The Bottle Yard gets investment boost
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With Bristol’s profile rising as a production hub, there is further good news for the area as Bristol City Council has awarded The Bottle Yard Studios a £692,000 investment boost.
The council approved the capital injection at its cabinet meeting on Tuesday, with the money specifically aimed at site improvements including new roofs, production offices and IT infrastructure.
The facility currently offers eight stages ranging from 8,000 to 22,000 sq ft, with a 5,000 sq ft green screen studio. It is located close to the M4 on the edge of the city of Bristol and provides a key production hub for film and TV projects including upcoming E4 comedy Crazy Head, The Living and the Dead and Wolf Hall.
It is currently home to The White Princess, which is due to wrap a five-month shoot at the end of this month, and the third series of Poldark, which began filming around a month ago.
Last year, Bristol saw inward investment of £16.7m, according to councillor Estella Tincknell, deputy mayor of Bristol with responsibility for culture, who said:
“The Bottle Yard Studios has become a key cornerstone for this vital sector, working with Bristol Film office to attract high-calibre companies from London and the US to make their productions right here in Bristol.
"We’ve seen an increase in location filming across Bristol, which rose by 65% in 2015/16, and every new production that chooses to film here has brought with it valuable business and employment.
Fiona Francombe, site director of The Bottle Yard Studios said: “We warmly welcome this investment from Bristol City Council. It will enable essential site improvements that will help us maintain our reputation as a highly competitive studio space, capable of attracting the best in UK film and television production to Bristol.
“The Bottle Yard Studios is a Bristol City Council project. Unlike the majority of other studios around the UK, we are not a private company. Any revenue generated by hiring out our space is invested back into site running costs and maintenance.
"Since opening our doors in 2010 we have achieved year-on-year growth whilst remaining cost-neutral to the Bristol taxpayer. We’re proud to have created a thriving production base with eight stages, offices and workshops, where there were previously disused warehouses. We are unable to seek private investment from elsewhere and therefore delighted that Bristol City Council has further endorsed us with this investment.”
Subscribers to Production Intelligence can follow The Bottle Yard Studios on our site.
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