Knowledgeable and versatile archive producer with over a decade of experience in managing high-pressure, deadline-driven, archive-heavy productions. Adept at balancing creative and logistical demands. Excels in managing budgets, teams and stakeholder communications across complex, multifaceted projects. Known for proactive problem-solving, meticulous research and innovative thinking, with a consistently calm and cheerful demeanour. Thrives on delivering results while fostering team growth. Skilled in commercial negotiations and utilising tools like MS Office, Google Suite and task management platforms (Trello, Notion, Sunsama). A proven track record of adaptability and excellence, consistently retained for back-to-back projects.
- Responsible for researching, sourcing, managing, budgeting for and clearing all archive footage, photographs and newspapers used in documentaries from a broad range of sources.
- Bridges production and editorial, effectively balancing their often-conflicting needs.
- Conducts detailed research to identify archive materials that best illustrate or drive the story.
- Collaborates closely with directors, editors, and senior producers across multiple simultaneous edits to shape editorial content.
- Developed specialised spreadsheets to maintain a searchable research log of up to 12,000 archive items and track episode costs to manage the series budget. Uses it to make cost-effective recommendations to keep projects within budgets of up to £500k.
- Negotiates discounted commercial deals across series, building relationships with archive providers (from established picture libraries to small museums and individuals) and securing copyright and third-party rights clearances.
- Prepares contracts and works with legal teams to mitigate risks.
- Ensures use of materials adher to compliance regulations and contractual obligations, are factually accurate, and fall within fair use/fair dealing guidelines where needed.
- Manages teams of up to seven researchers on productions ranging from single feature-length documentaries to 10-episode series.
- Passionate about mentoring and training junior team members, fostering growth and skill development within the team.
- Researches and writes proposals for archive-driven stories.
- Experience across history, science, true crime and culture programming.
- Wrote the archive sections for Zenia Selby’s book ‘Breaking Into Factual TV: Your Career Companion’ (published by Routledge, 2023).
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