LONDON — The Location Guide is launching FOCUS, a new production location event in London, with Variety on board as media partner. The event, which is on Dec. 14 and 15, is aimed at producers, location managers, and production and photography professionals from the film, television and advertising commercials industries.
The event comes at a time when the U.K. production community is enjoying a boom, with the country recently hosting movies like “Spectre” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
FOCUS, which is supported by Greater Fort Lauderdale as the event’s partner, will incorporate a trade show, networking events and the FOCUS Summit – a standalone “thought leadership conference on how to engage and sustain an audience in today’s fast changing media landscape.” The summit is aimed at producers and senior executives from all global screen industries. There will also be a busy fringe program including co-hosting the Advertising Producers’ Association Christmas Party.
“We think FOCUS will do something genuinely different as the first international location production event to take place in London, scheduled just before the festive break,” Jean-Frederic Garcia, the managing director of The Location Guide, and co-founder of FOCUS, said.
Visitors will get to engage with a mix of exhibitors, including film commissions, production services companies, location providers and ancillary services. “They can meet their next location provider and network with the industry’s finest in a sociable, but also very useful, environment,” Garcia said.
Companies that have signed up for the event as exhibitors include the Malta Film Commission, the Korean Film Commissions and Industry Network, Moonlighting Film Productions Services and Network Rail. There is also support from dozens of industry bodies representing all aspects of the global market such as the Association of Film Commissioners, the Advertising Producers Association, the Location Managers Guild of America, and Women in Film & Television UK.
“FOCUS looks like a great opportunity to meet companies and organizations showcasing their country’s locations, and it’s all under one roof,” Emma Pill, location manager on “Spectre,” “Cinderella” and “Thor: The Dark World,” said.
Sue Hayes, curator of the FOCUS Summit and former London Film Commissioner, said: “Audiences are now faced with more choice than ever. Not only what to watch, but what to watch it on. We will explore how producers are managing the transition, the impact of second screeners on the creative process, and the ongoing need for content and opportunities for independent film.”
The summit will “encourage wide-ranging debate, but key topics will include the effect one medium has on another and how the advertising industry is adapting to multi-platform landscape.”
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