Creative Manchester

Creative England rolls out networking crew nights

26 April

Creative England is planning a nationwide programme of networking evenings for professionals in film, TV and digital media, which will take in seven regional hubs in seven months.

Manchester will be the next stop for Creative England’s Locations and Production Services team, which have so far welcomed around 600 people to the cross-industry events in Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol.

The networking sessions are open to production staff, crew and production companies from both drama and documentary backgrounds. They are among the only joined-up industry events linking professionals from the worlds of film with those in TV and the digital media, thereby offering a wide range of new and diverse opportunities for cross-media collaboration.

Starting in Leeds in January, crew nights have also been held in Birmingham and Bristol and have been over-subscribed in each location.

The next events to take place are:
• April 26: Sakura, Manchester, 6pm-9pm
• May 29: Antenna, Nottingham, 6pm-9pm

Further events are due to be announced in Brighton in June and Sheffield in July.

Feedback from the events so far has been very positive, with animation and production services company, Kilogramme, just one of the companies to report a useful connection made from attending the session in Leeds.

Kilogramme’s Claire Grey, said: "We met Bill [Beaumont from a company called Distant futures] and Stu [Houchin, another animator]. I’ve been checking out their site this morning and have talked about working together in the future if we can fill any skill gaps in their company and vice versa.”

Mel Paton brought her company, Origami Films, down to Stroud from London last year. She attended the most recent crew night in Bristol. “Even though I’ve been down in Stroud since last May, I kept using London studios and crew as they’re the ones II know! I think it's a brilliant idea to get everyone together all under one roof. In three enjoyable hours I got to meet DOP's, presenters, Camera Hire facilities and I can almost name all of the five the studios by the end of the evening all of which I knew nothing about before I arrived!”

The events are part of Creative England’s remit of ensuring continuity of the vibrant film and moving image culture outside London. The organisation, which started life in October last year, is responsible for supporting the regional film and television industries outside London and their convergence with the digital media sector.

For more information and to book your place click here.