BAFTA albert has published its 2019/20 Annual Report which includes findings that indicate a 10% reduction in carbon emissions in TV production in two years. The report highlights environmental priorities and how to deliver them, aiming to drive change within the screen industries in order to reach the net-zero carbon emissions target.
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On 28th July, Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced the launch of a new £500 million scheme to help jump-start UK film and television production struggling to secure insurance for COVID-19 related costs.
The new Film and TV Production Restart Scheme will enable UK productions to get back up and running by providing cover for coronavirus-related losses such as filming delays or cast and crew illnesses.
“This is fantastic news for the production industry, ensuring that production teams can get back to creating the high-quality TV shows and features that we all enjoy equipped with sufficient cover for disruptions and delays that arise from the pandemic,” says Dr Laurence Sargent, Director of Sargent-Disc, Co-Head of Cast & Crew International.
Draft Scheme Rules and supplementary Explanatory Notes have been published by DCMS and HM Treasury here.
The government has introduced this temporary measure to cover productions which commence filming before the end of 2020 for COVID-19 related losses. The scheme will allow productions to backdate future claims to 28th July 2020 as per the initial announcement. The registration deadline has been extended to 23.59 GMT on 28th February 2020, and claims can be submitted up to 23.59 GMT on 30th November 2021 for losses incurred up until 23.59 GMT on 30th June 2021.
Eligible productions will be able to apply for compensation for costs caused by coronavirus delays up to a value of 20% of the production budget. Abandonment of productions will be covered by up to 70% of the budget, upon agreement with the Government that it was necessary. There is a total cap of £5m on claims per production.
Alongside ensuring they are adequately insured by purchasing cover for non-coronavirus risks, productions will need to pay an appropriate excess during the claims process as well as a fee when joining the scheme.
Eligible productions will need to have spent at least half of their budget in the UK and provide evidence that they are unable to start up again due to a lack of insurance. The scheme is expected to support over 70% of film and TV production until the end of the year.
Further details around the claims process and eligibility requirements will be released in the near future.
“This is very welcome news from the UK government, who have worked at pace with the UK’s film, TV and broadcasting industry to develop a fund that will unlock tens of millions of pounds of production spend and help to get production companies and freelancers back to work doing what we do best – making great programmes for the UK and global audiences,” says John McVay, Pact CEO.
DCMS and HM Treasury will be reviewing the scheme periodically to ensure it supports film and television productions to restart following the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information, visit the HMRC website here.
This article is for general information purposes. It is not addressed to any specific parties and does not constitute advice (legal or otherwise) to any person.
On 24th September, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak unveiled the government’s Winter Economy Plan to support businesses and protect jobs over the coming months. This included the launch of the new Job Support Scheme to replace the Furlough Scheme.
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Developed in response to COVID-19 limiting the ability to distribute physical documentation, we’re delighted to launch the new Invoice Approval feature for Sargent-Disc’s Digital Purchase Order (DPO) web application.
Continue readingSargent-Disc’s partner, BAFTA albert, with the BFI and Arup, has published A New Screen Deal; a report providing a practical road map to help film productions adopt new approaches and processes to reduce their environmental footprint.
The Covid-19 lockdown contributed to improving the UK’s air quality across our cities. Factory and road traffic emissions were reduced across the board – from carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides and ozone formation to particulate matter. Global air traffic dropped by 60%.
The reduction in carbon-generating manufacture processes, services and products makes a huge difference to the planet – even temporarily. A joined-up strategy together with policy and behavioural changes will help the UK meet its 2050 net-zero carbon emission target.
Today A New Screen Deal providing both a vision and practical road map to help film productions reduce the substantial levels of carbon they create.
Arup analysed sustainability data from 19 features filmed in the UK and US over the last five years, with budgets of $70million+. Research found that productions generally under-reported their resource consumption and carbon footprint – or did not report it at all. Where data was available, the average big budget production generated 2840 tonnes of CO2 – 50% from fuel consumption, 30% from production energy-utilities and 16% by air travel.
A New Screen Deal calls for the introduction of an accepted standard to measure a film production’s carbon footprint – to make it easier for productions to monitor their impact. Digital collaboration processes, better end-of-life planning and the right infrastructure at studio sites are all fundamental to supporting sustainable production, it concludes.
The report is extremely timely. Next year the UK will host the 26th ‘Conference of the Parties’ climate summit (COP26) and will adopt the presidency of the G7. In 2019 the UK production sector saw huge growth, with film and high-end TV production spend of exceeding £3.6bn. The first quarter of 2020 showed that UK production spend was close to £1bn. As productions restart after being suspended due to the pandemic, the projected growth of the film industry makes a shift towards more sustainable practices even more urgent.
Encouragingly, since lockdown and the publishing of the Working Safely During COVID-19 in Film and High-end TV Drama Production guidance, Sargent-Disc has seen a marked increase in the uptake of digital production processes including our low carbon Digital Production Office® workflows and applications, including Digital Payroll Workflow, CrewStart Workflow, DPO, the Production Card and PSL+.
Our research shows that using DPO alone can save almost a tonne of carbon on an average large budget production, whilst using CrewStart for onboarding and contracting can save between 10,000 – 25,000 sheets of paper on a production employing 350 crew.
Download A New Screen Deal here.
Sargent-Disc has created a number of ‘how to’ videos which cover the 5 key stages of onboarding crew members through CrewStart™.
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Organising and disseminating onboarding paperwork is a challenge faced by all production companies. CrewStart™, part of Sargent-Disc’s Digital Production Office suite of applications, is designed to help your team automate the processing of contracts, start forms, daily rate vouchers and timesheets.
We’ve made new improvements to the timesheets function within CrewStart, to enable the generation of daily hot cost reports, which will help you streamline the preparation of weekly payroll.
