A RENAISSANCE in film making in the North East could come to a shuddering halt because of cuts to public funding, it has been warned.
A number of feature films and network television programmes have been made in the region over the last 18 months thanks to funding from both public and private bodies.
The films have attracted a number of high profile acting names to the region, including Vanessa Redgrave, David Tennant and Tim Roth.
But now it is feared the abolition of bodies including the UK Film Council and regional development agency One North East could make it harder to attract future productions to the region.
At an event at the Baltic this week, Caroline Norbury – newly appointed head of Creative England – told delegates from the region’s film and TV industries: “Frankly, we’re working with pennies.”
And Tom Harvey, chief executive of Northern Film & Media – whose funding has been cut – described the threat to the region’s film-making resurgence as “an absolute tragedy in lots of ways – that we have got to this point and done so well but we can’t make the next thing happen”.
A number of film and TV projects were attracted to the region by the £2.4m Finance for Business – North East Creative Content Fund.
The ground-breaking fund, which was set up 18 months ago to boost creative activity in the region, used a mixture of public and private cash to help fund film making in the North East.
It has backed 17 different projects, including the as-yet unreleased feature film A Song for Marion, which is being tipped for Oscar glory. Other projects it has helped to attract to put the North East back on network TV include Vera, Inspector George Gently and Tracy Beaker Returns.
Mr Harvey said: “We will be supportive of Creative England but we think it’s important for the region to have its own voice and its own investment funds and to continue to offer the location and support services that we have in the past.”
The investment fund was set up in 2009 to boost filmmaking when concerns were expressed about the loss of network television production in the region and the effective disappearance of the North East from the screen.
Those concerns were sparked when ITV failed to re-commission its crime drama Wire In The Blood, which left the region with no drama on national television. There had also been concerns about the lack of BBC involvement in the region after the cancelling of children’s programme Byker Grove.
