Creative regeneration of Keighley can be boosted by Bradford 2025: Bill Beaumont

With its vast history in textiles and current impressive manufacturing landscape, it’s understandable that some people might not be aware of the other amazing things happening in our town, including the work of volunteer-led arts organisation Keighley Creative, or the buzz of agencies, businesses

and groups working in the creative sphere.

But that deserves to change.

As a creative business in the digital industry, people are often surprised when they hear our studio is based in the heart of Keighley rather than a bustling city centre. We’re proud of our Bradford roots and moved into Parkway House in 2017.

Since then, Keighley has come on leaps and bounds. There’s an infrastructure in place to support digital businesses with the roll out of improved internet connectivity. Parkway House itself is a fantastic hub of creative businesses including everything from film production to web design, as well as the Distant Future Animation Studio team.

In true market-town spirit, there’s a real sense of collaboration between businesses. Earlier this year it was fantastic to be part of Keighley Creative’s K-Town Shopper weekend as part of Bradford Council’s drive to encourage people to rediscover their local high street. As part of the art and visual performances, we tapped into the nostalgic element of shopping and created an indoor projection reel celebrating popular toys from the 1970s through to the 2000s. It was fantastic to be part of the event and utilise contemporary medium to look back at the past.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of this happen in the build-up to Bradford 2025; the City of Culture win was momentous for the city and it’s richly deserved. The district is full of pockets of creativity and it’s time they’re all highlighted and celebrated.

We’re excited to continue utilising our creative skills to work with businesses and campaigns here in Keighley, as well as extending our offering. Maintaining digital skills is all about innovation, and while we were recently thrilled to appear on the Leeds City Region’s Top 100 Digital Tech Innovators list for a third time, we won’t be resting on our laurels.

To be recognised amongst some amazing companies using their digital tech on a global scale has been so rewarding.

Our plans are to move into new-era virtual production, a technique seen in Disney’s The Mandalorian which replaces the traditional green screen backdrop when filming with a virtual environment, meaning actors and directors can work in the setting as seen in the end-product. Not only does this give the cast and crew more to react to, it can speed up the process as elements on the virtual screen can be edited while filming which really opens up the possibilities.

Alongside some collaborative partners, we can adapt the technology to use on a smaller scale too, for corporate film production clients who want to explore virtual production but may not necessarily have the budget for a large facility.

Visual content has never been more important to connect with audiences and we’re incredibly excited to see how both our industry and business develop, from our studio here in Keighley.

We hope this sort of activity inspires other businesses and the next generation of creatives to recognise Keighley as a place where great things can happen; there’s a lot going for our town, we just need to keep shouting about it.

Bill Beaumont is director of Distant Future Animation Studio