1st October 2024
Meet Moses Ssebandeke – Fresh Cuts PD
As part of the acclaimed Fresh Cuts Strand for Black History Month 2024, Moses Ssebandeke makes his directorial debut for ITV, with his profile series Alter Egos. Please tell us a little bit about yourself? I started my filmmaking journey in 2007 at 15, and my self-written, self-directed comedy sketches have garnered over 100 million views online. After graduating from the National Film and Television School, I've been involved in various comedy projects, short films, and TV dramas. Most of these have screened on the BBC. My work has been recognised with awards and screenings at prestigious festivals for example BFI short film of the month. In recent years, I've focused on feature films, writing and directing "Drapetomania" and "Double Booked." I'm also a co-founder of the Lionstooth film collective, where we produce innovative shorts and content. Did you always want to work in TV? How did you land your first role? For as long as I can remember! One of my first roles was back in 2015 directing an interactive documentary starring Stormzy for a platform called “BBC taster”. The technology we used on the documentary went on to be used by Netflix for their first interactive film Bandersnatch which is part of the Black Mirror Series. Why did you apply for Fresh Cuts this year? I had an idea that centred on my friend called Paloma Aka Ronnie Knocks. Where we made a short doc about her wrestling journey. I had pitched the idea at various different places for 2 years and nearly gave up, but thought fresh cuts would be the perfect place for it, and by some miracle I got on the scheme. What is your series about? My series is called Alter Egos, where we follow ordinary individuals who have extraordinary alter egos! What has been your biggest challenge producing this series? I would say the casting process. I did come on the production with one contributor already (Paloma) but finding two more in a short space of time proved hard, but I had a great team that was able to help me find the perfect contributors! What was your favourite part about making it? I would say going around the country with the team filming the contributors. I was able to meet different people and get immersed into worlds that I wouldn’t have known existed. What would your advice be for someone stepping up into a PD role? I would say the word “EARLY” is your best friend. Everything from Getting in “early” and working on your edit “early” You might think you have all the time in the world, but that isn’t usually the case. So if there is anything you can do right away, do not wait and do it! And lastly, what are your favourite TV shows of all time and what are you watching at the moment? I would say probably, The Simpsons or The Boondocks. I can’t get my head around how they are able to pack so much story and jokes in what is basically 22 minutes. I’m really liking “Made in Korea” at the moment, I’m not a huge K-pop fan, but I’m invested! You can watch Alter Egos on ITVX from the 1st October.
read more1st October 2024
Meet Sammy Ofori-Attah – Fresh Cuts PD
Sammy Ofori-Attah makes his directorial debut for ITV, with his profile series Black Magic With Trixy as part of the newly formed Fresh Cuts strand for Black History Month 2024. Please tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m a Ghanaian-British director from Yorkshire and am now based in London. Did you always want to work in TV? How did you land your first role? Yes! Ever since I was little, I’ve been interested in storytelling but in particular, through the screen. My favourite films and TV shows let me discover new things and different aspects of society but in an entertaining way. After completing some work experience with BBC Studios Drama and Comedy departments, I asked BBC Music if they had any roles going at Glastonbury. There was a runner role, which I interviewed for and I’ve been grateful for ever since, as it fulfilled a dream of working at Glastonbury. Why did you apply for Fresh Cuts this year? I had just graduated from the Directing and Producing TV Entertainment MA at NFTS, so I was looking for related roles in unscripted TV, so Fresh Cuts looked perfect! And having seen previous episodes, I had an idea of how good the shows we make could be. What is your series about? "Black Magic with Trixy" explores the contributions of London's Black community to the city's history and heritage through the eyes of magician Trixy, who will perform culturally relevant magic tricks at significant locations during Black History Month. What has been your biggest challenge producing this series? Time. I think every PD says they want more time at every stage of production but prepping six episodes, securing locations and contributors, whilst working on the format, was a lot for a relatively inexperienced PD as myself. But I was well supported and had a brilliant team to work with. What was your favourite part about making it? Following the above, it was the team. I learned so much from my Series Producer (Fabian Bohan-Taghian) and Exec. Producer (Natalie Rose) at all stages of production and a lot from the post-production team. I spent most of my time though with my crew of AP, Jake Whittle and researcher, Charlie Cane, who were a pleasure to work with and learn from, so hope to collaborate with them in future. What would your advice be for someone stepping up into a PD role? Stay healthy throughout your production - the usual things: eat well, sleep well, exercise, look after your mental health etc. Because you’ll be at your best when these things are at theirs. And lastly, what are your favourite TV shows of all time and what are you watching at the moment? So many - I could write an essay! Actually, I once wrote an essay on Love Island. So that and Married At First Sight are two. You could learn everything you need to know about modern relationship and dating dynamics after watching a series of each! I grew up on shows like Brasseye, Spooks, Top of the Pops, TFI Friday and Extras. Then some niche stuff like the BBC’s docudrama, ‘Smallpox 2002’ and related series, ‘If…’. They were so experimental and frighteningly real. My absolute favourite though would be The Wire. To map out a five series arc from the beginning and actually execute it through to the end is incredible. And I’m currently watching Slow Horses, Kin and Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends, which is filling a hole left by the brilliant Tool Academy all those years ago!
read more30th August 2024
ITV Expands Successful Fresh Cuts Strand for Disability History Month 2024 & takes new push into short series
ITV and MultiStory Media, part of ITV Studios, has today announced the return of the acclaimed Fresh Cuts strand. This year, marking an ITV first, the selected talent will produce/direct compelling short-form series which will air on ITVX and ITV’s digital channels as part of programming for Black History Month, and this year also for UK Disability History Month. As well as the move from single hours to short-form series, Fresh Cuts 3.0 welcomed aspiring directors to apply with or without an idea of their own, to produce content for this year’s strand. Making their directorial debut for ITV, the selected producer/directors for Black History Month 2024 are Moses Ssebandeke with his profile series Alter Egos, Sammy Ofori-Attah’s Black Magic with Trixy, and Destiny Williams’ light-hearted Dogs of Grime. For Disability History Month 2024, programming includes Stephanie Symington’s makeover series Date My Nan, Richard Walker’s Disabled talent-led chat show Unfiltered Women and Molly Dennis’ cooking show Takeaway or Fakeaway. Natalie Rose has been appointed as the Executive Producer, overseeing the strand for MultiStory Media, and Commissioning Editor Richard Botchway will oversee the series for Sue Murphy’s Fact Ent team. Fresh Cuts is funded through ITV’s £80 million Diversity Commissioning Fund, which launched in 2022. Over the past two years, Fresh Cuts has provided opportunities to eight directors, earning a BAFTA nomination along the way. Among them is Jason Osborne, whose first network documentary commission for ITV was nominated in the Emerging Talent: Factual category. Executive Producer for MultiStory Media, Natalie Rose said: “Fresh Cuts is all about championing underrepresented voices. Our content will be produced and directed by first-time talent from diverse backgrounds. Their perspective is central to producing this content and how it is executed. The move to short-form series and genre shift to more pop-y Fact Ent ideas is an exciting development for this year’s series. I can’t wait to see this very talented group of filmmakers put their take on these ideas, and get their first network directing credits along the way.” In conjunction with Black History Month and Disability History Month, as part of ITV’s commitment to support and commission content from diverse-led businesses, Amplify: the Companies was launched. As part of this initiative, two companies have been selected to produce a short-form series: one from a Disabled-led company and another from a company led by People of Colour. These series will be released during the respective commemorative months. Postcard Productions will produce Ash Holme - What Not To Do with Dad, following the presenter and content creator as she takes in different experiences with her Dad, and Gold Wala will produce Evil Escapes, following three disabled comedians, including "Lost Voice Guy" Lee Ridley, as they take a spooky road trip across the UK and attempt to prank and out-scare each while exploring Britain's scariest and weirdest attractions. Richard Botchway, Commissioning Editor at ITV, added: "Fresh Cuts has been a fantastic route to giving new talent their first network credits and I’m excited to be a part of this year’s series. The new short-form approach is intended to create engaging, more easily shareable content, with the potential to attract younger audiences and bring greater visibility to the series, wherever audiences choose to view their content. We’re also really excited to be working with Faraz at Gold Wala and Rich at Postcard Productions, in their first commissions from ITV.” Gold Wala MD Faraz Osman said: “Championing diverse voices through entertaining, fresh formats is what we are all about. So we are thrilled to be working with the ITV team and some of the UK's most exciting comedy talent to create a scarily funny new show that is sure to make you scream with laughter!” Postcard MD Rich Bentley said: "We are excited to bring the fabulous Ash Holme and her ever-patient dad, Phil, together in this entertaining format that combines outrageous adventures with real heart. We do not see father-daughter combinations on screen and Ash and Phil's unique and brilliant relationship offers a new way of exploring and challenging how we understand the modern world." Ade Rawcliffe, Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ITV, commented: “We’re proud to support new and emerging black and disabled talent as ITV champions authentic storytelling from fresh perspectives. With a notable gap in Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent talent at the Producer/Director level, expanding Fresh Cuts to mark Disability History Month allows us to support underrepresented talent in our industry.”
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