The purpose of this report is to complement current statistical data on freelance labour by providing a detailed, qualitative portrait of how freelancers negotiate precarious careers within specific regional contexts. The research arises from and develops a 2017 report, Go West! Bristol’s Film and Television Industries, which concentrated on companies, but did not examine freelance labour in detail.
In order to gain an insight into the working lives of freelancers, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with freelancers from a variety of occupational groups within Bristol’s film and television industries. This research contributes to a larger body of literature about the conditions of precarious labour within the creative industries.
This report also draws on quantitative data gathered through the Go West! survey to provide an understanding of diversity within the sector and analyse the complexities of freelancers’ working lives in the creative economy. In doing so, it complements the large-scale national surveys concerning the UK’s creative workforce undertaken by organisations such as Creative Skillset, the Producer’s Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) and the British Film Institute (BFI) by providing statistical analysis that is located within a specific regional context.
