Create: "a fantastic resource"
David Collier, a producer of The Basil Brush Show and My Parents are Aliens, regularly works with Create, helping and advising aspiring media professionals in Swindon.
At the launch of the new Create studios and website in 2007, David enthused, "Create is a fantastic resource for film makers, photographers, animators, in fact anyone interested in developing their experience of the visual media. It helps and encourages people with a wide range of experience and abilities. Importantly, it provides a regional support system for people wanting to deepen their knowledge of their chosen field and encourages links between groups for their mutual benefit."
David has worked with Create for many years, starting as Screenwriter in Residence, working with people developing their ideas and scripts and encouraging them to make films. He has also run courses in screenwriting at beginner and more advanced levels and recently worked with them on Mobile Media's First Light projects.
Impressed
"I have always been impressed by the enthusiasm and care that Create shows to the people it works with and those who use their facilities," David said. "Create runs career days for people still at school or in college so they can find out what working in the media really involves. Also, its courses offer a real insight into the business because they are run by people with significant professional experience."
And it's not just about the students. David feels his time with Create has developed his own talent. He added, "Working with the writers undoubtedly gave me more experience to read and discuss a wide range of scripts, which directly fed into my work as a script editor. Developing and running courses is a useful background to the organisational aspects of production as well as being good training in working with people."
Kids' TV
On a wider topic, David feels "very privileged" working in kids TV. He finds it, "very creative and satisfying" though it's not always easy to remain so positive. "At the moment, kids' TV is under financial and cultural threat from many areas such as people blaming kids TV for obesity and smoking - but see www.savekidstv.co.uk for a sensible and thorough analysis of the situation. Adults look back with huge fondness for the programmes they watched when they were young and it's bizarre that they would deny such treasured memories to children today. I have been particularly lucky to work on two fantastic and iconic programmes like My Parents are Aliens and The Basil Brush Show. They are extremely well made and popular shows. They make young people laugh and, hopefully, think a little, too."
ICEHOUSE AWARD
David was the Screenwriting Tutor on the Create production Icehouse, which won Best Thriller at the First Light awards. He has won other awards, too, as well as having three BAFTA nominations for My Parents are Aliens and one for the series Best Friends. We asked how the Icehouse award compared. "I was extremely thrilled and proud when Icehouse won because itís a great short film and The Boffin Group was a truly fantastic group of young women to work with. It was particularly exciting to be in the cinema when the award was announced because I had been involved in the very early stages of the scriptís development and so saw the film move from being scribbles on index cards to, a year later, winning an award. Although the filmmakers were very sure about what they wanted to do - I just offered a little guidance. It was a very well-deserved award, which is always good. It's also good to win an award - more fun than a nomination in some ways! My Parents are Aliens won a Royal Television Society award for Best Children's Programme and that was more fun than not winning a BAFTA. Particularly as I think we were robbed - although receiving the nominations was brilliant and the event itself is very enjoyable, not least because of the vast amount of champagne that flows."