Location, location, location as the film industry focuses on northern picture

Bubwith seems an unlikely home for radicals. Eight miles from Selby and a half hour drive from York, the village is quintessentially middle England - it even has an award-winning deli.

However, behind the picture postcard church and the rows of stone cottages, Bubwith also has a history of attracting outsiders. Back in the late 1980s, when television producer John Sichel fell out with the BBC following a row about lack of original content, it was Bubwith, specifically an old pig farm, where he found an outlet for his creative talents.

Together with his wife Elfie, Sichel ploughed his savings into converting the outbuildings and in 1990 the Advanced Residential Theatre and Television Skillcentre opened its doors. Boasting a 200-seat theatre, three TV studios and a radio suite, 500 students lived and trained there over the years, but following Sichel’s death in 2005, the centre closed and many feared his legacy had died with it.

However, recently there have been signs of life again at the Bubwith studios, which are fast becoming a hub for Yorkshire filmmakers. Green Screen Productions moved into the site last year after securing a £150,000 loan from Finance Yorkshire to buy state of the art equipment. The company has just completed filming on The Knife that Killed Me, an adaptation of Anthony McGowan’s novel of a teenage boy from Leeds whose life spirals out of control when he becomes involved in gang culture.

Directed by Marcus Romer, artistic director of York’s Pilot Theatre and starring Waterloo Road actor Jack McMullen, the movie had been filmed against a green screen. Alan Latham, Green Screen Productions managing director, likens it to Sin City, the 2005 comic book-style crime thriller, and as well as being a success at the box office, he also hopes the film will be a showcase for the kind of special effects which can be created in Yorkshire.

“It’s a contemporary teenage movie about teenage issues, but what makes it unique is that it was shot entirely on the green screen with live actors against 100 per cent computer generated screens,” says Latham. “It’s similar to how Sin City was shot, but that cost £20m to make and this is costing just £3m.

“The green screen set up has given us the unique opportunity to have major studio movie control over every frame, whilst working to a UK indie budget, however it’s also about us creating a business in Yorkshire for special effects.”

Latham isn’t the only one convinced there is a market for a major film studio in Yorkshire. Brothers Lionel and Julian Hicks grew up in Scarborough, but moved to London to pursue their careers. After establishing himself as a music producer, a few years ago Lionel moved into films and together with Julian, who has a background in marketing, the pair had a long held dream of setting up their own company back in their old stomping ground.

“We were born in Lincoln, but grew up in Scarborough and even though we moved to London we’ve always considered ourselves Yorkshiremen,” says Julian. “London is the Mecca for filmmaking in this country, but it’s also very expensive and if you want to close off a road it’s a logistical nightmare.

“The question is, if it’s that difficult to film in London why do people keeping going there? The reality is that as the capital London has a certain innate attraction, so if you are going to persuade people to bring their projects to the north, you not only have to make them aware of what’s on offer up here, but you have to make the entire process as easy as possible for them.

“Yorkshire is blessed with such diverse locations that it can pretty much double for anywhere else in the world. The River Ouse at York can easily pass for the River Seine in Paris and if you’re making a film which requires dramatic scenery, well, you have it all right here on the doorstep.

“I know some people probably think we are mad starting a film company when the economy is the way it is, but we are both already established in this business. Securing finance for films isn’t easy, but I’m not sure it ever has been and the more we looked into it, Lionel and I couldn’t think of a good reason not go ahead with our plans.”

Liquid Noise Films North was born and the brothers, who are working alongside actor Craig Conway (Vera Drake, Dog Soldiers) quickly acquired a number of screenplays. Then all they needed was a base and their new home in Green Screen Productions was secured following a chance meeting on a train.

“One day I happened to sit opposite Alan on a train,” says Julian. “When he got off I realised he’d dropped his mobile phone. Eventually I managed to track him down and our friendship began from there.

“I started telling him about our plans for a northern film company and he told me about Green Screen. It was a complete stroke of luck. This place is perfect, it has everything we need and more.”

The final piece of the jigsaw fell into place when Julian bumped into GP Taylor in Scarborough. The pair were friends from years back, but had lost touch when their lives went in different directions.

“I was walking along Marine Drive and I heard this voice, saying ‘Hi Graham, how’s it going’,” says Taylor. “It was Julian. I started telling him how one of my books Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box was being made into a film and how I was moving into producing.

“I had no idea that he and Lionel had set up their own film company, but pretty much by the end of that conversation I knew I wanted to work with both of them.

“I’d found it really frustrating that Mariah Mundi was filmed in Cornwall despite the fact it was set up here. Yorkshire is blessed with fantastic locations, from medieval streets to gritty urban settings, it’s a dream for any filmmaker, but persuading people to come up here has not always been easy.

“There is a lot of expertise up here, but the closure of the ITV studios in Leeds was a big blow for the county and we do need to do something to ensure all that creative talent doesn’t drift to another part of the country.”

Liquid Noise, which also has a base in Newcastle, is currently developing nine films, including Fort Venus, a biopic of the early life of Captain James Cook and his marriage to Elizabeth Batts, Vardo, a gritty crime drama about a Newcastle gipsy family and adaptation of Taylor’s teen chiller The Vampyre Quartet.

“Film fans are prepared to travel hundreds of miles to see a particular location and when they do, they spend money,” says Julian. “By showcasing Yorkshire on film, it has to be good for the region’s economy.”

Certainly, Alnwick Castle, the location for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, saw a 230 per cent rise in visitors following the release of the films, which are estimated to have boosted the local economy by £9m. Similarly, when Gosford Park hit the big screen it sparked a renewed interest in Victorian and Edwardian houses with Beningbrough Hall, near York, claiming the film was largely responsible for visitor numbers soaring from 10,218 to 94,032 in a year.

It’s early days for Liquid Noise’s northern base, but they would like to enlist of repertory of actors and crew who can move between the various projects, which have budgets ranging from £500,000 to £26m.

“That kind of set up was once the tradition in the heyday of the British film industry and there’s no reason why it can’t work again,” says Lionel, who as a music producer worked with the likes of Sting, The Black Eyed Peas, Alanis Morissette and Lenny Kravitz. “I’ve lived in London for years, but I’m tired of the place and I want to come back north.

“It isn’t very often that a film company can set up and take things into production so quickly, but Julian and I have been thinking of doing this for so long and it feels great to finally be up here. We were really lucky to find Bubwith and to meet up with Graham, it makes you think it is meant to be.”

Credits roll for Yorkshire

Tyrannosaur: Paddy Considine’s hard-hitting directorial debut was filmed on location in Leeds, with various scenes shot at Seacroft, Cross Gates, Eccup, Harehills and Alwoodley.

Wuthering Heights: When Andrea Arnold’s new take on the classic Emily Brontë novel was released last year, its North Yorkshire landscape was described as “another character”.

The Damned United: Based on the David Peace novel of the same name, the film charting Brian Clough’s troubled 44-day tenure at Leeds United in 1974, was partly filmed at Elland Road.

Kill List: The low budget horror of an ex-soldier turned contract killer, which was released in 2010, was filmed at locations across Yorkshire.