TIME & LOCATION
About
Chair
SPONSOR
Panel
Film-maker, Executive Producer and Creative Director.
Jonathan Smith is an award winning Film-maker, Executive Producer and Creative Director. His work covers wide range of factual television, from directing BAFTA winning series The Trust and single films like Make Me Normal, to creating Fixed Rig shows including 24 hours in A&E and 24 hours in Police Custody, One born Every Minute, and running the production slate of one of Britain’s most successful independent companies as Creative Director of The Garden Productions. Nowa freelance Executive Producer, he works for a wide range of broadcasters ghr93u recent credits include, The Zelensky Story (BBC), In Vogue:the 90s(disney +), and Ukraine, Enemy in the Woods (BBC).
Series Director
Self-shooting series director with a strong track record making films with a strong visual style often involving challenging access. Strong editorial instincts, extensive experience of securing complex institutional access and managing sensitive relationships with vulnerable contributors Ben takes his projects from development stage through to delivery. He developed "Teen Pedator/Online Killer" with series producer, Sharon Whittaker. Together, they have secured contributions from the people at the heart of the story including multiple international law enforcement agencies as well as victims of, and those closest to the convicted killer, Alex McCartney.
Series Producer
Sharon enjoys making creatively challenging character-driven documentaries, specialising in sensitive access and building contributor trust. Her experience to date straddles all aspects of factual programme making, from development to production to delivery. She has worked with Ben O’Loan almost exclusively since joining DoubleBand Films in July 2018, and together, this series was their first pitch to network. Before Sharon’s pivot into documentary filmmaking via a Northern Ireland Screen New Entrant trainee scheme in 2017, she worked in PR and communications for youth organisations, specialising in children’s rights, children in care and young people in conflict with the law.