In May, FilmFixer, the independent film office business, was awarded the contract to run the film offices of London boroughs Islington and Lambeth as well as retaining its role as Camden’s film office. This makes FilmFixer the largest film office in the UK, responsible for over 6,500 film days per annum. In addition, in March the business was awarded the film office contracts for Kingston and Croydon as well as the film office contracts it won in 2012 for Bromley, Bexley, Redbridge and Newham. FilmFixer has operated operated the film offices for both Southwark and Lewisham for some years now.
FilmFixer is now responsible for all aspects of filming, including enquiries, sourcing locations, applications, licences, payment and complaints in all eleven boroughs. This “one stop” approach is vital for servicing film, because of the speed of response required. After a period of ‘bedding in’ film makers are already beginning to appreciate the benefits of having an online ‘one-stop-shop’ with experienced people at the end of a telephone for their filming needs. In all boroughs that FilmFixer is now operating, the number of film crews doing film shoots is increasing on a weekly basis.
Andrew Pavord, FilmFixer’s joint managing director says, “In partnership with our client councils, we are establishing common standards and film friendly policies which will facilitate film production across London. The capital is already the world’s third most popular city for filming, and our aim is to improve on that, which will be good for the boroughs where we work, as well as for London and the UK as a whole. Our one-stop approach ensures that the film industry gets the consistently high standard of service it needs, residents and businesses have their interests protected and local authorities maximise their revenue from filming in their boroughs. We can now truly say, London is open for filming.”
Film Fixer has developed FilmApp, an innovative online application and notification processes which speeds up, and makes the whole process of organising filming in the public realm more efficient. The company uses FilmApp in the all the boroughs for which it has film office responsibility, as well as licensing it out to other local authority film offices – a total of twenty five in London and across the UK now use FilmApp.