Inside Industry: Speakers' Biographies

Information is listed alphabetically by the name of the speaker:

Inside Web Design

Jay Armitage

About DS.Emotion www.dsemotion.com

Founded in 1990, DS.Emotion is an independent digital agency creating engaging digital experiences for high-profile entertainment and consumer brands. The company offers a wide range of end-to-end solutions using high-concept ideas and added functionality. DS.Emotion's portfolio includes SkyBet, Franz Ferdinand, Sony, Universal Music, Nickelodeon, Orange, Tate & Lyle, Jaguar, Vodafone, Nintendo Gamecube and Dunlop. Strategic promotional partners include Cake. The company employs 40 staff, based in London and Leeds and the overall annualised billing for 2004 is expected to be in excess of £3m.

The session will look at rich media on the web and how it is becoming more widely used - how we are making user experiences richer and more fulfilling through the use of video, games and audio.

Inside an Independent TV Company

Heather Coogan

Heather Coogan has been Executive Producer of Baby Cow Manchester since the indie was set up in May 2005 with the help of a grant from North West Vision's Regional Attraction Fund. Her media career started in 1990 at Action Time, a Manchester-based indie which produced entertainment programmes. Heather then moved to Granada where she worked her way from Researcher to Producer. As a producer she was responsible for launching Stars in Their Eyes - Kids. She then spent two years as Head of the Entertainment Department for Granada Manchester where she oversaw a raft of programming including Stars in Their Eyes, You've Been Framed, University Challenge, Celebrities under Pressure and Animals Do the Funniest Things.

Inside Film and Video Classification

John Dyer

Prior to my appointment as Education Officer, I spent six years working as a Film & Video Examiner for the BBFC helping to not only classify films, videos and DVDs but also shape BBFC policy and guidelines. I also hosted various educational seminars and presentations for students of all ages (prior to life at the BBFC I was a teacher) and helped boost the Board's educational resources. In 2003, I instigated the launch of our first educational website, cbbfc.co.uk – Children's BBFC, aimed at primary school children and their parents and teachers. This has recently been joined by sbbfc.co.uk, a site for students and teachers involved in the study of media regulation as part of a Media or Film Studies course.

Inside Advertising

Keith Lishman

Founding member and creative director at Principles Agency in Leeds. Got the bug for advertising at Leeds College of Art and subsequently became an art director at various ad agencies before helping to set up Principles nineteen years ago. Now runs the creative output and oversees the agency's creative department as well as still doing what I enjoy the most - doing ads. I didn't come in to this business to do admin and strive to do as little of it as possible. Currently responsible for clients such as Seven Seas, Red Square Vodka, Denby, Hunters (the green wellie people), and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. Over the years have probably worked across every marketing sector producing press ads, posters, brochures, tv commercials, radio ads, point of sale and online.

Still remember the days of Letraset but love my Mac. But I always start every brief with a pencil and a sheet of white paper.

Inside Coronation Street

Daran Little

Daran Little is a scriptwriter living in Manchester. He was brought up in North West London but came North in 1985 to study Film and Television Production. After graduating from Manchester Polytechnic he was immediately taken on by Granada Television as Archivist on Coronation Street, a position he held for twelve years. Daran worked on all the company's drama serials produced throughout the 1990s, including Castles (BBC), Families (ITV), Reckless (ITV) The Grand (ITV), Springhill (Sky) and Revelations (ITV).

He became a freelance writer on the day Coronation Street celebrated its 40th anniversary in December 2000. Since then he has written 87 episodes of the programme and has been responsible for the creation of characters such as Todd and Jason Grimshaw, Shelley and Bev Unwin, Archie Shuttleworth and the reintroduction of Tracy Barlow.

Daran has written eleven books on Coronation Street, including two war-time novels and Betty Driver's biography. He is currently developing his own drama projects.

Inside CGI and SFX

David Mousley

David Mousley is the Managing Director of Red Vision, one of the UK's foremost CGI and special effects producers. Originally involved with the music industry, David has worked in television production since the early 1970s and in 1995 joined Red Vision when they established their Manchester production facility.

Red Vision have built an impressive track record on the development and integration of CGI with live action material to bring levels of re-creation of historical, natural and geographical events and scenarios more usually seen as outside the scope of broadcast television budgets.

Building on the innovative ideas and techniques developed during the production of series for BBC/Discovery Channel, Red Vision have pioneered the use of CGI in the most challenging areas of drama documentary and event reconstruction for producers world-wide.

They were probably the first ever to introduce realistic virtual characters in drama documentary for the BBC ‘Ancient Voices' programme Death on the Nile. They also have also pioneered the extensive integration of photo realistic CG into live action back plates.

Inside Film Production

Barry Ryan

Barry has worked in the film and television industry for the past ten years, from short experimental work to large scale TV productions and feature films. Barry joined Warp Films in 2002 when he line produced the BAFTA winning Chris Morris short film, My Wrongs 8245-8249 & 117. He then went on to line produce the Shane Meadows feature Dead Man's Shoes which was nominated for eight British Independent Film Awards and the Best British Film BAFTA, in addition to winning the Golden HItchcock at the Dinard Film Festival and the South Bank Award for Best British Film. Warp are currently producing Shane Meadows' new feature, Bulldogs and have a number of projects in development with Film Four, UK Film Council, BBC Films and HDNet in the USA.

Last Updated: Wednesday, 21-Feb-2007 16:06:26 GMT