Exploring the 'New Creatives' BBC Scheme
In this post, I wanted to discuss the' New Creatives' funding scheme from the BBC and explore the potential of pursuing this direction as our collaborative graduate film. The program represents an important opportunity for 18-30-year-olds to create a short film with a small amount of funding, held by BBC Arts, Arts Council England, and Screen South. A chance to allow new and upcoming creative voices to work alongside industry producers to generate a short film around the specified topic of 'Modern England,' this would act as a relevant and impactful start to our creative careers.
With the assurance that pursuing this scheme could be catered to our course and count towards final submission, the chance to work on a live brief and produce a film within a specific timeframe and budget is inherently intriguing. Perhaps the most exciting and beneficial aspect of pursuing this direction would be working with industry producers and developing new contacts and the training we could receive throughout production. This would establish essential business management skills, honing our abilities to communicate our ideas and address client feedback.
Choosing to pursue the New Creatives scheme is ultimately a personal decision, evaluating whether we can effectively balance the workload not only of next year but also with our current work schedule compared to our research report and other assignments. As a studio, having our work commissioned by the BBC would work to build a reputation and clientele, though this would eat into our own time and plans to pursue an Aztec-inspired narrative. The decision to pursue this scheme was a significant one, so Jack and I set up a call with tutor Jon to discuss the New Creatives scheme in further depth and whether he feels it would be beneficial to pursue it ourselves.
The video call gave us an inside perspective on the matter, with Jon having worked on similar BBC commissioned projects in the past. We were able to hear an inside account on the scheme's process and the expectations we would have to meet if we decided to pursue this further, allowing us to evaluate the various advantages and downsides this process would have as a third-year production. There are some obvious benefits - mainly networking with industry professionals, learning opportunities, and the experience of working continuously with clients. As two creatives planning to pursue entrepreneurial ventures with the hopes of setting up an independent animation studio in Norwich, having this experience would be useful.
We spoke about our initial ideas to explore Aztec mythology and imagery for our film, which obviously would not fit the project brief of 'Modern England.' With this, we both recognized that we would need to repeat the pitching process and develop a new idea that reflects both the current state of the UK and more of a personal exploration of our challenges and experiences. After discussing this issue with Jack, we found we both felt a similar way: out of principle, we do not want the challenges and personal struggles we've faced as individuals to define our work, and ourselves as creative professionals. To us, animation and art are a craft and ‘form of escapism’ to tell exciting stories - which, while it may discuss elements and ideas from our personal experience, should not be entirely based on our lives.
After discussing the New Creatives scheme with Jon, we faced an important decision: do we pursue a new animated film, which while possessing significant career opportunities, would be produced by an outside source and explore Modern England - or, pursue our intended direction for our third-year film and have creative control over every aspect of production? With this, we both realized that while there would be benefits to pursuing the New Creatives scheme, the project brief didn't cater to our current situation. We both felt that new, more important, and groundbreaking voices should take center stage with that specific funding scheme. Ultimately, we want to have creative influence over the development of our graduate film and work on a personal project without client opinion or interference - before moving into a career that is entirely dependent on generating client work. Despite this, the concept of pursuing grant opportunities, in general, is something that we hadn't considered - and having a financial backdrop to the film would be a new process to explore.
Having looked at the possibility of the New Creatives scheme here, next, I plan to discuss the potential of pursuing the Aztec-influenced narrative and some of the critical aspects to consider moving forward with this direction.