FIRESIDE CHAT INDUSTRY
HERITAGE WORKS Severn Screen produced Havoc (above) and Mr Burton (left), both of which were filmed in and inspired by Wales
it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t, but if you’re passionate about the project, the talent and team, then you’re giving yourself the best shot at success. Some of the projects on our slate have an obvious route to market, but others are less clear. As a team, we enjoy that mix, it keeps us on our toes! DEF: Finally, when you look ahead, what do you hope people will associate with the name Severn Screen? What kind of mark do you want to leave – on Wales and beyond? ET: First and foremost, you want to be associated with good work, and the best way of delivering on that is to work with good people. We have a great team at Severn, and friends and colleagues across the wider sector. As long as we keep working with good people, I’d like to think we can keep producing interesting work. A common denominator across most of our projects is a keen sense of place. We like to shine a light on Welsh talent where we can, whether in front of the camera or behind it. The people, places, landscapes and communities of Wales have been sorely underrepresented in drama for decades, so hopefully the work we do, in a small way, does something to address that. We’re not entirely Wales-centric in our choices, but we have a natural leaning towards our own culture. After all, it’s a small nation with a minority language, and if we don’t speak up for ourselves, we can’t expect anyone else to.
DEF: You’ve gone further than most on sustainability by bringing in a full-time advisor. For other production companies who want to make real change, but don’t know where to start (or worry it’s too expensive), what would you tell them? about mindset. It’s really important that the messaging is there from the start; producers need to communicate to their teams that this is something they really care about, and that the changes we make do matter. There’s a lot of guidance and support out there to get started – so my advice is to look for that and make use of it. At Severn Screen, as well as tapping into this, we’re taking what we’ve learnt on recent productions, including Havoc and Mr Burton , and finding ways to share this. Last year, we ran a sustainability ET: Firstly, I would say it’s not always about cost, it’s often coordinator training programme funded by Media Cymru and Creative Wales to bring more sustainability professionals
into the Welsh industry. We’ve also worked with some of our Welsh suppliers to identify more sustainable ways of working, which benefits them as well as helping us reduce the carbon impact of filming. Ultimately, across the industry there’s a lot of good practice and a lot of progress, but the work needs to be accelerated across the sector. We can all play a part in this. how much is instinct and how much is strategy? Has recent success with projects like Havoc and Mr Burton changed how you think about risk? ET: We’ve never gone into a production purely for commercial DEF: When you’re deciding whether to pursue a project, reasons. It’s always been about wanting to back a particular writer or a director, or wanting to see a particular story told. Whether it’s a network drama, a film for a streaming service or an independent feature, you have to be passionate about the project you’re backing. Sometimes,
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