IdeasTap simply wouldn't be possible without an army of supporters. From the mentors who work with our fund winners to our partner organisations, the judges who sit on our panels to our Editorial Board members - these people have shared their considerable expertise to help our members, and we're very grateful. The lists below offer just a very small sample of those who have helped us along the way.
Mentors: Our major funds include expert mentoring for the winners. These are just some of the people who have helped them to deliver their projects and develop as artists.
Josh Appignanesi - Film director and screenwriter
Josh Appignanesi directed hit indie comedy The Infidel, starring Omid Djalili and Richard Schiff, scripted by David Baddiel. His feature film debut was the acclaimed Song Of Songs, starring Natalie Press. Coming up through short films and documentary, he also teaches and mentors in writing and directing for various institutions, including the London Film School and Film London.
"I really enjoyed having the opportunity to mentor upcoming filmmakers in a sustained way through a project from the early stages. The routes into film are so haphazard, and people need all the help they can get - in fact I wish IdeasTap was around when I was starting out - it's fantastic."
Maxine Watson - Commissioning Executive
I work exclusively with Independent Production companies, commissioning responsibility for Documentary on BBC One, including 10.35pm single documentaries and series, as well as BBC Two. I moved to Factual as a commissioning executive in 2002. I am responsible for, amongst others, the long-running brand Who Do You Think You Are?, (Broadcast Award 2005, RTS 2006, BAFTA nominee 2006, 2011), the first two series of Grumpy Old Men, Grumpy Old Women (Broadcast Award winner 2005), Beyond Boundaries: Across the Andes and Tribal Wives.
I worked with IdeasTap, with new director Rita Ribas, on a short film called Museum of Miracles . We discussed her idea and the way she would film it and I was available for advice during the editing process. Rita was a delight to work with and a promising director with a good eye.
Nick Astor - Editor, short-form, BBC Comedy Commissioning
Nick started his career at BBC Scotland on work experience after studying at Glasgow University. After more than a decade at the BBC he has had many roles including researcher, celebrity booker, producer, partnership manager, development executive and, now, Editor short form at BBC Comedy Commissioning. He commissions online short form comedy for www.bbc.co.uk/comedy from independent companies across the UK. Nick also sits on the committee of The Network developing new talent for the broadcast industry.
Nick mentored, and continues to work with, Giles Ripley who created a terrific script and directed a wonderful film, ’Orrible.
Rebecca O’Brien - Film producer
Rebecca O’Brien has been an independent film producer for over twenty years. She has produced twelve feature films directed by Ken Loach, including Land and Freedom, Sweet Sixteen, My Name is Joe and Looking for Eric. In 2006 The Wind that Shakes the Barley, set during the Irish War of Independence, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. Next year they will release The Angels’ Share set in Scotland. O’Brien is a director of South West Screen and is on the Film Industry Training Board. She runs her company Sixteen Films with Ken Loach.
Kate Lonergan - Actress
Kate was a mentor for the first series of Ideas Funds – The Big Ideas. She began her screen career with her best known role - Marian in the 1989–94 BBC One children's television series Maid Marian and her Merry Men. Prior to being cast as Marian, Kate Lonergan had only played two bit parts in a couple of films (Testimony of a Child, The Tall Guy) earlier in the year. She has since appeared in numerous episodes of TV series, including the miniseries Terry and Julian (1992) and Four Fathers (1999), as well as The Bill, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Born and Bred, Doctors and Blue Heaven.
David Micklem - Producer
David is an experienced producer, cultural leader and strategic thinker with a demonstrable track record in supporting artists, delivering significant arts projects and influencing policy. With considerable experience as a producer, programmer and arts leader he has played a central role in some of the most talked-about performance projects of the last decade including Punchdrunk’s mould-breaking The Masque of the Red Death, Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant, BAC’s One-on-One Theatre Festival and WildWorks’ BABEL. From 2007 until 2012 he was Joint Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Battersea Arts Centre, a ground-breaking theatre in South London. Prior to that he was Senior Theatre Officer in the national office of Arts Council England.
Rob Watt - Youth Programme Manager, National Theatre
Rob Watt is a theatre director and producer. Over the last 12 years he has worked collaboratively to tell remarkable stories in surprising spaces with brilliant artists. He is committed to working with new and established writers, designers and dramaturges to create inspiring, significant and provocative theatre for a wide and varied audience. Rob is also an experienced facilitator specialising in working with young people who don't traditionally access the arts.
His directing credits include: Anamenisi by Ian Bonar, The Mercy Seat by Neil Labute, Lone Star and Laundry & Bourbon by James McLure (tour), Beat Them/Join Them? (tour) by Jamie Beddard, WHORE devised by Barefaced Theatre. He has created work in a variety of settings including the Soho Theatre, Circus Space, a ship in Canary Wharf, a community centre in the middle of Hackney, and a garden in Wimbledon.
He is currently producing young people's work at the National Theatre and is a guest lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Sussex University.
Alecky Blythe - Playwright and Actor
Alecky is a playwright and actor. She studied theatre at the University of Warwick and trained at Mountview.
She won a Time Out Award for her first play, Come Out Eli, and was selected as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow in 2007.
Alecky's London Road won Best Musical at the Critics' Circle Awards and was revived in 2012 at the National Theatre in the Olivier after its sellout in the Cottesloe in 2011. She was also involved in Headlong Theatre's production of Decade, and wrote and co-directed The Riots ; In their Words, a drama documentary for BBC2. Her most recent play, Where Have I Been All My Life? was produced at the New Vic Theatre in April 2012.
Steven Atkinson- Artistic Director, HighTide Festival Theatre
Steven joined the HighTide Festival in 2007 as Artistic Director, partnering with the Festival's founder Sam Hodges to create HighTide Festival Theatre - a year-round producing company, including the now annual HighTide Festival, tours and transfers, and artist development projects. Since March 2010 Steven has led the company alone as its Artistic Director and Chief Executive, during which time it has produced in London's West End, launched the Old Vic Tunnels, produced internationally in Australia and with the Public Theater, New York, and become a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England.
He was Literary Manager of Hull Truck Theatre 2006-2007, and he graduated from Reading University in 2005 with a BA in Film & Theatre.
James Hopkirk - Editor, IdeasTap
James Hopkirk’s career began 14 years ago as a reporter for a south London weekly. In 2000 he joined The Sunday Times, initially writing news features but soon shifting focus to music, film and games. After four years he left to join MTV.co.uk, launching commercial microsites and producing music and news content. In 2007 he was taken on as Channels Editor, then Site Senior Editor, at ITV.com. He was recruited as Editor of IdeasTap in 2009 where he manages the editorial, marketing and digital teams.
Peter De Haan - Chairman, The Peter De Haan Charitable Trust
Peter De Haan is a businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder and Chairman of The Peter De Haan Charitable Trust and the Chief Executive of leading online arts hub IdeasTap.
In autumn 2008, after noticing the lack of opportunities for young people at the start of their careers as his children graduated, Peter decided to launch online arts charity IdeasTap. Now an independent charity with rapidly growing membership, IdeasTap helps young creatives at the start of their careers. In 2011 he pioneered the Creative Space programme at the Trust’s south London headquarters, offering emerging companies resources in return for a contribution to the IdeasTap creative network.
In March 2012 he was named by NESTA in partnership with the Observer as one of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. The list identified people and organisations who are changing Britain for the better; specifically those applying fresh approaches in practical and scalable ways, through social, technological, scientific and artistic methods.
Sylvie Bringas - Producer
Sylvie was born in France where she trained as a visual artist. She moved to the UK in 1989. After studying animation filmmaking, she joined forces with documentary and animation producer Orly Yadin to establish Halo Productions Ltd as a creative home for independent animation filmmaking aimed at adult audiences. At Halo she co-produced with Orly the comedy animations series Treasure for BBC2, and in 1997 they jointly wrote, directed and produced short documentary animation SILENCE, which won the Golden Hugo in 1998 and was short-listed for Academy Award Nominations in 1999. In 2002, Sylvie was awarded an Animate! commission for which she madeRoom Service , produced by Eyal Shaphyr and executive produced by Orly Yadin, winning Best Experimental Film at Imaginaria in 2005. During her producing years at Halo, Sylvie started an ongoing creative relationship with up and coming writer/directors Robert Morgan The Cat With Hands and Liana Dognini Bye Bye
With the desire to make live-action projects and features, Sylvie set up Animus Films Ltd in 2002. At Animus, Sylvie has produced award winning shorts –The Separation (Cymru BAFTA winner, 2003) and Monsters (Silver Melies, 2005) by Robert Morgan, His Passionate Bride (BAFTA nominated in 2004) by Monika Forsberg. Sylvie is currently involved in developing a slate of distinctive feature and TV projects - horror, drama and animated comedy.
Barbara McKissack - Producer and Consultant
Barbara is an independent TV and film producer, working in the fields of drama and documentary. She is also a consultant, trainer, mentor and business adviser: her clients include BBC North, Northern Film and Media, Northern Lights festival, Vision + Media and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Barbara is a former Head of Drama at BBC Scotland, and served on the joint board of Arts Council Scotland and Scottish Screen which preceded the establishment of Creative Scotland.
Barbara is based in Edinburgh.
Other mentors have included...
Andrew Scott, Actor
Alexandra Arlango, Producer
Amanda Davies, Freelance Picture Editor
David Hare, playwright
David Hurn, Magnum Photographer
Ian Berry, Magnum Photographer
Jon Levy, Foto8
Kevin Spacey, Artistic Director, The Old Vic
Laurence Marks, sitcom writer
Mark Power, Magnum Photographer
Millie Simpson, Picture Editor for Drawbridge Magazine
Peter Marlow, Magnum Photographer
Rob Lynden, Head of Programme Development, Dance United
Rupert Goold, Artistic Director, Headlong Theatre
Stuart Franklin, Magnum Photographer