Screen Alliance Wales has launched a scheme to help employees across the creative industry find more work.
As part of a project with the British Film Commission, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Sgil Cymru and Creative Wales, SAW (Screen Alliance Wales) is launching the ‘Step Across’ scheme.
The scheme will help theatre and live event workers retrain for the TV sector, with the long-term aim to create a broader pool of skills. The aim is see all sectors able to contribute significantly to the local economy, and be better placed to ride the peaks and troughs of demand in years to come.
It was developed to tackle the ever-shrinking boundaries between the various creative industries in Wales, and the initiative seeks to help creative sector professionals publicise their transferable skills and meet the demands in the various sectors.
In recent years the traditional gulf between film and television has become virtually insignificance, and both regularly incorporating skills from the digital industries. The scope of productions in the theatre and live events means that the talent pools of the audio-visual arts have a lot to offer as well. For example, there are greater levels of animatronics and visual effects used on stage, which were previously found only in TV and film production.
Step Across is a first step to breaking these barriers down, working with the theatre and live events sector to help find employment for crew who may have found their income streams fall away during the Coronavirus pandemic.
SAW managing director Allison Dowzell said: “The recent explosion of high-end TV production in Wales has meant that the need for a training, education and professional crew database has never been more important. Our new web platform will allow us to continue our mission of providing the gateway between the fast-growing screen sector in Wales and its workforce.”
The widely exported productions like Doctor Who, A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials have increased Wales’ reputation as a place to make high-quality screen content, with annual turnover in the creative industries at an estimated £2.6bn, with 56,000 people employed in the sector - a 40% increase compared to 10 years ago.
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Step Across will look to help connect individuals who have seen their employment disrupted by Covid-19 to companies that can utilise their skills and support any re-training needs.
This is being achieved by enabling theatre and live event crew to register on SAW's production directory, which has been adapted to accept references from employers, as well traditionally basing verification of their professional status using web links such as IMDb.
Any re-training required to facilitate these changes will harness both the positivity within the audio-visual sector, and work with existing organisations who deliver training. While some new features and processes will be developed, the plan is to align with existing organisations such as CULT Cymru and forge other relationships that will help address the needs of the sector.
This project is supported by institutions such as the Wales Millennium Centre and Cardiff Council.
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Cllr Huw Thomas, Leader of Cardiff Council, said : "We are delighted to be supporting this Screen Alliance Wales ‘Step Across’ scheme. Our live performance sector has suffered greatly during the pandemic with so many theatre and production crew losing work and their livelihoods as a consequence.
"This exciting project will help enable crew to utilise their skills in the TV and Production industry in Cardiff and South East Wales, opening up new opportunities for them, fostering closer working partnerships between both sectors, to support a natural skills alliance to help address shortages in industry and sustain our world class creative sector."
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Graeme Farrow, Creative Director, Wales Millennium Centre, added: “This is a very welcome initiative for those working in the theatre industry, many of whom have not been able to work in their chosen field for a year.
"Wales Millennium Centre is focused, like Screen Alliance Wales, on developing new pathways for employment into the creative industries. Many of the skills within the screen and stage sector are transferable yet we do not see enough opportunities to work across these sectors together. I hope and expect that this will be the start of a long-term partnership and commitment to increasing a wide range of opportunities and building this vibrant creative sector in Wales.”
Established by production company Bad Wolf in 2018, SAW is a non-profit education and training initiative with the aim of raising awareness of TV and film opportunities in Wales. It has key education and industry partnerships with HBO, S4C , University of South Wales, Coleg y Cymoedd and Bad Wolf, as well as support from MovieTech, 4Wood Film & TV Construction, Gorilla, Panalux, Facilities by ADF and Mad Dog 2020.
Since its inception, SAW has worked with a number of high-end Welsh TV and film productions, such as BBC and HBO’s His Dark Materials, Sky Original A Discovery of Witches, HBO’s Watchmen and Industry, and Fox’s War of the Worlds, supporting 48 trainees, 204 work shadowing placements, and providing outreach for over 14,000 students to date. The production directory has so-far seen over 3500 people sign up, with 40 job roles posted across multiple productions and over 1,000 applications submitted to date.
As well as student outreach, placements and job opportunities, SAW also provides masterclasses with industry leaders, certifications, learning resources, and courses in a range of different disciplines, offering insights and guidance into the TV and film industry in Wales.