More people make TV in the North West than anywhere else outside of London, Vision+Media believes that it is our role to keep making that happen. In the last 24 months we have invested £400,000 into North West indies, supported over 40 companies through workshops and taken 10 companies to international events including MIPCOM and MIPTV.
Major brands from Cracker, Prime Suspect, Shameless, The Street, Life on Mars, The Royle Family have filmed in the North West and local writing talent includes Alan Bleasdale, Lynda La Plante, Jimmy MGovern, Paul Abbott, Caroline Aherne and Steve Coogan to name but a few.
The TV department at Vision+Media can help you do a number of things, including providing access to commissioners and best practice workshops, to making filming in the region easy, with a free service that includes securing location permits, camera crew and actors.
Radio is thriving. Millions of people listen to the medium every week, from news and sport to comedy, drama and children's programming.
The first BBC national network to ever leave London, 5Live, will move to the North West in 2011. World Service Sport will also make the North West its home at MediaCityUK along with Cbeebies Radio.
Vision+Media believes that radio has a strong future in the region, and that’s why we’re determined to continue to support radio as part of our our activity in 2011.
The North West is a national publishing hub: key regional players in include Trinity Mirror North West and Wales and divisions of the Guardian Media Group, and a number of well established independents such as Excel, Newhall, PSCA and Ten Alps. The region is also home to international groups such as UBM to smaller niche publishers such as Waterfront Magazinesand Move Publishing.
Last year, we sponsored EMAP’s The Media Festival 2010, we supported the Digital Editors Network via the UCLAN Journalism Leaders Programme and we have considerable publishing expertise on our board in the shape of Mark Dodson, former Chief Executive Officer of Guardian Media Group Regional Newspaper Division and Alex Connock, Chief Executive of Ten Alps.
Vision+Media supports has supported regional brands and businesses nationally and internationally. In 2011, we have again supported Sound City (Liverpool), which put North West companies directly in front of key industry figures from across the world. We also supported In the City (Manchester) in 2010 and enabled 20 businesses to attend this well established industry event.
We have also supported music industry companies from the region by making it possible for them to participate in SXSW in the US and have even expanded the Sound City presence to Dubai, focusing on increasing opportunities for North West music companies in the Middle East and Asia markets.
The North West of England has a strong heritage in videogames and interactive content, it is home to some of the biggest and best games companies in the world.
As well funding and supporting film, TV, publishing, radio, music and digital services, Vision+Media believes strongly in the North West’s pioneering gaming industry.
Get in the Game is a Vision+Media sponsored grant awarded to 5 companies, giving them the unique opportunity to develop concepts, receive mentoring and finally pitch ideas to Sony’s XDev studio’s in Europe. In addition to this we supported the Develop Conference for Games Professionals in the North West and held a 'Narrative in Games' Visionary session and workshop. Our Marketing Placement scheme also offered 8 paid placements in the industry to recent marketing graduates
Vision+Media provides support for games companies to help them grow their business, access finance, improve their skills and staff and to collaborate with other companies both within and outside of the games industry.
Vision+Media’s Film Department supports producers, writers and directors. We believe that it’s their ideas and projects that have the potential to attract significant inward investment into the region.
We support filmmaking at every level, recent examples include; Looking for Eric, Nowhere Boy, Grow Your Own, Sparkle, A Boy Called Dad, and most recently Route Irish (Ken Loach’s film now in production).
Monthly film surgeries provide a one-to-one service for established and emerging filmmaking talent, while our 'Digital Shorts' programme (in partnership with the UK Film Council) helps upcoming talent break into the industry.
To make filming in the North West easy, our Film Office team provide free, expert advice on everything, from sourcing locations, crew, studios and post houses to securing permissions and local authority access. In addition we manage a free online database providing access to the over 30,000 locations and 3,000 crew facilities.
In 2009 we have facilitated a number of networking and training events aimed at helping digital and creative industries in the region.
The Digital Sparks program provides events, training, workshops and networking for leaders, managers, freelancers and new entrants across the sector. This will continue to grow in 2010 with Transmissions, i.studio+, Technique and DMEX all providing practical help for digital companies.
22 company founders, CEO’s and Creative Directors and 25 management-level participants from the North West’s digital and creative sectors took part in the world class training programmes, Accidental Leaders and Accidental Managers, and we plan to sign-up even more in 2010.