Film FastTrack – Interview

Paul Murray is a BAFTA Scotland, RTS and Banff Rocky award-winning producer with over 20 years of UK and International television experience. He has worked in scripted and non-scripted production in many of the biggest production companies in the UK- including Endemol, Objective, IWC and True North. As creator of C4’s long running and multi-award winning series Location, Location, Location, as well as the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip and its Celebrity spin-offs, he has created many of the longest lasting and most successful network series produced from Scotland. In addition to his network production credits, he has lectured about format production and development in China, the University of Westminster and various Scottish Institutions. He is co-owner of production entity Boy 313 and a fine art graduate from Glasgow School of Art.

Well, I was keen to pursue a change in career. I’d spent about 25 years working successfully in non‑scripted television, and I’d come to the conclusion that the future of non‑scripted TV over the next decade didn’t look particularly strong. I’d done research into trends in TV and film over the last 20 years, and it was clear that sport, news, and drama were the real growth areas outside of social media.
I’d just started a company with the Scottish director Tom O’Gregg, just before this course was announced, and we were looking to get into drama together. I was familiar with the TV commissioning world, but I didn’t know how feature films worked. We had a feature script at the time, and I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to learn from the ground up how the feature film industry operates. It felt like the perfect chance to take what we had – Paul and a script – and learn how to build a viable feature film business in Scotland.

If I boiled it down, it’s:
What are you trying to sell to an audience?
and
How do you finance it?
Unlike TV commissioning – where broadcasters have slots to fill and budgets to spend – there is no feature film in Britain that needs to be made. The only reason a film gets made is if it can be financed and if you can find an audience. So the programme drilled into that relationship: Who is the audience? What do they want? Why would they watch this? And how do you finance it?
It’s a much more selective process. Public service broadcasting money isn’t an individual’s money – it’s raised through advertising, subscription, or taxation. But feature film money is someone’s personal investment, and you have to be sure there’s a return. So you need to be clear about who the audience is and why they’d pay to see your film. It’s a more direct relationship than in television.

Honestly, because I came in completely fresh, every session was impactful. The others already had a footing in the industry; I didn’t. So every moment was new information.

Honestly, I didn’t know the mechanics of how the industry worked, and I didn’t have a sphere of influence. I was confident in my ability to come up with ideas – 20 years in TV teaches you how to talk to people and create concepts – but all my contacts were in TV commissioning, which has nothing to do with feature films.

So it was like learning a new language. There’s some crossover now, because TV funding is shifting towards film‑style models, but it’s still very different. I had to learn how to put projects together and build a network of contacts who mattered in the film world. Paul knew a few people, but not the ones who could move projects forward. Without knowing where to take things, your ideas just sit on your computer.

Honestly, everything. From being precise about which projects to develop, to assessing other people’s work, to identifying potential audiences, thinking early about marketing and finance, knowing who to take a project to, how to finance it, where to shoot it – all of it.
The course impacted every element of the journey, from a blank document on your screen to getting finance.

Because I came in with enthusiasm and a desire to learn, I took every session seriously. I followed up on everything. It was an important part of my personal and professional development.
The most transformational aspect was the course itself – all of it. I wouldn’t know what I know now without it. Over the two years, I moved from being in a transition between industries to fully stepping into a new one. John Latham asked me recently if I still felt in transition, and I said no – I’ve made the jump. And that is entirely because of the course.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity. It was a great course – well run, packed with insightful information. For me, it was exactly what I needed, at exactly the right pace. It felt like going to film school, and it’s led to real projects with real money and real prospects of production and audiences. That’s a testament to its success.