Discovery Fund Creative UK

Welcome to the Advanced Media Production Discovery Fund through Creative UK.

This opportunity is for supporting SMEs and freelancers operating in the creative industries in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland to access cutting-edge virtual production technologies, to unlock new creative experiences, performances and product.  

You will receive free fully funded access to the Digital Catapult Advanced Media Production PROTO studio and Target3D technical expertise, so that you can collaborate and learn in a fail-fast, safe, and innovative environment.

This project is in partnership with the Culture and Creative Investment Programme, delivered by Creative UK and funded by the North East Combined Authority. More information here.

So how can I take part?

We’ve split this fantastic opportunity into 3 themed areas, which we think will help you decide how your idea will fit with the project and match with the technical resources available at the PROTO studio.

So before filling in the form below take some time to read through these descriptions to see which theme you think you fall into. Don’t worry if it’s not obvious at this stage as we can help you find the right balance later, but have a go at choosing one category for now.

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Learn 

You have only heard about what Virtual Production, Motion Capture and Photogrammetry are and you would love a chance to simply understand what it can do. You see this as a taster of what’s possible, to feed your imagination for future ideas. You have little understanding of how the tech works, but you are very excited to learn, hands on, at PROTO.

Explore

You have an inkling of what the technology can do and perhaps have seen it put in practice within a project. You have some media production experience in this area and want to test your perceived knowledge against the real thing and maybe even have a few ideas of what you’d like to use this technology for, but you still need a good deal of guidance and support.

Develop

You understand what the technology can do and perhaps have used similar setups in the past to test or produce content. You have been waiting for an opportunity just like this to take your semi-formed or even fully formed idea from theory to practice. You may even have a specific project in mind and are seeking the time and dedicated technical support to see it realised.

Apply now

-Access to the Advanced Media Production PROTO Studio
-121 support from our in-house technical support
-LED volumes
-Motion capture
-Real time games engines
-Photogrammetry suite

The studio days include all the tech in the PDF (download here).

If you require additional crew for your project, this must be supplied at your own cost.  

Please note, post production work is not included in this offer.  

Projects must be completed by End of February 2025.

A workshop hosted on November 20th, will cover virtual production workflows, real-time rendering, virtual camera systems, motion capture integration, and post-production workflows. Participants will learn how to use virtual production tools and techniques to create immersive environments, manipulate lighting and camera angles, and produce high-quality digital content for film and television. The primary objective of the workshop is to equip participants with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to work with virtual production technologies and methodologies. [Sign up to workshop here]