From Directors UK - Depressing but true...In yesterday’s budget, Jeremy Hunt said of the UK’s growing available studio space “we have become Europe’s largest film and TV production centre… at the current rate of expansion, we will be second only to Hollywood globally by the end for 2025”. Yet, barely a... Read more
From Directors UK - Depressing but true...
In yesterday’s budget, Jeremy Hunt said of the UK’s growing available studio space “we have become Europe’s largest film and TV production centre… at the current rate of expansion, we will be second only to Hollywood globally by the end for 2025”. Yet, barely a day goes by when I don’t receive an alert from Broadcast, notifying me of yet more cuts – and with cuts comes a relentless chipping away of the work available to directors. Jeremy Hunt has missed the point. We might have the space to make big budget productions, but we’re staring down the barrel of having no domestic productions to make. We are an industry in crisis.
In the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve seen Hollyoaks announce a cut to their episode order, Doctors wrapped for the last time, and the Channel 4 licence review proposing cuts in hours of daytime and current affairs commissions.
It’s inevitable that with pressure on budgets, and a refocusing of content spend with digital delivery in mind, programmes will be lost. But this is at a time when freelance creatives have been feeling the effects of the downturn in work for months – some of the directors we represent have had no directing work for over a year. Last week Bectu reported that 68% of TV industry workers are out of work, and it’s a similar proportion of our membership that are too.
So we’re not just losing a variety of homegrown programmes for audiences to enjoy, we’re haemorrhaging talent - we’re losing swathes of jobs, cutting available career pathways, and other opportunities for TV directors to hone their craft.
Cuts impact the representation amongst the UK’s pool of directors. The call from Scottish indies and local screen agencies for an Ofcom review of Channel 4’s quotas is a reflection of the need for voices from the Nations and regions. We also need representation that reflects directors of colour, disabled directors, and other marginalised voices – representation that reflects our society. We can’t lose these voices. They can’t be forgotten in the attempt to save money.
As broadcasters seek to manage their budgets, and the media bill requires "audiovisual content that reflects the lives and concerns of different communities and cultural interests and traditions within the UK, and locally in different parts of the UK”, Ofcom has a responsibility to ensure that audiences get programming that fits the bill.
But what happens when there are no directors to make these programmes because they’ve been forced to seek other work? If no one has any work and no one can build a career, everyone is going to leave the industry. With the path we’re on, it’s almost impossible to see how directors can sustain a career.
It’s a perfect storm that has sent our industry into freefall. We want to continue to be world leading, but we’re not addressing this crisis....
In yesterday’s budget, Jeremy Hunt said of the UK’s growing available studio space “we have become Europe’s largest film and TV production centre… at the current rate of expansion, we will be second only to Hollywood globally by the end for 2025”. Yet, barely a day goes by when I don’t receive an alert from Broadcast, notifying me of yet more cuts – and with cuts comes a relentless chipping away of the work available to directors. Jeremy Hunt has missed the point. We might have the space to make big budget productions, but we’re staring down the barrel of having no domestic productions to make. We are an industry in crisis.
In the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve seen Hollyoaks announce a cut to their episode order, Doctors wrapped for the last time, and the Channel 4 licence review proposing cuts in hours of daytime and current affairs commissions.
It’s inevitable that with pressure on budgets, and a refocusing of content spend with digital delivery in mind, programmes will be lost. But this is at a time when freelance creatives have been feeling the effects of the downturn in work for months – some of the directors we represent have had no directing work for over a year. Last week Bectu reported that 68% of TV industry workers are out of work, and it’s a similar proportion of our membership that are too.
So we’re not just losing a variety of homegrown programmes for audiences to enjoy, we’re haemorrhaging talent - we’re losing swathes of jobs, cutting available career pathways, and other opportunities for TV directors to hone their craft.
Cuts impact the representation amongst the UK’s pool of directors. The call from Scottish indies and local screen agencies for an Ofcom review of Channel 4’s quotas is a reflection of the need for voices from the Nations and regions. We also need representation that reflects directors of colour, disabled directors, and other marginalised voices – representation that reflects our society. We can’t lose these voices. They can’t be forgotten in the attempt to save money.
As broadcasters seek to manage their budgets, and the media bill requires "audiovisual content that reflects the lives and concerns of different communities and cultural interests and traditions within the UK, and locally in different parts of the UK”, Ofcom has a responsibility to ensure that audiences get programming that fits the bill.
But what happens when there are no directors to make these programmes because they’ve been forced to seek other work? If no one has any work and no one can build a career, everyone is going to leave the industry. With the path we’re on, it’s almost impossible to see how directors can sustain a career.
It’s a perfect storm that has sent our industry into freefall. We want to continue to be world leading, but we’re not addressing this crisis....
