Welcome to the Screen Alliance Wales’ November Newsletter!

Firstly, if you haven’t done so already, we would like to encourage you to create a profile on our website (here). This is an incredible place to showcase any credits, skills and links to previous work. It also keeps you up to date with all vacancies that we advertise and automatically signs you up to our newsletter. If you already have an account on our directory, do make sure to keep all your details updated with you most up to date information

Vacancies

As always, we would like to start off by highlighting all the opportunities that are currently available over on our vacancies page. This is regularly updated, so make sure to keep checking the page on our website here. Now is such a great time to explore the varied roles that are on offer to join the booming Film and TV industry in Wales.

We have the following exciting opportunities available:

Wales Millennium Centre have several roles available including

- Cabaret Technician

- Casual Stage Door Receptionist

- Human Resources Business Partner (Maternity Cover)

Gorilla are looking for a VT Operator

Luna Tides Productions require an Assistant Editor

A HETV production have a Payroll Accountant role

Facilities by ADF currently require a Sales Ledger Administrator

Real SFX are looking for a Finance Manager

Gritty Talent require a Project Manager

Painting Practice are looking for a Compositing Artist.

Sponsors and Supporters

The work we carry out is only made possible by the fantastic contributions from our wonderful Sponsors and Supporters. Here’s what they have been up to this month…

Bad Wolf have announced that filming has begun in Wales and the West Country on The Winter King, based on the re-imagined Arthurian legend by author Bernard Cornwall. The show will follow “…Arthur Pendragon as he evolves from outcast to legendary warrior and leader. The Winter King is set in the 5th century, long before Britain was united, in a land of warring factions and tribes when the world was brutal and lives were often fleeting”. To find out more, click here and make sure to follow Bad Wolf on their social media channels.

Gorilla - Wales’ leading post-production company, Gorilla, is expanding its current offering with the creation of Gorilla VFX, building upon the talented team at Bait VFX, whose previous work includes films Apostle, Roald & Beatrix and Dream Horse, as well as Channel 4 series Somewhere Boy and Netflix drama Heartstopper. Gorilla has seen an increasing demand for High-end TV post-production services, including VFX, as the global market continues to grow. This expansion is the natural next step in Gorilla’s evolution, and the new division will focus on episodic High-end TV and film. To find out more, click here.

Painting Practice – The digital art company have been sharing some of their incredible pre-vis work on Netflix’s hottest new show, Wednesday. The team have been showcasing the amazingly detailed designs side by side with the finished article that is now being seen on screens. The exclusive pictures are being shared on Painting Practice’s Instagram page, with more bonus content still to come over the coming weeks.

Cardiff Capital Region - Building on the hugely successful CCRSP Stakeholder Engagement Event in May, the CCRSP team have been busy drafting a new 3-year Employment and Skills Plan 2022-25 for the region. Through collaboration with the Employment and Skills Board (ESB) and priority sector cluster groups, the draft plan has now been produced and shared with Welsh Government. The CCRSP officially launched the plan at the Mercure Hotel, Newport on the 21st November with the support of Vaughan Gething MS, Welsh Government Minister for Economy. The Leader of Newport City Council – Cllr Jane Mudd delivered the welcome address at the launch highlighting the second iteration of the CCRSP Employment and Skills Plan 2022-2025 and informed attendees that the focus for the plan has been to ensure ‘prosperity through partnership’.”

Creative Wales - When Lucasfilm chose Wales as its base to revisit the story of Willow Ufgood, picking up where the movie left off in 1988, Creative Wales were delighted to support this major production filmed at Dragon Studios, Bridgend. Follow @CreativeWales over the coming days and weeks to find out more about what this Disney+ production brought to the Welsh film industry, from varying opportunities for trainees to a warm welcome home for talented Welsh crew. Willow is streaming on Disney+ from 30 November. Creative Wales are looking forward to attending the FOCUS production show in London on 6th and 7th December. We’ll also be hosting a joint ‘happy hour’ drinks reception with SAW, Dragon Studios and our other colleagues and businesses from Wales. Look out in the programme for details. Come along to say hello and ‘iechyd da’!

Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn - The Film Skills learners at Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn are very excited to be launching their latest film project at the Odeon Cinema Swansea on 12th December. This will be the school’s first Christmas themed film and features the amazing Key Stage 5 learners as the main stars of the project. They will also be launching the film on their School YouTube channel on the 12th December as The Doctor goes up against the evil Christmas elves, and there may even be a couple of surprise appearances in the completed film!

Awards news

We were delighted to have been nominated for several awards over the past month. Although we were unsuccessful this time with the Careers Wales Valued Partner Awards and Investors in People Awards, we are delighted to announce that we were awarded the Third Sector Business of the Year 2022 at the Cardiff Business Awards! It was such an honour for our work to be recognised and we are so grateful to the Cardiff Business Awards, as well as all of our incredible sponsors whose help enable us to do our work in Wales.

Zina Wegrzynski Scriptwriting course

Taking place over three days across October and November, we welcomed pupils from Willows High School, St Illtyds and Cardiff West Community High School to take part in a special scriptwriting course led by industry expert Zina Wegrzynski. The sessions covered a wide range of vital script knowledge which we hope has got the students thinking about a future in this field. They also had the opportunity to pitch their own ideas, taking well-known fairy stories and adapting them into another genre. They did an incredible job with pitching to the group, and it was wonderful to see so many of them getting so enthusiastic about their work. We had an amazing time on the course and want to say a massive thank you to Zina who was a superb scriptwriting teacher.

Butetown Grangetown Camera workshop & Careers Fair

Over half term, Screen Alliance Wales, with the help of Ali from the Grangetown Pavilion and Naima and Sumia from the Butetown Pavilion put on a workshop by the lovely Jack, a Media Production student from the University of South Wales. Using the Dance Studio at the Butetown Hub as our interview space, and all their fantastic equipment, 11 young people from the local community came along and learned how to use camera, sound and lighting. 

By the end of the session, they had set up and used all the kit and even became interviewers and interviewees! This is the first session of what we hope will be a very successful documentary making project about all the amazing things happening in Butetown and Grangetown.

Bad Wolf Art Department at USW

A massive thank you to Kartik and Hattie from the Art Dept at Wolf Studios Wales for visiting the University of South Wales’ TV & Film Set Design students to talk about their careers and work on productions such as A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials. Former alumni of the course, Kartik, was able to give an insight into his journey since graduating and both offered insider knowledge of their work and the industry – including the importance of imperial measurements. Thank you for having us Anna and the students. We hope you enjoyed and looking forward to seeing some of you in the industry next year!

Focus 22

Next week, the SAW team are heading up to London to join Dragon Studios, 4Wood, Location Solutions Wales, Compass Travel Management, Shadow Rigging and Creative Wales for this year’s Focus22 event, showcasing some of the amazing companies from the Welsh Film and TV industry. We will be at the Business Design Centre on the 6th-7th and can’t wait to speak with people about the thriving industry here in Wales.

The Film and TV charity: Behind the Scenes Week

The Film and TV Charity have launched their ‘Behind the Scenes Week’ this month which celebrates all the incredible people who work behind the scenes within the Film and TV industry. From the 28th of November to the 2nd of December, the charity want to turn the camera around and focus on the people whose work can sometimes get overlooked in an industry as large as this. We have been sharing stories on our website and across our social media channels of some of the incredible people who we have had the privilege of working with before from people across a range of departments. Make sure to head over to our website here to read some of these, as well as following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with the hashtags #BTSW, #TurnTheCameraAround and #HiddenHeroes.

Exclusive screening of His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 1

We were so excited to be a part of the Royal Television Society’s screening of His Dark Materials Season 3, episode one premiere! Hosted by our wonderful sponsor, the University of South Wales, over 100 people joined us at the Atrium campus in Cardiff to watch the exciting new episode, as well as getting to network with food and drinks. After the screening, SAW’s Allison Dowzell, Bad Wolf Producer Kate Crowther and Painting Practice’s Razvan Rotaru took part in a Q & A to discuss the show as well as answering questions from the audience. Attendees also got the opportunity to explore the “Land of the Dead” on our state-of-the-art VR head set kindly donated by Painting Practice. It was a great evening, and we can’t wait for everyone to be able to watch the full series, coming to UK TV screens from December 18th on BBC iPlayer.

SAW Out and About

This month we visited the Careers Wales ‘Choose Your Future’ careers fair, getting the chance to chat with secondary schools across Pembrokeshire. We also delivered face-to-face industry sessions at Crickhowell High School and Brecon High in Powys, completing Rhys’s mission to visit every local authority in 2022!

Don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels to keep up to date on all the latest news and vacancies. 

Twitter: @ScreenAllianceW /@SAWeducation

Instagram & Facebook: @ScreenAllianceWales