 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
The Liverpool Film Industry we must Capitalise on the Capital of Culture! - But can we?
The future is in our hands! Here on Merseyside we have a great tradition and international reputation of people that can entertain in the music, comedy and sporting environment and now are springing to the forefront in TV the Media and the Arts. These creative talents are something which is ‘in our blood’ and we need to push on and pass the baton to the fledgling film industry in the Region.
Over the past ten years through hard work and the sweat and blood of individuals and organisations, too many to mention here, we have expanded the brief of the Arts sector in Merseyside. We are now the proud custodians of FACT, LIPA, LA Productions and Mersey TV and the designated inheritors of the Capital of Culture, but we are also the custodians of a failed fourth Grace bid and the Garden Festival site. In the attempt to develop a Merseyside film industry how do we learn the lessons of success and not the lessons of failure? My experience has been that in order to succeed you need not only hard working individuals but also an inclusive culture which will take massive action not just talk!
We have some fantastic individuals who are dedicated to enhancing this City but the Arts and the Business community, although they share the same vision, often move on separate roads to fulfilment. The North West is the ideal place for a successful Film industry but for this to happen we need to pull all the facets of the industry together, writers, pre and post production and all the ancillary trades associated with this such as animation, sound, and set design etc. We need to provide these entities with an enabled environment to develop their skills and become sustainable!
So where are we? We are on the cusp! The national and local authorities are providing tremendous targeted support through initiatives from the likes of The North West Vision and the Liverpool Business Centre, we have established film production companies such as LA productions, and organisations like NWPD, the Liverpool Film office which offers a fantastic service to facilitate the location and so on but...we need something more! we need a collaborative effort and a cross organisational team to lead the massive action needed to cross the divide from potential to actuality. We need to encourage outsiders to participate and welcome them in as partners not as potential enemies, which has all to often been the case, we need local talent to stay and ply their trades here and not elsewhere, and we need to call on our exported successes to bring home some of their success to their roots.
My years in business working with large global organisations to achieve strategic goals in business re-engineering has taught me that these strategic efforts need to be inclusive and not polarized. To take action on such scales they need the buy in of senior executives as well as the work force. We in the LIVERPOOL Film Industry need a similar model and in order that we can produce some massive action in this space, I would encourage the establishment of a Program Approval Board with the ability and authority to oversee the direction of the Film Business in Liverpool. I know that some sceptics would say this is just another ‘quango’ and that certain efforts have to follow guidelines and output criteria but this can be included in the Film Board’s brief.
So to answer my original question...the answer is ‘yes’ but we need the right team at the top.
Paul Morrissey
Chairman Tubedale Films
