Liverpool enjoys record filming year
The city of Liverpool has enjoyed a record year in terms of the amount of film and TV productions made on location in 2015.
A report is due to be submitted to the Culture and Tourism Select Committee on 9 August which will detail that during 2015, 257 film and TV projects came to the city, resulting in 1,067 filming days and bringing in £11.5m to the local economy.
The figures are up a whopping 50% on the previous year, with the main rise being the number of filming days per year.
Liverpool has hosted some extremely high-profile projects, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which chose the city as the only non-studio location for the film. The feature used buildings including St George’s Hall and the Cunard Building.
Such a major production generates huge revenue for the local economy even if the team stays a relatively short time – in this instance more than 1,000 cast and crew members used ten city-centre hotels and injected over £1.5m into the city’s purse.
Other high-profile projects to have used the city, which has many grand civic buildings that double easily for the architecture of London, Manchester and even New York, include Florence Foster Jenkins, Peaky Blinders, Stephen Poliakoff’s Close to the Enemy and The Five.
2016 is also looking promising, with 147 productions already having racked up 312 filming days, including the Annette Bening and Jamie Bell-starrer, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.
The city has also seen more money being generated by the film office due to the introduction of the Income and Commercialisation Strategy, which centralises the collection of fees, thus easing the logistics for producers when liaising on issues such as road closures and filming in council-owned properties.
This new scheme has resulted in a direct income for the council of £468,619.
Plans are in in the pipeline for further measures to aid location filming in Liverpool, including the introduction of a film permit based on best practice of the London boroughs and more collaboration with Wirral and Sefton Councils.
Liverpool Film Office manager Lynn Saunders said: “A huge amount of work goes in to attracting production companies to the city, and then working with them in the run up to, during and post filming to make sure all aspects run as smoothly as possible and they have a positive experience of the city.
“The number of TV programmes, adverts and films we are securing here is testament to our commitment to making sure Liverpool is at the forefront of directors’ minds when they are considering where to film.
“It’s important we don’t rest on our laurels though and we are looking at doing things differently in the future which will improve the way we work and generate more funding and exposure for Merseyside as a whole.”
When Liverpool gets its dedicated film studio facility, planned for the former Littlewoods Pools building on Edge Lane, film and TV production activity in the area looks set to rise even further.
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