What is your role in your organisation and what do you enjoy the most about it?
My role is a Film Officer, I manage the Film Office which is responsible for promoting Buckinghamshire as a destination for location filming. We host and are continuously building a free locations database of privately owned land and property which is available for filming. We are also responsible for facilitating filming on any council owned or managed land and working with other Council departments as well as other key stakeholders to get relevant permissions as needed.
I work closely with productions to try and make the creative vision a reality and really enjoy the problem-solving element that comes needed in the role. I work to strike a balance between the productions wants and the reality of achieving this in a public spaces without unduly disrupting local businesses and residents.
Tell us about your department and what is strives for?
The Buckinghamshire Film Office is a department of Buckinghamshire Council. We are here to support productions operating in the county, assisting them in finding locations, getting permits/permission that may be required as well as ensuring that filming takes place safely and in accordance with our Filming Code of Practice.
We are here to build on the county’s reputation as a film-friendly county, maximise the social and economic benefits that come from location filming whilst ensuring that filming takes place with as little disruption as possible.
What challenges did you want Framework Digital to help you with?
Our goal was to create a one-stop shop for productions to find locations in Buckinghamshire, find the information they need and streamline the application process. Framework made it as smooth as possible. We knew what we wanted, and they delivered! They were instantly on board with the concept and understood our aims and the creative vision we wanted to achieve.
Can you tell us something that happened during the project that you weren’t expecting?
Mike opened our eyes! He and the Framework team decided to do some competitor research and look at other similar websites to see what elements they had, that we could implement in the project or in the future. It was fantastic that the Framework Team were as passionate as we were and considered the future opportunities we could explore when the time is right.
Overall, this helped us to see that we were both on the same wavelength by making sure we had explored all possible options.
Another unexpected plot twist was that we had to move the launch forward 2 weeks, which we knew was a big ask, however the Framework team handled it with ease!
If you were to recommend Framework Digital to someone, what would you say?
I would highly recommend! The initial design process was quick and the support we have received since the launch has been great. Even through the amendments process things were done quickly and effectively and they always made themselves available with quick responses whenever we needed any additional support.
Thank you to Ruth for participating in our Client Spotlight. It was really interesting to get an insight into the Film industry in Buckinghamshire!
If you would like to get involved in our Client Spotlight next month, email amy@frameworkdigital.com
