Remake a Take was produced by Gateshead based creative industries development agency Northern Film & Media. The North has inspired generations of internationally renowned filmmaking talent with Northern filmmakers going on to make some of the most critically and commercially acclaimed film and television of all time. The region’s locations and people have also inspired the film and television industry for decades. Created as part of The Great Exhibition of the North 2018 ‘Remake a Take’ gave audiences a number of playful and immersive opportunities to celebrate the rich heritage and vibrancy of Northern film.
The Great Exhibition of the North 2018 was a summer of amazing exhibits, inspired technology, vibrant street performances, cutting-edge culture and magical experiences which took place between 22nd June – 9th September 2018.
As part of the Remake A Take project we have created some handy resources that you can use to get out and start your filmmaking journey whether you are a complete newcomer to filmmaking or have some experience – take a look at our DIY Directors Guide and top tips film here for ideas and inspiration. We want to see your remakes! so please upload with #RemakeATake
The North on Screen by Michael Pattison
The difficulty of summarising the countless histories, geographies and cultural identities that make up the North of England will be reflected, no doubt, in any map or timeline of the region’s cinematic heritage. From the 1890s on, when Lancashire pioneers Mitchell & Kenyon began to capture the leisure and working lives of Edwardian England, any such endeavour is likely to be defined by its absences as much as its inclusions.
Where to place the mines and mills, the shipyards and steelworks, which placed the North at the forefront of the industrial revolution? This is to say nothing of the rivers and docks, the coastlines and castles, and the lakes and hills that have featured in so many of the films shot across the region over the last century. Indeed, the range of films made here is testament to the richness of the North’s landscapes — Newcastle alone counts works by local filmmaking and photography collective Amber as well as big-budgeted Bollywood productions among its innumerable screen credits.
From Blackpool’s Golden Mile in George King’s Forbidden (1949) and Tony Richardson’s A Taste of Honey (1961) to Northumberland’s Bamburgh Castle in multiple Shakespeare adaptations, the North has been employed to radically different ends. There have been gangsters (Get Carter, 1971; Stormy Monday, 1988). There have been romances (Brief Encounter, 1945; God’s Own Country, 2017). There have been wartime battles (Atonement, 2007) and austerity battles (The Full Monty, 1997; I, Daniel Blake, 2016). And much more besides.
However painfully selective, this is a story of talent both in front of and behind the camera: to name one actress or filmmaker would be to leave out many more. Each of these films, however, has helped to both express and shape a complex social identity that is inextricably rooted to ideas of being Northern; definable by its sense of cultural unity as much as it is by the differences it encompasses — this is the North.