, skills and insights are at different levels and people need to learn fast.

Taking Criticism

One final point,as a product of this approach it was noticeable that many people in the industry commented on how well graduates took notes. Learning to work collaboratively helps everyone start to see the problem is with the work not the person. It makes for a more creative life.

* the original course also included a strand for MA Documentary Research, which was split off into a separate degree after four years.

**The current MA Screenwiting course at LCC is full time and the fees are £8,500.

Posted in Art of development, Creative Collaboration, Creative Policy, Creative Tools | Comments Off

Collaborative Education

Posted on 28/10/2016 by Phil

Collaborative Education is a key part of improving the chances for creatives in our uncertain world, especially one dominated by freelancers and small micro companies who will need to develop new teams, and collaborate on projects using a diversity of funding and distribution opportunities. However, it is not a taught skill either in schools or the majority of HE media courses, other than as a byproduct of creating work.

The overall skills gap for the creative industries was identified this week by a report ‘Social Mobility and the Skills Gap’ from the Creative Industries Federation.

“Britain’s got talent. It is the basis of our hugely successful creative industries which are the fastest growing sector of the UK economy and are worth £87.4bn. Our creative economy now employs one in 11 of the working population1. But we also have a talent crisis. We are failing to provide enough young people with the right mix of skills for many of the exciting jobs in the creative economy..” Social Mobility and the Skills Gap – Creative Industries Federation Oct 2016.

The report rightly focused on a number of the key issues facing the UK post-the Brexit vote, and where the education system is enmeshed in a debate about the place of creative courses in schools’ education curriculum – STEM v. STEAM. However, nowhere does it engage with the need for collaborative working to be part of the curriculum, HE courses or the wider debate about inclusion within the creative industries.

What is Collaborative Education?

As far back as the early 2000’s UK researchers discovered the value of collaborative education practices in schools, which led in 2010 to Education Scotland establishing their own online co-operative and collaboration resources. At the heart of this site, which also includes collaborations on health and other matters, is a creativity portal. a joint project with Creative Scotland.

The aim of this work was to improve the group based working evident in primary schools, and to encourage its use all the way through the education landscape to life-long learning. Creativity was identified as the key link across the curriculum, and this is the point. Teaching creative collaboration as part of all subjects is the way to improve learning and provide the essential social skills needed to support and develop creatives at all levels of education. Collaborative education is not about a subject it is about the very nature of how we teach and learn, and it is essentially a creative process.

This blog is too short to go into details but you will find case studies at the Education Scotland portal. You can read about a particularly successful collaborative workshop process at MA level in the following blog.

Why is it so important to the Creative Subjects and the Industries as a whole?

The reasons for this are perhaps captured in this Steve Jobs interview where he talks about teams, trust, and the importance of supporting great ideas. How do you do this if you have never been taught in a collaborative atmosphere, other than by a very long process of failure? Collaborative education provides a learning experience where you work through the often difficult process of understanding other people’s visions, engaging in critical rational argument and dealing with egos.

Teaching people specific skills, or supporting them in their individual achievements, is one thing. However, for a creative project to work it involves more than one person, especially now in the digital age. If individual creatives are to prosper, and we are not to waste talent, then we need creatives who can work across all digital platforms in teams to exploit all the potential of an idea. This is how you build companies and support freelancers as they contribute to teams.

Collaboration is key to Success.

You can read about what two of our creative champions Jocelyn Stephenson – The Magic Bus, Fraggle Rock, Bob The Builder, and Leslie Stewart – Casualty, Monarch of the Glen, Moomins on the Riviera, think about the importance of collaboration. Or take note of the head of Pixar in this quote from his book on managing creativity

“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.” Ed Catmull : Creativity Inc.

Another BCre8ive champion Nick Park – Wallace and Gromit, talks about his first collaboration in a career, which includes numerous OSCARs and BAFTAs HERE

These are all leading creatives covering a range of creatives mediums and formats. They all talk about the importance of collaboration to their successes. We need to listen, and develop new ways of teaching and learning which put creative collaboration at the heart of all our educative processes.

Collaboration is key to Inclusion

One of the major debates currently running in TV and Film is the lack of BAME talent, while the issue of women in the gaming world has been debated for several years. Creativity does not lie with one type of person, and we have an incredibly diverse population. This is to say nothing of the diverse audiences we now address with our global web-based distribution.

Diversity brings its problems, people have experienced different cultural expectations/customs. People often fear other people, not just because they are different but because they do not know how to share those experiences and differences in a creative way. Learning through collaboration where the focus is on the project not the person, where listening to others is part of the process , and where criticism is about what works not whose ideas it is allows diversity to flourish.

If we truly want diversity to not be a barrier to our teams and our creativity, then we need to embrace collaborative learning and working.

Using creative collaboration as a tool in education prepares students for the real life work environment where the ability to collaborate is critical to the creative industries success. It does not matter if this is in a STEM, STEAM or STREAM curriculum what is crucial is that we embed creative collaboration into all subjects. It is also probably the best and fastest way to encourage diversity, and thus inclusion.

Phil

Posted in Art of development, Creative Collaboration, Creative Policy | 2 Comments

Creative Crowdfunding – new steps?

Posted on 06/10/2016 by Phil

Five weeks after Nesta and the Arts Council launched their crowd funding pilot for arts projects this blog looks at where we are with crowdfunding creative projects, and how do you obtain grants etc. to help your funding campaign.

Crowdfunding for some creative projects has been around a while. Indiegogo was founded in 2008, while Kickstarter started in the US in 2009, and launched in the UK in 2012. Initially focused on film projects these creative crowdfunding sites have now become major book and comic publishers and raise monies for all types of creative projects. In turn they have been joined in the UK by sites ranging from Crowdfunder and BloomVC to Unbound. It has also seen WeFund come and go.

Why Use Crowdfunding?

The obvious reason is it potentially raises money for you to create a new work, or expand an existing project. What is not so obvious is it also potentially creates or expands your fan base, as well as providing credibility to other funders, and in the current climate potentially match funding for your own fund raising efforts.

However, the first check if your project eligible for the crowdfunding site you want to use? All platforms have restrictions, and many have very specific target groups or types of projects which are favoured by the crowdfunding community using that site. It is no use putting a lot of time and effort into planning a crowdfunding operation only to discover you cannot use a crowdfunder, or that your project does not match the pattern of projects funded on a particular site.

The key things to look for are the type and the size of successfully funded projects. Second is the number of active projects like yours, and how long each campaign is taking to successfully raise its funds. This will give you some idea not only of the competition but also the community using the site, and how many people you may need to attract to raise your funds.

What are the most Successful Projects?

With names such as Whoppi Goldberg, De La Soul, Hal Hartley etc. putting up projects you might expect them to be the most successful but in reality it is product designs e.g. Pebble Watch and etc which raise the millions on Kickstarter. However, in the UK the crowdfunding average is more like £7,000 with some asks being as low as £100. Overall the success rate for funding is from 10-20% across all the main sites. However, those who raise above 25-30% in the first 3 weeks do tend to go on to raise the full amount. Depending which site you use the fee you pay to the site will vary up to 9% – something to factor into how much you aim to raise.

So what works best in the UK?

Clearly socially orientated arts and creative projects have a greater success rate than individual creative efforts. So if you have a particular cause or topic you are passionate about create a project around this, and use the campaign to raise money for it, and obviously for you to create the work which highlights the cause etc.

Be realistic – start small – aim to raise a small amount , enough to get the project started, unless you have thousands of facebook friends. After all if you are very successful you can add a stretch target i.e. adding an extra amount of money to be raised. The announcement of a successful campaign and referencing it in future funding applications is obviously better than a failure which you do not want to mention.

Use UK networks but remember the web is global – you may find that people in other countries like your work more than people in the UK!

How do you run a successful campaign?

The first point to make is you probably need some money to start it. This is where the friends and family scenario can seriously disadvantage the majority of creatives, who do not have a circle of contacts with income which they can just give to a new creative project. Though you can start with donations as low as £5-10, it is the donations in the hundreds which ensure you can raise the necessary sums in order to undertake a significant project. This is where you need to look at front loaded match funding schemes, competitions, or local funds which can be used to help launch your campaign.

This blog is too short to provide all the tips and advice which will help you – and most sites give solid advice on how to use their platform.

For a list of tools which will help you create and run a great campaign check out this blog 13 Tools for a Successful KickStarter and IndeiGoGo campaigns.

There are numerous blogs etc from marketing companies with tips etc on how to be successful in your campaign here are two. 1. 3 Simple Steps because a few broad points are worth remembering and 2. 101 Crowdfunding is at the end of this blog – you may want to pin this up somewhere just to remind you of all the things you need to do.

Professionally looking projects with a great video, but also strong visuals to support the work, tend to attract more attention. The quality of digital photographs or illustrations which you can give away as rewards to donors is a major incentive for many. Try to avoid physical giveaways – the postage and time taken to wrap them up often detracts from your funds and crucially your time.

It is a lot of work.

Is it right for you?

If you have a great idea, some strong visuals and the time to dedicate to it – probably.

Posted in Art of development, Creative Policy, Creative Tools, Web | Comments Off

Four Solutions for the Creative Industries

Posted on 08/09/2016 by Phil

Following on from last week’s blog this article looks at some possible solutions to the issues identified in ‘Four Key issues for the Creative Industries’. Several people have commented on the fact that some of the issues I raised in the previous article existed before the Brexit vote. Clearly this is the case. However, certain moments require us to recognise radically changed circumstances. The coming years of uncertainty over funding, global partnerships, and trade relationships, is the one certainty we can count on, and presents us with one of these moments.

The future will be more competitive for UK based creative talent and companies. The ending of existing relationships within the EU, potential talent exchange issues, higher costs for distribution and well financed global predators will all impact on the UK creative industries. In order to deal with this scenario we need to adapt to the digital creative environment and the expectations of contemporary global audiences.

Our Creative Culture revamped

Key to future developments is our ability to be agile in our creative structures, collaborative in our creative teams, and focused on producing high quality creative activity. Central to this endeavour is the need to place collaborative working at the heart of our educational process. Individual skills remain a high priority but without an effective team the best ideas often die.

“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.”

Ed Catmull : Pixar/Disney

Moving away from our ’cherry-picking’ approach to talent development, will also strengthen teams and enhance diversity.

Embracing the potential and impact of everything digital is another critical factor in C.I. growth. The use of online courses, digital hubs, and recognising the potential of YouTube exposure and self-publishing/distribution, are essential to developing effective teams as well as individual talents.[1]

Identifying best practice in development across all the creative industries, and then implementing this in both schools and HE, is the platform for long-term success.

Our creative structures rebuilt

We also need to be more collaborative in our overall approach to the Creative Industries. This will involve re-thinking our national support structures and peer review systems within the creative environment, developing effective outreach strategies to create greater diversity, and taking risks on new platforms/global audiences. Pursuing such practices in existing companies and funding schemes, will shorten development time, and raise our overall success rate.

In this context, there is a need to recognise the importance of micro-companies, and small team structures, not only in promoting creativity, but also improving our chances of success. Therefore, greater support for creative freelance training and a wider access to funded mentoring is key to growing the C.I. sector.

Public seed funding of start up projects linked to larger investment initiatives can provide an open access landscape and the possibility of many, rather than occasional, successes. [2]

Our Creative Investment re-imagined

The ‘risky’ aspect of investing in creative activity has to be addressed head on. The majority of creative investment is now in a very conservative mode, from sequels, and spin-offs, to re-vamps and cross-platform exploitation.

Audiences will seek different visions in the post-Brexit world, not only in the UK, but globally. If we can establish an investment strategy that embraces and supports the new, we open up the possibility of becoming leading players in the global C.I. future.

In order to do this we need to educate investors as to the real risks of investing in the creative industries, and how to mitigate them. This will require a well-informed team of investor educators. It will also involve a portfolio approach to investments. This means backing teams rather than individuals, spreading risk across several projects, and possibly several platforms.

‘Sweat’ equity needs to be at the heart of incentivising talent, as it is in the R&D worlds of tech and science developments.

The levels of initial investment need not be high but it must be aligned with a marketing strategy with realistic budgets and time frames. No-one can eliminate risk but we can improve the odds.

Our Creative Marketing re-born

The effective use of small social media teams with an awareness of how to use the global potential of audience building beyond simple brand awareness is the key to investment working. This takes time and forward planning, which initially will be slow to succeed, but within three years could be the basis for an explosion of creative success.

The involvement of the major UK advertising players in this endeavour could prove vital. However, even without their involvement creative marketing teams are essential to our C.I. future. This is a real opportunity for millennials to shine.

Our Creative Choices

We could, of course, ignore all of these issues or merely tackle one part of he value chain. After all, as has been pointed out, some of these issues have been with us for a long time. There is also the attraction of focusing on obvious Brexit issues. After all this is the big news focus.

However, the solutions proposed above, though not easy to delver, will provide the creative industries with the opportunities to not wither on the decaying vine of public support, and limited private monies, or become easy prey for global players happy to exploit local weaknesses.

To be ‘great’ we cannot act ‘small’, the choice is ours.

To add your voice to this debate please comment below.

Phil Parker, Co-Founder, BCre8ive

[1] Understanding the future of productivity in the creative industries: SQW, Sept 2016

[2] Examples of this can be found in the work of some C.I. organisations e.g. Arts Council England

Posted in Art of development, Creative Collaboration, Creative industries, Creative Policy, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Four Issues for the Creative Industries.

Posted on 31/08/2016 by Phil

As the government and nearly everyone else starts to look at what Brexit means, it feels like a great time to review where the Creative Industries(C.I.) are going, and what we can do to improve and support the second largest growth sector in the British economy. Any idea of leaving it to fend for itself in our new world is a recipe for decline with global players eager to snatch talent, and profits, from the our existing industries.

This is the first of two articles looking at the issues and possible solutions. Some of them have been with us a long time, but a failure to address them now will mean post Brexit their implications will be far worse. The decline in EU support, the lack of co-production funds, and sterling falling are already putting pressure on creative companies’ plans. So what are the key issues and problems we face going forward?

Our Creative Culture

There is much being written about the economic nature of the creative economy etc. but little focus on the culture of creativity in which it sits and needs to develop, in the coming decades. We are still hampered in our thinking by romantic notions of talent, and that it will always “win out”. The evidence is to the contrary, look at the position of women and BAME[1] talent in the Creative Industries for the obvious rejection of this notion. However, the problem is deeper than these dominant myths of talent.

Creative enterprise is dominated by collaborative teams, yet the vast majority of our educational structures and efforts are geared to individual excellence. A problem being compounded by the divisive, and distracting, STEM v STEAM[2] arguments.

In addition to these problems within education there is a fundamental lack of concentration on the development of creative content that is capable of attracting audiences. The use of ‘failure’ as an excuse, and the “no-one knows anything” attitude as the norms of creative activity has led to limited horizons and the wasting of generations of talent.

Our Creative Structures

Beyond education other structural problems dominate the C.I. landscape. ‘Nepotism’ has been recognised for a long time as being central to career development in the Creative Industries. It’s continuing dominance needs to be broken.

However, such structural change is hampered not only by 20^th century divisions between arts, and media, but is now compounded by new divisions involving games, and web creations. We may have a Dept. for Culture, Media and Sport, and Creative Scotland may have been in existence for a few years, but there is little evidence of joined up working on the ground or in funding mechanisms. Divisions that are being compounded by the current concentration on regional and physical hubs, rather than developing a UK wide digital online approach to creative support.

This is perfectly illustrated by the inability of current policy, investment, and structural activity to address the vast majority of people active in the creative sector i.e. micro companies and freelancers. Dealing with myriad individuals and small teams is never easy for big centralised organisations but it is fundamental to empowering and growing the Creative Industries.

Our Creative Investment

Recently a spokesperson for one of the largest investment funds in the creative economy stated that their approach did not really work within the creative industries as a whole. A welcome frank admission, but it is a vast understatement of the current investment position. Creative individuals, and companies, have always been classed as ‘too risky’ by the investment community, a situation compounded by among other things, the film sector scams of the last decade.

The current tax incentives, rather than expanding the creative sector, have had the impact of creating competition between more companies for the little investment cash that was available. In addition, ‘seed’ funding has all but disappeared for the creative industries, and the short-termism of the majority of investors works against the ‘long tail’ of many creative activities.

Crowdfunding in the US is now the second largest publisher of graphic novels. In the UK investors look to yet another artisan beer, or retail opportunity! The growth of Arts/Creative Loans in the last few years may be seen as a means of supporting activity. However, the majority of loans are only available to well established organisations, lent against personal capital, or are lent at a rate greater than the lowest bank loan.

The failure of the UK investment community is possibly illustrated by the passing of not only Pinewood Studios, but also the Odeon/UCI chain into foreign ownership since the Brexit vote. Some may see this as a sign of good inward investment but even a basic understanding of economics will reveal that when times get tough companies retreat to their own territories – see US Studios since The Crash. To say nothing of the C.I. profits, which will not necessarily be re-invested in the UK.

Our Creative Marketing

The UK is a world leader in advertising, a big success within the creative economy. However, it is based upon major global clients not the small micro companies that are the majority of the C.I. sector. These companies cannot afford global advertising companies, yet the lack of effective marketing is a major barrier to success and growth for freelancers and micro-companies. The impact of a lack of any effective marketing structure for creative outputs from small companies is obvious within the mobile games sector, but it is true across the whole C.I. landscape.

Social media marketing has been exploding for several years. It is a potential game changer for small companies, yet owing to the lack of focus on this aspect of C.I. growth there is no mention of it in recent industry reviews. A new generation has grown up in this space, but with our current approach their skills and knowledge will be directed way from the C.I. sector.

These four areas of concern are critical to the future growth, and the global presence of the UK Creative Industries. Clearly addressing them will not be an easy, or an overnight quick fix, scenario. However, to not address them just because it is difficult, is to consign our creative talent to an outmoded structure, a hit and largely miss development process, and prone to becoming victims of bigger and better supported competitors.

There are potential solutions to some of these issues, but all need a collective effort to address them. Brexit has provided the opportunity to do this. The question is, are we ‘great’ enough to face the challenges?

For some potential answers to this final question, and the proceeding issues please read the follow up article to be published next week

All comments are welcome – especially if you have answers to some of the problems identified.

Phil Parker, Co-Founder, BCre8ive

[1] BAME = Black and Minority Ethnic

[2] STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, with Art added it becomes STEAM in the debate about key subjects in education.

Posted in Art of development, Creative Collaboration, Creative industries, Creative Policy, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

VR Basics for Storytellers

Posted on 26/08/2016 by Phil

This blog sets out the basic issues you need to take on board as an animator, writer or developer looking to explore and create in the new Virtual Reality(VR) spaces. VR is developing fast and the opportunities for storytelling are yet to be fully explored – now is the time to create brand new worlds, and ways of engaging people with a new story space.

So here are some key points to bear in mind when creating your new VR story, based on the blogs by Sean Thompson at WEARVR.

Think in Cones

Traditionally, you will have thought of screenworks from an audience of character’s point of view( POV). In VR the POV is that of the person wearing or using the VR device. These include Cardboard, GearVR, Oculus, Vive, and OSVR etc. often using their mobile phone or tablet as the platform for the VR experience.

In this situation the user’s POV is the only one open to the storyteller, and they see in cones.

©WEARVR

You need to focus their attention on things within 30º comfort zone. Yes, then you can aim for them to look down and up, and turn around, but they will still be looking in that comfort zone.

Enter the Comfort Zone

Given the limitations of the POV, you position the world and the action fin the comfort zone. The user’s natural position should be looking at the horizon — within about 8 degrees of horizontal. If you make them look up it can be particularly tiring.

The key is to avoid foreground action. You can’t change the focal distance — that’s down to the hardware — but you will affect the eyes’ divergence i.e. whether or not the users sees ‘double vision’. A sky or landscape is best, but even the back wall of a large room is normally fine — aim for the centre 15 degree cone having nothing appearing to be nearer to the user than around 4 metres.

Then make sure the scene is not too busy. VR does not have the resolution, frame rates or field of view to allow the sort of high contrast and high motion scenes people can experience in real life.

A final word on comfort – slow movement is best. Think of someone cycling, rather and a jet flying by!

If you follow these basic principles you should avoid doing anything to the user that makes them feel sick, uncomfortable to the point of not being able to continue, or nauseous for an extended period. You can make people startled, or confused, or frightened though, as within the normal bounds of telling a story.

Rules of Storytelling in VR.

“Not all of a virtual world is a stage, everything is first person”. S. Thompson

So inevitably we already have lots of shooter-style VR experiences, but now there are also new and better ways to tell stories, and lead the user into other worlds..

The rules are fairly simple, but might be difficult to take . Text has to be large, within a small area that’s convenient to read from, not moving, not scrolling, and not tracking closely to the user’s head movements. As a result large amounts of text just wont work VR.

Instead we need to look to visual storytelling and some old animation tricks coming to the fore. In the latter camp everything from arrows, high contrast markers, and familiar symbols - think stars circling a head after a knockout blow—work well in VR, In the former it is about using highlights, movement, intriguing pathways, colour changes, and sound cues which will lead the user to follow your story in this new dynamic world.

However, transitions between different locations is difficult and can make the player dizzy. So no hard teleports — ie, no single frame translations or rotations. That goes for everything in the scene, especially other objects in the scene. Sudden movements are seen like flashing lights to the user, and are tiring.

Sometimes you have to move the user from one location to another. After all one of the major storytelling tricks of the trade is a change of location. So good VR design lets users move from one place to another, but you will find times where that movement just gets in the way.

If you’re in this position, try to stick to these rules suggested by Sean Thompson at WEARVR,

The player should expect the change. Selecting to begin a game, or go to another menu, or having just completed a level will achieve this.
The transition should be slow. A fade to black then back up seems to be comfortable. A looking glass is more so — where a portal moves to your face, by user action, and the new location engulfs you. A cross-fade or other tween can be made to work well.
Put the player somewhere similar. At the very least, that means they’re the same way up! The further you push this idea though, the less you need to use point 2. If you’re careful with the scene, you could approach a match cut.

Other Characters in your VR realm

VR can now place another character, including human beings, in the same room as our user. The visual characterisation may be limited but no more than in many games.

Your characters do not have to be fully formed, or follow the same game rules as the user and the other game characters, but they should be able to make use of all the tools a human uses to express themselves each day. They can speak, their face can show emotions, they can move freely, and gesture towards things. Crucially, you need to be able to show them appearing to react . This could be done via scripting text, but the more visual it is the better. Expect your users to engage with other anthropomorphic beings at eye-level.

The Adventure is just Beginning.

Falling from a great height is a right of passage in VR but it is not the only one . Being caught by surprise from behind; glimpsing something – not sure what it is; being trapped in a small space; these are all the hallmarks of horror and thrillers which translate as well into the VR space. Equally, the big emotions from feeling vulnerable in a strange space, lonely, filled with wonder, and surprised by new things, or being challenged to take a leap in the dark can all be part of the VR dramatic world.

For examples of VR go to the WEARVR website

You can read all of Sean Thompson’s blogs on designing and story telling in VR HERE

Posted in Art of development, Children's Media, Creative Tools, Dramatic Worlds, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Top 10 Tips : Tony Collingwood – Creating a Children’s Series

Posted on 18/08/2016 by Phil

This blog has been written by Tony Colingwood, founder of Collingwood & Co, partners in Bcre8ive’s Lab.

Tony Collingwood produced his debut film RARG in 1988. His credit list includes the specials The King’s Beard, Eddy & the Bear and Dr Suess’ Daisy Head-Mayzie, and high profile series including The Beano’s Dennis & Gnasher, Oscar’s Orchestra, Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!, The Secret Show and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

Tony has won 6 BAFTAs across the writing and direction categories, winning Best Pre-School BAFTAs for Animal Stories, Eddy & the Bear and Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! The Secret Show won two further BAFTAs in 2007 for Best Animation and Interactive.

Here he sets out his top ten tips for writing childrens’ series.

1. Write for the children today; not the child you were.

2. Watch kids TV. Don’t work in a vacuum.

3. Don’t make the show or the character’s back story more interesting than the stories moving forward.

4. If the audience don’t care about your lead characters, then they won’t care about the stories.

5. Don’t create characters in isolation. We discover who we are by interaction.

6. Test drive your show’s format and characters through a number of scripts. ( You wouldn’t sell a computer game without playing it a few times first.)

7. A great show is about corralling a talented team together. A successful show is alchemy.

8. Be passionate – but also pragmatic. Be willing to change things – as development and production are collaborative processes.

9. Music is more important than you think.

10. Your format needs to fuel over 52 stories. If you’ve fallen back on the “Birthday” story within your first 10 shows, then the format isn’t working.

Her is Tony talking about the three essentials.

Posted in Art of development, BCre8ive Lab, Children's Media, Creative Tools, Television | 2 Comments

BCre8ive – Blog