Ilminster film-maker made copyright ambassador (From Chard & Ilminster News)

Ilminster film-maker made copyright ambassador

7:40am Tuesday 20th July 2010 in News By Jamie Brooks

AN ILMINSTER screenwriter has been made an ambassador for a campaign to raise awareness of copyright this week.

Caroline Greville-Morris of West Street, will represent the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property (IP) Awareness’s national campaign to inform people of its vital importance.

Mrs Greville-Morris, 53, has worked on recent films - ‘Boogie Woogie’, a satire on the contemporary art world and ‘Wild Target’, a recently released romantic comedy starring Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt. She is also a successful production designer on commercials and independent films.

But she will be taking time out from her day job to promote the importance of copyright in the South West.

Mrs Greville-Morris said: “It’s incredibly important – when my hairdresser told me the other day she had bought a pirate DVD I gave her a long lecture!

“People think it’s a faceless crime as stars in Holywood blockbusters are paid millions - but on British movies there are a lot of freelance workers. By not paying the full price for a DVD you are not just hurting the stars you are hurting many more people.”

A recent study by the Industry Trust suggests that 51% of people in the South West do not realise the damage of downloading knock-off films or TV programmes on people working in the film industry.

Mrs Greville-Morris role will be to shatter such perceptions and she will be regularly discussing copyright problems with people in the South West, from schoolchildren up.

Mrs Greville Morris has been writing a new film script, which is set in the West Country and hopes to film it locally. The Ballad of Cloverley Jack is about a smuggler who gets his comeuppance, maybe sending a message to DVD pirates.