New film studio opens for business in Bristol

The largest dedicated production facility in the South West region of the UK has opened for business in the city of Bristol, in a bid to provide a new home outside London for UK film and TV production and overseas productions.

Alastair Siddon’s The Dark Half, which has come out of South West Screen’s iFeatures digital filmmaking scheme is the first feature to shoot at the former bottling factory. The studio has already played host to BBC TV productions Excluded and Five Daughters. The studio aims to attract

The 300,000 square foot production facility offers internal build spaces, workshop areas, production offices, private roadways and locations.

Funded by South West Regional Development Agency and Bristol City Council, The Bottle Yard will be managed by regional screen agency South West Screen.

Bristol is already home to TV productions including C4’s Skins, BBC’s Casualty and Mistresses. Feature films that have shot in the South West region recently include Steven Spielberg’s upcoming War Horse, Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go, Stephen Frears’s Tamara Drewe and Richard Curtis’s The Boat That Rocked.

Kip Meek, chairman of South West Screen, described The Bottle Yard as a “real asset to the South West’s offering for film and television. It is providing space at a time when there is real demand from both domestic and international productions, it will create jobs for our local workforce and generate valuable economic benefit for our industry.”

The UK Film Council’s British film commissioner Colin Brown, added: “Space on the sheer scale of The Bottle Yard with its proximity to London and good accessibility, is incredibly valuable and in real demand. This new facility represents a significant addition to what the UK can offer international producers.”