Lord Davies' Visit to Bristol

by Emma_Chappel on 21-Jan-10 16:38

Lord Davies of Abersoch, the Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Small Business, visited Bristol’s Paintworks on Thursday 21st as part of a UK-wide series of roadshows to engage with Britain’s diverse industry sectors and find out how they would like to see UK Trade & Investment help them move forward.
Bristol and the South West had been chosen to represent the Creative Industries, giving the Minister a chance to fulfill a long-held ambition to visit Aardman Animations!

A delayed started (Aardman clearly warranted a long, detailed tour!) meant the 100 + representatives of private and public sector helped themselves to locally produced sausages and cheese whilst they mingled. The Minister then swept in to network, speak and answer questions from the floor. It was a slick event. From Lord Davies’ charm, enthusiasm and good humour, you wouldn’t have thought Britain was the last major economy to emerge from the worst recession in 70 years, nor that Labour was facing the prospect of an end to its 12-year reign in government.

The upbeat Minister for Trade spoke about his commitment to improving skills, innovation, access to finance and opportunities for women in business. He then took a seat alongside Sir John Sorrell (UK Trade & Investment’s Business Ambassador) to answer questions. It was all a most civilised affair, during which Lord Davies’ committed to forming a South West regional trade mission for the Creative Industries (we all wrote that one down!) and reiterated an earlier voiced concern about a lack of confidence holding British business back.

It was a positive afternoon, with lots of rhetoric about investing in skills, women, business confidence and sustainable growth. Due to time constraints, many questions went unanswered, but the Minister was keen to be accessible and approachable. ‘Email me personally,’ was his advice on all aspects of international trade. He reports direct to both David Miliband and Peter Mandelson, so if he can’t answer your question himself, you can bet he knows a man who can.

iFeatures - Chris' blog

by chrismoll on 19-Jan-10 09:34

This is a hard entry to write.

Whilst we're now focussed on the panel interviews later this week, I’m painfully aware that for each one of the 26 projects/teams that are shortlisted, there are 20 more that we’re unable to take forward. That’s just the harsh maths that 550 submissions have presented us with !

As I’ve indicated in previous blogs, we’re hugely respectful of the effort that went into every submission and I hope that we've demonstrated that in how we've gone about the selection process.

Each proposal was read by two different script readers and all supporting materials were thoroughly appraised. In addition to being scored against the various criteria outlined in the guidelines, the readers provided a short written summary of their overall impressions.

All of this information was then collated, reviewed, reviewed again and a longlist of 80 projects drawn up. These received two more reads by the development teams within BBC Films and iFeatures before being discussed at a day-long submissions “summit”. From this, the 26 shortlist emerged.

It’s a shortlist that encompasses a wide range of voices, genres, talent, experience, benefits and risk. Whilst the quality of the ideas demands the most attention, it’s heartening that the gender split within the shortlisted teams has turned out to be almost exactly 50/50, with 15 of the projects having a female lead applicant. 40% of the team members come from Bristol, 20% from the broader South West and 40% from other cities/regions.

We’ll be publishing some more stats in the next few weeks as well as providing some more detailed observations on the submissions as a whole. Hopefully, this will help filmmakers to refine their pitches as they look to other opportunities.

Now I’m going to be cheeky and share part of an email that I received this morning. I hope it reflects the experience of so many of the people who bid into the scheme:

“….Although I naturally hate you a little bit after not getting short listed I just wanted to say that it has been good to develop my story and that it has got me involved with a producer I have wanted to work with for ages and who is staying on board.  So thanks for that.'