This article consists of an introduction and extended interview transcript conducted with several members of the Bristol Editors’ Network (BEN), an organization established in May 2015 to support the large community of editors that work in and around Bristol and the South West of England. The interview transcript is significant for several reasons. First and foremost, it provides a rich account of what it is like to freelance within the third-largest film and television production cluster in the UK, after London and Manchester.
In doing so, the transcript also offers an insight into the sometimes-fraught state of contemporary industrial relations between the region’s employers and its largely freelance workforce. Moreover, the transcript provides an account of how, by establishing BEN, Bristol editors are working to defend themselves against exploitative practices in the cluster, fostering a mutually-supportive freelance community and contributing to a more effective, equitable production culture in the city.
