At long last, the Assembly's Culture Committee submitted its report of film and major TV production in Wales -- it appeared in May 2019, and can be downloaded here:
https://www.assembly.wales/laid%20documents/cr-ld12524/cr-ld12524-e.pdf
This is very much a factual report, concentrating on nuts and bolts rather than strategy, vision or design -- and it is in truth extremely disappointing.
I have occasionally drawn attention on this blog to the comments from industry experts on how Wales is portrayed in the output coming from Welsh studios -- and how little of the Welsh output is actually devoted to telling the story of Wales, for viewers within the country, and for the benefit of viewers across the world. It seems that the Welsh strategy -- insofar as there is one -- is to encourage the belief in the creative industries that Wales is an excellent place for the telling of other people's stories, with no attempt made to concentrate on the telling of the Welsh narrative. If a decent Welsh story gets told every now and then (like "Keeping Faith" or "Hidden"), all well and good -- but one gets the feeling that the Culture Committee and the Welsh Government are scared to death of frightening off the big production companies and the big money by suggesting too strongly that productions ABOUT Wales and SET IN Wales might be quite a nice idea..........
For example, Angela Graham, Dylan Wyn Williams, Gary Raymond, Steve Blandford, Dave Ball, Sam Parry, and many others,have expressed themselves quite forcefully:
http://brian-angelmountain.blogspot.com/2019/03/angela-graham-on-bbc-portrayal-of-wales.html
http://brian-angelmountain.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-bbc-portrayal-of-wales.html
http://brian-angelmountain.blogspot.com/2020/01/netflix-and-wales.html
http://brian-angelmountain.blogspot.com/2019/12/what-does-gavin-and-stacey-say-about.html
http://brian-angelmountain.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-portrayal-of-wales-litany-of.html
https://nation.cymru/opinion/the-pitching-in-disaster-shows-that-you-need-to-make-in-wales-not-just-set-in-wales/
https://www.walesartsreview.org/sex-education-accidental-elegy-for-post-industrial-wales/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-47310251#
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44385773
https://www.walesartsreview.org/tv-the-story-of-wales/?fbclid=IwAR36pj5rGRAl-8bEwzWiAXy2x6g9UeB03zvFjS6nruZg865vbwWIO7wEbgA
https://nation.cymru/opinion/we-must-fight-back-against-a-popular-culture-that-depicts-the-welsh-as-idiots/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-47231099?mc_cid=7d425cb298&mc_eid=e8544fd014
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/raymond-williams-question-who-speaks-13935418
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42871831
https://theconversation.com/were-seeing-plenty-of-welsh-locations-in-bbc-dramas-one-day-they-may-be-shows-about-wales-92628
I don't imagine for a moment that Dafydd Ellis Thomas or Eluned Morgan (who hold the key portfolios in the Welsh Cabinet) are unaware of this as an issue, but it is a bit of a surprise that the Culture Committee can produce a lengthy report like this one without saying ANYTHING about the issue of a "Welsh portrayal" strategy. The Committee members know all about it, because I have been in correspondence with some of them, and they read the media just like the rest of us.
Such timidity is a grave disappointment, and if Wales is ever to compete on a world stage it needs to brand itself much more clearly and to market itself much more aggressively as a country with its own character and its own narrative.
So yes, by all means let's have "Casualty", "Doctor Who" and "His Dark Materials" made in Wales, in fantastic state-of-the-art studios by fantastic teams of film-making geniuses, but until many more genuinely Welsh stories are told on film and in big TV productions, the people of Wales are not being well served.
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Finally, a reminder of what happens in Ireland (similar criteria apply to both film and TV production funding):
Principles & Criteria
FÉ/SI's funding programmes are guided by some fundamental principles which form the basis of the decision-making process
Developing Talent, Cultural & Industrial Priorities
Consistent with its government remit and responding to the present perceived needs of the Irish audiovisual production industry, FÉ/SI considers that certain projects, in terms of their content, provenance or benefit to the industry, represent clear priorities for its funding.
Strong preference will be given to submissions on behalf of projects which:
*are of Irish initiation in a creative sense; that is, conceived, written, produced and/ or to be directed by Irish talents
*entail new and emerging Irish talent in key creative roles, i.e. director, writer, producer, composer, principal actor
*tell Irish stories, drawing on and depicting Ireland's culture, history, way of life, view of the world and of itself
(I think we can take the above as a strong and decisive steer to project developers who are looking for funds.)
Now for Wales:
http://www.ffilmcymruwales.com/attachments/article/93/Ffilm%20Cymru%20Wales%20Development%20Guidelines%202018.pdf
FFILM CYMRU WALESIn Wales, Development Funding Guidelines
SELECTION CRITERIA
When selecting projects the following criteria will be considered:
The quality, potential and originality of the work
The benefit to Welsh filmmakers
The depiction of Welsh cultural content – Wales and Welsh life, whilst not essential this will be considered
The viability of the project in terms of budget and partnership funding and the capability of the key creative personnel
The project’s ability to qualify as a British film. Please refer to BFI website for qualification details.
The project’s market appeal. We would expect any application to clearly show an identifiable and reachable core audience and the means by which this audience will be reached.
The range and number of projects already being supported by Film Cymru Wales
(The wording here is much more vague, with far less emphasis on Welsh talent, Welsh origination, and the telling of the Welsh story. Instead of "strong preference" we have ".......whilst not essential this will be considered." So the Welsh requirement can, by and large, simply be ignored.)
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I dealt with this in a press release about a year ago,and nothing much seems to have changed:
http://www.brianjohn.co.uk/press-releases.html
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