Author: pixel2coding

LORD PUTTNAM OF QUEENSGATE CBE ADDRESS AT THE ‘FDA 100’ CENTENARY CHRISTMAS PARTY

At 12.30 for 1.00pm on Thursday 10 December 2015

‘5th View’ in Waterstones, 203–205 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LE

LORD PUTTNAM   

Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome.

It’s exactly 100 years to the day since Film Distributors’ Association, of which I’m proud to be President, was born.

Back on the 10th of December 1915, the UK’s ambitious if fledgling distributors formed a dedicated trade body, the Kinematograph Renters’ Society or KRS.

This marked the dawn of organised film distribution, certainly as we would recognise it today – or at least most of the time!

The name was subsequently modernised to ‘Society of Film Distributors’, which in turn morphed into FDA.

It’s a great pleasure to see some legendary figures from the SFD era with us this afternoon – among them the former MD of UIP and SFD President, James Higgins.

Thank you for coming!

As a number of you will recall, FDA’s centenary celebrations kicked off in June with a concert of British film music, played by the Philharmonia Orchestra at a packed Royal Festival Hall.

Later in the summer, an FDA gallery exhibition of film posters, called ‘State of the Art Cinema’, celebrated the links between film, photography and graphic design.

An online hub, Film Scrapbook, was set up especially to collect and share people’s memories on the occasion of the centenary.

And in October we published an analysis of the economic impact of UK film distribution.

FDA commissioned it from Saffery Champness and Nordicity – the first time such a comprehensive report has ever been compiled with a focus on distribution.

Switching focus – today, as well as celebrating the origins of film releasing, I’d like to talk a little about tomorrow’s business.

I have three forward-looking initiatives to very briefly touch upon, which will, I hope, taken together, inspire future generations and turn our centennial celebrations into a lasting legacy.

Firstly,   I’m delighted that we are today launching a generic guide to film distribution for secondary school teachers and their digital-native students aged 14 and over.

Via a new wall-chart, and a website full of data and video content, the guide spans 100 years of media innovations, coming bang up to date with an interactive exploration of the way in which trailers motivate audiences.

I very much hope this free guide will enjoy a long shelf life as a teaching resource in schools and colleges across the country.

Secondly:  It’s a great pleasure to be able to announce a new internship programme for UK film distribution.

As you may know, a pilot scheme ran this year – a partnership between FDA, Film Export UK, the ICO and Creative Skillset – with such success that more than half of its participants have already secured on-going positions in the film business.

I’m thrilled that the scheme I launched just over a year ago – including an ‘FDA Richard Attenborough Scholarship’ to support placements for two young people based outside London – has borne such immediate fruit.

I can only offer my congratulations to all concerned, and hope the 2016 version of the programme is a similar success.

Lastly:  Today we also celebrate the publication of a new book.

And a long overdue book, at that.

I couldn’t be happier that it’s being born today of all days, and celebrated at this very particular occasion.

As you’ll know by now, its title is ‘Delivering Dreams’.

It’s been written with deep knowledge, and matching affection, by Geoffrey Macnab, and is published in paperback and e-book forms by I. B. Tauris.

We’ll hear from both of them in just a moment.

The thoroughly researched, highly accessible text traces the story of British film distribution from its origins as a stand-alone business right through to today’s rapidly shifting digital operations.

There’ll be a complimentary copy for each of you a little later on, as part of your Christmas present, and I very much hope you’ll enjoy not just reading it yourself, but perhaps recommending it to others.

I’m reliably informed that, although there’s been an unexpected level of interest in the global film rights in all media, nothing has yet been concluded, so if you’re interested, please see me a little later!

Delivering Dreams makes the point that distributors are, and always have been, the ‘unsung heroes’ of the film and cinema industry.

Without them, the entire ‘value chain’ would simply grind to a halt – policy makers please take note.

But given the sheer volume of digital content now available, every instinct tells me that the business of film releasing has never been tougher than it is today.

It’s thrilling, of course, that the fourth-quarter box-office is matching the very best of our expectations.

The October to December period should generate around 50 million cinema visits – truly a Force Awakened.

No one is happier than I am when Britain goes back to the movies.

Nevertheless, the fact that top-line box-office receipts, collected by cinema operators, are looking so healthy should not completely mask the fierce challenges that film distributors continue to face in making it all happen.

I know that FDA, and indeed the whole sector, has a very busy agenda of UK and EU policy matters to gets its teeth into in the New Year.

But this is neither the occasion nor the moment to expand on those debates.

Yet the issues surrounding the European digital single market are so fundamental that I do want to comment, albeit very briefly, as FDA President, on yesterday’s publication of a new European Commission paper on copyright, and a draft regulation on portability of digital services.

There is a great deal in both these communications that I believe we can welcome – a number of measured and fair principles that we can be comfortable in signing up to.

But it’s important to stress that any changes must be based on sound evidence, not merely assertion.

And as far as film is concerned, the retention of flexible territorial licensing, to ensure plurality of choice for European citizens within a digital single market, is not merely justified, it’s essential.

Back to today – please enjoy the party to the full, because I’d like us to kick off the second century of film distribution in memorably fine style.

May I take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas – although Lord only knows where this last year went!

Thank you very much for listening to me – and let’s raise our glasses to the successful launch of ‘Delivering Dreams’ and to FDA’s 100th birthday!

#FDA100

Open letter from the European Union's Digital Champions to Member States

"Europe needs more ICT skills, at work and at home. We call upon relevant Ministers to work together to close the skills gap."

The Digital Champions call upon Ministers of the EU Member States to tackle the cross- cutting issue of the digital skills gap in the face of a fast-changing world and the rapid digitisation of Europe.

Today around 100 million EU citizens have no digital skills and are excluded from the digital society. We, the European Union's Digital Champions, call upon the relevant Ministers in the Member States of the European Union to take measures to tackle this digital skills gap in order to ensure that Europe can reap the benefits of digitisation.

It is widely acknowledged that digitisation is a major contributor to economic growth and job creation in the European Union. Europe's citizens need more ICT skills, at work and at home. Europe's prosperity is directly linked to the quality of our workforce. Despite a record number of people, including many young people, out of work, employers often cannot find candidates with the digital skills they require.

We believe it is urgent for Europe to close the skills gap and create the necessary conditions for people to more easily enter the labour market. Furthermore, all Europeans need to acquire the digital skills to help get them online and to benefit from the services, products and opportunities offered by an ever-growing digitised economy and society.

Whilst recognising that most competences in this field lie with Member States and are shared across multiple government departments, in particular ministries for telecommunications, industry, education, employment, etc., we call upon relevant Ministers in the Member States to work closely together with stakeholders to urgently:

  Ensure all European citizens have digital skills and get online. To make European citizens aware of how ICT can enhance their work capabilities and employability and facilitate their day-to-day activities.

  Create high-speed digital infrastructure for all citizens and businesses.

  Ensure that no student should leave school without a basic set of digital skills. Adapt Member States' educational and training systems to the 21st century and ensure that digital skills are included in curricula from pre-school through to higher education and adult learning.

  Encourage students to choose studies and careers in ICT and commit to increasing the number of students in ICT-related study programmes by 20% until 2018 and support the programmes with additional funding.

  Foster entrepreneurial and innovation abilities through digital skills.

  Promote cooperation between industry and other stakeholders to make vocational and academic ICT training more responsive to labour market needs.

  Help businesses embrace new technologies which will enable them to be more productive and competitive at home and abroad.

  Promote life-long learning, especially through digital platforms such as MOOCs.

  Promote work mobility.

  Support and closely work together with public authorities and other stakeholders in promoting and teaching digital skills as well as developing digital services.

We, the Digital Champions, are appointed by the Members States and we strive to help every European become digital and benefit from an inclusive digital society. We help all citizens to enhance their digital skills by supporting and leading a wide variety of digital projects in our countries. We are also actively involved in:

  13 national Coalitions for Digital Skills and Jobs

  EU Code Week initiative, which promotes digital skills and coding
In countries which do not have these initiatives, we call upon Ministers to put in place a

National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs and to support the EU Code Week initiative.

Signed by:

Meral Akin-Hecke (Austria), Saskia van Uffelen (Belgium), Gergana Passy (Bulgaria), Darko Paric (Croatia), Stelios Himonas (Cyprus), Ondrej Felix (Czech Republic), Linda Liukas (Finland), Gesche Joost (Germany), Nikos Michalopoulos (Greece), Gilles Babinet (France), Istvan Erenyi (Hungary), David Puttnam (Ireland), Riccardo Luna (Italy), Reinis Zitmanis (Latvia), Kestutis Juskevicius (Lithuania), Björn Ottersten (Luxembourg), Godfrey Vella (Malta), Tineke Netelenbos (The Netherlands), Wlodzimierz Marcinski (Poland), Antonio Murta (Portugal), Paul Andre Baran (Romania), Ales Spetic (Slovenia), Andreu Veà-Baró (Spain) and Jan Gulliksen (Sweden).