Coronavirus: Help Announced For Freelancers

This is a difficult time for the industry, with many productions large and small delayed or cancelled, and thousands across the sector laid off. It’s an unprecedented situation, and a lack of financial support from the government has only added to the worry. When help was announced for businesses and employees last week, one major omission was support for the 15% of the UK workforce who are self-employed freelancers, including the majority of people working across the production sector.

Today, that was finally addressed by the government, with an announcement from chancellor Rishi Sunak.

What Support Has Been Announced For Freelancers?
Matching the package announced for full-time employees, self-employed people will now be able to have 80% of their wages covered by the government, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The amount paid will be based on average monthly profits over last three financial years. This support will last for 3 months initially.

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FOCUS 2019 – Free Registration Open Now!

FOCUS, The Meeting Place for International Production, returns to The Business Design Centre in London on 3/4 December 2019 for its fifth edition, and ProductionBase is delighted to be a media partner again this year. If you work in film, TV, advertising, games or animation, FOCUS is an unmissable date in your calendar. This year’s programme will respond to the rapid changes in the creative screen industries, offering even more content, countries and connections!

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Member Discounts: Who Are Crunch?

Did you know that as a ProductionBase member you can get discounts on a growing range of industry services? From kit hire to mortgages, and car hire to accountancy. In their latest guest post, the guys at Crunch tell us more about their accountancy services, specially tailored for freelancers. All ProductionBase members are entitled to 10% of their first year’s fees.

Well, this is a little embarrassing. We’ve been writing for ProductionBase for months now, and we still haven’t properly introduced ourselves!

In the spirit of things being better late than never – hello! Erase everything you think you know about Crunch, and let’s get to know one another properly, shall we?

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The Reel Challenge 2018 – Free Places Available

The Reel Challenge 2018, billed as ‘the ultimate creative adventure’ for aspiring filmmakers, kicks off later this month. After a launch workshop in London, participants travel to Budapest by any means they can, while creating their own short film en-route, supported by a unique community of filmmakers, industry professionals and major sponsors. The events wraps up with a film festival in the Hungarian capital.

We’ve got an amazing last minute opportunity for ProductionBase members: up to five FREE places on The Reel Challenge 2018, with all entry fees paid. If you’d like to find out more, or get your hands on one (or more) of the free tickets, contact co-founder Rob directly on rob@reelfilmchallenge.com. More on the challenge below…

Inclusion Riders: What They Are & Why We Need Them

What is an Inclusion Rider?
An “inclusion rider” is a clause attached to an actor’s contract that makes stipulations about the diversity of the cast and the crew, in order to retain the actor services. It is essentially a contractual obligation that need to be adhered to by the company making the production – and it should ensure that diverse hiring in the film and TV projects they work on is guaranteed.

How Does It Work?
The idea was first coined by Stacey Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California at her TedTalk, as she spoke about the positive outcomes that come from this method. She believed it could be a way to tackle Hollywood’s diversity problems, by removing the conscious/unconscious bias that people face in auditions, interviews and hiring processes.

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Is The Future Of TV In Silicon Valley?

Is the future of TV in Silicon Valley?

As they make significant moves into the content industry, tech giant Apple has already started hiring top executives from major firms in the business.

Apple had made their plans clear over the summer, when they launched their first two shows: Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke. The company was looking to expand into the fast-growing market of video content, and they planned to do so by introducing video broadcasting on Apple Music, eventually aiming at becoming a competitor to Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu.

Determined to make a splash on the original content stage, they closed a deal last month to produce the legendary director Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. Originally aired in 1985, the series won five Emmys before being cancelled, but now a big comeback is imminent as the Cupertino company has invested as much as $1 billion for a new 10-episode season.

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The Power of Intellectual Property

The power of intellectual property

Is Disney ready to lead the streaming services market? When the market share of streaming services starts revolving around content, Disney looks like it has everything set up to gain leadership over Netflix.

An increasingly crowded market
Back in 2011, when Netflix decided to detach its streaming service from its original DVD rental business, its strategy was focused on licensing deals with studios and cable channels in order provide the widest catalogue to customers at a bargain price. Netflix’s competitive advantage was almost entirely based on affordability and on the technological framework on which the service was built on, which empowered users with unprecedented flexibility in the way they accessed content.

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Roundup: Gender Gap in the UK Film Industry

Gender gap in the UK film industry

Following the Harvey Weinstein revelations, the media is loaded with news about how the #MeToo campaign is uncovering Hollywood’s darkest secrets – but what’s the situation like for women working in the industry in the UK?

Narrow Recruitment Channels
A recent report, commissioned by BFI and backed by James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, underlined the culture of nepotism which is at the core of the recruitment process in the industry.

The Work Foundation associate consultant Heather Carey stressed that a lot of employers recruit through word of mouth, creating significant obstacles to people looking for jobs in the first place. “You tend to get that a bit in certain industries but in this industry it is kind of … that’s how it’s done. If you don’t have the network it is incredibly difficult to get in and progress.” She also stressed how critical the lack of diversity is in the film industry compared to other sectors.

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Made In Dagenham

Made in Dagenham

A study commissioned by the Major of London greenlights the development of a world class film studio in the East London suburb.

Just a year ago, Sadiq Khan partnered with Film London and the Borough of Barking and Dagenham to commission a feasibility study which investigated the cost benefits of the construction of a 17-acre production facility in East Dagenham.

The report from the study was unveiled on Monday by the Mayor and council leader Darren Rodwell, and the results are very promising. The site has been deemed an “ideal location for Hollywood-style studio space”, and Khan himself was enthusiast to seize such a “rare chance” to build the first production facility in the Greater London area since the establishment of Three Mills in the 1990s.

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News: Between Record-Breaking Subscribers and Price Hikes, What Does the Future Hold for Netflix?

News: Between Record-Breaking Subscribers and Price Hikes, What Does the Future Hold for Netflix?

It’s been a year full of milestones for leading worldwide streaming company Netflix, now one of the world’s biggest content producers.

After hitting 100 million subscribers during the second quarter of 2017, of which more than 50 million are in the US, the streaming service also outmatched the USA’s leading cable TV networks by more than 2 million subscribers for the first time in history.

Last month, Netflix took over the Emmy Awards ceremony with a staggering 20 wins out of 91 nominations, second only to Time Warner owned TV giant, HBO (29 wins/110 nominations).

The results for Q3, released on 16th October, exceeded even the most optimistic predictions, with the company earning close to $3 billion dollars, and adding 5.3 millions subscribers, most of whom are outside the US.

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