Home > News > September 2005 > 30-Sep-2005

Skillset Film Lab opens at The Actors Centre

A new initiative for actors and directors to develop their skills in the medium of film has been announced.

The Skillset Film Lab, in association with PFD and run by the Actors Centre, is a year-long programme of workshops part of 'A Bigger Future', the UK Film Skills Strategy.

Intensive sessions with actors, including Brian Cox, Ewan McGregor, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Stewart, will be available at greatly subsidised rates to a pool of actors and directors selected on the basis of audition and interview.

The joint directors of the Skillset Film Lab are actor Denis Lawson and Matthew Lloyd, artistic director of the Actors Centre.

Denis Lawson said: "This is an opportunity to get information about the film-making process across to actors – and information is power."

Matthew Lloyd said: "It's also about exploring the creative dialogue between actors and directors – the key collaboration in making a movie - without the pressure to deliver an end product."

The Skillset Film Lab is aiming to deepen the skills base that is available for cinematic work, including artists who are disabled or from culturally diverse backgrounds.

The Skillset Film Lab, which has a celebrated patron in Sir Ian McKellen, is supported by the Skillset Film Skills Fund with money from the National Lottery through the UK Film Council and the film industry through the Skills Investment Fund.

Judy Counihan, director of film at Skillset said: "The Skillset Film Lab is a long overdue project focusing on the all important relationship actors and directors have with each other and a camera. Skillset is delighted to be supporting this project as part of 'A Bigger Future', the UK Film Skills Strategy which covers the skills needs of everyone who helps bring films to the screen from writers, carpenters and actors through to editors, marketers and distributors.

St John Donald, co-chairman and managing director of international talent agency PFD, said: "PFD has always nurtured and encouraged new talent in film and we are very pleased to be associated with the Skillset Film Lab, believing it can make a real difference to the future of innovative British film making."

External links

Application forms to become part of the Skillset Film Lab will shortly be available at: www.actorscentre.co.uk. Successful applicants must demonstrate that they are an actor or director with substantial training but limited experience of paid work within the film industry. Applications are especially welcome from artists who are disabled or who are from culturally diverse backgrounds.

For more information on all 'A Bigger Future' film skills initiatives visit www.skillset.org/film

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