West Midlands firms support Channel 4's Disability Code with a short film
11 August 2022
Create Central members collaborate on a short film to support Channel 4's new Disability Code of Portrayal
West Midlands-based production company, Ark Media Productions, has been commissioned along with 104 Films to produce a short film to support Channel 4’s new Disability Code of Portrayal.
Phil Arkinstall, Founder & Managing Director of Ark Media, and Justin Edgar, Creative Director of 104 Films are both Create Central Members.
In July, Channel 4 announced its Disability Code of Portrayal which aims to take necessary steps to change both the amount of screen representation of disabled people and also the quality of what is being put out there across all of its content.
Channel 4 wanted to produce a piece of content to accompany its promise to strengthen the portrayal of disabled people on television. Their Disability Consultant reached out to Justin Edgar, Creative Director of 104 Films, who is renowned within the field of disability and who regularly partners with Ark Media Productions on projects.
The team looked through Channel 4’s existing productions which represent the disabled community and took cuts from these to put together a short showreel. This was then released to accompany ‘The Code’. The Code, which is believed to be the only one of its kind within the industry, sets guidelines which cover a range of areas such as actively seeking out disabled actors to fulfil disabled roles and to provide a better representation of disabled people as well-rounded characters rather than just focusing on their disability.
The code also requires commissioners to include characters that ‘happen’ to be disabled rather than this being a focal point within the programme. Additionally, it is expected that every series from now on will include at least one disabled actor, presenter/guest or contributor, with the aim of having more than one.
Justin Edgar, Creative Director of 104 Films, said about the project, "I was delighted to be approached to provide the accompanying film for 'The Disability Code of Portrayal', and I was more than happy to once again work collaboratively with Ark Media Productions to support such a fantastic initiative."
104 Films and Ark Media have already worked collaboratively across various projects aiming to give disabled people more of a platform such as producing a theatre production of Oliver Twist at the Leeds Playhouse which featured a cast of predominantly disabled actors. The production was a ticketed, online, fully accessible viewing which featured subtitles and also audio descriptions.
They also worked collaboratively on ‘Transport for London’, a documentary-style piece about accessibility on London transport networks. This included case studies with various disabled people discussing their experiences of travelling on various aspects of London transport, investigating the changes which have already happened, and the changes which still need to happen, with regards to the London transport network.
Channel 4’s Disability Code video
Kaylee Haycock, Senior Editor at Ark Media Productions said about editing the video, “These short edits are always good fun to piece together. You start off with hours and hours of footage, covering all sorts from 'news reports' to tv shows like 'Screw' and put it together to create a fun, fast-paced story. I really enjoyed working on this project as there was an important cause behind it and it’s great to know our work will be broadcast on a national basis.”