Martin Pailthorpe
Case Histories - Tasters
Over the years I have had a spectacular strike rate with tasters, winning commisions for every taster I have produced, whether speculatively or by arrangement with a broadcaster. As a self-shooting and editing PD, I an bring economies of scale to bear by undertaking any or all aspects of production.
Examples include :
2016 - Freedom Trails (Seadog Productions) - produced a speculative taster funded by Seadog Productions, filmed on the route of a World War 2 escape route through the Pyrenees for allied pilots shot down over occupied Europe. A series looking at this and similar WW2 escape routes across Europe is under consideration by a major UK channel.
Seadog Crew in the Pyrenees
2007 - Monty Halls Great Escapes (Tigress) - filmed, produced and edited a taster comissioned by BBCtv, and subsequently turned into three series following Monty living the dream in remote celtic fringe communities.
Great Escape - Season 1
2005 - Everest - Beyond the Limit (Tigress) - commissioned by Discovery. I produced and filmed a 15 minute taster and 6 episode treatment following an expedition on the north face of Everest. Subsequently commissioned as a full series, and ran for three seasons.
Everest Base Camp
2004 - Bear Grylls - while still at the BBC, I was seconded to Diverse Productions in Bristol to make a taster featuring Bear grylls, who at that stage had done little tv apart from presenting the military reality series 'Back to the Legion'. The taster was commissioned by Discovery, with the aim of using Bear in an immersive role to explore stories of survival and hardship. As a result of the taster, they commissioned the first series of Man vs Wild - many more have followed!!!
Filming in Austria
2004 - Charles Rangely-Wilson - while working for BBC development in Bristol, produced and filmed a taster featuring angler Charles Rangely-Wilson. This was taken up as a six part series (The Accidental Angler).
The Accidental Angler
2002 - Chris Ryan (BBCtv) I produced and filmed a taster featuring ex SAS commando Chris Ryan in his first mainstream tv role. He was picked up by BBCtv for the series 'Hunting Chris Ryan', and we subsequently went on to make another series (Britain's Toughest Family) with him as presenter.
