New Creatives Round-Up
Since 2019, we’ve been the proud, local-producing partner of New Creatives, a talent development scheme led in the South West by our friends at Bristol-based Calling the Shots. The scheme is supported by BBC Arts and Arts Council England and offers commissioning opportunities for emerging artists aged 16-30 to create new work in film, audio or interactive media that is designed to be broadcast on BBC platforms.
Over the past two years, Screen Cornwall has prioritised making the opportunity more accessible to new and diverse talent by supporting young people who might not yet think of themselves as artists or creatives but have something to say. As a result, we’ve delivered workshops and drop-in sessions to drive applications, with an emphasis on outreach groups such as Game Changer which supports long-term unemployed young people, and The WILD Young Parents Project, a support system for young mums and dads. Jeremy Routledge, executive producer and Director of Calling The Shots, highlighted the work Screen Cornwall has carried out over the past two years in communicating “with a wide range of demographics and facilitating access for a diverse range of artists, from community groups to more experienced filmmakers and sound artists.”
With reference to the importance we place in engaging with hard-to-reach groups, Jeremy continued that Screen Cornwall’s success has been reflected in the number of diverse commissions and broadcasts of Cornish work locally and nationally. 59 young people from across Cornwall and Isles of Scilly applied and Calling The Shots shortlisted a total of 23 projects in CIoS which involved 30 young people, all of whom received training sessions through Screen Cornwall (and later online due to COVID-19) covering idea and script development, marketing, and sessions in broadcast audio and film production. Additionally, Screen Cornwall provided one-to-one sessions and personalised feedback, and prepared the artists to develop their original proposal with the hope of enticing BBC commissioners at the next stage.
In total, our Cornish applicants received 13 commissions - 10 audio pieces, two films and one interactive project. Two of these commissions required additional access support, one of which came as a result of our partnership with The WILD Young Parents Project. For this commission, we worked closely with WILD facilitator Matthew Thomason to produce a poetic exploration into the life of a young parent, mentored by artist Ella Frears.
Artists are fully supported through production by the teams at Screen Cornwall and Calling the Shots. Additionally, Screen Cornwall worked with each young artist to identify their production needs and drew upon our extensive network of creative professionals working in Cornwall, to assign a high-quality mentor to each – such as writer-director and comedy actor Alice Lowe, producer-director Clare Tavenor, and Hannah Wood, Creative Director of Story Juice.
Excitingly, we’re gradually seeing the commissions find their place on BBC platforms. Miles Sloman’s ‘Anoraks’ is currently available on BBC iPlayer, a comedy short about an ill-fated pilgrimage to a re-enactment near King Arthur's birthplace at Tintagel. Three audio projects are also available on BBC Sounds; Chris Baker’s ‘Hidden in the Hills’, a soundscape exploring loneliness in young people, Florence Browne’s ‘Our Words Still Sing’, a piece that explores the attitudes that young people have towards the Cornish language, as well as Rory Bray-Harper’s ‘Rory’s Alternative Guide to the Woods’, an imaginative and psychedelic journey around Tehidy Woods.
Florence’s and Chris’s projects have also been included in Gemma Cairney’s ‘BBC Introducing Arts’ show on BBC 6 Music, a compilation show which takes listeners on a journey through soundscapes, spoken word and documentary from fresh and emerging British artists. In addition, BBC Radio Cornwall’s Jack Murley has featured all four artists in his show, ‘Dial a Guest’.
Lastly, Emily Sorrell, who received our interactive commission, developed the ‘Sonosynthesiser’, a handheld device that enables its user to tune to the BBC Sounds Archive, locating and amplifying fragments of sound from as far back as 1907. Emily delivered the ‘Sonosynthesiser’ by exhibiting at BBC Art’s Digital Cities event ‘Hello Culture’ at Watershed in Bristol.
For more updates on our New Creatives and information on where to catch the next broadcast, follow us on social media.
