The world stepped back from a “very, very dangerous brink and an impending nightmare scenario” after agreeing to a climate deal at the COP21 conference in Paris this month.
Lord Puttnam told ELN while the deal to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C exceeded “in terms of ambition”, he believes it should have been “a little more concrete”.
On the UK Government’s energy policies, the award-winning British filmmaker said: “I’m very nervous about fracking in the same way I’m nervous about GM foods because we’re dealing in an area we don’t fully understand and I’m not sure what the repercussions will be. I absolutely accept that pretty well every precaution that can be taken will be taken.
“But I’m a realist. I don’t pretend that I’m going to suddenly stop driving my car… so I’ve got to live in the real world.”
He believes people need to be “more truthful” about the implications of climate change.
Speaking to an audience at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit’s event in London, he added the British media “can’t be too proud of their record” on climate change coverage.
Lord Puttnam told ELN: “All too often it isn’t the journalists writing pieces they particularly want to write or recycle, it’s that you do have a generation that is pretty elderly, people like Mr Murdoch, pretty elderly owners of newspapers who are requiring their journalists to write rubbish, absolute rubbish because it justifies their own prejudices.”
LORD PUTTNAM OF QUEENSGATE CBE ADDRESS AT THE ‘FDA 100’ CENTENARY CHRISTMAS PARTY
At 12.30 for 1.00pm on Thursday 10 December 2015
‘5th View’ in Waterstones, 203–205 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LE
LORD PUTTNAM
Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome.
It’s exactly 100 years to the day since Film Distributors’ Association, of which I’m proud to be President, was born.
Back on the 10th of December 1915, the UK’s ambitious if fledgling distributors formed a dedicated trade body, the Kinematograph Renters’ Society or KRS.
This marked the dawn of organised film distribution, certainly as we would recognise it today – or at least most of the time!
The name was subsequently modernised to ‘Society of Film Distributors’, which in turn morphed into FDA.
It’s a great pleasure to see some legendary figures from the SFD era with us this afternoon – among them the former MD of UIP and SFD President, James Higgins.
Thank you for coming!
As a number of you will recall, FDA’s centenary celebrations kicked off in June with a concert of British film music, played by the Philharmonia Orchestra at a packed Royal Festival Hall.
Later in the summer, an FDA gallery exhibition of film posters, called ‘State of the Art Cinema’, celebrated the links between film, photography and graphic design.
An online hub, Film Scrapbook, was set up especially to collect and share people’s memories on the occasion of the centenary.
And in October we published an analysis of the economic impact of UK film distribution.
FDA commissioned it from Saffery Champness and Nordicity – the first time such a comprehensive report has ever been compiled with a focus on distribution.
Switching focus – today, as well as celebrating the origins of film releasing, I’d like to talk a little about tomorrow’s business.
I have three forward-looking initiatives to very briefly touch upon, which will, I hope, taken together, inspire future generations and turn our centennial celebrations into a lasting legacy.
Firstly, I’m delighted that we are today launching a generic guide to film distribution for secondary school teachers and their digital-native students aged 14 and over.
Via a new wall-chart, and a website full of data and video content, the guide spans 100 years of media innovations, coming bang up to date with an interactive exploration of the way in which trailers motivate audiences.
I very much hope this free guide will enjoy a long shelf life as a teaching resource in schools and colleges across the country.
Secondly: It’s a great pleasure to be able to announce a new internship programme for UK film distribution.
As you may know, a pilot scheme ran this year – a partnership between FDA, Film Export UK, the ICO and Creative Skillset – with such success that more than half of its participants have already secured on-going positions in the film business.
I’m thrilled that the scheme I launched just over a year ago – including an ‘FDA Richard Attenborough Scholarship’ to support placements for two young people based outside London – has borne such immediate fruit.
I can only offer my congratulations to all concerned, and hope the 2016 version of the programme is a similar success.
Lastly: Today we also celebrate the publication of a new book.
And a long overdue book, at that.
I couldn’t be happier that it’s being born today of all days, and celebrated at this very particular occasion.
As you’ll know by now, its title is ‘Delivering Dreams’.
It’s been written with deep knowledge, and matching affection, by Geoffrey Macnab, and is published in paperback and e-book forms by I. B. Tauris.
We’ll hear from both of them in just a moment.
The thoroughly researched, highly accessible text traces the story of British film distribution from its origins as a stand-alone business right through to today’s rapidly shifting digital operations.
There’ll be a complimentary copy for each of you a little later on, as part of your Christmas present, and I very much hope you’ll enjoy not just reading it yourself, but perhaps recommending it to others.
I’m reliably informed that, although there’s been an unexpected level of interest in the global film rights in all media, nothing has yet been concluded, so if you’re interested, please see me a little later!
Delivering Dreams makes the point that distributors are, and always have been, the ‘unsung heroes’ of the film and cinema industry.
Without them, the entire ‘value chain’ would simply grind to a halt – policy makers please take note.
But given the sheer volume of digital content now available, every instinct tells me that the business of film releasing has never been tougher than it is today.
It’s thrilling, of course, that the fourth-quarter box-office is matching the very best of our expectations.
The October to December period should generate around 50 million cinema visits – truly a Force Awakened.
No one is happier than I am when Britain goes back to the movies.
Nevertheless, the fact that top-line box-office receipts, collected by cinema operators, are looking so healthy should not completely mask the fierce challenges that film distributors continue to face in making it all happen.
I know that FDA, and indeed the whole sector, has a very busy agenda of UK and EU policy matters to gets its teeth into in the New Year.
But this is neither the occasion nor the moment to expand on those debates.
Yet the issues surrounding the European digital single market are so fundamental that I do want to comment, albeit very briefly, as FDA President, on yesterday’s publication of a new European Commission paper on copyright, and a draft regulation on portability of digital services.
There is a great deal in both these communications that I believe we can welcome – a number of measured and fair principles that we can be comfortable in signing up to.
But it’s important to stress that any changes must be based on sound evidence, not merely assertion.
And as far as film is concerned, the retention of flexible territorial licensing, to ensure plurality of choice for European citizens within a digital single market, is not merely justified, it’s essential.
Back to today – please enjoy the party to the full, because I’d like us to kick off the second century of film distribution in memorably fine style.
May I take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas – although Lord only knows where this last year went!
Thank you very much for listening to me – and let’s raise our glasses to the successful launch of ‘Delivering Dreams’ and to FDA’s 100th birthday!
The inaugural Pearson College London Lecture Series event was led by David Puttnam CBE, Chair of our Academic Board, on the 10th floor at 80 Strand on Tuesday 24th November 2015. Lord Puttnam discussed how the UK’s creative industries have grown and flourished over the last 20 years; the event was attended by leading figures in the creative industries and a networking event followed. For a taster of the event, watch the short video.
Open letter from the European Union's Digital Champions to Member States
"Europe needs more ICT skills, at work and at home. We call upon relevant Ministers to work together to close the skills gap."
The Digital Champions call upon Ministers of the EU Member States to tackle the cross- cutting issue of the digital skills gap in the face of a fast-changing world and the rapid digitisation of Europe.
Today around 100 million EU citizens have no digital skills and are excluded from the digital society. We, the European Union's Digital Champions, call upon the relevant Ministers in the Member States of the European Union to take measures to tackle this digital skills gap in order to ensure that Europe can reap the benefits of digitisation.
It is widely acknowledged that digitisation is a major contributor to economic growth and job creation in the European Union. Europe's citizens need more ICT skills, at work and at home. Europe's prosperity is directly linked to the quality of our workforce. Despite a record number of people, including many young people, out of work, employers often cannot find candidates with the digital skills they require.
We believe it is urgent for Europe to close the skills gap and create the necessary conditions for people to more easily enter the labour market. Furthermore, all Europeans need to acquire the digital skills to help get them online and to benefit from the services, products and opportunities offered by an ever-growing digitised economy and society.
Whilst recognising that most competences in this field lie with Member States and are shared across multiple government departments, in particular ministries for telecommunications, industry, education, employment, etc., we call upon relevant Ministers in the Member States to work closely together with stakeholders to urgently:
Ensure all European citizens have digital skills and get online. To make European citizens aware of how ICT can enhance their work capabilities and employability and facilitate their day-to-day activities.
Create high-speed digital infrastructure for all citizens and businesses.
Ensure that no student should leave school without a basic set of digital skills. Adapt Member States' educational and training systems to the 21st century and ensure that digital skills are included in curricula from pre-school through to higher education and adult learning.
Encourage students to choose studies and careers in ICT and commit to increasing the number of students in ICT-related study programmes by 20% until 2018 and support the programmes with additional funding.
Foster entrepreneurial and innovation abilities through digital skills.
Promote cooperation between industry and other stakeholders to make vocational and academic ICT training more responsive to labour market needs.
Help businesses embrace new technologies which will enable them to be more productive and competitive at home and abroad.
Promote life-long learning, especially through digital platforms such as MOOCs.
Promote work mobility.
Support and closely work together with public authorities and other stakeholders in promoting and teaching digital skills as well as developing digital services.
We, the Digital Champions, are appointed by the Members States and we strive to help every European become digital and benefit from an inclusive digital society. We help all citizens to enhance their digital skills by supporting and leading a wide variety of digital projects in our countries. We are also actively involved in:
13 national Coalitions for Digital Skills and Jobs
EU Code Week initiative, which promotes digital skills and coding
In countries which do not have these initiatives, we call upon Ministers to put in place a
National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs and to support the EU Code Week initiative.
Signed by:
Meral Akin-Hecke (Austria), Saskia van Uffelen (Belgium), Gergana Passy (Bulgaria), Darko Paric (Croatia), Stelios Himonas (Cyprus), Ondrej Felix (Czech Republic), Linda Liukas (Finland), Gesche Joost (Germany), Nikos Michalopoulos (Greece), Gilles Babinet (France), Istvan Erenyi (Hungary), David Puttnam (Ireland), Riccardo Luna (Italy), Reinis Zitmanis (Latvia), Kestutis Juskevicius (Lithuania), Björn Ottersten (Luxembourg), Godfrey Vella (Malta), Tineke Netelenbos (The Netherlands), Wlodzimierz Marcinski (Poland), Antonio Murta (Portugal), Paul Andre Baran (Romania), Ales Spetic (Slovenia), Andreu Veà-Baró (Spain) and Jan Gulliksen (Sweden).
David Puttnam contributes to the debate on whether Channel 4 should be privatised
In 1982, the then home secretary, William Whitelaw, took parliament through the unique vision that became Channel 4. Since then, it has been one of the cornerstones of the UK’s creative industries and a fundamental pillar of the UK’s public broadcasting system.
From Brookside to Gogglebox, it has consistently broken new ground. And where it has led, others have followed. The ability of the channel to take risks is based on a funding structure that draws no money from the public purse, yet is protected from the pressure of shareholders seeking short-term returns.
Putting the channel into private hands would utterly change its nature and, ultimately, its contribution to the vitality of the nation’s creative industries.
No commercial investor would be likely to support Channel 4 News in its current form.
The reality is that the channel only becomes a serious commercial proposition if its remit is diluted. Its support of innovation and risk-taking would, over time, become severely diminished.
The dismemberment of the UK’s regional television system provides a cautionary tale. If it teaches us anything, it’s that promises would be made – then broken – and vital obligations chipped away, resulting in something indistinguishable from Channel 5, which cannot possibly be in the interest of the broad televisual audience.
I believe it’s important that all those who care for the future of public-service broadcasting raise their voice in persuading the government that privatisation could only do irreparable damage to the ecology that underpins the UK’s extraordinarily successful creative sector.
Labour peer and film-maker criticises BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead for accepting burden of paying for over 75’s licences
Labour peer and film-maker Lord Puttnam has criticised BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead’s handling of the BBC’s licence fee deal, saying he would have resigned if put in the same position.
Puttnam, who was previously deputy chair of Channel 4, said the deal which saw the BBC accept the £700m burden of paying for over 75’s licence fees in July was a “dereliction of process”.
“I think the way it was done was shocking and I also know that unless the government realise that there is a point at which you will resign, they will push and push and push,” Puttnam said on Radio 4’s The Media Show. “I would sincerely like to think I would have resigned – I believe I would have done – but everyone’s got to make their own judgment.”
Fairhead and other members of the trust have been criticised for accepting the deal rather than threatening to resign en masse, as members of the trust had in 2010 when faced with a similar offer by the government.
Melvyn Bragg, who is part of a review led by Puttnam into the state of UK public service broadcasting, last month accused Fairhead of an “appalling dereliction of duty” over the deal.
Fairhead has said that she felt it necessary to follow the advice of the BBC executive to accept the deal, and continue to fight for the BBC through the renewal of the BBC charter, which expires at the end of 2015.
Puttnam also said the government’s green paper laying out questions about the future of the BBC could “accidentally” lead to parts of the corporation valued by the public being lost.
He said: “It is a slippery slope isn’t it. [It is important that] you don’t accidentally think this is an interesting marketisation process and three years later everything you valued has somehow slithered down the plughole because the market operates the way the market does.
“What I am saying is, accidents happen. If you pursue any form of ideological, not so much vendetta, just ideological desire for change for change’s sake … the slippery slope is always there to catch you.”
He added that the tone of the green paper, which includes questions about whether it should continue trying to provide something for everyone, was deliberately “hostile”.
He said: “I know how good civil servants are at drafting things. If you publish a green paper like that, someone’s decided on that tone – that’s not an accident.”
Film producer David Puttnam yesterday weighed in behind an exuberant Christmas song performed by West Cork schoolboys and children from a remote African tribe.
The magical across-the-oceans festive collaboration by primary school pupils in Clonakilty and children from the nomadic Samburu tribe in Kenya was launched in the town at the weekend.
The Samburu tribespeople are also known as The Butterfly People for their colourful headgear, jewellery, and clothing.
The ‘Butterfly Child’ song — which yesterday reached Number 37 on the iTunes list — and the eye-catching video which accompanies it, have now attracted the attention of internationally renowned fillm-maker and educator David Puttnam, who lives in West Cork.
The magical across-the-oceans festive collaboration by primary school pupils in Clonakilty and children from the nomadic Samburu tribe in Kenya was launched in the town at the weekend.
The Samburu tribespeople are also known as The Butterfly People for their colourful headgear, jewellery, and clothing.
The ‘Butterfly Child’ song — which yesterday reached Number 37 on the iTunes list — and the eye-catching video which accompanies it, have now attracted the attention of internationally renowned fillm-maker and educator David Puttnam, who lives in West Cork.
Yesterday the movie mogul made a special visit to Scoil na mBuachaillí in Clonakilty to meet the teachers, pupils and representatives of the Thorn Tree Project who are behind the song.
“This is a wonderful example of the way in which a range of digital technologies has enabled Irish generosity and ingenuity to connect with a great cause on the other side of the world — and make it sing,” said Puttnam, who spent about an hour in the school.
Film producer Lord David Puttnam meet's the teachers, pupils and organisers behind the Butterfly Child fundraising song which is a collaboration between Scoil na mBuachaili Clonakilty and children from the Samburu tribe in Kenya to raise money for their schools. Video Eddie O'Hare, Irish Examiner
The up-tempo melody is on sale for 99c on iTunes. It aims to raise money for the education of the Samburu children and for classroom equipment at Scoil na mBuachaillí.
“David Puttnam is very excited about the ‘Butterfly Child’ project and very supportive of it,” said Marilien Romme, one of the organisers. She is a member of the international educational initiative the Thorn Tree Project which supports the education of children of the Samburu tribe.
“He’s very interested in online learning and was fascinated by the way we were able to link a remote rural African school in an area without roads or electricity in this trans-world collaboration music project.”
“He is passionate about education, knowing that children are the building blocks of our future and teachers play an instrumental role. He wants to see more creativity in the classroom, and ‘Butterfly Child’ is a great example of this.”
The inspiring video features pupils of Scoil na mBuachaillí in Clonakilty alternating verses with the Samburu children from Northern Kenya who are pupils at the Thorn Tree Project’s schools.
Written by Scoil na mBuachaillí school principal Barth Harrington, who described the project as “inspirational for pupils and teachers alike”, the song combines Irish melodic influences with Sub-Saharan African chanting.
The number of Samburu children being supported through their education by The Thorntree Project has risen from just 130 in 2001 to more than 1500, who attend ools and three elementary schools.classes in twelve pre-sch
