Working as a producer: Victoria Powell

In between setting up her own production company and winning an RTS award, Producer Victoria Powell has turned the Prime Minister into a rock star.
Victoria Powell set up V Good Films 15 months ago. Run by herself and director Bruce Goodison (The Flight That Fought Back, Discovery US) their plan is to fuse Powell's drama experience with Goodison's knowledge of documentary making to create bold drama and observational documentaries that tell extraordinary stories. Here she tells Leah Stoker about her new programme, explains how she finds work as a producer and details how she goes about employing freelancers.

How did you discover Tony Blair's rock and roll past?
I came across a picture in a Surrey newspaper in October 2004. He was wearing white flairs, a tie dye t-shirt with his midriff exposed, long hair and bare feet. The article mentioned he had been running gigs in a local church hall when he was 18 and instincts told me to look deeper. Initial research showed that Tony Blair had spent a year as a rock musician and rock promoter miles away from the political lifestyle he leads today.

How did you develop this into a programme?
We spoke to school friends, who knew Tony during his rock phase. But we knew we had a strong narrative when we went to San Francisco and persuaded Alan Collenette (the other half of Blair-Collenette Music Promotions) to speak to us. We also tracked down one of the bands they promoted called Jaded. We organised a reunion and recorded and album which we used as the soundtrack for the documentary.

How long were you researching Tony the rock star?
Myself and the AP Sian Bundred started the initial research after I had come across the newspaper article in October. It was commissioned immediately after we had delivered the treatment in February and shooting began in the summer.

How did you link the three genres of drama, documentary and comedy?
The challenge is to be truthful to the fact and truthful to the comedy. There is a fine line between making a film that is based on fact that has a comical element and simply exaggerated the fact for comedy value which you have to be careful to avoid. We were very fortunate that the material was naturally funny. It is basically the real Spinal Tap starring Tony Blair.

How big was your crew?
It remained quite small because the shoot was very short (five days shooting the drama and ten days for the documentary). It mainly consisted of heads of department the majority being freelancers.

How do you go about finding freelancers?
The normal avenues we take are to either use people we have worked with or look at programme credits we have been impressed with. If you target the people whose work you admire they are more likely to add value to your team. It is a two way thing as well though between respect for the freelancer's talent and the respect they have for you as a company.

What do you look for when you are hiring?
Because you are working on such a tight time frame it can be difficult to find the freelancer that best suits the project. I never look to simply fill a position with the first qualified candidate. I try and work with people who I think have the potential to develop into the best producer or director of tomorrow. You want to surround yourself with great filmmakers.

How did you become a producer?
I have always made films, my first being at university for MTV. When I finished studying I worked in the film industry in New York for a year. Returning to England I received a Columbia Tri-Star scholarship and completed a producing course at the National Film and TV School, while working as a freelancer producer until I set up V Good Films.

What key advice would you offer someone moving into drama documentaries?
As a producer you always want to find the most unusual stories so it is important to keep this in mind not just for drama docs but across the board. When you are working with drama as well it is key that you understanding the narrative of the film and not just the subject of the documentary.