Live Brief - Journal of Contacting

Durham Cathedral

Contacted Durham Cathedral Office on 01913 864266. We were put in contact with a member of their office called Ruth Robson and given another number (01913 744054). We contacted Ruth and received verbal confirmation at 12:43pm on 17/02/2015. A copy of the Johnston Press Cover Letter was sent along with a release form to an email address Ruth provided [ruth.robson@durhamcathedral.co.uk] to hopefully get a full confirmation. We will also take a copy of the release form to be signed during our shoot to their office in Durham which is, The Cathedral Office, the College, Durham, DH1 3EH.

Durham Castle

We phoned Jane Gibson on 01913 343803 to request permission to film Durham Castle. This was to the Durham World Heritage Site Visitor Centre. We were redirected to Durham Council Media relations, part of Durham University due to the Castle being owned by them. We have made contact and can also possibly give permission for certain streets in Durham to allow us to film in; this was done via email after a brief discussion on the phone (media.relations@durham.ac.uk and 01913 346075 respectively). We are still awaiting a reply (18/02/2015-10:25am).

Durham Streets (Council)

We contacted Durham Council on 03000 260000 (general enquiries), it took us five attempts to navigate through the automated call system. After half an hour we eventually got to speak to an actual person. When it was discussed to the member of the council they got confused to the point of the phone call, and increasingly became frustrated with our students. This resulted in us explaining several times and them putting the phone down. Luckily we had contact with Durham Council Media Relations who are now looking into the process to get verbal permission to shoot in the town centre. There is other locations that might not need permission for that will still allow us to capture the busyness of Durham and also Elvet Bridge.

Hadrians Wall, Hexham

Hadrians Wall Heritage Site was contacted by phone on 03703 331181. They put us in contact with Neil Parry, who gave us verbal permission for non-commercial use. This lead to us contacting him again to explain it was for non-profit commercial use. He asked if we could send him details via email at neil.parry@english-heritage.org.uk. We are still waiting for a response at this time (18/02/2015 – 10:28am)

Alnwick Castle and Gardens

We contacted Alnwick Castle by phone on 01655 511350 to request permission to film the exterior of the castle, and of Alnwick Gardens. They gave us contact information for Rachel Bell on 01665 510777 in regards to getting permission to film in the gardens; we also got told that Alnwick Castle is still privately owned and you would need permission from its owner (Duke of Northumberland). We were also given a contact to help with gaining permission to shoot Alnwick Castle, Kate Woolmore with her email address kate.woolmore@alnwickcastle.com.  We tried ringing Rachel Bell but she was in a meeting, her receptionist took our details and would call back as soon as possible (17/02/2015-01:25pm). We still haven’t had a call back (18/02/2015-11:00am), if we have had no contact by 19/02/2015-11:00am we will try to contact her again over the afternoon.  We have also emailed Kate Woolmore  (17/02/2015-01:37pm) and are awaiting a response about filming the exterior of Alnwick Castle.