Strategies For Survival is the title and theme of a weekend of brain-storming by movie-makers, as part of the 16th Bradford International Film Festival, which marks the launch of Bradford City of Film How they and others directly connected with the film industry are surviving the recession will be addressed at the University of Bradford by some of the liveliest minds in the business, among them Bradford-born rock music writer and performer and award-winning screenwriter Dean Cavanagh; Barry Hanson, producer of The Long Good Friday and The Naked Civil Servant, starring John Hurt; and League Of Gentlemen writer and producer Jeremy Dyson.

Dean Cavanagh has been in the business for more than a dozen years. He intends to “tell it like it is” – the film and television industry is a “nightmare”.

A former Bradford factory worker himself, he says: “I have never known an industry like it, especially television. You get so many commissioning editors, straight out of university, who get these cushy jobs; and they’ve never worked for a living.”

The big issue with him is not having control of his work. To get round this, he and two friends have put their own money into a comedy-drama about the music business called Svengali.

“We have spent about £10,000 so far. Svengali is a series of ten-minute episodes. The actors and crew didn’t get paid. How to make the project pay is the big question.

“We’re talking to a company, Wall To Wall, which produced New Tricks for BBC1. They got an Oscar for the documentary Man On Wire.”

The chief executive of the Glasgow-based company is Alex Graham, a former T&A reporter.

One young film-maker likely to attend the BIFF bash is Ilkley’s Simon Cartwright. Together with Jessica Cope, he made the stop-animation short The Astronomer’s Sun, shown recently at the National Media Museum and nominated in April’s British Animation Film Awards.

He says: “In a recession people do tend to look towards what is essential and necessary. Even more than film, short film is unnecessary, but it’s where directors get their break.

“Channel 4 used to pioneer on-the-edge animation (Oscar and Bafta-winning Aardman Animation’s films Early Bird and Lip Synch series are examples). They are trying to do that now, but the amount of money available is paltry compared to what it was.”

Ten years ago, Simon thinks he could have got a budget of £65,000 to make his six-minute film, which consumed a painstaking year in the potting shed of his parents’ home and cost £15,000.

The technology of animation has gone through great change since Aardman stunned the world in 1982 with its animated-model short Conversation Piece, a Channel 4 commission.

Now, people like Simon Tofield are using a computer graphics tablet to draw directly on to the screen. Tofield’s black-and-white two-minute series Simon’s Cat has had more than 25 million hits on YouTube in a year; it has spawned a website, a book and is available on iPhone.

Internet technology presents Simon Cartwright, who works by methods that Aardman pioneered 30 years ago, with a problem.

He says: “Jessica and I cannot put our film on the internet until it has been on the film circuit. The short-animation industry wants to protect its festivals and screenings.

“But film-makers want to put their work on the internet. Hundreds of people go to festivals, but millions watch something on the internet. “Those who have a go on the internet and don’t make it don’t understand that you have to learn your craft. Simon’s Cat is based on traditional comedy.”

Simon Tofield, he adds, had spent at least 12 years in the animation industry, working on films such as Lost In Space and the German version of A Christmas Carol: The Movie. Overnight success, as the Irish singer Val Doonican used to say, takes years of effort.

Dean Cavanagh worked in Field’s printing and packaging works at Lidget Green before breaking through with a script and being asked by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh to adapt one of his novels.

“My advice is to keep knocking on doors. You can’t get another job in the industry unless you’ve already got a job. Have a website and use social networks to get your stuff out there,” he said.

The Film Industry Weekend is at Bradford University from March 19 to 20. Tickets are available on 0870 7010200.