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Made in the South West
Posted by: Caroline | 30.04.08
MPs including Andy Burnham – Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw – Minister for the South West and Jim Knight – Minister of State for Schools and Learners, as well as more than twenty MPs with constituencies in the South West joined creative people and companies from across the region yesterday at a reception at the House of Commons.
Over 150 people came together at ‘Made in the South West,’ an event celebrating the strength of the South West’s creative and media industries hosted by South West Screen.
Special guests included Mike Bailey star of Bristol-based hit Channel 4 / E4 drama Skins, Bath-based creator and writer of the BBC’s Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes Ashley Pharoah plus key figures from some of the South West’s most successful creative companies: such as Aardman, the BBC’s Natural History Unit, Plymouth-based Twofour, Beef, and Team Rubber.
Festivals including Wildscreen, the world’s largest wildlife film festival, The International Screenwriters’ Festival in Cheltenham and Encounters – the UK’s leading short film festival were also represented, as were the five media ‘cluster’ groups in the region: Bristol Media, Plymouth Media Partnership, Gloucestershire Media Group, Wessex Media Group and Cornwall Media Focus. The region’s strength in digital media was also in evidence with award-winning innovative companies such as HMC interactive and Mobile Pie in attendance. Both are currently working on groundbreaking projects at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol.
Joining the MPs and creative industry representatives were senior figures from the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), the UK Film Council, and other government departments and bodies including the department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).
South West Screen presented a showreel of work produced in the South West including excerpts from Endemol’s Deal or No Deal, Channel 4 / E4 hit series Skins, Aardman Animations’ Shaun the Sheep and Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s cult comedy Hot Fuzz. In addition, Mike Bailey– one of the Bristol-based stars of Skins – and Aysha Rafaele (one of the directors) talked about the huge opportunity the series had given them, and how important it was for them to be able to start their careers in their home city.
Caroline Norbury – Chief Executive of South West Screen – spoke about the importance of creativity, talent and ideas in today’s global knowledge economy. She stressed the huge impact of the creative industries in the region – both economically and culturally – and lobbied MPs to champion the industries to ensure that the South West is acknowledged as a world centre for creativity.
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Andy Burnham also spoke at the event, paying tribute to the South West’s creative industries and reiterating the government’s commitment to making its ‘Creative Britain’ strategy a reality in the South West.
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