As a communications specialist with a focus on film, I believe it is a crucial part of my job to regularly scout the web to watch other authority and public sector productions, to get a clearer picture of the content out there, its aims, its style, its message. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

Frequently, great examples of local government and public sector film have come to my attention and I’m generally always impressed by what I see. It really does seem that the capacity of film to humanise an authority, to help tell a story and to create empathy with the viewer is really hitting home with local government communications departments and a great swathe are jumping on board to film all manner of films for both external and internal communications.

However, it struck me recently, while embarked on such a search, that this cherry picking approach is extremely sporadic  and how great it would be to have a proper handle on whose out there making films, where are they and what capacity do local government colleagues have in order to really embrace the power of film? We all know that film is a fast growing communications tool but just how effectively is local government using it to improve engagement with residents and staff?

This was when the idea of a Local Government Film survey struck me as potentially a good body of work, to help build this picture. The LGA’s Sian Morgan confirmed that no other research of this kind existed in the local government arena so I set about creating.

A few key questions sprang to mind – what types of film are being produced, how many comms departments have in-house film capacity, how many officers / Members are still barred from viewing video sharing sites?!

All these questions, and more, have been addressed in the Local Government Film survey  – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LocalGovFilm – which has gone live this week. I’m obviously hoping that as many local government people complete it as possible, especially those in comms .

I must stress that I’ve not been acting in isolation on this one. As well as the usual support from the wonderful Hannah Rees at Cornwall Council, Sian Morgan from the LGA has been my critical friend throughout and, using her more in-depth knowledge of the local government arena, has helped to fine tune the survey so I must say a massive thank you to her for her assistance.

In terms of the findings of the survey, at the end of May I will compile and publish them and I’m hopeful that they can then be used by anyone in comms, and beyond, to build a better picture on how much film is being produced in the local government world and crucially, how effective it is both for the authority and for the ratepayer.

If you missed it above, the link to complete the survey is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LocalGovFilm

Thank you in advance for completing it!