September 2018 Council Meeting

Items on the agenda at the September Council Meeting included:

• AI and the Screen Sectors – Cliff Fluet (Partner, Lewis Silkin) spoke about the current and potential uses for AI to benefit the screen sectors;
• Children’s Contestable Fund – Ben Roberts (Director: Film Fund, BFI) provided some detail about how the Contestable Fund for Children’s TV would operate and shared some thoughts about the BFI’s thinking behind it;
• Independent Film Commission Report – Ben Roberts (Director: Film Fund, BFI) provided an update on the progress of the BFI’s Independent film fund, including running through the recommendations of the BFI’s independent film commission and explaining what the next steps would be;
• Training and Diversity the Screen Sectors – Bob Clarke (Founder and CEO, Mama Youth) explained what Mama Youth did, including explaining how they were offering opportunities to enter the industry that would also improve the sector’s diversity; and Euan Blair (Co-Founder and CEO, Whitehat) and Sophie Adelman (Co-founder and General Manager, Whitehat) spoke about their business, which used data analytics to inform the placement of apprentices into roles. This was followed by a participative discussion about how to best meet the skills requirements of the audiovisual industries;
• StoryFutures Long Term Audience Tracking Study – Prof. James Bennett (Royal Holloway University of London) updated members on ‘StoryFutures’, the successful and BSAC-backed bid for AHRC funding as part of the Creative Clusters initiative, and invited BSAC Members to help shape the long term audience tracking study to ensure that it delivered real value for the sector as it explores ways in which audiences experienced immersive experiences, including VR and AR ; and
• Updates on the latest policy developments for the sector.

Council Meetings are private events for BSAC Members.