This article explores the advantages of “structured industry workshops” as a methodology for obtaining nuanced empirical data about the practices and “behind-the-scenes” workings of national screen agencies, organizations, institutions, and stakeholders. The article argues that structured industry workshops with industry informants in the media industries have five major methodological benefits. The workshops facilitate access to and interest from elite or expert informants who can otherwise be hard to attract; they counter the risk of spin and “corporate scripts”; they provide a valuable forum for not only finding out what practitioners think, but also how they discuss and engage with other practitioners; they generate new lines of academic inquiry and run counter to current thinking, policies, or dogma; and finally, structured industry workshops can help establish a platform for sustained dialogue and industry– academy collaborations, with genuine knowledge exchange and coproduction as well as potential for impact.