40 YEARS OF THE NFTS
UK government’s Department for Cul- ture, Media and Sport. There is also Lot- tery support, through the UK Film Council and Skillset (this is expected to fl ow through the BFI in future, follow- ing the fi nal closure of UKFC in 2012). Fees are also key, with students pay-
ing up to $14,300 (£8,800) a year. However, as Powell says, it is important that no UK student who wins a place “should not come here for money rea- sons”. There is a substantial scholarship and bursary fund. Courses are shaped for vocational
Students shooting a scene at the NFTS
In a class of its own C
elebrating its 40th anniver- sary in 2011, the UK’s National Film and Televi- sion School (NFTS) has
turned out an impressive number of world-class film-makers and techni- cians since it opened in 1971. On a morning in early January Nik
Powell, the school’s director since 2003, is back in his office in Beaconsfield, north of London, after a trip to central London for the Bafta nominations. As usual, NFTS graduates have a strong presence, with more than 40 of its alumni involved in nominated films including Clio Barnard, director of The Arbor; multi-award-winning cinema- tographer Roger Deakins, for True Grit; and Paul Wright, for Until The River Runs Red. The latter, a graduation fi lm, will go on to win the Bafta for best short; another alumnus, Tanel Toom, is Oscar nominated in the best live action short category for The Confession. “That’s a good morning for the
NFTS,” an upbeat Powell refl ects. The school’s fi rst director was Colin
Young, a charismatic fi gure renowned for his ability to inspire students. “I thought Colin Young was Orson Welles,” Oscar-winning animator Nick Park later recalled of his fi rst encounter with the school. “I just thought, ‘Wow, these are
■ 12 Screen International European Training Special 2011
‘Access to the successful industry people is important, but more so are the teams set up here that
The UK’s National Film and Television School combines close industry links with a vocational approach to teaching. Geoffrey Macnab explores 40 years of success
real fi lm-industry people — they seem to all know what they’re talking about.’” Throughout its history, the school has
maintained close industry ties. “We are as close to the industry as one can be,” Powell says. In recent years, it has launched various joint ventures, among them its scheme to produce micro- budget movies such as Brian Welsh’s In Our Name, financed by the NFTS and Artifi cial Eye. The tutors are certainly illustrious.
Stephen Frears and Darren Aronofsky and new talents such as Monsters direc- tor Gareth Edwards have all been at Beaconsfi eld recently. “The core philosophy of Colin’s day
continue into life’ Nik Powell, NFTS director
still underpins what our school does,” Powell believes. Students are given the same freedom to “develop their full potential” — though they now study for a formal two-year master of arts degree (MA). The NFTS has 200 students, up about a third since Powell arrived, and places are diffi cult to come by. “It is not a factory where they are
manufacturing certain types of direc- tors,” says Estonian-born director Toom. “They really help you discover yourself, pushing you in certain directions that feel natural for you.” About 40% of the school’s $13m (£8m) annual budget comes from the
needs. “What a production designer needs to know is very different from what a producer needs to know,” Powell says. Producers are given an in-depth knowl- edge of every way a fi lm can be funded. “They have, coming into the school, the most successful producers in Britain and indeed the world,” Powell notes. The NFTS has close ties with Prescience, the financier behind The King’s Speech, which is also based in Beaconsfi eld. Producer students also get to attend
the Cannes film festival, where they shadow the UK’s major producers, among them figures such as Stephen Woolley and Andrew Eaton, at impor- tant business meetings. Meanwhile, the crafts students are
provided with “individual business skills so they negotiate good contracts and understand the general framework of how a fi lm is put together and made”. The NFTS maintains close ties with
former graduates, many of whom — including Nick Broomfi eld, Kim Longi- notto and Gillies Mackinnon — teach there. Students are given wide-ranging access to key industry fi gures. “Of course,” Powell notes, “the access
the students get to the successful people in our industry is fantastically impor- tant but much more important are the teams that get set up here at the school and then continue into life… into pro- duction and into the industry.” To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the
NFTS will hold a gala fund-raiser in June. “We’ll use the anniversary to raise additional money for the NFTS, obviously for scholarships and bursa- ries because times are hard for every- body,” Powell says. “We need every penny we can get.”
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