Pinewood Studios opening ‘game school’

Film studio Pinewood is exploring the creation of a new game school, it has revealed.

The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Amersham & Wycombe College to explore the creation of a centre of excellence, which will develop and deliver education and qualifications in areas such as games, animation and film.

The ‘game school’ would be based within the proposed expansion of Pinewood Studios, referred to as the Pinewood Development Framework.

The centre will focus on areas outlined in the Next Gen report co-authored by game industry luminary Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope, covering areas including game development (applications of development, design and production management, technology, programming and GUI’s) and visual effects (2D and 3D, FX, animation and rigging, pipeline compositing).

Other programmes to be developed for the centre include those not covered by the computer science foundation such as studio management, sound engineering and production.

Pinewood Studios said that it expected most students on-site would be apprentices, with the majority aged between 16-to-24 years old.

“We are thrilled to be announcing these plans today to develop a centre of excellence for the screen based industries here at Pinewood,” said Pinewood Studios director of strategy and communication Andrew Smith.

“We hope it will help to provide the next generation of talent with the skills they need to turn their ideas into commercial success. By basing the centre at Pinewood it will allow students to work with and learn from industry colleagues who are at the top of their game, working on award winning and international productions on a daily basis.

“We are especially pleased that this announcement comes as the government introduces its new system of tax relief for high end TV, animation and video games.”

Ian Livingstone added: “I am passionate to see the UK nurture its digital creative industries and I’m delighted to see Pinewood Studios collaborating with educators to provide new routes of training for young people and help bring to fruition the priorities outlined in the Next Gen report.”

Pinewood Studios is one of the UK’s most illustrious film studios, hosting film productions such as the James Bond series including the recently released Skyfall, as well as other movies such as The Dark Knight and Superman.

The creation of a game school and a number of courses across an array of disciplines at Pinewood is further proof of the game sector’s increasing importance in the UK, having previously been recognised as key to UK growth with the announcement of tax relief for the industry.