Talk from Lord Puttnam

Lord David Puttnam is one the most successful and influential film producers to come out of United
Kingdom. The films he has worked on range from Local Hero to Chariots of Fire to Bugsy Malone and The Mission, and he has won an astounding 10 Oscars and 25 Baftas. I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on a talk with Lord Puttnam on his recent visit to Newcastle College, and found him to be a charismatic and inspiring person to listen to as a Media Student looking to get into industry.

Puttnam was by his own admission a poor student. He told of how his careers adviser at school suggested he should become a traveling salesman as it was the only way he would be able to own a car. In spite of these grim prospects, he loved cinema from an early age, and described the experience of seeing Pinocchio on the big screen and knowing what he wanted to do in life. He made reference to Jiminy Cricket's song 'When You Wish Upon A Star' in the introduction to his talk. To us, the audience, it seemed that for him the wish had come true, but his point was that there isn't anything stopping us from going out and achieving our own wishes. The only person standing in the way of that is ourselves. Puttnam emphasized the importance of being resilient in a competitive world, describing his work as an advertising man where his boss was always pushing for him to get better and better. He spoke about the intimidation that many young people feel when trying to break into the media industry, and reassured us that the people at the top are actually desperate for new talent and ideas, and we just have to have the confidence and resilience to get there and deliver it to them.

Puttnam also addressed the power that staying in groups can wield and the phenomenon of regional scenes. He explained how him and a group of associates such as Alan Parker and Ridley Scott went on to achieve great success in the film industry, and by staying in such a close-knit group they were able to help each other get recognized. He then went on to explain how at certain times in history, regional scenes have achieved great recognition and success, with people and/or acts from the same region following in each others footsteps. An example of this that Puttnam gave was the massive uprising of Liverpool based rock n' roll groups that followed in the wake of The Beatles, a great many of which went on to achieve number 1 hit singles. Puttnam theorizes that this was down to a combination of inspiration and self-belief, that people saw others from the region achieving great success and thought "why not me?" and that inspired them to be productive. Puttnam linked this to an impassioned outlook which suggests there is no reason that the North East can't be becoming the hub of England's creative and artistic talent in the near future;"The North East has an energy and a defined belief in itself. It's a very special part of the country. The media world is voracious in terms of its need for and the way it uses talent. You have to have a combination of self-belief and an understanding of the fact that out there is a world screaming for new ideas, new talent and new people. There is nothing to stop the North East from being the hub of the creative future for the whole of Europe if it decides it's going to be. It all comes down to self-belief". As a media student from the North East, who myself can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the industry I am looking to break into, this was an extremely encouraging and exciting thing to hear.

Puttnam also talked humorously about how far technology has come since his heyday. He joked about how modern methods of storing data are so much easier on the back then back in the days of film, as what could once only be stored on about seven canisters of film can now be carried around on a single USB stick or hard drive! These days it's also much easier to get your work out there and seen, with the advent of YouTube, Vimeo and such. Coming from a working class background like Puttnam did, there was little to no chance of producing work in those days or getting it recognized.  This made me thankful to live in age of such technology and motivated me
to get the most out of it. It is important for me to understand the heritage and history of filmmaking practices, and this way I don't feel so annoyed when Final Cut Pro takes 2 minutes to render a clip.

Overall, Lord David Puttnam's talk was extremely inspiring and enthusing to me and I am delighted I had the opportunity to attend and hear the man talk.