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New Big Screen for Glastonbury
Up to 50 filmmakers from the South West had a unique opportunity to show their work to a brand new audience at Glastonbury this past weekend when the BBC Village Screen came to the summer festival for the first time. The Village Screen is a project which will provide a platform for the best new creative talent in the UK. It's the result of a unique collaboration between London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Cultural Olympiad, the nation's creative agencies, RELAYS and the BBC.
The screen was used to showcase the work of some of the best new film-making talent, digital artists, VJs and games developers from the South West - and the rest of the UK - to over 177,000 people who gathered for the world-famous music festival in Somerset.
BBC Big Screens, such as the one at Glastonbury, are being rolled out across the UK in time for the Olympics in 2012, when it is expected they will form a focus for communities to come together and watch the Games. Bristol and Swindon are among the cities in the South West to already boast big screens.
At Glastonbury, there were two 25m square digital screens, back- to- back, which broadcast a mix of short films, archive footage, gaming sessions, classic pop and highlights of the BBC's coverage of the Festival from 10.00am to 3.00am every day.
The content has been gleaned from across the UK via the Regional Screen Agencies. Ten hours' worth will be supplied by artists from the South West, after South West Screen launched a call for content to filmmakers across the region last month. A mixture of short films, animation, documentaries, virals and pop videos were submitted and project co-ordinator, Cathy Gremin from South West Screen was on the panel to draw up the final list.
She says: ‘We had a huge amount of content sent in from across the SW so it was a tricky job to whittle it down to just ten hours. The kind of content that will work best has a strong visual impact to be able to stand out against the fairly noisy background of the festival.
‘This is a terrific opportunity for all the filmmakers and content producers, and we're delighted to be involved. Glastonbury is an iconic festival, which hosts a mixture of arts, but this is the first time there has been a screen programme dedicated to promoting the work of new and emerging filmmakers and games developers.'
In addition, the screens will feature specially commissioned interactive work from three artists based in the South West: Bristol-based Tarim, Aqeel Akbar from the University of Plymouth and Weymouth's Joe Stevens.
Richard Crowe, London 2012 Creative Programmer for the South West, explains: "The Village Screen project not only aims to provide an opportunity for emerging creative talent to reach a wide audience, but also allows us to explore and demonstrate the interactive potential of Live Sites across the UK and the requirements for successful long-term programming.
‘The programme is interspersed with short, non-commercial messages promoting an open call for films for the 2010 Glastonbury Screen and the UK-wide Live Sites, London 2012 activity and our Legacy Trust programme."
29th June 2009
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