Short film competition

Brief to Universities: Arts Council England State of the Arts Film Project

State of Arts 2012: Artists shaping the world is the Arts Council’s national conference for the arts and culture sector. BBC presenter Kirsty Wark will chair the sold out event which will be attended by senior staff from arts and culture organisations, artists, politicians and journalists. Delegates at the event and online audiences contributing via social media channels will be a critical part of the discussions which will follow nine themes. The conference will take place on 14 February at The Lowry in Salford, and is hosted in conjunction with the BBC, Salford City Council, Manchester City Council and the British Council.

Arts Council England and the BBC invite students from three north universities, Salford, York and Sunderland, to make short films responding to one or more of the nine themes of the conference – view the themes animation on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7RtYQgI9Y

A panel at Arts Council England will then select and promote the best of the submitted films to stimulate discussion on the State of the Arts blog and the Arts Council social media channels prior to and during the conference.

List of themes:

Artists and a changing society

What is the role of the artist in a changing society? Does politics really affect the arts? How important is it to artists to seed ideas and debate that impact on society as well as art?

Artists and the imagination

What inspires the imagination? What gets in the way? How is talent developed? Do we do it well enough?

Artists boosting the creative economy

Do artists think of themselves as part of a creative economy or an economy at all? Do they need to? Why? Why not? Who are the new artists of the future and how do we develop them?

Artists shaping communities

How is the way that artists work in and with communities changing? What impact have they made? Could they make?

Artists and international perspectives

How are artists shaping the world? Are our international links strong enough? What gets in the way?

Artists and young people

How do you make your way? How is talent spotted and developed? How could more young people get a chance to get involved in the arts?

Artists and audiences - great art for everyone

What does the audience really expect its great art to be?

Artists and fundraising

Why give/sponsor? What are the challenges?

Artists and our future environment

Can artists really impact on climate change?

Guidelines

Your film must:

· be shot in 16:9 ratio

· be no more than two minutes long

· include the following line to encourage online discussion:

Have your say #sota12

How to submit your entry

To submit please upload your film to a YouTube or Vimeo account and send a link with a brief synopsis of your film identifying your chosen State of the Arts theme to digital@artscouncil.org.uk with the subject line ‘SOTA12 STUDENT FILM’.

Deadline

The deadline for submissions is noon on 2 February 2012, successful the chosen films will be announced on 7 February 2012.

Feedback

All selected film makers will receive one-to-one feedback about their film from BBC producers at Media City in Salford.