Last week I organised a two-day familiarity tour of Blackpool and the Fylde coast, in conjunction with Blackpool City Council, for a number of location managers including Steve Harvey, Ian Vasey and Beverley Lamb.
Steve has just finished working on the last Harry Potter film and is about to start work on the next Pirates of the Caribbean instalment, as well as the upcoming Spielberg project 'War Horse' so it was a real coup to get him up to the region. Ian and Beverley have years of experience between them, having worked on projects such as Shameless, Miss Potter, The Street, The Parole Officer, Pleasureland, and Drop Dead Gorgeous.
The aim of the tour was to promote and showcase the area with a view to attacting more film and TV production to this part of the region, allowing location managers to see first-hand what Blackpool and the Fylde coast has to offer a production.
Over the two days, we visited a number of key locations and were treated to a lovely dinner, hosted by Blackpool City Council, which provided a fantastic opportunity for our guests to learn more about the town's film-friendly ethos and to meet some key contacts in the area.
Luckily the weather remained glorious throughout the trip, so we were able to get fantastic views from the top of the Tower (and enjoy an ice cream on the North Pier!). Feedback from all of our guests has been really positive so fingers crossed this will result in further production to the area!
Anna Cousins is a Film Liaison Officer at Vision+Media. See how we can help your production in the North West.
