Capture, an FT Film starring Jodie Whittaker, Paul Ready and Shaniqua Okwok, has been released. As the UK’s online safety bill returns to the legislative agenda this week, the 15 minute drama explores the lack of regulation and responsibility for children’s welfare.
Capture is a short film about big tech and young people, beginning with every parent’s worst nightmare: returning home to realise your child is nowhere to be found. It examines where our children really are when they're online and who is responsible for their safety, says the publisher.
The film uses the emotionally-charged idea of a child’s disappearance to examine a much more common – though still damaging – occurrence. With children spending increasing amounts of time online, they find themselves at risk of a range of mental health conditions and exploitative interactions with other users.
FT editor Roula Khalaf said: “Our mission with FT Film is to bring new attention and perspective to stories already in the news, and Capture asks important questions about an issue that affects a majority of young people.”
The film’s writer, Nina Segal, said: “With Capture, we wanted to bring an emotion and an urgency to the subject of children's safety online. Parents are, quite rightly, very aware of childrens' physical safety. With this film I hope we can harness that same feeling towards children's safety online.”
Capture will be free to view on FT.com, YouTube, the FT’s social media channels, and freely embeddable. FT Film’s previous drama, ‘People You May Know’, received international recognition and was nominated for a BAFTA for bringing the issue of personal data and surveillance during the pandemic to life.
The Financial Times held a premiere in central London on 2 February. Guests included figures from politics, tech, business, media, education and campaigning organisations.
Speaking of the team behind Capture, the FT outlined:
The Writer: Nina Segal is a playwright and TV writer. Her work has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Almeida Theatre, Bush Theatre, Yard Theatre and Gate Theatre, as well as internationally. She is under commission to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Unicorn Theatre, Soho Theatre, English Touring Theatre and the Rose Theatre, Kingston. Her most recent play O, Island! was shortlisted for the George Devine Award and won the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme, resulting in a year-long attachment with the RSC. Nina has written for Hanna Series 2, for NBC and Amazon. She has two script commissions with ITV Studios and is developing other TV projects in the UK.
The Director: Juliet Riddell is head of new formats at the Financial Times. Juliet was previously a multimedia commissioning editor at the Guardian, where she executive produced an award winning short drama starring Patrick Stewart, a new YouTube channel and arts, current affairs and documentary series. Juliet has 20 years experience as a TV producer, director and development executive; including producing two BAFTA winning arts series with Grayson Perry for C4 and prime time factual programmes for BBC, ITV and Sky Arts.
The Director of Photography: Franklin Dow won the Primetime EMMY for his work on BAFTA & Oscar nominated feature documentary Virunga, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. He also shot von Einsiedel’s award winning documentary Evelyn, and the Oscar® winning, The White Helmets as well as BAFTA nominated short People You May Know directed by Juliet Riddell. Directors include Charlotte Regan, Marie Schuller, Sophie Muller, Matthew Posner and Rei Nadal.
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