Producer Lab 2023: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK South West, in partnership with Bristol Screen Producers, are pleased to present our participants for our Producer Lab. The 10 participants will attend two days of masterclasses, case studies and practical activities at Exeter Phoenix and over Zoom.
Rebecca (Bex) Melvin Phillips (she/her)
Rebecca (Bex) Melvin Phillips is a Devon-based filmmaker, choreographer and designer with a love for the weird and wonderful. She hosts a monthly Film Club and film screenings for Devon-based filmmakers, as well as writing film reviews and articles for Devon & Cornwall Film. She enjoys reading about the esoteric, folklore and the supernatural and is an unashamed horror nerd. Her ambition is to build a company of collaborators and work professionally in the film industry producing a body of cross-platform work that embraces the ethos ‘Strange is Beautiful’. Creativity is her constant. She enjoys making things happen.
Hell Murray (she/her)
Cornwall-based Hell Murray is an early-career producer looking to enable filmmakers (particularly from the South West) whose work is reverently irreverent – melting the sublime with the ridiculous. Hell feels kinship with any artist or storyteller who identifies with the margins, be they from queer suburbia or from an entirely different corner of the planet. Drawn to creating immersive experiences, Hell has previously lived and worked in London and Istanbul in the architecture and art industries. An experienced project manager, she enjoys working in collaboration with others to communicate and execute a vision.
X (Twitter)
Holly Kennock (she/her)
Holly Kellock is a recent graduate from Arts University Plymouth with a degree in Film and Screen Arts. She works at Silverstream TV as a junior producer and Production Coordinator, and produces short films outside of her day job. She is currently working on a short film called Kordh, an LGTBQIA+ film spoken in the Cornish language, and enjoys both the business and creative side of being a producer.
Letterboxd / Instagram / X (Twitter)
Izzy Noone (she/her)
Izzy Noone is a short film producer based in Bristol and a recent graduate of the Film and Television MA at University of Bristol. For her dissertation project she produced the short comedy Honey Trap (Eleanor Kenny, 2023), which has found success on the festival circuit. In the future, she would like to take on more comedy-focused film projects. Alongside producing short films, she is also the co-founder of FUGU, a network focused on connecting early-career artists and filmmakers to create posters and marketing materials for independent film projects.
Kiara Wakeley (she/her)
Kiara’s journey in the creative industries started at Sixth Sense (now Prime Theatre) in Swindon, where she went from being a member to mentoring young people as a Youth Theatre Leader. In 2019 she applied for the Outreach role at Create Studios, where she learnt more about the different roles available in the industry and found her strength in producing. Through this work she was hired freelance to work with local community group ‘Out of the Can’ earning her first credit as a producer. During COVID she completed an L4 Media Production Coordinator apprenticeship, achieving a Distinction (making her the first person in the UK to pass this course).
Katy Richardson (she/her)
Katy Richardson is a multi-disciplinary creative practitioner working across installation, film, artist’s moving image and sound. In her independent practice she works predominantly with themes of mental health, grief and haunting, and has a particular interest in the places and spaces where these themes intersect. With Chris Muirhead she recently set up Deadlake Films, an independent writing and production company, to tell stories that play with elements of folklore and folk horror, ‘kitchen sink’ and magic realism.
Paige Cawtheray (she/her)
Paige specialised in producing during her BA in Filmmaking at the University of the West of England, with additional roles as an AD and a director. Knowing how hard it is to break into the industry, especially as a woman coming from a low-income background, Paige feels strongly about creating content for young adults that feels comforting and relatable to them, while also exploring the tough topics that some endure daily. She particularly enjoys being able to contribute creatively to the intersection between story development and production logistics. While her portfolio focuses on narrative shorts, she also aspires to work on HETV drama productions.
Pierre Schomburg (he/him/them)
As a graduate of the Falmouth School of Film and Television, Pierre aims to utilise his personal experience as a German and Kazakh descendant to reimagine stories from an unconventional perspective. His nomadic lifestyle during adolescence and early adulthood exposed him to a rich tapestry of cultures, which is evident in his work. His films – spanning experimental and documentary genres – have been selected for various film festivals. He thrives on collaborating with diverse talents, leveraging their unique skills to realise a collective vision.
Ruth Chávez (she/her)
Ruth Chávez is a British-Ecuadorian production assistant and aspiring creative producer based in Bristol with a keen interest in developing and producing fiction and documentary films. This year she produced her first independent short film, Big Pants, (currently in post-production). It’s a sweet tale about masculinity, gender identity and solace found in community, right on your doorstep. Since graduating in Film and Television from the University of Bristol last year, she has production assisted on various shorts and commercials within the UK with Beeston Media, Perspective Pictures and Floating Harbour Films.
Sarah Dawes (she/her)
Sarah is a screen actor and filmmaker based in Bristol. She’s currently in post-production of an interactive 12-part horror web series, Shadow Peak, which she co-wrote and acted in, and previously worked as a Locations Coordinator on the Netflix series One of us is Lying. Her goal as a producer is to create engaging films that spark conversations about society, and she enjoys experimenting with different ways to connect to audiences whilst telling character-led, impactful stories. She aims to promote a positive and collaborative working culture on her sets, and is really looking forward to taking part in the Producer Lab to gain further insights into the producer role.
Meet New Voice's cohort of 2023
New Voices 2021: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK, in partnership with production companies Blak Wave & Little By Little Films, are pleased to present our participants for the New Voices scheme 2021-22. This talent development opportunity aims to help aspiring South West and Midlands based filmmakers looking to develop their five-minute short film idea.
Filmmaker FAQs | BFI NETWORK South West
Frequently asked questions on BFI NETWORK funding, applications and general advice.
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