Sky Studios Elstree and BAM launch partnership with Elstree Screen Arts Academy

• Local ESA students to take part in nine-month documentary project celebrating Elstree & Borehamwood’s rich film and TV heritage
  
• ESA students joined Sky Studios COO Caroline Cooper in steel signing ceremony as first studio erected at Sky Studios Elstree

Sky Studios Elstree and BAM today announce they have partnered with Elstree Screen Arts Academy for a nine-month project to celebrate Elstree & Borehamwood’s rich film and TV heritage.

As part of the partnership, students will create four, ten-minute documentaries centred on the new Sky Studios Elstree project, with each documentary looking at a particular theme; film & TV heritage, sustainability, diversity & inclusion, and the construction process itself.

To mark the start of the partnership, teachers and students from Elstree Screen Arts Academy met with Sky Studios COO Caroline Cooper on site to sign a piece of steel, that will become part of the structure of the first studio erected on site, marking a key milestone in the construction of Sky Studios Elstree.

As part of the nine-month project, local ESA students will also receive masterclasses and workshops from members of the team at Sky and Sky Studios on documentary research, marketing, PR & distribution, and planning & production. Each class will develop their skills and help them progress their films.

When it opens in 2022, Sky Studios Elstree will be a state-of-the-art film and TV studio, housing 13 sound stages and creating 2,000 jobs in the local area. This partnership with ESA aligns with Sky Studios Elstree’s commitment to supporting new, diverse talent in Hertsmere while helping to fuel the local economy.

Caroline Cooper, Chief Operating Officer, Sky Studios, said: “We want to support the next generation of young creative talent, and this partnership will allow us to share some of Sky’s film-making expertise with local students in Hertsmere. I am very much looking forward to seeing the films that these talented young people create, and hope it inspires them into a career in film and television.”

Lauren Christy, Assistant Principal at ESA, said: “ESA is all about giving young people industry experience through meaningful partnerships with industry professionals. This project will be giving students relevant experience and will develop key skills in order for them to progress onto careers in the creative industries. In addition, the briefs that the students are working allows them to explore the history of Elstree as 'British Hollywood' and the contexts that they face as young creatives. We are thrilled to be working with Sky Studios Elstree and excited that going forward we will be providing the necessary training to give access and opportunities to work in the industry.”

June Wilkinson, Education & Community Coordinator at BAM, said: “Our partnership with Elstree Screen Arts is a great opportunity for local students. The documentaries and site visits will provide valuable work experience and insights into a career in the film & television industry. I hope that this encourages the students to follow their dreams and that one day some of them will be back on site, creating the films of the future”.

Notes to Editors

Media Contact
lauren.cameron@sky.uk / +44 (0) 7817157798

About Sky Studios

Sky Studios brings to screen unique stories from the very best talent in Europe.

We develop, produce and fund original drama, comedy and documentary for Sky’s 24m customers and beyond. Building on the success of critically-acclaimed Sky Originals including Emmy-winning Chernobyl, Bafta-winning Patrick Melrose and international hits Das Boot, Riviera and Britannia, Sky Studios is the new creative home of Sky Originals, such as The Third Day with Jude Law, I Hate Suzie, co-created by Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper and BAFTA-nominated hit comedy, Brassic.

We’re an agile Studio, seeking out the best untold stories from new voices while working in creative partnership with today’s best writers, producers and on-screen talent to bring viewers stories they wouldn’t find anywhere else.

With commissioning talent and production capability across the UK, Germany and Italy, we understand local tastes across Europe better than anyone else and have plans to more than double our investment in original content by 2024, fully supported and backed by Comcast NBCUniversal.

We’re also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Sky Studios invests in the cultural economy and global production sector with equity stakes in several production companies in the UK and the US, including Great British Bake-Off creator Love Productions, and the premier reality crime producer in the US, Jupiter Entertainment, creator of long-running hit Snapped. Sky Studios has invested in high quality factual specialists Blast! Films, True North Productions, and Transistor Films; natural history producer True to Nature; drama producers The Lighthouse and Longboat Pictures; and growth businesses Sugar Films, Chrysalis Vision, and Talos Films (US).

Sky Studios launched in June 2019. The senior leadership team is Chief Executive Officer Gary Davey, Chief Content Officer Jane Millichip, Chief Operating Officer Caroline Cooper, Director of Commissioning, Drama Gabriel Silver, Director of Comedy UK Jon Mountague, Director Original Production Sky Italia Nils Hartmann, and Director Original Productions Sky Deutschland Marcus Ammon.

About Sky

Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Across six countries, we connect our 24 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news and arts including our own award-winning original content.

Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love – with entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, and apps like Spotify, YouTube, BBC Sounds, Highbrow, Fiit, and more, in one place, easy. Our streaming service NOW, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Bulletproof and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in between. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which will open in 2022, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years.

We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.