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UK's First Sustainable Creative Citywide Studio Initiative

The City
Is the
Studio.

The CAST — City/Coventry As Studio — is a future-facing community of creatives, storytellers and practitioners. Not a building. A living, city-wide production ecosystem for film, TV, theatre, gaming and immersive experiences.

Become a CAST Member → Discover the Vision

250+

Founding cast members invited

12min

City-centre studio walk end to end

BBC & ITV drama series filmed here

About the CAST

A Studio Without Walls

The CAST was born from a speculative research project exploring the future of screen media. Its founding partners made a bold commitment: rather than build a single facility, make the whole city the studio.

"Moving away from the concept of a single building — creating a flexible, longer-term capability that can adapt to the ever-changing media production landscape."

The result is a networked environment that brings together freelancers, businesses, community organisations, universities and production companies within a coherent ecosystem. Coventry's ring-road city centre becomes the lot; its meanwhile-use spaces, buildings and architecture become the stages and sets.

The CAST is simultaneously a production enabler, a content distributor and a platform for inclusion — shifting the media perception of Coventry to better reflect the genuine diversity of creative talent that calls it home.

Founding Partners

Coventry University

Belgrade Theatre

Hollywood Gaming

Sky Blue Studios

Collaborating institutions

University of Warwick

Coventry College

Coventry City Council

Why Coventry

Already a Creative Powerhouse

Coventry isn't a blank canvas — it's a city with a thriving creative infrastructure, a diverse talent pipeline and a track record that national broadcasters and producers keep returning to.

🎭

Theatre & Performance

Home to the Belgrade Theatre, Highly Sprung and Talking Birds — organisations with national reach and genuine community roots.

ᯅ

VR & Immersive

Hollywood Gaming and LOCATIONZ VR are already operating at the frontier of immersive experience-making right in the city.

🎮

Gaming & Esports

The UK's first technosport HADO arena, a flagship esports society at Warwick University, and a growing gaming ecosystem put Coventry at the forefront of interactive media.

🏛️

Distinctive Architecture

Coventry's unique built environment gives film and TV producers an extraordinary range of contemporary and historic backdrops.

🎓

Education & Research

Two leading universities and Coventry College create a constant flow of talent, research capability and collaborative opportunity.

⚡

Green Infrastructure

A 15-year decarbonisation plan, renewable energy commitments and EV/battery technology strengths give the CAST a credible sustainability platform to build on.

Recent productions filmed in Coventry

Phoenix Rise (BBC) This Town (BBC) 3 Little Birds (ITV) Just Act Normal Joan Style It Out (BBC) Kids (Channel 4)

Creative Sectors

The Full Spectrum of Story

The CAST brings together practitioners from every corner of the creative content world — from screen to stage, from pixel to physical, from narrative to interactive.

🎬

Film

Feature, short and documentary production with city-wide location access and a growing crew base.

📺

Television

Drama, factual and entertainment. Coventry has hosted major BBC and ITV series — the momentum is already here.

🎭

Theatre

Live performance, site-specific work and cross-form collaboration with some of the UK's most inventive companies.

🎮

Gaming

From indie studios to esports, Coventry's gaming community is connected, ambitious and growing fast.

ᯅ

Immersive

XR, VR, AR and spatial experiences — the CAST brings together technologists and storytellers to push the format forward.

Studio departments open to all cast members

Production Art & Design Emerging Technology Immersive Storytelling Post-Production Locations Crew Distribution Research & Development

Technology & Sustainability

Built for What's Coming

The CAST is designed for the creative landscape of 2026 and beyond — where AI, climate responsibility and virtual production are not optional extras but founding principles.

Sustainable Production Planet-first

All of the CAST's ambitions sit within the context of building a sustainable production ecosystem. We integrate Coventry's 15-year decarbonisation plan, its renewable energy commitments and EV/battery technology strengths into circular economy principles that underpin every project — physical, hybrid or virtual.

Green production protocols and best practice sharing across all cast members
Integration with Coventry's city-wide decarbonisation strategy
Renewable energy and electric vehicle infrastructure aligned to production logistics
Circular economy principles applied from pre-production through to distribution

AI & Emerging Technology Future-facing

The CAST acknowledges that AI will have fundamental impacts on the creative sector. Our approach is clear: minimise the negative impacts, leverage the competitive advantages. We bring together technologists, practitioners and researchers to find the approaches that genuinely serve the people making creative work.

Emerging technology as a named studio department open to all
Research partnerships with Coventry and Warwick Universities to test what actually works
Virtual production and hybrid format development
Connections to Coventry's wider tech and createch business ecosystem

Community & Membership

The CAST Is Open

The CAST was built on a simple premise: if you can contribute to the studio ecosystem, you belong here. Membership is open to anyone in or connected to Coventry — whether you're a freelancer, a business, a student or a community organisation.

250

Founding Members

The CAST's founding partners have already identified 250 future cast members who will be invited to join first, forming the basis of the virtual studio departments.

Freelancers & Creatives

Individual practitioners — writers, directors, designers, technologists, performers — can commit to whichever department best matches their skills and interests, on their own terms.

Businesses & Organisations

From supply chain companies to community groups, the CAST connects businesses with production opportunities, creative collaborators and strategic partners across the sector.

Students & Researchers

Working with Coventry University, Warwick, Coventry College and others, the CAST creates meaningful work experience and research collaboration for the next generation.

Alumni Network

The CAST will actively recruit alumni who have left Coventry — creatives with connections to the city who can help build national and international industry bridges.

The Community App

A dedicated CAST community app is in development to make it easy for cast members to communicate, collaborate on projects and stay connected to everything happening in the studio.

Events & Showcase

The Green Room

Every studio needs a place where people gather, ideas collide and things happen. The CAST's Green Room is a dedicated showcase space — part venue, part workshop, part base camp for visiting productions. It's where the studio comes alive in physical form.

Get Involved →

🎤 Industry Events

The CAST develops and hosts events that deliver on the ambitions of its members — screenings, showcases, masterclasses, pitch sessions and networking with producers, technology providers and strategic industry bodies.

🌍 Content Distribution

The CAST acts as a content platform as well as a production enabler — providing a constant stream of creative content that amplifies Coventry's profile and builds a coherent brand across sectors, geographies and audiences.

For Partners & Stakeholders

Build With Us

The CAST is designed to create economic value for Coventry — starting and scaling content creation businesses, increasing the volume and quality of creative work, and creating meaningful employment for local and regional residents.

🏢 Property & Space Owners

Meanwhile-use spaces are the lifeblood of the CAST's city-wide studio model. If you own or manage commercial or public space in or near Coventry city centre, we want to talk about how it could become part of the studio ecosystem in the short and medium term.

🎬 Production Companies

We actively develop relationships with visiting and local producers, connecting them with locations, crew, equipment, facilities and creative collaborators across Coventry and the wider region.

💻 Technology Providers

From virtual production tools to sustainable logistics solutions, the CAST is building partnerships with technology companies whose products and services can shape the future of creative production.

🏛️ Strategic Bodies & Funders

The CAST is working in close collaboration with Coventry City Council and wider strategic bodies to align on infrastructure, transport, logistics and long-term development of the creative production sector beyond 2030.

What's Next

The CAST Is Being Built Now

2026 is a pre-launch year. The foundations are being laid, the partnerships are being formalised, and the studio is taking shape. Here's what's in progress.

Formalising Founding Partnerships

Cementing the agreements, commitments and structures that will allow the CAST to function as a coherent studio ecosystem from day one.

Opening the Green Room

Establishing the CAST's first physical showcase space — a venue for events, visiting productions and community gatherings that brings the studio to life.

Launching the Community App

Creating the digital infrastructure that enables cast members to connect, collaborate and develop projects across the full breadth of the studio's creative departments.

The City Is the Studio.