July 2025 Update

Screen Staffordshire : July 2025 Update

July was comfortably Screen Staffordshire’s busiest month so far.

The film office received 26 direct enquiries requesting production support, and we hosted another recce with a big reality series that may be coming to shoot with us further down the line. We also hosted a site visit for a different, and very well-established reality series, which is looking more likely to have a healthy local economic impact as a result of our support.

July saw the first formal get-together of the film office’s new Steering Committee. The members of our SteerCo have selflessly given their time to help set the course of our strategic trajectory. We hope that each SteerCo member was pleased to see the strides we have taken since both our Film Office Manager, Jonny Shelton, joined in December 2024, and our official launch in June 2025 at Hoar Cross Hall; furthermore, their suggestions for our steps forward are hugely helpful as we look to maximise our impact for the people of Staffordshire.

We met with each district, borough and the city of Stoke on Trent’s local authorities in July, where we hosted our Local Authority Workshops. The aim of these workshops was to help enable them with the insights, skills and approaches required to unlock the benefits of working in partnership with Screen Staffordshire, and by extension the UK’s Film and TV sector.

As we move forward, our collaboration with our SteerCo and each local authority across Staffordshire will only help meeting the proposed aims, achievements and crucially KPIs that the film office is adhering to.

We managed to get out and about a lot in July. Via our membership with The Production Guild of Great Britain, SteerCo member and established Production Designer Damien Creagh joined our Film Office Manager at PGGB’s Summer Party, where we met old friends and made plenty of new ones; we also attended a networking night hosted by Liverpool Locations in the city, where we can learn so much about their own successes and how they have become a central part of the UK’s sector. Similarly, we gratefully attended a networking night hosted by Staffordshire’s own Access Bookings in Manchester, where we were able to share the film office with some very experienced production professionals.

Access Bookings are both a local and global powerhouse in our sector – which is why we are overjoyed to be sharing a stand with them at FOCUS 2025 in London, a key trade expo for our sector that is organised by The Location Guide.

FOCUS is attended by a wide range of UK and international professionals from our sector, which is why it is important for us to continue building our offer and its visibility; to that end, six new locations were added to our Locations Database throughout July too.

August will see us keep up the pace and we hugely look forward to doing so!