Filming of Survivors in Birmingham highlights city's screen potential

Aug 2 2009 by Anna Blackaby, Birmingham Post

The leafy glades of Sutton Park may seem like an unlikely setting for a post-apocalyptic drama set in a world ravaged by a deadly virus.

But, for several weeks this summer, the park has provided a location for production crews filming the next series of the BBC One drama Survivors, which traces the story of a group of characters who have lived through a devastating pandemic and are now coming to terms with life in a dangerous new world.

Survivors producer Hugh Warren said there were many reasons why the Birmingham area was chosen as the show’s base and location for the majority of the shooting of the next series, which is due to air in January.

“Last year, we shot in Manchester but we decided we needed to move to get a fresh variety of locations,” he said.

“Birmingham was our choice for lots of reasons, primarily because of the variety of locations within the city.

“There were pragmatic production reasons because we needed an urban environment and because we needed an air of abandonment.”

Although the production crew has made sorties to Doncaster and to Stoke-on-Trent to shoot underground scenes in a mine, Birmingham streets and buildings, many of them abandoned, have provided the perfect backdrop to the majority of the series.

Mr Warren said: “We have filmed in Newhall Street, Edmund Street, Brindleyplace and the Old Fire Station at Lancaster Circus, for example.

“That was extraordinary as it was an abandoned building that had real depth. Ironically, we used the old Central Studios, a big derelict building, with a storyline that involved a collapsed building.”

As well as the locations on offer, a big factor in bringing this year’s production of the series to the city has been the work of creative bodies such as Film Birmingham, the city council’s film and television office.

The department, which was launched in 2006, exists to make life as easy as possible for film crews wanting to shoot in the city.

Film Birmingham, which costs around £60,000 a year to run, provides a variety of services to persuade programme and film-makers to come to the city and acts as a go-between to navigate the various council departments involved in organising a shoot.

Its services cover areas such as permitting - liaising between the highways, parking and parks departments to secure the go-ahead for filming - as well as managing an online database with details of potential locations which can be used for filming.

It also puts producers in touch with regional crew and facilities to try to ensure that local talent is used and the region’s economy benefits as much as possible.

A key area of its work is tracking the economic impact of having programmes and films shot in the city.

According to Film Birmingham, in the two years between April 2006 and April 2008, film and television production brought an estimated £32 million into Birmingham’s local economy, and although figures are not yet available for April 2008 to April 2009, Film Birmingham anticipates the figure of around £16??m per year should be reached again ,if not surpassed.

Unlike Hustle, Survivors has not received funding support from regional bodies such as Screen WM, an investment which comes with the requirement to use local crew. But despite this, 25 per cent of the 50-strong Survivors crew are based in the area.

Film Birmingham manager Matthew Stanton pointed to Birmingham-made drama productions such as Doctors, Survivors, Hustle and Land Girls as well as feature films such as Souled Out, Land Gold Women, Tormented and 1?Day as evidence that the city is building its profile as a film and television hub.

“The year 2008/9 was our most successful year to date. We had more filming in the city than ever before and in that period we had over 500 separate requests to film in the city,” he said.

“Since April of this year, we have got more drama being made in the city than for a long time.

“What’s great about the four films we had in the city last year is that they are all so different, there’s a huge variety.

“We want to attract films that don’t just show Birmingham as Birmingham. Already this year, Birmingham has been portrayed as London, Manchester and Los Angeles.”

“Having something like Survivors come here is really important because we need to remind the industry that Birmingham is able to accommodate production on that scale.

“So it does a huge amount in raising the profile of the city on a national and international level.”

The BBC said choosing to locate Survivors in Birmingham was part of its commitment to regional production

BBC Drama Production director Nicolas Brown said: “Shooting the second series of Survivors in Birmingham reflects our desire within drama to use the rich variety of locations and skills across the country whenever we can, as well as the continuing commitment of the BBC to produce and spend more outside London”

Original article here.