LOU BROWN (Nee Corbett)

Mobile: Tel: 07958 294848             

Email:Lou.BrownTV@gmail.com            Website: www.loubrown.tv

 

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

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11/ 2022 - current - Executive Producer - Hungry Bear Media  - Glasgow

I'm the Executive Producer of the Glasgow Office for Hungry Bear Media and Hungry Jay Media.  I'm currently an Executive Producer across a number of titles: Gladiators (BBC1) and  Gladiators: Epic Pranks (CBBC), and previously was an Executive Producer on  David and Jay's Touring Toolshed (BBC 2), Jay Blades: West End Through Time (Channel 5).  Working closely with numerous Commissioning Executives for different broadcasters, I also develop new ideas to make out of the Scotland office. 

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02/22 – 10/22 – Commissioning Executive - Lifestyle & Entertainment Team – Warner Bros, Discovery UK.
Working with numerous indies, I’m part of the commissioning team, developing new commissions as well as existing content, for Discovery + and linear channels - Really, Quest Red, HGTV, Food Network and TLC. 
Working with Exec Producers shaping the format and tone of new series (currently 4 first time series) and signing off on casting and edits of existing formats. I liaise with in-house marketing, press and scheduling teams keeping them up to date with progress.
 

05/21 - current - Executive Producer  - 'It's Me Or The Dog' - Ricochet. 20 x 30 mins - Discovery.

Having produced and directed on the original series for Channel 4 in 2006, I was approached to Exec Produce the reboot of this very popular dog training series for Discovery.  Voiced by Ralf Little, this series follows internationally renowned dog trainer, Victoria Stilwell as she comes to the rescue of dog owners who have bitten off more than they can chew. 

Commissioned as two series of 10, with extremely limited pre-production time to cast a high volume of contributors and dogs with varied issues, small windows of opportunity to film with our US based dog trainer, a tight budget and quick turnaround, all whilst filming with contributors in their houses during the pandemic, made this series a challenge  - but I'm always up for one of them!

 

03/21 –04/21 - Producer  The Creative Cities Convention and Best Practice Diversity Session - Raise the Roof Productions

Thanks to my experience producing and directing with Zoom technology, managing talent and my strong interest in diversity,  Raise The Roof Productions asked me to produce sessions for a couple of industry events: The Creative Cities Convention and the BBC’s Delivering Production Diversity Day. The CCC session involved producing, scripting and directing a virtual interview between Jane Muirhead, Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer.

The ‘Best Practice’ session for the BBC’s Diversity Day was a live Zoom event, which I not only produced and scripted but also presented and interviewed the Talent Manager and Head of Production at Raise the Roof Productions about their Diversity Strategy.

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08/20 – 02/21- Development Producer - Raise the Roof productions

I have good relationships with many Commissioners and a clear knowledge of the current commissioning landscape. Working as part of a small Development Team I developed ideas for all major UK broadcasters, focusing on fact/ents formats, originating and formatting ideas to fit different requirements for different channels and genres.  As part of the team I wrote pitch docs, suggested talent and pitched to numerous Commissioners regularly and we successfully secured Commissions for Channel 5, HGTV and Discovery.

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04/20 - 07/20 – Senior Producer/ Script Editor  'BBC Bitesize Daily Primary' - - BBC Education

During the Coronavirus pandemic the BBC delivered daily on-line lessons to children of school age and I joined the Primary School team.   Producing 1 hour of content, divided into three different age groups (5-7 years, 7-9 years and 9-11 years) every day, covering different subjects, with high profile guests providing additional content, with extremely tight deadlines this series was challenging, but rewarding. I was responsible for ensuring that the Educational Consultants were happy with the scripts, adding stage directions to make them work in a safe, socially distant environment in studio, whilst still making the final content entertaining for the audience.

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01/20 - 20/3/20  - Development Producer - Raise the Roof Productions Having worked at Raise The Roof on a number of occasions I was asked to join the Development team specifically for my Fact/Ents experience. Due to Covid my contract ended, but I was asked to return after a few months.

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06/19 - 12/20 - Series Producer -  'The Dog Ate My Homework' - CBBC - 12 x 30 mins

CBBC’s award winning comedy panel show, 'The Dog Ate My Homework' needed a reinvention after 6 series and I was asked to join to lead this change. We decided on 4 revolving guest presenters; Comedians Darren Harriott and Suzi Ruffell, DJ and Presenter Lauren Layfield, CBBC puppet Hacker T Dog. I also cast Youtube Influencer, Adam B to join as a prankster role in every episode. This series was both logistically difficult, negotiating with agents and juggling the schedule to fit with their availability and creatively challenging - streamlining the production process and developing new comedy rounds to make the series more diverse and accessible, but happily these changes paid off when the series gained record viewers and an immediate re-commission.

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01/19 - 05/19 - Series Producer - 'Last Commanders' Series 2 - OMG! Productions - 15 x 30 mins - CBBC.

After the success of the 1st series (which I co-developed and series produced), I returned to produce the 2nd series of this cross genre Drama/ Gameshow series, winning a Scottish BAFTA for ‘Best Entertainment Series’. I co-developed the storyline and new characters, all the games and over saw the set design, props and games testing. Leading a large team I managed the production team and worked with Department Heads, the Technical team and Production team. During the recording I produced in the gallery and in post I oversaw the edits.

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07/18 – 01/19 - Series Producer – ‘Phil Spencer's History of Britain in 100 Homes’ – Raise the Roof Productions – 8 X 60 mins – More4

In this ambitious property/history series Phil Spencer discovered the evolution of British lives through 100 Homes.  As this was a first series I worked closely with the Exec Producer and Channel 4 Commissioner to format the series and decide how, why and which stories to tell across the series. This series had a tight budget and schedule so was logistically very challenging, as we needed to cover all areas of the UK and wanted to include diverse geographic stories in every episode taking into account limited presenter availability.

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04/18 – 06/18 – Series Producer – ‘Mini Disco Divas’ - Firecracker Films (6 x 30 Mins) – BBC Scotland

I Series Produced this ob-doc series for BBC Scotland. This series was an insight into working class Scottich family life, through the prism of Junior Freestyle Disco Dancing in Scotland. I built a relationship and gained the trust of the dance affiliations, to get access into this world to let us film.  I oversaw the casting of the young contributors and their families,  finding a variety of interesting stories, with large personalities to carry them.  This was a low budget series, with a tight schedule, so it required creative thinking during production and scheduling to achieve results.

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03/18 – Development Producer – Firecrest Films

I joined Firecrest Films to work up an existing Channel 4 idea they had Development Funding for. 

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09/17–02/18 – Series Producer – ‘Last Commanders’ – CBBC – OMG Scotland. (10x30 mins)

I co-created this cross genre drama/game-show) shot as a POV computer game, with kids playing the game via Skype, from their bedrooms - is a technically complex series to produce. With the Executive Producer I developed all aspects of this series and worked with many different departments; Scriptwriter, Production Design, Games Designer, Art Director, Lighting Director, Costume & Make up, Actors, Casting Team, Production team casting contestants, as well as numerous technical teams at Hotcam, Broadcast RF and Kinetic Pixel to figure out how to practically make the series work!

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09/16 – 05/17 – Series Producer - ‘Best of Both Worlds’ – Channel 4 – Raise the Roof Productions. (20 x 1 hour)

This Channel 4 daytime series ‘Best of Both World’s’ was presented by Lucy Alexander (Homes Under the Hammer) and was a  spin off from the prime time series with Kirstie Allsopp. I re-worked the format for a daytime budget and schedule and with a very quick pre production period and then a long production period, I needed to find a sustainable and efficient production and post-production schedule, that kept the team and presenter morale high, whilst also delivering the series on time and on budget.  

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03/16 – 09/16 – Series Producer - ‘World of Weird’ - Channel 4 - Lion TV (6 X 1 hour)

Voiced by Sarah Millican, ‘World of Weird’, followed 9 presenters (a mix of comedians, TV presenters and reality TV stars), as they travelled around the world discovering quirky people and unusual traditions, immersing themselves in different worlds.

Throughout this series I managed a complex international filming schedule as well as a production office in Glasgow and edits in London. I dealt with numerous presenters, complex contributors and fixers and directors all over the world.

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01/16 – 02/16 - Series Producer/ Director - ‘Life Hacks Hoax’ - BBC 3 –Objective Scotland. (20 x 5 mins)

Each of these films involved approx. 5 contributors who thought they were filming a short Life Hack film, but were actually involved in magic tricks by magician, Ben Hart. A very small team of 2 AP’s cast 150 contributors ensuring that they were all outgoing and diverse. I produced and directed this series of short films with a very tight production and filming schedule. Working closely with the Magician and the Art Designer.

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05/15 – 12/15 – Development Producer - Objective Scotland.

I oversaw the small Development team developed ideas for Objective pitching to all broadcasters, channels and genres. I built up good working relationships with numerous commissioning editors at BBC, Channel 4 and Sky. One of the ideas developed was BAFTA winning ‘Last Commanders’ for CBBC.

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03/10 –03/15 - Executive Producer  and Head of CBBC Development - BBC Scotland Children's Department.

With a very small development team, I successfully secured numerous commissions most of which became returning formats and many of which I Executive Produced:

• 'All Over The Place'  - 15 x 30 mins - Ran for 10 series

       BAFTA nominated travelogue series with numerous presenters. I devised and developed this format and the series and Executive        P           Produced the first 4 series.                                  

• 'Blow Your Mind' – 20 x 15 mins   Ran for 2 series                   

       Developed following a conversation with the CBBC commissioner who needed a series to make best use of a small amount of                           commissioning budget she had. I collaborated with BBC Science Dept and developed and Executive produced this archive based science         show, using existing BBC Science archive, recording new links with Dr’s Chris and Xand Van Tulleken, to make it relevant to a younger             audience.

• 'Who Let The Dogs Out?' – 15 x 30 mins - Ran for 3 series with 2 x spin off series.

       Fact/Ents series following kids training their dogs to do remarkable stunts, guided by American dog trainer, Zak George (Animal Planet)             and Britain's Got Talent winners  Ashley and Pudsey . The first 2 series were voiced by Rik Mayall, the last series by Iain Stirling. 

• 'Who Let the Dogs Out – Best in Show' – Spin off Compilations series

• 'Super Human Challenge' - 10 x 30 mins 

       Fact/ Ents Science series following real life super humans, taking on impossible challenges, filmed internationally.

• 'OOglies'  - I secured numerous re commissions including stop frame animation OOglies, which I refreshed and re-developed working closely with i   

      independent animation house, Kolik Films. I went onto Executive Produce this BAFTA winning series.

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I also developed the following titles that were Exec Produced by other Executive Producers in the department:

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• 'Comic Relief Does Glee Club' - Live, studio, entertainment knock-out competition series for Comic relief (this ran for 3 series over 3 years).

• 'Who Let the Dogs Out and About' – Spin off road-show series of the   popular CBBC series.

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05/08 – 03/10 - Series Producer - 'Ed and Oucho’s Excellent Inventions' (Series 1 and 2)– CBBC - BBC Scotland Children’s

Dept.

I devised this fact/ents comedy / engineering series as a vehicle for presenter, Ed Petrie and sidekick Oucho for CBBC, before going onto Series Produce 2 series which saw us making kid’s fantastical inventions a reality. 

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09/07 – 05/08 - Development Producer – BBC Scotland Children’s Dept.

I joined BBC Scotland to produce a small development tea. AS well as securing recommissions I successfully gained a new fact/ents commission ‘Ed and Oucho’s ‘Excellent Inventions’.

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05/07 – 08/07 - Series Producer - ‘Smile’ – CBBC/BBC2 – Darrall MacQueen

2 hour live children’s Sunday morning studio magazine show was based around studio competitions and on line games.

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11/06 – 04/07 - Series Producer – ‘Sex in Court’– Channel 4 & E4 – Ricochet

This controversial series saw couples taking their partner to ‘sex court’ over crimes in the bedroom! As well as the huge challenge of casting great contributors, we also cast a number of new on screen TV talent including, courtroom doctor, Dr Christian Jesson.

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09/06-11/06 - Producer/Director - 'The Big Idea' – Sky TV- Ricochet

I directed the inventor heats for this event based invention show. Directing strong personalities on location I then became the main edit producer, managing a team of 6 AP’s to cut insert VT packages for both the pre-recorded studio shows and the live final.

 

02/06 – 04/06 – Producer/Director - ‘Wife Swap’ – Channel 4 - RDF

I was a producer/director for this often difficult and explosive ob doc. Flexibility, decisiveness, strong editorial judgment, good management skills and a calm nature were imperative on this series.

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09/05 – 02/06 – Producer/Director - ‘It’s Me or The Dog’ - Channel 4 - Ricochet

Formatted series shot in people’s homes, following a dog trainer, ‘fixing/ problem dogs. Flexibility and the ability to think on your feet was crucial to tell the story in the clearest and most entertaining way.

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03/05 – 08/05 – Series Producer – ‘Heroes of History’ - Channel 5 - TalkbackThames

I co-produced and directed this entertainment / history children’s series.

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03/04 – 03/05 – Producer/Director - ‘How Not To Decorate’ (Series 1,2,3) –Channel 5 - Ricochet

This interior design series followed designers Colin and Justin as they made over people’s houses. I directed and edited the pilot episode for this series and then became a regular Producer/Director for the following series including a number of celebrity specials.

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10/03 – 05/04 – Directing AP- 'Stitch Up!’ (Series 1,2,3) CBBC

This hidden camera children’s prank show led me to have a strong understanding of innovative ways of shooting and to be well across editorial policy.

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03/01 – 09/01 – Directing AP - 'Bring It On' – CBBC

This half hour ob doc followed presenters learning how to do different and unusual jobs.

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05/1998 – 03/01 – Assistant Producer / Researcher - 'Live and Kicking' – BBC 1

I worked on 3 series of this, Saturday morning show, presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston.

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01/98 – 05/98 – Assistant Producer - 'The Holiday Show' - BBC 1

I directed numerous of insert VT’s in a variety of countries for this prime time travel show.

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1993 – 1997 A.P./Researcher/Runner - 'This Morning' –ITV - Granada TV

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OTHER INFORMATION

Inclusivity is very important to me and I have been involved in a number of Diversity initiatives. Recently I produced and fronted the ‘Best Practice Session’ for the Delivering Production Diversity day for the BBC and whilst I was an Executive Producer at BBC Scotland I headed up BBC Scotland’s In House Disability Diversity Awareness Initiative, working with peers across the whole BBC.

I am passionate about building the TV industry in Scotland. I'm a mentor for two people through ScreenSkills and a member of RTS.

 

I was part of a year long BBC Leadership Essentials Course, giving me many useful management tools and insights. I am across BBC and Ofcom Editorial guidelines. Having worked a lot with Children throughout my career, I have good knowledge of the guidelines when working with Children, including working hours and child licensing. I have completed First Option Health and Safety of Productions, BBC Safeguarding Trust Course, BBC Ideas Coaching Course, BBC Data Protection Course, BBC Safe Management of Productions Course, Music Copyright, Working with Children, Diversity, Fair Trading courses.

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DIVERSITY

I have mild epilepsy but this is well managed with medication and does not affect my day to day working and I do not have any specific requirements. I hold a full driving license.

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EDUCATION

BA Hons – Classical Studies / History  

  

REFEREES (on request)

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