DEVELOPMENT FUNDING INFORMATION SESSION - 27th June 2011
Opening comments from Richard Williams, CEO, Northern Ireland Screen:
“This year Northern Ireland Screen is focusing exclusively on development in all its
forms. Looking at our portfolio of activity, we have had some tremendously
successful development applications over the past few years that we have been able
to fund. However, our current portfolio is not overflowing with projects about to go
into production or get funded, so we need to work hard at getting more.
Development is consistent with the programme for government and the priorities
set by our Departments – DETI through Invest NI and DCAL. DCAL through the Arts
Council will be launching the Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIFF) again in the
next few weeks and this is consistent with our strong push to focus on development.
We want to give you some sense of what works for us in terms of development, so
we’ll use some clips that show what really works for us.”
PILOT AND SLATE DEVELOPMENT
Clip: Wild Rover’s Take the Money and Run
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What we are looking for in terms of pilot and slate development is network
and international projects only i.e. anything for a national network or
international broadcaster.
Up to £100,000 is available per slate (2 or more projects). This has to be
matched, and can be made up in a number of ways e.g. 1 project with
£100,000 beside it; 5 projects with £20,000 beside them; 3 projects with
£20,000 and 1 with £40,000 beside them etc.
This money comes from DETI through Invest NI so it is economically focussed;
we’re looking for jobs, prosperity etc.
Pilots are an absolute priority for Northern Ireland Screen - they work really
well for us. Even if a pilot doesn’t get picked up immediately by a
broadcaster, they can be taken to other broadcasters and used as a sales
tool.
Applications must have match funding in place. Northern Ireland Screen will
happily talk to you about a slate of projects that may only have match
funding for the first 2 or 3 – that’s fine, you can then add additional projects
and/or swap projects that aren’t working out. But in order to start the
process off, you must have match funding in place for at least 1 or 2.
Clip: Flickerpix’s Old Harry’s Game
Both Old Harry’s Game and Take the Money and Run demonstrate key points that
make these projects attractive to us. The Take the Money and Run clip (above)
wasn’t funded by Northern Ireland Screen; we funded an earlier pilot before the US
odyssey started, but the key thing at that stage was that the BBC was already on
board and interested - and more importantly, DRG, from an international sales and
distribution point of view, were attached. That is what was really key and what
separated it from 90% of other projects. There was a clear indication that an
international market was very hungry for the product. The point is, Northern Ireland
Screen funded the UK pilot that acted as an exemplar and took it to the States.
Similarly, with Old Harry’s Game, really strong partnerships were in place – Sky was
interested and Hat Trick were involved in the Radio 4 series that it is based on; so
you can see the quality of talent and other partners involved.
No matter what happens with these projects in terms of broadcast, Flickerpix and
Wild Rover can always use these pilots as an example of their work and everyone will
be impressed, illustrating why we are so keen on pilot development.
DIGITAL CONTENT
Clip: Billy Goat Entertainment’s Knighty Knight
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Northern Ireland Screen tries to cover as many formats as possible but it
[digital content funding] is basically available for the development and
production of apps, websites etc.
Up to £100,000 per project is available. It is highly unlikely that you will get
the full £100,000, but if it is a big enough proposition, the potential is there
for the full amount.
It is for content only – not technology - If you have a great source code /
games engine you’re working on, that’s not what we’re looking for. We are
looking for the content that will go beside this. So have that great engine and
come up with some wonderful use for it – that’s what we are looking for!
Applications must have match funding in place. Come and talk to us at an
early stage and we are more than happy to have a conversation with you
about this. In order to take a project forward and make it work for you and
us, you need some funding in place or at least know where you’re going for it.
This fund is for development AND production so if you have a slate of
projects and you come to us looking for £100,000, you could put together a
number of propositions, but again, you must have some match funding in
place.
Clip: 4thought.tv Stephen Mangan is football bigger than God?
4thought is a tremendously successful series and Northern Ireland Screen is very
proud to be involved in it. We financed their web presence and it, too, has been very
successful. We regard it as a good illustration of growing the marketplace a bit.
Historically we are a film and television organisation, so we find it easier to find
match funding and larger scale propositions closer to television than anywhere else
in the digital content sphere. It is very important to point out, that this is not to say
we are any more interested in propositions that are closer to television; it’s just that
we tend to find them easier, especially those of scale.
Knighty Knight is an app. Apps are still strong territory. We believe the CIFF fund is
going to focus in the first instance on digital content and on small scale awards of up
to £10,000. Knighty Knight is a good example of the type of thing that it would fund.
SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT
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Primarily for feature film, TV drama, feature documentary
Open to individuals and companies
Up to £2,250 for an individual writer applying on their own
Up to £40,000 for a project with a production company backing it
Full budget has to be £80,000 for production company development or
£2,250 for an individual award (individual award is an in-kind contribution,
doesn’t have to be cash).
Match funding required, especially for £40,000. Northern Ireland Screen
would tend to take a script through an initial stage of treatment, then on to
first draft along with the production company. After this it will go through a
series of stages with other partners on board.
We used key scenes from Good Vibrations to illustrate script development (not
available to view online). These scenes were ultimately a selling tool, which the UKFC
paid for, in order to take the project to the next level. When Northern Ireland Screen
invests in a script we never expect it to turn into a fully fledged project within 12
months. What we are looking for at this stage is “what is the next step” – what can
we hope will happen - e.g. that another key market-focused financier will come on
board to take it further.
TALENT FOCUS CALL
Clip: Ronan Blaney’s Boy, Coming Up 2010
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This year the talent focus is on feature film scripts only; no specific genre is
being prescribed. Last year the talent focus was for TV drama through the
Primetime scheme, this year it’s solely feature film.
Open to writers only. We are not looking for producers, directors or
companies attached to scripts.
Call for submissions opens on Friday 1st July and closes on Friday 30th
September. By that stage we will be looking for 30 pages of the script (first
act essentially) and a synopsis of the full story.
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Up to 4 scripts will be selected for development (probably from November to
April), based solely on the script. More detail will be available on our website
when the scheme is launched.
Talent focus also includes the Coming Up scheme, and this is the 3rd year
that Northern Ireland Screen has been involved with it. We pay for 1 project
to showcase Northern Ireland talent, so your chances of being selected are
pretty high. It is open to writers and directors and is the only scheme in the
UK where you are guaranteed a network broadcast of your original work.
LANDMARK DOCUMENTARY
Clip: Besom Productions’ Waveriders
The Waveriders clip above wasn’t funded by Northern Ireland Screen in
development but we think it’s a great illustration of what we’re looking for in this
area. We have intentionally called this ‘landmark documentary’ and not ‘feature
documentary’, as we don’t want to prescribe 80/90 minutes; it could be a TV hour.
We tried this out last year but failed to clarify exactly what we were looking for and
it was a bit rushed, so this year we are putting an official call out (as of 27th June) to
develop landmark documentaries.
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Up to £5,000 per project is available
Applications must have match funding in place from a broadcaster or other
national / international distributor.
The process began with us looking through our Digital Film Archive and we came
across The Dusty Bluebells, which aired on BBC 4 recently. It would be great if we
made more documentaries like that, it was heavily crafted and entirely scripted. TV
broadcasters on their own are unlikely to make this material now, but may be open
to co-production propositions, especially an international one.
Please engage with us; Northern Ireland Screen is passionate about developing
projects in this area.
FURTHER INFORMATION
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We hold events regularly thought the year
Commissioning briefs, format doctor, writing seminars etc
All are FREE and on a first come, first served basis
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keep up to date on what we’re doing
Email info@northernirelandscreen.co.uk or call us on 028 90 232 444.