Skillset/UK Film Council Feature Film Production Workforce Survey 2008

1.4 Summary of methods

The survey involved the following stages:

·         Identification of all films within the research scope, using the Skills Investment Fund database.

·         Working with producers and other production crew to distribute self-completion questionnaires to crew on set or to their homes.

·         Following up non-respondents.

1.4.1 Scope of the survey

The survey covered all individuals working on feature film productions that met the following eligibility criteria:

·         shooting took place within calendar year 2006;

·         the production was 80 minutes or longer in duration;

·         it had a minimum budget of £500,000;

·         it involved UK crew;

·         it was intended for theatrical release.

There were 102 feature film productions eligible for the survey according to these criteria. Of these a total of 54 productions facilitated the involvement of their crew in the survey, 37 either refused to support the study or it was not possible to establish contact with the production office and a further ten involved few UK based crew.  Participating productions are listed in the Appendix.

Over 6,600 names were gradually compiled from the crew lists for these productions. Duplicate names of individuals appearing on more than one production list were removed, resulting in a list of around 5,500 individual UK crewmembers.

Production companies and producers distributed questionnaires to their crew and as a result it is not possible to know for certain how many were sent out, which means an accurate response rate cannot be calculated.   

However, a total of 1,158 respondents took part in the survey, equivalent to a response rate of 21% if every person on the de-duplicated crew lists received a questionnaire.