Updated Interview Questions

Having received some feedback from Issie, I have amended some questions, and focused on other areas that needed developing. I feel as though the planning for the interviews is somewhat near what i'd consider adequate. Although I have every intention to revise, amend and add where necessary.

The questions are as follows:

Questions for Interviews.

Objectives and Strategies (Alastair and Rachel)

• Where do you wish the company to succeed to in terms of your aims?
• How do you propose to get to that point?
• What methods did you use to get to where you are now?
• Where did you think the company would be in 5 years time when you founded it in 2000?
• What’s your primary focus for the company?
• What would you consider to be the strongest aspect of your company? And Why?
• What can you offer to potential commissioners that exceeds other companies?
• Where do you feel you could improve?
• How has piracy and file-sharing on the internet affected your business?
• Have you been affected by the current financial climate? And if so how, and how have you overcome these problems?

The Bureau’s Acquisition of Wellington (Sol)

• How do you feel Wellington fares against your own company - The Bureau?
• What are they like to work with on a feature film, in terms of practical organisation and tasks?
• What are the positives of their services?
• And the negatives?
• Do they operate in a different way to yourselves, in terms of budgeting and organisation? + Overall view of the production?
• Where do you feel they could improve as a company, from an outsider perspective?
• You mention whilst working on Unmade Beds you encountered creative differences. What were these?
• And how were they resolved?

Competition and how they fit in the market (Rachel)

• Your aim as mentioned on your website is to make films that find an audience in the UK and overseas, which overseas market are you specifically targeting?
• What measures are you taking to get your productions recognised in these markets?
• Do you have any commercial drivers in making feature documentaries for television and those of a similar format to create a larger audience?
• What or who is your closest rival?
• How do you aim to remain successful?
• British cinema is becoming much more popular and is on the rise, how do you feel you can use this to its full potential following your aims?
• Many films have great success abroad, how can you work upon reaching a much wider audience in this way for greater recognition and financial success?
• The Nottingham film industry is one that’s growing rapidly, this is obviously a massive threat to yourself, how has it affected you so far and how do you propose to keep growing?
• A knock on effect of piracy, are lower viewing figures at the box office aswell as DVD sales, have you noticed these effects? And if so do they pose a threat to yourselves?

Finance (Alastair)

• I’ve noticed you’ve received alot of funding from the UK Film Council specifically under the New Cinema Fund, such as £184,566 for London to Brighton, is this your main source of funding?
• If not what strategies do you use to acquire the required budget?
• Have you ever encountered budgeting problems? Such as working on a difference in the budget to actual costs and needing more money or not being able to finish the production.
• How do you feel you are positioned in the market in order to be granted funding?

Press and PR (Rachel and Alastair)

• I’ve noticed you keep a low profile in terms of branding your company on merchandise, for instance the small logo’s on DVD covers, why is this?
• What decisions are made upon the management of your facebook and Twitter pages?
• We have noticed that Twitter and Facebook have much of the same updates, why would fans feel the need to follow both?
• Do you have an active strategy or method to advertise your online presence?
• How do you advertise your films?
• Are you responsible for its press?
• If not what company is, and do you have any input on the outcome?

Case Study: Rachel Robey

• I understand that you didn’t immediately go into being a feature film producer, after you graduated from the University of Nottingham, take me through the steps to where you are today.
• What influenced you into establishing a production company?
• And how long did it take from the first thought to your first feature film?
• Did you encounter any problems in this process?
• How did you find the early days of Wellington Films, as just 3 decades previous the British film industry was almost non existant?
• Was it difficult to become recognised in the film industry?
• How did you gather contacts to begin working?
• What attracted you to the career as a producer?
• What does a typical day involve?
• Whats the best part about your job?
• and the worse?
• Whats your favourite production so far? Feature or short?
• What qualities would you say you brought to the company?
• What influenced you to make primarily feature films as opposed to any other format?
• I understand that Wellington films came from your origins from Wellington Square, how do you feel this name represents the company?
• Would you welcome the opportunity for an unlimited budget for a film? (following what she'd said in a previous interview, secondary source)
• Do you have a specific target audience?
• what's your recruitment process for people within your company?
• How do you go about employing people on a freelance basis?
• What actions would you take upon a person who doesn’t work to your expectations or standards?
• Where do you want the company to be in 10 years time?
• I’ve noted that you vary quite a bit in genre’s, do you feel this could hinder your recognition among fans? Or do you feel that it provides more depth to your company?
• Do you find being based in Nottingham can be a hinderance in terms of location?

Case Study: Alastair Clark

• I understand that your interest in film came from your degree in art history at the university of Nottingham, was this was attracted you to producing?
• Clearly a media course doesn’t directly affect your career path, how do you feel that Art History helped you today?
• How did you find the early days of Wellington Films, as just 3 decades previous the British film industry was almost non existent?
• How challenging was breaking into the feature film market?
• Looking back on the early days of the company, is there anything you would do differently, and if so what and why?
• What attracted you to the career as a producer?
• What does a typical day involve?
• Whats the best part about your job?
• and the worse?
• Whats your favourite production so far? Feature or short?
• Would you welcome the opportunity for an unlimited budget for a film? (following what she'd said in a previous interview, secondary source)
• what's your recruitment process for people within your company?
• How do you go about employing people on a freelance basis?
• Do you have your own equipment or do you hire staff with their own?
• Where do you want the company to be in 10 years time?
• What is the biggest success you’ve had so far from your company?
• I’ve noted that you vary quite a bit in genre’s, do you feel this could hinder your recognition among fans? Or do you feel that it provides more depth to your company?
• Do you find being based in Nottingham can be a hinderance in terms of location?

Case Study: Anna Griffin (Production assisstant)

• How did you find your way into Wellington films?
• How did the permanent position come from the internship/ work experience?
• What are Wellington like to work for as a company?
• The best part about your job, and again the worst?
• What a typical day involves?
• Best piece of advice to a media professional starting out?
• Best thing about the film industry, and the worst?

Interview Questions

This week I have focused on developing the file from secondary research and gathering questions and area's we need to find out about from the interviews.

Questions for Interviews.

Objectives and Strategies (Alastair and Rachel)

• Where do you wish the company to succeed to in terms of your aims?
• How do you propose to get to that point?
• What methods did you use to get to where you are now?
• Where did you think the company would be in 5 years time when you founded it in 2000?
• What’s your primary focus for the company?

The Bureau’s Acquisition of Wellington (Sol)

• How do you feel Wellington fares against your own company - The Bureau?
• What are they like to work with on a feature film?
• What are the positives of their services?
• And the negatives?
• Where do you feel they could improve as a company, from an outsider perspective?
• You mention whilst working on Unmade Beds you encountered creative differences. What were these?
• And how were they resolved?

Competition and how they fit in the market (Rachel)

• What measures are you taking to get your productions out to a wider market across seas?
• Do you have any interest in making feature documentaries for television and those of a similar format to create a larger audience?
• What is your closest rival, and how do you aim to remain successful?

Finance (Alastair)

• I’ve noticed you’ve received alot of funding from the UK Film Council, is this your main source of funding?
• If not what strategies do you use to acquire the needed budget?
• Have you ever encountered budgeting problems? Such as working on a difference in the budget to actual costs and needing more money or not being able to finish the production.
• How do you feel you are positioned in the market in order to be granted funding?

Press and PR (Rachel and Alastair)

• I’ve noticed you keep a low profile in terms of branding your company on merchandise, for instance the small logo’s on DVD covers, why is this?
• What decisions are made upon the content on your facebook and Twitter pages?
• We have noticed that Twitter and Facebook have much of the same updates, why would fans feel the need to follow both?
• Do you have an active strategy or method to advertise your online presence?

Case Study: Rachel Robey

• I understand that you didn’t immediately go into being a feature film producer, after you graduated from the University of Nottingham, take me through the steps to where you are today.
• How did you find the early days of Wellington Films, as just 3 decades previous the British film industry was almost non existant?
• What attracted you to the career as a producer?
• What does a typical day involve?
• Whats the best part about your job?
• and the worse?
• Would you welcome the opportunity for an unlimited budget for a film? (following what she'd said in a previous interview, secondary source)
• what's your recruitment process for people within your company?
• How do you go about employing people on a freelance basis?
• Where do you want the company to be in 10 years time?

Case Study: Alastair Clark

• I understand that your interest in film came from your degree in art history at the university of Nottingham, was this was attracted you to producing?
• How did you find the early days of Wellington Films, as just 3 decades previous the British film industry was almost non existant?
• What attracted you to the career as a producer?
• What does a typical day involve?
• Whats the best part about your job?
• and the worse?
• Would you welcome the opportunity for an unlimited budget for a film? (following what she'd said in a previous interview, secondary source)
• what's your recruitment process for people within your company?
• How do you go about employing people on a freelance basis?
• Where do you want the company to be in 10 years time?
  For Al, (the other producer) we aim to ask much the same, however more of a lean towards financial aspects.

Case Study: Anna Griffin (Production assisstant)

• How did you find your way into Wellington films?
• How did the permanent position come from the internship/ work experience?
• What are Wellington like to work for as a company?
• The best part about your job, and again the worst?
• What a typical day involves?
• Best piece of advice to a media professional starting out?
• Best thing about the film industry, and the worst?

SWOT analysis (Rachel and Al)

• What would you consider to be the strongest aspect of your company? And Why?
• What can you offer to potential commissioners that exceeds other companies?
• Where do you feel you could improve?
• I’ve noted that you vary quite a bit in genre’s, do you feel this could hinder your recognition among fans? Or do you feel that it provides more depth to your company?
• Do you find being based in Nottingham can be a hinderance in terms of location?
• British cinema is becoming much more popular and is on the rise, how do you feel you can use this to its full potential following your aims?
• Many films have great success abroad, how can you work upon reaching a much wider audience in this way for greater recognition and financial success?
• How has piracy and file-sharing on the internet affected your business?
• Have you been affected by the current financial climate? And if so how, and how have you overcome these problems?
• The Nottingham film industry is one that’s growing rapidly, this is obviously a massive threat to yourself, how has it affected you so far and how do you propose to keep growing?
• A knock on effect of piracy, are lower viewing figures at the box office aswell as DVD sales, have you noticed these effects? And if so do they pose a threat to yourselves?

Update of Documents for Report

Sunday 6th March

This update aims to outline work carried out over the past week as an update prior to the tutorial with Issie tomorrow.

After a chat with Hannah, we have managed to get an interview, dtbc, with Sol one of the high up Producers. According to Hannah, Sol said that she basically decided that she had to take all the creative decisions away from them as they had different views on things. However she said she still thinks alot of them as a company.

I think this interview will provide a valuable insight to Wellington as a company in the wider view of the film market. It will enable us to position them clearly and gain a great amount of information about their ambitions and creative ideas.

I've also purchased financial reports from 2008-2010 and made graphs from this data. This will provide clear data about their financial growth and growth as a company. I aim to illustrate drawings from these and what they could imply.

I have also made a conscious effort to compile any data that can be written up at this present time such as the company bio (following what Hannah had done) and the aims and objectives of the company.

Monday 21st February - Tutorial

After having a tutorial with Issie, I have made some more advancements on the report.

As Hannah is at her internship with the Bureau, It seems logical to interview some members of their team to gain a different angle and more depth to our report. They have worked with Wellington Films on Unmade Beds, therefore it would be brilliant to gain an outside perspective on how others find them, and their strengths and weaknesses.

Issie also advised me to make charts and graphs of the social networking data that I found, and illustrated some questions that I could pull from it. Such as: their content seems to be repetitive across the sites, why is this? and why would people want to follow them on twitter if they can get the same information via facebook?

I've also looked much more into finance and funding and managed to find some information on their funding through the UK Film Council.

Following this week (the week commencing is reading week), I am to gather much more data on finance, and make graphs and conclusions from these, hopefully gain a visit to Hannah's company to carry out an interview or two, and write up the company bio, objectives and aims.

Development - Designs for file and Background Research

This past week has been a little difficult to understand what is needed for this report and what requires doing at this early stage. As Hannah is away and not really available to discuss matters, it's down to myself to ensure that things are kept up to date and still running.

So far I have spent this week doing:

- Designs for the file. Both contents page and watermarks to ensure branding.

- Background research in the masses into Press and PR of which I have found quite a bit.

- Outlined everything that can be done prior to the visit and to prepare us for it.

- Outlined everything that needs to be completed during and after the visit so that hannah knows where we're up to when she's back.

- Looked over and annotated example case reports to gather an understanding of what is required.

- Written up any bits that can be for this stage for the file.

I failed to mention in the blog update previous that we have changed tutors to Issie Sleight also, and I have a tutorial with her tomorrow, which will hopefully clear up a few queries I have about the module.

Following the last tutorial I now have the understanding that we need:

3 mandatory interviews:

- 1 high up position - Rachel Robey (how it started, problems, history, changes)

- 1 Favourite person or job role - Anna Griffin (how they found out/got the job, adverts, qualifications, how you would find it now, background of job/person, what a typical day involves, worst day, what makes the job difficult and rewarding, recruitment process)

- 1 person in finance - Alastair Clark (published data, insight into swot analysis)

Following these we've proposed the following interview(s):

- 1 person in Press and PR - possibly Rachel or Al (How it is done, films or company or a mix, where it is bases, location pics, what is said about them)

- 1 person hired into the company on freelance basis - eg cameraman (recruitment process)

Within my research I have discovered a few things that would help the file: they have a social networking presence (as i mentioned above), the name of their company, Wellington Films, derived from where they used to live in Wellington Square in Lenton, and when they were asked what name they would like to put their equipment under, they 'came up with Wellington because it made us sound a bit grander: 'Wellington Films, Wellington Square'...it's like we had premises'.

Within this interview also is a lot of information about the company starting out and why they started it, what they do, their regrets, problems, strengths, budgeting and fitting in in the market. Overall it is a very insightful interview!

Below are the designs for the report and the outline of things needed to be done:

Belated Blog Update for the 5th Feb

As Hannah has now left for her internship, the workload has somewhat changed. This blog update should have been a week or so ago, but as she's away with no internet it was difficult for her to do it. (she had the meeting minutes which she's now sent to me). However, here it is.

The last meeting was to outline what we could do before the interview and visit. As it is later than we'd have hoped, the end of March, it gives us ample time to plan the questions and discover what information is already in the public domain to ensure we do not ask for information already available.

We have so far drafted a few questions for Rachel Robey:

- what do you think of your online social networking presence?

- We've noticed you do alot of updates on both Facebook and Twitter, what decisions are made around the online content?

- What do you think about other platforms such as MySpace and Blogs?

- If you could do any project what would you do? (for an insight into ambitions)

We left the meeting with a better understanding of their public profile online; they have a presence on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, and what information they are making readily available.

For the weeks following we outlined for Hannah to research and complete: the company bio and how Wellington fit into the Nottingham Film market.

And for me (Natalie): Wellington's web presence, press and PR and how they fit into the wider film industry.