The Annual Five WFTV Awards
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Sophie Balhetchet (WFTV Chair) "WFTV is about enhancing opportunities for women and campaigning for equality of representation. Our task is to highlight issues of concern and lobby for change where we see imbalance. It is to create practical initiatives to inform, train and enable career development. It is to create mentoring schemes where women can benefit from the experience and advice of established men and women in the industry. And it is to applaud and celebrate achievement in all walks. At the 2005 Awards, Stewart Till announced two new and important initiatives. The first arose out of the concern WFTV and Skillset share for the freelancers in our business and the apparent need for independent advisory service on all aspects of employment including maternity and sickness benefits, rights and entitlements. With the financial backing of Skillset, WFTV has set up Workline: a free and confidential service operated by an experienced Human Resources expert. This is an important resource for our members and freelancers in the industry. The second was the UKFC’s Women Screenwriters Survey, commissioned from the IES, to understand why there are so few women writing for film as compared to novels and other fields. The Film Council consulted with various organisations including WFTV and the stark statistic emerged that in the past five years only 15% of films have been written by women, although the mighty franchises of Harry Potter and Bridget Jones (not to mention Jane Austen) came from the singular visions of women novelists. This study is a valuable record, both statistical and anecdotal, of the situation as it stands. One of WFTV’s responses to the Survey is to set-up a series of practical initiatives to support and encourage women writing for Film. Writing can be a very lonely process, yet making films is of necessity a collaborative one. After an exploratory Tea Party at the Hay Literary Festival, we held the first of our Writers’ Drinks, aimed at bringing together women writers from all fields to meet producers and agents in an informal atmosphere and to stimulate professional partnerships. In parallel we held a Masterclass with Andrew Davies on Adaptation. He shared his unique professional insights and gave practical advice to the writers and it was an inspirational event. And Hilary Bevan-Jones gave an equally valuable perspective on the collaborative relationship between producers and writers. |
Directing Change, sponsored by UIP, made two placements in 2006: Alicia Duffy with David Yates on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Dawn Shadforth with Iain Softley on Inkheart. Technical Change, an EQUAL project, made three placements: Anna Carrington on camera with DoP Henry Braham, Rachel Gibson on post-production sound with Adrian Rhodes at De Lane Lea and Hannah Skrinnar also on post-production with George Foulgham at Molinaire. In the political arena WFTV works closely with government and industry bodies to further the aim of genuine equality of opportunity. In March 2006 our response to Ofcom’s Review of the Television Production Sector highlighted the key issues that affect women working in production - unequal pay, gender imbalance especially in the technical grades, theissues of returners and work/life balance - and proposed ways to ensure that women are enabled to reach their maximum potential.
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