Member Directory

Elspeth Penny

07736371087

www.2buproductions.co.uk
elspeth@2buproductions.co.uk

Sector: TV / Film / Video

Membership Type: Freelancer

Key Skills

producer, script writing, internet and multimedia, ideas creation, writer, development

Key Clients

Motion Pictures/DiagonalTV/TV3 Barcelona Dream Machine Media BBC St George's Brandon Hill Menagerie Theatre Cambridge Arts Council South East and South West Anglia TV Screen East Norwich School of Art and Design University of East Anglia BBC Radio Bristol Elspeth is a Writer and Creative Producer, excelling at ideas creation, team building, developing and pitching cross-platform proposals. Elspeth is a tenacious and self motivated team player and a talented writer. She lives in Devon within commuting distance of Bristol.

Elspeth began her career as a freelance journalist at BBC Radio Bristol. Elspeth began directing and writing after completing an MA in Theatre Directing at UEA in 1996. The following year she was invited to attend The National Studio Young Directors' Course in London and staged her play Beauty and the Breast at Battersea Arts Centre, a collaboration with 'cellist Matthew Barley.

Elspeth has written for BBC1 Doctors, Battersea Arts Centre, Menagerie Theatre Company and for animators such as Gemma Carrington (Anglia TV); she had her first documentary shown at Cinema City Norwich. Elspeth has been short-listed for the Asham Award twice for short stories and received an Arts Council grant to write her novel Vanilla.

Teaching experience includes UEA Drama and Script Writing MA and BA, a Narrative MA module at Norwich School of Arts and work in schools.

Elspeth's project How 2 Be has been green lit in Spain by Catalan broadcaster TV3 - for a TV series and other cross-platform goodies. As a co-production between 2BU and Distributors Motion Pictures, major Spanish production company DiagonalTV have now got on board. It is currently being considered by international commissioners and publishers, including in the UK.

Elspeth now focuses on several cross-platform projects for 2BU Productions (see www.2buproductions.co.uk), which have either been green lit or are becoming international large scale cross-platform proposals and co-productions with companies such as Keo Films and Dream Machine Media.

Credits

Dragon's Love: Dream Machine Media have chosen Elspeth's story 'Dragon's Love' to use for their e-book prototype.

The Owl: Performed and composed by Paul Bradley and written and directed by Elspeth Penny, this story telling musical adventure for 4-6 year olds was developed in association with Bristol Ferment at Bristol Old Vic and was most recently performed at St. George's Brandon Hill, Bristol to full houses.

BBC Doctors: Sharp Seedlings. An elderly woman falls out with a competitive fellow allotment holder over prize vegetables and weeds.

Menagerie Theatre: The Line Up play commissioned for reading. A black comedy about death after life, holding on too tight to something you love or think you'd love, IVF and knickers.

The Sunbird: For Menagerie Theatre: staged reading. On the windy shore of Robben Island, a woman sculpts her way to freedom.

Vanilla: Funding from South West Arts to rewrite screenplay as novel. Final shortlist Script Factory Writers' Passage 1.

A mother and daughter both have unexpected sexual awakenings. A story about lesbians, teenagers and life on a boat.

In The Same Breath: short documentary film, funded by the Arts Council, previewed at Cinema City, Norwich. Dist: Alpha Films. One man tells how nature helped him survive his wife's suicide.

What about Billy? Animation - First Take series Anglia TV, 2000 Gemma Carrington animates Billy who loyally files confidential data in a wartime bunker. It will be time for him to retire soon, won't it?

Heads and Tales, story-telling, Director of a devised UEA production, 2000. Set in Little Walsingham, pilgrims of several centuries wonder over a bridge.

Beauty and the Breast: performed at Battersea Arts Centre's festival Sharp Intake of Music (Foot In Mouth Productions), 1998, a collaboration with 'cellist Matthew Barley.

A play about a dystopian world that is run by ecologists, and modelled on bee society.

Radio Journalist: Many packages for BBC Radio Bristol, 1991-1993 on art, sheep, balloon rides, therapy and music. Plus a stab at setting up a new teenage show.

Consultancy/Education

Leader of new MA module in Narrative at Norwich School of Art and Design and team member for new MA in Animation and Soundscape, 2002-2004. Much work as playwright mentor/tutor, MA and BA level teaching, Arts Council funded artist in residence

Reader for Screen East, trained by the Script Factory.

Qualification/Training

2011- UKTI: Export Pioneers

2010 - SKILLSET: Branding for Digital Media

2009 - South West Screen: Managing Creative Teams

2004 - TAPS: TV writing, Arts Council/Creative Partnerships training

1999-'00 - MA in Scriptwriting classes UEA, The Film Maker's Bootcamp

1995-'96 - MA in Theatre Directing at UEA

The National Theatre Studio Young Directors' Course

1991 - Radio Journalism, BBC in house training

1987-'90 - Cambridge University (St Catharine's) MA degree Theology/Anthropology

Interests

Elspeth worked for 7 years as a sports masseur and therapist in Bristol, in her own practice and for chiropractors. She has also renovated several houses, enjoys yoga, walking, eating and gardening, and currently lives in Devon.