2012 Olympic Cultural Legacy Captured On Film

A year before the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, plans are afoot to ensure that its cultural legacy lives on in the hearts and eyes of the nation. An important part of this initiative is a short promotional film created by Earl Productions, an independent film company based in London.
The film was commissioned by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up in 2007 to create a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK. Legacy Trust UK's funding ends in 2013 and the film is a legacy in its own right, showcasing what the Trust has achieved during its short lifetime.
In the course of running 100 nationwide projects, Legacy Trust UK has awarded a £40m endowment from Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to enable four large-scale national programmes and 12 different regional programmes based around small-scale, grassroots initiatives. The idea was to unite communities through the mediums of arts, sport and education, and to make a lasting difference to the lives of the participants.
Regional projects have ranged from alternative sports events and outdoor arts festivals to dance projects and a cultural volunteering initiative. The four national programmes comprise: UK School Games - a multi-sport event for the UK's elite school-age athletes, somewhereto - a project to help young people gain access to the spaces they need for their chosen activities; Tate Movie - a film animation project for primary school children run by Tate in conjunction with Aardman Animations and CBBC; and four community celebrations projects in Northern Ireland, Scotland, East Midlands and South East England, devised to create spectacular outdoor events.
Earl Productions' objective with the film for Legacy Trust UK was to draw together elements from the different projects it has funded, and to show the UK's youth in a positive light. Accordingly, the film is presented by a teenager from the Stratford Park area. High-end post production facilities were used to maximise its impact.
The film was shown at this year's Labour Party conference in Liverpool and this month's Conservative Party conference in Manchester, as part of Legacy Trust UK's current stakeholder engagement campaign. It is hoped that the film will also be shown on the giant live screens jointly operated by the BBC and London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) between now and the start of the Games, as well as during the Games themselves.
Tim Earl, producer at Earl Productions, says: "With one year to go until the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Legacy Trust UK wanted to commission an up-tempo, high energy, inspirational and spectacular film that would showcase its projects to stakeholders, as well as making its legacy a visible part of the UK's cultural heritage. A particular challenge was to ensure that a diverse range of the 100 projects funded by the Trust were included in the film."
He added: "In the final six-minute work, we combine footage provided by a number of projects with new material shot by our team at Legacy Trust UK-funded events. We've included a lot of inspiring interview content featuring people involved in the projects. The amateur presenter we sourced in Stratford Park is excellent."
For more info visit: www.earl-productions.com
(BMcN/CD)