Media Midlands

[feltip]

A thread to highlight the midlands and its coverage in the media. Be that big 'blockbuster' films or innovative drama and new film, film sets.

Several programmes make use of the variety of landscapes in the midlands. Wire in the Blood have used aerial shots and Dalziel and Pascoe and Doctors use familiar west midlands locations. Harry Potter makes use of parts of Gloucester Cathedral and im sure there are others....


Thanks to Erebus we have:

"The Pool" is a short film using the Moseley Road Pool:

Patrick and Rose, an elderly couple, break into the derelict swimming pool where they first met in order to take a magical dive back into their past.

This is a film about love and how the past can be as alive as the present.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A4082177

Also, Lycanthropy



www.lycanthropy-movie.com

Trailer at:
http://www.lycanthropy-movie.com/trailer.htm

and some business links highlighting filming in midlands

Screen West Midlands
http://www.screenwm.co.uk/

and Film Birmingham
http://www.filmbirmingham.co.uk/

[Erebus555]

Not to forget: http://www.rotundafilms.com/

[ultraviolet]

Just watched The Pool really liked it.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Cinem@tic will be on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th October: http://www.tic.ac.uk/cinematic/

[rob_right]

Anyone hear Jonathan Pearce on Match of the Day

[kevmac37]

Hey thanks for the shout out

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/719875...hropy_trailer/

we've also got these comign out soon!

Idol of Evil



http://www.metacafe.com/watch/719886/idol_of_evil/


TIED IN BLOOD

<br>
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/783616...lood_teaser_3/

[smysticed]

Are these all Birmingham-produced as well? Great work you guys have going on!

[Erebus555]

They all look like horror-flicks to me! Don't make Brum the horror-capital of Britain - we'll be beseiged by goths!

[kevmac37]

All brum produced yeah.

ones a horror, ones a crime thriller and ones an action adventure film...all very different

[Erebus555]

Gotcha! I'm no film expert so you've gotta forgive me there!

[smysticed]

kevmac, are any of these films likely to be seen in this country soon? I know you said about Lycanthropy being shown abroad and needing some form of backing over here if they are to be shown. Seems crazy to me that local films need to be released abroad first, although clearly I know pretty much nothing about the film industry.

[rottersclub]

Originally Posted by smysticed

kevmac, are any of these films likely to be seen in this country soon? I know you said about Lycanthropy being shown abroad and needing some form of backing over here if they are to be shown. Seems crazy to me that local films need to be released abroad first, although clearly I know pretty much nothing about the film industry.

It's difficult to get locally made films into the cinemas in the UK - a lot of British made films end up stuck on shelves until they get DVD releases.

There was one about Lady Godiva made a couple of years back in Coventry, but it's yet to be released. (Although that may be a good thing!)

[smysticed]

But could they not get shown in independent cinemas like the Electric or the MAC? I thought that was the whole point of places like that.

[mk61]

I imagine they require a distributor before they even get to a cinema.

[rottersclub]

Originally Posted by smysticed

But could they not get shown in independent cinemas like the Electric or the MAC? I thought that was the whole point of places like that.

If they're "art house" tyes of movies, perhaps. The problem is that UK cinema chains are mainly owned by US companies, and they just don't want to have screens showing British films - they'd rather fill it up with the latest US blockbusters. The French have a law that ensures a certain percentage of screens show French films.

I remember reading a report a few years back that said Britain was producing more films than before, but not many of them end up on the cinema screens - a lot pretty much go straight to BBC or DVD - which is sad, as outside of the crappy low budget horror films, there have been some excellent films. The BBC do them a disservice by shoving them into graveyard slots while filling screens with crap like "Dance Factor" or whatever that loathesome waste of time was called.

[feltip]

Oi Martin. Our crappy low budget horror films have actually been highly successful and in the true style of british horror film making from Hammer Horror and beyond. There was a recent article citing us as the global experts at horror.

Obviously you also are not aware of several film festivals and other events plus regular showings of British films. Granted you would have to be off work to see some of them but its not the doomsday your making out. Also its not a bias, major cinema chains with limited screens show money making films (regardless of whether they are british, US or otherwise); bigger cinemas such as star city with more screens show other films such as Bollywood.

Take a look at current old film showings at cineworld, the seventh seal, Henry V with Laurence Olivier, Goldfinger.

The government has also bucked its ideas up with the finance situation and tax relief.
We also have an extremely good stage and support services for films which is why so many are made in UK.

Things aren't brilliant but neither are they doomridden.

[feltip]

I wish someone would use part of the midlands for feature film. We have such a varied set of sets.

Here is the financial benefits of visitor attraction to film locations.

Reader, I visited him. Screen roles boost tourism by £2bn

Rachel Williams
Monday August 27, 2007
The Guardian


Keepers of crumbling stately homes and cash-strapped parish churches may want to take note; it seems there is one surefire way to draw in desperately needed visitors. Take on a second life as the beloved educational establishment of a fictional teenage wizard, or perhaps offer your lake as a bathing spot for a brooding aristocratic heart-throb and success appears practically guaranteed.
Tourists are flocking to British locations made famous as the backdrops for both big-budget films and less glamorous TV shows, according to a comprehensive study that says the phenomenon is worth up to £2.6bn a year to the UK economy.


And for productions with cult status, such as Trainspotting and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which continues to draw visitors to Doune Castle in Stirlingshire, the boost to tourism can last for decades.
Dad's Army tours are still popular in Thetford, Norfolk, almost 40 years after it first appeared as Walmington-on-Sea.

In one of the most dramatic examples, Alnwick Castle in Northumberland saw a 120% rise in visitor numbers after appearing in the Harry Potter films masquerading as Hogwarts, the boarding school attended by the young sorcerer and his friends.

The series is estimated to have brought £9m to the area in tourist revenue.

After Colin Firth emerged from the water at Cheshire's Lyme Park in the 1995 TV series of Pride and Prejudice, with his damp white shirt clinging to his chest, the numbers heading for the National Trust property almost tripled.

Ten years later the figures remained buoyant, at 88,884 in 2004-05 compared to 32,852 in 1994.

The 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel preceded a 20% jump at Burghley House, Lincolnshire - which doubled as Lady Catherine de Bourg's home, Rosings - and a 76% increase in coach tours at Basildon Park, Berkshire, which became Mr Bingley's Netherfield.

The release of The Da Vinci Code saw a visitor increase of 26% at Lincoln Cathedral, 33% at Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian and a five-fold jump at the Temple church, London.

Children's programme Balamory had a dramatic effect on its real-life home on the island of Mull. An extra 160,000 tourists, a rise of 40%, were drawn to the town of Tobermory, whose permanent population is less than 1,000.

In 2003 Oban's tourist information centre recorded 700,000 related inquiries, making it the busiest in Scotland after Edinburgh. VisitScotland estimated the series contributed about £5m a year to Mull and the Western Islands.

John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said: "British films and television programmes play a powerful role in showcasing the UK to the rest of the world and boosting tourism.

"There are countless examples of visitors flocking to locations they've seen in films or on TV and the effect can last for years. For instance, people are still visiting Corrour train station in the West Highlands, which featured in the film Trainspotting, some 11 years after the film's release despite the station being the most remote in Britain."

The report, Stately Attraction: How Film and Television Programmes Promote Tourism in the UK, was commissioned by the Film Council, Scottish Screen, EM Media, East Midlands Tourism, Screen East, South West Screen, Film London and Visit London.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/stor...156888,00.html

[morestoreysplease]

Are Winchester Films still going? They were a Brum-based film company and I happened to go to a premiere about 10yrs ago - bit embarrassing wearing a black tie to the Odeon!! The film was about finding gold at the end of the rainbow and was bloody awful! It featured Bill Murray whose part couldn't care less either!

[rottersclub]

Originally Posted by feltip

Oi Martin. Our crappy low budget horror films have actually been highly successful and in the true style of british horror film making from Hammer Horror and beyond. There was a recent article citing us as the global experts at horror.

Obviously you also are not aware of several film festivals and other events plus regular showings of British films. Granted you would have to be off work to see some of them but its not the doomsday your making out. Also its not a bias, major cinema chains with limited screens show money making films (regardless of whether they are british, US or otherwise); bigger cinemas such as star city with more screens show other films such as Bollywood.

Take a look at current old film showings at cineworld, the seventh seal, Henry V with Laurence Olivier, Goldfinger.

The government has also bucked its ideas up with the finance situation and tax relief.
We also have an extremely good stage and support services for films which is why so many are made in UK.

Things aren't brilliant but neither are they doomridden.

Seventh Seal and Henry V are art house films - didn't you read what I said? Places like Arts Centres won't show cruddy low budget horror movies. And I know all about those festivals - I've got boxes and boxes filled with old horror magazines dating back to the early 1980s - which I must dump sometime!

Sad fact is that Britain made horror films through Hammer because of funding from the US studios - which dried up in the late 60s when the films began to flop in the USA. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s there was a tax scheme (The Eady Levy) that helped out US companies to make movies in the UK. This is why US producers made James Bond movies in the UK. It was abolished in 1985. More recently, it's been lottery funds that have been pumped into making movies, and very few of them reach the cinema - I've seen them on late night BBC slots.

Britain's horror film industry has been dead for years - the last gasp were people like Pete Walker & Norman J Warren in the 1970s and early 1980s. It's debatable how good they were, but they have a certain cult following. Some of Walker's stuff is very good, very dark, but Norman J Warren may be the Ed Wood of Britain (Although I'm quite fond of his last movie, Bloody New Year.) The most recent British horror film I saw was some utter garbage called "Severance".

[mk61]

Originally Posted by MartinN

The most recent British horror film I saw was some utter garbage called "Severance".

I thought that was supposed to be a comedy.