Meet The Speakers: Laura Greene & Matt Nida

Turn On, Tune In

We’ve got two more great speakers lined up for the latest in our Turn On, Tune In series of events at The Hospital Club on Thursday 9th February. Find out more about Laura Greene (Casting Producer, First Dates) and Matt Nida (Series Producer, Big Fat Quiz of the Year), who will take us behind the scenes of their hit shows, and reveal a few of the secrets of their success!

Read More

A TX Experience With Accompanying Tweets

A TX Experience With Accompanying Tweets

This week, award winning documentary film maker, Elizabeth Stopford, discusses how her latest C4 documentary ‘We Need to Talk About Dad’ was received on Twitter, and what a “real time” response means from a filmmaker’s perspective.

Watching my latest documentary ‘We Need to Talk About Dad’ go out on Channel 4 was a novel experience because its transmission was punctuated by an ongoing commentary – courtesy of twitter.

The ‘water cooler effect’ of people talking about your show afterwards has now been superseded by the immediacy of being able to ‘listen in’ on what people make of it in real time.

I’d spent over 6 months producing the documentary ‘We Need to Talk About Dad’ through Rare Day for Channel 4. The Johnsons had twenty years of happy marriage, professional success, a lovely home, blond-haired children. They were nicknamed the ‘Sunday Supplement family’ by locals, and appeared to have it all. Then one day, Nick Johnson, told his wife he had a surprise for her, led her blindfolded into the garden, and committed an awful act of violence.

Read More

What Production Companies Say About PB

Want to know what production companies are saying about ProductionBase? Here’s some of our recent feedback from companies using PB:

Endemol“Productionbase has been an indispensable recruitment tool ever since it’s launch.  Endemol UK uses Productionbase for advertising production positions to ensure a diverse selection of talent when recruiting and it is an excellent backup for our own database. Its members are of a high standard and when we are recruiting at very short notice or looking for a specific credit and immediate availability, it is often our first port of call.“
Chloe Samwell-Smith, Production Recruitment Manager, Endemol UK

4Talent“In my role at Channel 4 to train and develop the freelance community I use Production base to keep track of current trends and network with the community. I find Production base easy to navigate and accessible to all which is an important not only for me but other Talent Managers in the creative sector.”
Jo Taylor, Head of Learning and 4Talent, Channel Four

Read More

Tasters, Fudge and Pick ‘n’ Mix

Tasters, Fudge and Pick 'n' Mix

Channel 4’s Mark Dolan walks the tightrope of pilots and creative turbulence.

I suppose the big challenge this year is to put a positive spin on shrunken budgets and a risk-averse commissioning culture. And the positive spin is this: we are in the era of the office pilot and the taster tape, and it could be a great opportunity for innovation.

Big, fat, expensive pilots are more carefully rationalised now and a channel is far more likely to physically come into the office of a production company and watch a few people in a room work through an idea, and feed through their thoughts thereafter. This is of course preferable for them, compared to the cost and potential egg-on-face caused by bankrolling a lengthy chunk of development and a full pilot.

Read More