Film Production in Wales

[TimR]

Is there a distinctly Welsh film industry?



All of the films discussed on the forum appear to be produced in England or Scotland. Does Wales have its own film production?



I know that question may bring some chuckles - I am aware that Wales is quite small.



But it is a very beautiful and ancient country with its own unique identity, so I thought I would ask.

[penfold]

Indeed. Some films, some films in Welsh, but mostly indies; no studios as such, though Lord Dickie was building one....and Cardiff is a hotbed of animation.

There was a good festival/conference last autumn on such a subject, that I attended and Steve caught the tail of; you might find some useful details here.



Fflics

[julian_craster]

There is a book on this topic...





David Berry. Wales and Cinema: the first hundred years, published 1994



Check Amazon UK...

[Moor Larkin]

name='TimR']Is there a distinctly Welsh film industry?



All of the films discussed on the forum appear to be produced in England or Scotland. Does Wales have its own film production?



I know that question may bring some chuckles - I am aware that Wales is quite small.



But it is a very beautiful and ancient country with its own unique identity, so I thought I would ask.

Flicking through old 1950's copies of the BBC magazine, "Radio Times", it is evident that broadcasts of Welsh programmes in the Welsh language were an everyday event even back then. The BBC is currently making a popular programme (Torchwood) based in and around the city docklands of Cardiff. I've noticed a number of other popular BBC productions recently seem to be labelled as made by BBC Scotland on the credits.



Wales had it's own independent TV company for some years: The Harlech House of Graphics



Wales seems to have been as frequent a location for British movies over the years as any other region of the UK. It certainly produced some of the greatest British film actors as well. I have to say I'm unaware of the Scottish film production studios you imply existed.

[christoph404]

In commercial mainstream terms I would say Scotland and Wales are more a part of the British film industry than being independent film producing nations, there have been homegrown directors like Bill Forsythe and Danny Boyle who have started their careers working within Scotland on local themes,but I can't really think of any directors who are working within Scotland or Wales who are promoting a national film industry there. Both Scotland and Wales have featured in many films, Scotland perhaps more so and in a dramatic/historical context reflecting its identitiy and culture, but I would say many such films have been directed by non Scots and are based at studios around London with location filming north of the border. Two of my favourite films based in Scotland were directed by British director Ronald Neame, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" had some location filming in Edinburgh but all the interiors were shot at Pinewood, and in "Tunes of Glory" Stirling Castle was recreated on the backlot at Shepperton with a 30 second establishing and closing shot of exterior of the real Castle. To my knowledge there has not been a film studio in Scotland available to mainstream film makers, films shot in Scotland are usually still based at studios around London (Boyle and Forsythe excepted but Danny Boyle had to convert an old warehouse in Glasgow to build interior sets).

[Steve Crook]

name='Moor Larkin']Flicking through old 1950's copies of the BBC magazine, "Radio Times", it is evident that broadcasts of Welsh programmes in the Welsh language were an everyday event even back then. The BBC is currently making a popular programme (Torchwood) based in and around the city docklands of Cardiff. I've noticed a number of other popular BBC productions recently seem to be labelled as made by BBC Scotland on the credits.



Wales had it's own independent TV company for some years: The Harlech House of Graphics



Wales seems to have been as frequent a location for British movies over the years as any other region of the UK. It certainly produced some of the greatest British film actors as well. I have to say I'm unaware of the Scottish film production studios you imply existed.

The Welsh always make less of a fuss about this sort of thing than the Scots. But 20% of the population of Wales speak Welsh. How many people in Scotland speak Gaelic? Maybe 1.5%. Apart from the professional politicians there isn't really much of a desire for independence. That's why they got an assembly (and they only just got that, the vote was very close) rather than a parliament.



But there has always been some film production and a lot of TV production in Wales. BBC Wales has been running programmes in English and in Welsh, made in Wales, for ages. As has the Welsh version of Channel 4, S4C



And in recent years they have given us the revived Doctor Who and Torchwood and various other programmes made in Cardiff



Steve

[PaulPlowman]

Also, it appears to me that England and Scotland hava a stronger international identity than Wales. The Americans made a film about Loch Ness, Shreck and Mrs Doubtfire were both Scottish, and kilts are well known in the USA. Maybe few Welsh films are made because they would be harder to sell internationally?