Birmingham becomes a mini film studio this month, as nine short films go before the clapper board in the city. Hollywood was the first. We've got Pinewood in the UK, and in India there's Bollywood. There's even Trollywood in Sweden. And now, enter stage left, Brummiewood. The tongue-in-cheek title belies a unique actor-driven initiative in filmmaking in the UK, as throughout March nine Brummiewood film crews will crisscross the city, shooting their own 'short cut to Birmingham'. Like the Hollywood Studios in the Thirties, the nine Brummiewood films will be filmed back to back. Brummiewood was successfully piloted in 2004 as a creative 'crosstown traffic' between the city's actors, musicians, writers, designers and film makers. One of the 2004 films - Soul Boy, by Sarah Walker - went on to collect a prestigious Royal Television Society Award. Brummiewood is the brainchild of Simon Woods, the CEO of the Birmingham School of Acting, and Natasha Carlish of Dreamfinder. It gives actors at the Birmingham School of Acting the opportunity to add film acting experience to their repertory of skills as well as that all important film credit to go on their CV. Recognising that film and television can seen by drama schools to be of secondary importance, Simon Woods approached the Birmingham-based and BAFTA-winning producer, Natasha Carlish, who had spotted the positive value of the short film for actors. Carlish, who with Simon Woods executive produces the films, spells out the attractions of the Brummiewood approach: "It's a great dynamic, bringing together local directors, writers and acting students, and creating fresh work with the kind of vibrancy that only a film shot in one day can bring." Each screenwriter is given a cast of five actors from the school and the script is written just for them, leading at times to roles for the actors that might not come their way in theatre. Once the script is delivered, the cast begin to work with the director, not only on the script itself, but also on finding locations, organising props, negotiating rights etc - a master class in short film production. With a nod to the celebrated Danish Dogme school of film making, Brummiewood too has its own rules of film-making - the script must be written for the cast; all the cast must be in the finished film; the film to be between five-ten minutes in length; the film has to be shot in one day. The participating screenwriters and directors are local independent film makers with experience of national and international film festivals. The 2005 Brummiewood directors are Sean Spencer, Paul Hardy, Paul Green, Tom Norton, Stephen Reynolds, Vince Lund and Mathew Cooke, John Humphries, Steve Rainbow and Debbie Aston. The Danes may have their Dogme, a new type of film-making that threw out conventions, and introduced a new set of film 'rules'. Brummiewood Eastside stories are a kind of Digme, pioneering innovative film making in Digbeth from their new rehearsal space at the heart of Birmingham's creative quarter, cheek by digital jowl with film and television companies. Financial backing for Brummiewood 2005 has also come from regional film agency Screen West Midlands, and technical support from film companies, Aquilla and Audio Suite. Looking ahead, Brummiewood's executive producer Simon Woods has ambitions to scale up and apply the model of Brummiewood for the making of low-budget feature films in the city. Now that would be a case of low and behold! For information about the Birmingham School of Acting go to www.birminghamschoolofacting.ac.uk Roger Shannon is a film producer and film consultant at swish. | 
