Sharon Boyd looks at the growing TV and film production sector in Northern Ireland:
Northern Ireland, being the smallest part of the UK, tends to go fairly unnoticed and it’s associated more with The Troubles than anything else. However, over the past few years the media industry has been developing rapidly in this fairly unknown place and suddenly an awareness of Northern Ireland as a filming location has transpired. So instead of talking about the political and religious tensions in the country, people are now fascinated by the likes of Game of Thrones and The City of Ember being filmed in this beautiful part of the world.
With its established crew, impressive settings, studio amenities and economic motivations, Northern Ireland is developing into one of the most popular locations for film/TV productions. City of Ember was the first prominent US studio venture that Northern Ireland got involved with, since then inward investment in the industry has displayed substantial growth. Soon after, Universal Pictures brought feature film Your Highness to Northern Ireland, and subsequently HBO landed in 2009 to film a pilot of Game of Thrones, and has later revisited to shoot further series. Boosted interest has inspired new investment in infrastructure development, with two new sound stages being released in 2013 in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast. It is plausible that supplementary stages will be developed, while not far away, the studio facility at The Linen Mill is arranging additional restoration and expansion.
Between 2010 and 2011 film, video and photography industries in Northern Ireland, had a slight increase from 5.9% to 6.1%. TV and radio industries in Northern Ireland also increased, going up from 4.9% to 5.4%. Although this is a small rise, it still indicates the growth that is taking place. It is also worth noting that the largest source of public funding is the UK film tax relief, which provided £214 million in 2011/12 (58.5% of the total), and Northern Ireland being part of the UK benefits from the tax relief too.
Universal Pictures recently brought Dracula Untold to film in Northern Ireland with a budget of £45million. However, they were unable to find adequate crew with the required abilities locally, so naturally the producers ended up having to find people throughout the UK and Ireland to fill in instead. Northern Ireland having a high unemployment rate ought to be more aware of this specialist and developing area in the local economy, and find people willing and interested to be trained in this sector. Since then workshops have come about in order to provide people with the relevant skills for the industry, and if the industry does continue to evolve then such training and development ought to continue.
A huge amount of interest has centred on Game of Thrones being filmed in Northern Ireland and the popularity of the show has certainly boosted tourism here, with its coach trip tours of the locations as well as the exhibitions that have been put on in Belfast. The first four seasons resulted in an economic value of £82m, according to the local assembly, and has generated the equivalent of beyond 900 full-time and 5,700 part-time jobs in an area of less than 2 million individuals.
Northern Ireland being a small place means travelling to and from locations is quick and easy, which saves time and money and this is hugely beneficial when it comes to film/TV production. Additionally, the excellent studio facilities, alongside beautiful locations add to the positivity. Hopefully the industry will continue to develop in Northern Ireland, and people will soon recognise it as an excellent filming location due to the cheap cost and ease of filming in such a place.