The Broadcast Digital Awards

The Broadcast Digital Awards celebrates the most creative and innovative digital content from across the UK. The Shortlist has just been announced.

Congratulations to all the nominees. It’s fantastic to see lots of projects that our wonderful clients have made and our talented editors have worked on have been nominated.

Huggy and Rich Lester worked on The Royal Mob for Nutopia which has been nominated in the ‘Gamechanger Programme of the Year’ category.

Franco Bogino spent 6 months edited Scouting for Girls: Fashion’s Darkest Secret for Wonderhood Studios which has been nominated in the ‘Best Documentary Programme’ category.

Entertainment guru, Tim Fielding, worked on The Masked Singer which has been nominated in the ‘Best Digital Support for a Programme’ category.

Worlds Most Dangerous Road for Renegade Pictures has been nominated in the ‘ Best Popular Factual Programme’ category and had editors Andreas Torner and Dan Wilkes working on it.

Ian Smith and Mike Kerr worked on Married at First Sight for CPL productions which has been nominated in the  ‘Best Popular Factual Programme’ category.

The Evolution of Black British Music is up for yet another award,  produced by Fan Studios and has been nominated for ‘Best Specialist Factual Programme’, edited by Sam Thompsett, who is still basking from the glory of the RTS Awards!

Paul Holland edited Mother Teresa: For the Love of God for Minnow Films which has been nominated in the ‘Best Documentary’ Category.

Tom Savage worked on Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star which has been nominated in the ‘Best Content Partnership’ category.

Congratulations to our editors and clients for their well deserved recognition! The winners will be revealed at our live awards ceremony on 5th July.

James May: Oh Cook! Series 2

Plum Pictures for Amazon Prime

Exec Producer: Will Daws

Editor: Roy Williams & Simon Mackenzie

Image: Netflix

James May is back with series two of his culinary series James May Oh Cook!

Series 2 sees motoring enthusiast, world traveller, and novice home cook James May continue on his journey from “kitchen klutz to capable cook”.  Known for his witty humour and distinctive style, May aims to teach viewers how to make the world’s most mouth-watering dishes, using ingredients you can buy from your local shop.

Roy Williams has worked on many James series and edited the first series of Oh Cook back in 2020 during the dreaded pandemic. Roy has some interesting insights into the edit “With the first series being edited right at the start of lockdown, it enabled us to develop workflows that then worked well across the 2nd series which made remote working easier altogether”.

Simon Mackenzie edited the Vegan episode which was full of drama. Simon told us that thanks to the multicamera fixed rig set up and the amazing team at Plum grouping the shots, the edit was straightforward from a technical point of view. The main challenge on this episode was to pick out the best story bits as there were so many! Simon divulged: ‘My episode was full of fun moments in which the audience gets to peek behind the scenes as, quite accidentally, James smoked out the whole place which precipitated a series of events from the fire alarm being set off to the Executive from Amazon nearly choking on the smoke from the chillies and having to leave the set.’ Who knew Vegan cuisine could be so adventurous…

Get your aprons at the ready! The second season of Oh Cook! will premiere on May 24th May on Amazon Prime.

Rich & Shameless: Series 2

Raw TV for TNT

Executive Producers: George Waldrum, Glenn Barden

Editors: Charlie Webb, Phil Bowman & Rob Trela

Produced by Raw, this original true-crime anthology series tells the shocking, real stories of the consequences that come with great wealth in the sports world. Catch the trailer HERE.

Rich and Shameless returns for a second season, using a combination of powerful interviews and unique archive, to go behind the public façade and reveal the dangers of great prosperity. Subjects include Dennis Rodman’s stolen millions, Hulk Hogan’s leaked sex tape, a Patriots line-backer caught in a deadly love triangle and the murder of NBA star Lorenzen Wright.

Three of the faction’s editors were working on this series, Rob Trela cut episode 4 – A Deadly Football Hit recounting the gripping true story of Eric Naposli, the former NFL line-backer for the Patriots, who got caught up in a bizarre love triangle and is now serving life in prison for murder.

Charlie Webb worked on Episode 7, Murder, Fight-Fixing and the White Don King. Charlie loved the team he was working with on this series and was excited to get started as the stories were strong, each with their own voice and unique style. When we spoke to Charlie he enthused;  ‘it was one of the greatest stories I’ve ever worked on! It was straight out of a Hollywood movie, with many twists and turns, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat throughout. Fascinating!’

Phil Bowman was director and editor of the ‘Dirty Moneyball’ episode and dug into the project to find a creative way to fill the gaps between archive and interviews to engage the audience in the story. Phil said; ‘the biggest challenge in pre-production was figuring out how to visualise a story that takes place on quite a large scale, with multiple characters and locations. A drama recon shoot was out of the question. So I reached out to award-winning miniatures artist Clemens Wirth over in Austria, and enrolled him to help bring the epic story to life, using 2cm tall plastic figures and some cardboard 😉 Clemens is a true artist, and he did an amazing job. Due to the scale we were working at we were able to put anything on screen from crane shots over baseball stadiums and police shootouts at an airport. The miniatures work took 3 months from start to finish. 1 month of prep and 2 months of shooting which took place alongside the documentary shoot in Miami and the edit back in London.’

The next Ep, Ep2 “Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker” Premieres Wednesday 17th May on TNT.

Episodes will be available to steam on HBO Max.

Grand Designs: The Streets Series 3

Naked Entertainment for Channel 4

Editor: Steve FlattEpisodes 1,2,3 and 4

Series Producer: Ned Williams

Exec Producer: John Comerford

Photo: Channel 4

Kevin McCloud is back for Series 3 of Grand Designs: The Streets. He follows more innovative community projects across the UK and revisits the self-builds in Graven Hill and Glasgow with co-presenter Natasha Huq.

In this series, two families from Yorkshire attempt to build a new street. Nicola is designing and project-managing a traditional redbrick family home with a modern twist, unfortunately her triangular window, the centrepiece of her vision, does not fit upon arrival! Down the street Matt and Maryellen are building a Brazilian-inspired home. Steelworker Matt is keen to showcase his work but Maryellen fears it will make the building feel industrial.

Steve Flatt loved working on the show with Series Producer Ned Williams. It was a challenge cutting it in regards to the huge amount of footage they had to go through and jumping between various episodes whilst waiting for rushes. Steve cut episodes 1 to 4.

Grand Designs: The Streets Series 3 starts Tuesday 16th May 9pm on Channel 4

Eurovision Postcards 2023

Windfall Films for BBC

Editors: Dominic Lester & Richard Lester (no they’re not brothers)

Get your fancy dress ready, yes it’s here, watched by over 160 million across the globe- it’s the Eurovision!

Digital postcards have been designed to introduce the audience to each participating act during the semi-finale and finale of the contest, the famous Eurovision Postcards will this year use pioneering drone technology and 360-degree cameras to take viewers seamlessly between locations across Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and each participating country.

Dom Lester has been working tirelessly with Windfall since February to edit these iconic postcards and has thoroughly enjoyed himself! He comments: Windfall did an amazing job on a hotly anticipated event with a huge amount of expectation.  It was so busy that at times it felt like I was working in a news room – hearing the crews coming and going, discussing the different locations and challenges they each would bring. 

This project was given the green light in December 2022 and had to be delivered by March 2023. The concept required filming in 111 locations, from Iceland to Australia, and of course filming in a war zone in Ukraine, and all requiring specialist crews.

Each postcard had 4 external 360 footage graphic elements plus text elements generated in unison with other partners involved in creating the show. It was amazing to be apart of such a great team on such an amazing project.

Obviously Satu was very worried about which editor was in charge of Finland, but it was in the safe hands of Rich Lester. He reports: It was great to discover and work with so many beautiful locations, artists and themes, with a wonderful team. I feel the tiny worlds and flip transitions add a unique dimension to the postcards and help unite the Ukraine, UK and host countries together in an interesting way. The talent were all taking part in different activities, which was also fun to craft into short stories.

The Semi-Finals have been on all week and the final is on this Saturday, Satu will be wearing her traditional Finnish costume for the big event – The Finns have not disappointed with their entry for this year…

Daytime Emmy Nominations 2023

The Daytime Emmy Awards have recognised outstanding achievements in television programming and crafts since 1974 and we are super proud to see Satusfaction editors’ work be nominated in this years, the 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards!

Richard ‘Huggy’ Lace

Roy Williams

Belle Borgeaud

Huggy has been showing off all morning, practising his speech in the mirror as he’s been invited to L.A. for the Emmys! Huggy edited Hidden Life of Pets for Oxford Scientific Films. This factual series for ITV and Netflix takes a look at the weird and wonderful antics of people’s pets from around the world, interspersed with studio experiments based on scientific study. It has been nominated in not one but five Categories! Categories include ‘Single Camera Editing’ and ‘Sound Mixing and Sound Editing’.  We are super proud as this recognition reflects his exceptional editing skills and creativity. Well done to Huggy and the team at Oxford Scientific.

Photo: NATAS/CBS

For the Love of Kitchens has been nominated in the ‘Lifestyle Programme’ category. Roy Williams worked on series one and two in which DeVOL, an England-based furniture manufacturer works with talented craftspeople to design stunning kitchens and interiors for clients. The series is made by Betty TV for Discovery and Magnolia Network. Well done Roy and the team at Betty TV.

Last but certainly not least,  Jose Andres and Family in Spain has been nominated in the Culinary Series Category. We loved this series for Discovery +. The world-famous Spanish chef and humanitarian, along with his daughters, embark on an epic family adventure to experience their homeland like never before. Belle Borgeaud edited the “Andalucia” Episode. Congratulations to Belle and the team at Nutopia.

A huge congratulations to Huggy, Roy and Belle and well done and good luck to all of the nominees.

The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be broadcast Friday 16h June on CBS

Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir

Drum Studios for Sky Arts

Wednesday 19th April

Exec Producers: Danny Carvalho & Sadia Butt

Editors: Joe Swanson, Brian Campbell, Mohsin Bhatti and Jonnie Case

New Series Alert!

Painting Birds is a delightful new comedic, ornithological series.  Before his comedy days Jim Moir was an artist and he has now returned to his life long passion. Jim and his wife Nancy explore some of Britain’s best beauty spots, joined along the way by a few famous friends every week. Their challenge is to create an original piece of bird art celebrating the unique species native to that region over the course of a weekend.

The series had a herd of Faction editors who all had a great time working with Drum Studios on the show.

Mohsin Bhatti who edited Episode 1 said “’Jim and Nancy were a joy to edit because they have such a laugh along the way – looking forward to working on Series 2!”.

Joe Swanson did the stunning Scotland episode and discussed, “I loved working on it. One of the nicest jobs I’ve ever done. Beautifully shot, lovely team and all from the comfort of my home suite!”.

Brian Campbell shared his experience and explained: “I now know what a Chough is, where to spot them, and how to paint them, (I haven’t seen any since making the programme though). It was quite a relaxed edit, watching someone paint. At the end of the episode when Jim took his finished Chough to the gallery owner selling his work – she loved it – which was a very similar reaction from the Exec on the series when she viewed our episode. I’d like to say she was well-chuffed, but there were far too many Chough gags in the show already! A good series, working with nice people, and birds.

The series gets The Critics Choice in the Times and starts on Wednesday 19th April.  Check it out on Sky Arts / NOW at 9pm.  

Secrets of the Elephants

Released on 21st April on World Earth Day

Exec Producer: Caroline Hawkins

Editor: Dom Lester

Oxford Scientific Films for National Geographic / Disney +

Secrets of The Elephants. Oxford Scientific / National Geographic

National Geographic has a brand new four part documentary series coming to our screens on Earth Day ‘Secrets of the Elephants’.

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron, the series travels the world from the Savannahs of Africa to the urban landscapes of Asia to discover the strategic thinking, complex emotions and sophisticated language of elephants. It’s narrated by Natalie Portman and features renowned National Geographic Explorer and elephant expert Dr Paula Kahumbu.

The four episodes each follow elephants in different terrains and challenges.  Dom Lester edited Episode two which focuses on Elephants in the Savannah. He informed us that Savannah elephants live in huge herds due to the abundant food and space, this means they are possibly the most socially developed, loving and caring elephants. They also pass down knowledge from one generation to the next through language and lessons.  He said This is illustrated in some of the grandest of events I’ve had the pleasure of cutting. They are empathetic towards each other and have intelligent rituals passed down from generations that elephants from other parts of the world don’t”.

Summing up the edit experience on this one, Dom said that “It’s amazing the detail this show goes into and how much fun it’s been, we had so many great stories and footage that ended up on the cutting room floor as we worked to find the best episodes.  All turned round in an incredibly short amount of time from commission to delivery”.

It sounds like an incredible series and with Nat Geo stating that Secrets of the Elephants will change everything you thought you knew about elephants forever, we can’t wait to watch!

Secrets of the Elephants will be aired on Earth Day on 21st April on National Geographic / Disney +

A night at the RTS Awards

The Faction ladies glammed up last night and escorted editors Abraham T, Graham Taylor and Sam Thompsett to the RTS Awards.

In the Arts Category The Evolution of Black British Music  (Fan Studios & Motion Content Group for BET UK) won, a huge congratulations to Sam and all the team.

Gazza won in the Documentary Series category.  Graham Taylor sweated blood and tears over this edit, he’s seen the project through from its inception and his hard work has really paid off – congratulations GT and Director Sam Collins.

Louisa, Satu and Sophie had a fabulous time, and even stayed up until 2.30am (they still have it in them..)

A fabulous night was had by all!

BAFTA TV Award Nominations 2023

Image Credit: Getty

Award season is here, the BAFTA nominations have been announced and it’s been a bumper crop for the Faction editors!

The ‘Current Affairs’ category includes ‘The Crossing: Exposure’ documentary which was edited by Ella Newton. This documentary has already won the RTS Television Journalist Award 2023 for Current Affairs-Home – bit showy offy Ella!

In comedy Rosie Jones is nominated in the ‘Best Entertainment Performance’ category for Rosie Jones: Trip Hazard. Connor Snedecor and Dan Knight both edited episodes from the series.

Tim Fielding worked on two series which are in the running; The Masked Singer and also The Traitors which was a new commission for the BBC last year and was a real ratings hit!

Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams has been nominated under ‘Reality and Constructed Factual’, Southshore bought in Charlie Webb to help finish Episode 2 and he thoroughly enjoyed working on this heart-warming series.

Graham Taylor is trying to compete with Ella for the most awards, Graham edited episode one of  ‘Aids: The Unheard Tapes’ which is in the ‘Specialist Factual’ category, it has already been nominated for an RTS Award!

Lastly David Abramsky had great fun editing Taskmasters which is up for Comedy Entertainment and Lem Lawrence worked on the FX for Somewhere Boy which is up for Best Drama series.

Congratulations and good luck to all of the nominees!

The BAFTA Television Craft Awards will take place on Sunday 23 April and will be hosted by comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathanand. It will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 14 May at 7pm.

Sunderland Til I Die: Series 3

Editor: Jake Lofdahl Exec Producers: Benjamin Turner & Leo Pearlman Fulwell 73 for Netflix Picture: Netflix Confirmed to be the final season with just three episodes, Sunderland Til I Die returns to Netflix on 13th February.  Jake Lofdahl was co-editor on Episode 1. The returning sports ob… Read More

The Traitors USA Series 2

Editor: James Sheldon Exec Producer: Sam Rees-Jones Studio Lambert for Peacock and BBC 12th Jan 2024 The Traitors USA Series 2: Peacock. Official Trailer This immensely popular show was a real viewings winner and is back for a second series. It’s hosted by Alan Cumming and the US cast… Read More

Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife

Nutopia for Netflix Premieres: 29th November Editor: Franco Bogino Director: Ben Steele This documentary series explores the rise and then dramatic downfall of the ‘superstar surgeon’ Paolo Macchiarini. In 2011, Macchiarini was heralded for revolutionizing transplant medicine with his groundbreaking alternative to organ donation , plastic windpipes that seemed… Read More

Robbie Williams

RSA Films for Netflix Exec Producer: Asif Kapadia & Dominic Crossley-Holland Dir. Joe Pearlman Editor: Jamie Williams Eps 1 & 2 Released 8th November Netflix are calling this this four-part documentary series raw, honest and real. This biopic docuseries looks at British pop superstar, Robbie Williams.  One of… Read More

Brawn: The Impossible Formula One Story

North One for Disney+ 15th November 2023 Exec Producers: Neil Duncanson and Keanu Reeves Editors Matt Lowe, Jayesh Lathia Felix Black and Bahader Mattu This filmic four-part documentary series with Keanu Reeves uses interviews and archive to tell the incredible story of Ross Brawn who led a… Read More

Who Killed Jill Dando?

Empress Films for Netflix Director: Marcus Plowright Executive Producer: Emma Cooper Editor: Abraham Teweldebrhan In 1999 BBC presenter Jill Dando was sadly shot dead outside her home in west London, her murder led to a high profile and complex investigation. A suspect, Barry George was convicted and imprisoned for… Read More

AP Dhillon: First of a Kind

Passion Pictures for Amazon Prime Exec Producer: Amy Foster Series Director: Jay Ahmed, Editor: Sarjit Bains Premieres 18th August This four part fly on the wall docuseries delves into the life of Amritpal Singh Dhillon, the self-made superstar known globally as AP Dhillon. He is known for his tracks… Read More