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Skillset announces £600,000 funding for film projects

'A Bigger Future', Skillset and the UK Film Council's five year film skills strategy, is supporting seven new development schemes.

£600,000 is being invested from the Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of a drive to develop the skills and commercial sensibility of the UK film industry's writers, producers and directors.

Skillset says the funding will support more than 60 people across the seven projects for a minimum of eight months and help to address diversity issues within the industry with projects specifically targeting the under-representation of women and black and minority ethnic individuals.

The projects receiving funding are:

Dark Light - Women Direct Horror

Fast-tracking ten female Directors on a year-long programme developing horror feature projects for the Warp X production slate. The programme, delivered by Warp X and Threshold Studios Ltd, will include mentorship and residential master classes.

Breakout

A programme for emerging black and minority ethnic writers and directors to develop audience friendly commercial low-budget fiction features and feature length factual documentaries. The programme will be delivered by Breakout Training and Development with production partners Warp X and Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation in association with Screen East and UEA.

Slingshot Training and Development into Greenlight Scheme

The Slingshot scheme is designed to develop the skills of writers, directors and producers as well as their projects towards production. Slingshot aims to address both the creative and commercial concerns of a project and uses a multi-faceted programme of short courses, residential workshops, script editing sessions and follow-up workshops. Delivered by Slingshot Productions ltd in association with The Metropolitan Film School and PAL.

Microwave Training Programme

A platform for progression into feature films providing training and a commercially-focused grounding in micro-budget feature film production across the value chain for 10 teams. Delivered by Film London, the training programme is also funded by the London Development Agency, the UK Film Council, Film London and the BBC and will provide training through production across fiction, documentary and animation projects.

UK Film Council New Cinema Fund Digital Shorts Scheme

A co-ordinated nationwide training programme to support participants who have been selected to produce and direct for the UKFC Digital Shorts scheme in 2006. Delivered by the NFTS Short Course Factory.

Cinema Extreme Training Scheme

Designed to run alongside the existing Production Scheme funded by the UK Film Council and FilmFour, this new training scheme aims to expand the skills development component to run across the whole development and production process. The programme will be delivered by the Bureau Film Company Limited.

Bridging the Gap

An open competition for seven filmmakers to produce a 10' documentary film. According to Skillset, the filmmakers are trained to explore the creative use of digital technology in sound and image, pushing the boundaries of short documentaries for cinema. The programme will be delivered by the Scottish Documentary Institute at the Skillset Screen Academy at Edinburgh College of Art.

Visit http://www.skillset.org/film/training_and_events/ for more information on 'A Bigger Future' training schemes. Skillset says successful applicants for all projects will have demonstrable experience in the film industry.

Judy Counihan, director of film at Skillset, said: "In awarding this funding Skillset was looking for project based training directly linked to production output which could bring a commercial sensibility to participants and raise the quality and commercial viability of the projects available to the industry. We encouraged creativity in the design and delivery of the projects applying and I think the successful projects achieved just that."

The Skillset Film Skills Fund is made up of lottery money via the UK Film Council, industry investment via the SIF training levy on production and public funding secured by Skillset.

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