Film and Television industries tend to cluster in a very small number of places around the world, moreover, they appear to be rooted to these places. These locales tend to be very high cost, and thus, there must be a strong need, and benefit of such location patterns. A classic film and television 'cluster' is located in London, with its core in Soho. One of the first objectives of the research is to confirm these points. Beyond this basic mapping, the research seeks to examine the organisation of the film and television industries in London, and thus to understand how Soho fits into this picture. It uses the notion of the 'production chain' to conceptualise the linkage between different stages of the production process. A central point of this research is to investigate the sensitivity of firms in the Film and Television industry to both proximity and to the specifics of particular places. The notion of relationship between firms is explored in terms of directly traded, economic, relationships, as well as more informal and non-economic relationships. The research methods used in the research are twofold. First, we use commercial and industry directories to map the firms by location and activity. Second, we will carry out detailed face-to-face interviews with a sample of firms, numbering 60 in total, in the five clusters that we expect to find in the London region. These interviews will yield detailed information on the firms and the nature of their core activities and the character and nature of their interaction with other companies.

In-depth face-to-face interviews; telephone interviews with principals of film and television production chain companies