It’s been a production week of spies in Istanbul and light shows in Buenos Aires. In addition, we were the Gold Sponsor at the AFCI Cineposium near Paris, meeting lots of old friends and making new ones. We spent an evening closer to home at the Higher/Pitch event at Shoreditch in London, which celebrated the use of art throughout the global advertising industry.
Caroline Norbury has been appointed the first Chief Executive Officer of Creative England, the organisation that will be replacing the Regional Screen Agencies in England within the next few weeks. Norbury has been interim Establishment Director since mid-June.
Tanya Seghatchian has resigned from her position as head of The Film Fund at the British Film Institute (BFI). She had been overseeing the fund’s transition from the now-defunct UK Film Council to the BFI, having originally been in charge of the council’s Development Fund.
Advertising agency BBDO Proximity in Dusseldorf is being pro-active in the quest for commercial production practices that generate less carbon dioxide. The agency’s new Carbon Film Quote has been spearheaded by Steffen Gentis and is being tested by German production companies.
One of our popular stories this week has been news that the second series of Game of Thrones will be filmed partly in Croatia, which is great for the eastern European country. In other news production has started at Fox Studios Australia on Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and the Mojave Desert has again proved its popularity as a convenient dramatic wilderness.
Paris-based Havas has announced organic revenue growth of 5.6% for the first half of 2011 over the same period in 2010. Overall there are mixed results. Organic growth slipped by 1.3% between Q1 and Q2 of this year, but North American growth for the company was 1.8% over the same period.
Joe Biggins runs the Inflatable Crowd Company (ICC) and is a man whose innovative approach to problem-solving has put him in charge of a new kind of film servicing company. He’s worked on films like The Fighter, The King’s Speech and Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming pandemic thriller Contagion.
It’s been a turbulent few months in many parts of the world, not least in the Middle East. The effects of the Arab Spring on film production will be a talking point at the AFCI Cineposium 2011, along with discussions about how film commissions around the world can develop future strategies.