THE
EAST OF ENGLAND – the UK’s Ideas Region
Stretching from the edge of London and the M25 in the
south to remote coastal and rural areas in the north and
east, the East of England covers the six counties of Bedfordshire,
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk,
and the unitary areas of Luton, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea
and Thurrock.
The region’s accessibility – it is home to
some of the UK’s fastest expanding ports and airports
– means that it is currently experiencing significant
financial and population growth; its unique potential,
originality and business successes ensure that the East
of England is a thriving, progressive, economically powerful
area that continues to move from strength to strength.
To find out more go to www.eastofengland.uk.com.
The
East and the Screen
East is East – everything but mountains!
The East of England is the second most filmed region in
the UK after London. Its accessibility and its proximity
to the capital make it the perfect area in which to base
any kind of production.
Locations in the region are incredibly diverse –
fenland, inner cities, historic architecture, unspoilt
coastline and open spaces can all be found within easy
reach of each other, which means that a variety of scenes
can be quickly and economically accessed in one area.
The East has been host to hundreds of film, television
and media productions and has been a stand in for settings
all over the world, from North Korean paddy fields to
the fields of Flanders. It can, of course, also simply
be itself.
A
Thriving Centre for Independent Television Production
The East has the third highest volume of programmes made
by broadcasters and independents in the country, with
Norwich the fourth most significant regional production
centre in the UK.
The region is renowned for its high quality television
productions, which range from drama and documentary to
lifestyle programming.
Major
Feature Film and TV Production Studios
The East of England is home to half of the UK’s
studios and production facilities, and has six studios
in Hertfordshire that between them attract £200
million in production annually.
Leavesden Studios has accommodated the James
Bond and Harry Potter
franchises, while Elstree Film and TV Studios has housed
some of the most successful productions in the UK, including
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
and Big Brother.
The region is also home to Hillside Studios, Millennium
Studios and Anglia Television Studios. The studios draw
on the region’s highly developed support structure
and freelance base, which offers a wealth of experience
in major feature film production.
Creative
Writing
The East has long been a haven for writers, past and present,
who have found inspiration from its landscapes and space,
producing a whole range of genres for the page, stage
and screen, including film adaptations, opera, commercials,
theatre, radio plays, animation and television drama.
The UK’s most prestigious creative writing course
is at the University of East
Anglia in Norwich, and its alumni include prize-winning
novelists and poets such as Ian
McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Archives,
Film Heritage and Festivals
This part of the country has a long and illustrious association
with cinema and moving image, and has some significant
heritage libraries and services.
The East Anglian Film Archive
holds an extensive collection of moving images relating
to the region, and runs an MA in Film Archiving in association
with the UEA. Duxford
in Cambridgeshire stores the national film collection
of the Imperial War Museum,
and Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire holds the John Paul
Getty Conservation Centre of the National
Film and Television Archive.
Festivals held in the region, such as Cambridge
Film Festival, Filmstock
in Luton and the International
Animation Festival in Norwich, showcase the best
in international filmmaking talent, and attract industry
professionals and cinema enthusiasts alike.
Digital
Media and The Silicon Fen
World renowned as a centre for computer technology, the
East of England is the base for over 600 internet and
eBusiness companies, including Amazon,
IBM and Worldcom.
The ‘Silicon Fen’ cluster in Cambridge is
home to biotechnology, telecoms, IT, computer software
and games companies, and research institutes including
Microsoft’s first
computer science research laboratory outside of the USA
and the Sony Computer Entertainment
Studio (Sony Studio Cambridge).
