PRODUCTION


UK FILM STUDIOS


the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power


a lot of people rushing to the forefront because they can see the growth opportunities. But you have to do your proper due diligence.” LED panels for a 20,000 square foot stage could


cost between £5-10 million. “That is a lot of capital that you have got to get your return on investment for,” says Sheppard.


THE BIG BUILD The big question now is how sustainable the studio building boom is going to be? For now, the supply of studios remains insufficient to meet demand. Research conducted by PwC has estimated


that the UK is missing out on as many as eight blockbuster films per year due to a lack of studio


every time you build a studio, you suddenly need thousands of extra people


82 televisual.com Spring 2022


space. PwC says that this equates to unmet demand for 940,000 sq ft of sound stages, and it means that the UK is losing out on nearly £1bn of production expenditure each year. Property specialists Lambert Smith Hampton


(LSH), in a 2021 report on the UK and Ireland studio market titled Sites, Camera, Action! Take 2, estimated that 2.3m sq ft of new space is needed in the UK by 2033. LSH noted that planning permission has been


granted for the construction of approximately 1.5m sq ft of new stages in new and existing studios, while projects at earlier phases of planning have the potential to provide more than 1.1m sq ft of stages. “On the face of it, the size of the current pipeline


is enough to satisfy the growth in demand,” said LSH. “However, it is very unlikely that all of the potential space will be built. Several pipeline projects are making slow progress, with funding and planning obstacles still to be overcome. Some planned schemes have been downscaled or have seen temporary stages built while developers work on their longer-term plans.” LSH concluded that there are challenges around


the viability of studio projects in regional markets, as build costs are similar to London projects, but studio rents are a fraction of their level. “Occupier demand is focused primarily on the South East, and there are


doubts over whether regional studios will be able to continue capturing overspill demand if significant volumes of new space came through in the London market,” said LSH. In the meantime, Adrian Wootton says he can’t


see the production boom running out of steam any time soon. Enquiries about studio space are running at record highs, he says. “We see no diminution in demand in the short


term in the next two to three years. And from everything we have forecast, and other people are forecasting, we’ve got at least another five years of this.” For him, the bigger question is whether the UK


can train and deliver enough skilled people to meet the demand. “The amount of people who will be employed in these spaces is a once in generation thing – everytime you build a studio, you suddenly need thousands of extra people. We have got train a lot more people.” Nick Smith takes a similar view. He reckons


Shinfield could handle four large productions at any one time. “If you think each production is going to bring in about 600 crew, it’s the best part of 2,500 people that we could attract to Shinfield…I don’t think we’re going to get to oversaturation with everything that is on the drawing board in terms of stages. It’s the crew where we have a problem.”


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