The Wales Screen Commission has recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, and what a busy decade it has been.
The Commission assists productions filming throughout Wales, by offering an extensive database of locations as well as details of freelance crew and facility companies.
The Commission is part of the Welsh Government’s Creative Sector, which is seen as one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK.
In recent years Wales’ stunning locations have been seen on the big screen, whether it’s the beaches of Pembrokeshire (Robin Hood, Harry Potter and more recently Snow White and the Huntsman) or the mountains of Snowdonia (Clash of the Titans).
In the past year Warner Bros. also filmed key battle sequences for the sequel Wrath of the Titans in a quarry location in Mid Wales (pictured above).
Films with a more modest budget such as How I Live Now (starring Saoirse Ronan pictured below) directed by Kevin Macdonald and Viking feature Hammer of the Gods have also filmed in Wales this year, making use of the Welsh landscape and talented freelance crew.
Wales is also making a mark on the small screen. Since the revival of popular children’s TV show Doctor Who was brought to Wales in 2005 and despite jetting off to New York and Southern Spain on occasion, Cardiff is still very much home.
The new dedicated drama studio in Roath Lock, Cardiff Bay is now the main production base for the series as well as other key BBC Wales productions such as Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm and medical drama Casualty. A new children’s series created by Russell T Davies Wizards Vs Aliens also filmed at the studios and is due to be broadcast in the UK this Autumn.
Touchpaper TV’s supernatural series Being Human is currently filming its fifth series in and around Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan (which was previously home to the hit comedy series Gavin and Stacey).
Other major series such as Hartswood Films’ Sherlock and Shine TV’s Merlin have also regularly filmed on location in Wales.
Da Vinci’s Demons (starring Tom Riley pictured below) the new drama produced by Starz and BBC Worldwide has moved away from the Cardiff hub of activity, closer to Swansea.
The series is a mixture of fact and fiction in the life of Leonardo, the Italian Renaissance artist and inventor and the production is based at an old car factory in Neath Port Talbot, where parts of the site have been converted into 15th century Florence.
The first series has already led to the creation of hundreds of jobs including those in props, set construction and costume design.
The Commission monitors the spend of the productions that it assists and has recorded over £170 million since its launch in 2002.
These sorts of productions are not only important to the economy of Wales and to the skills of the local crew base, but they raise the profile of Wales, internationally.
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