Each fortnight Creative Business News gives a prominent member of the region’s creative sector the chance to reflect on their career, their work and their ambitions by answering 10 questions about themselves.
Name: Natalie Moore 
Job title: Film Officer
Current company: Bristol City Council (Bristol Film Office)
Age: 37
My big break: I volunteered as an events coordinator on a three-month placement for Encounters Festival after leaving university. I was eager to get a break in the media industry but I still wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to go in. It was a great experience. I learned so much in a short space of time and, during the event, I met the then manager of Bristol Film Office who offered me a contract to work with him.
My first job: I started off as an office assistant in the Film Office and worked my way up to manage the team. When I started, I coordinated filming permits, sourced filming locations and issued invoices. It was a great starting point to get a flavour of Bristol’s production industry, make some good contacts and get to know the city geography as a whole.
My current role: I manage Bristol Film Office. We’re a council service dedicated to attracting TV and film production to Bristol and supporting production teams working in the city. We’re a very small team so my role encompasses a lot. I deal with the business planning, marketing, finance management and general running of the service. I’m also the spokesperson for the council when it comes to film-related news stories.
My typical day: There isn’t really a ‘typical’ day! At the moment a lot of my work is focused on a bid I’m involved in so I spend most of my time frantically firing off emails and gathering information for that. Most days I have a few meetings to attend about projects I am involved in or site visits with major productions to talk through their plans ahead of filming. I often do a swift scan of our social media accounts to keep abreast of industry developments and talk through film permit activity with colleagues.
My proudest moment/project: The work we did with The Bottle Yard Studios to secure filming for Sherlock to Bristol for their Christmas special The Abominable Bride was a definite highlight. It’s such a popular show with a huge international reach and it premiered in cinemas as well on the TV. Seeing Bristol transformed into Victorian London on the big screen felt like a great achievement after all the hard work that went in to bringing the production here.
My best piece of advice: People starting out in the production industry often view it as highly competitive and difficult to get into. I certainly believed that when I started out and it puts a lot of people off. In truth, there are many routes into the industry and you don’t necessarily need a degree or huge amounts of formal training to be successful. It takes dedication and hard work like everything else, but the people that do well in the industry are those with the ability to learn quickly, good people skills and a thick skin!
My ambition (that I haven’t yet achieved): Just to keep learning and striving to better myself. My youngest daughter starts school this year, so I feel that I can begin to look at progressing myself a bit having focussed on my children over the past few years.
My favourite creative work/campaign (that I haven’t worked on): There is a lot of focus in film/TV locations at the moment on film tourism and the power of film locations to attract visitors. Tapping into this market is something that we are just starting on but it’s something that others do very well. Ireland is particularly good at it and they have developed some really creative ways of engaging visitors. Their Game of Thrones door trail around Northern Ireland is particularly brilliant: http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/what-is-available/ireland-on-screen/game-of-thrones/destinations/northern-ireland/county-antrim/articles/doors/
My predictions for the creative sector: In my area of work, I see filming in Bristol and other regions of the UK continuing to grow. UK film and TV tax relief incentives offered by the government are attracting major international film and TV productions to the UK. We are fortunate in Bristol to have an excellent studio facility (The Bottle Yard Studios) which has enhanced the package of facilities, crew and locations that we can offer productions. It’s an exciting time for the industry and we hope it will mean bigger and better productions for Bristol.
My inspiration: My two daughters and my husband. I’m inspired by strong, brilliant women in any field. I’m lucky to be surrounded by strong, successful women in my family, friends and at work.
Twitter: @BrisFilmOffice
