Few people can claim to have had such a massive impact on the field of natural history as Sir David Attenborough. Over the span of nearly 60 years, Attenborough has presented the natural world to the viewing public in ever more fresh and exciting ways, always suffused with a passion for the animals and plants that inhabit it.
With one of the most distinctive and recognisable voices in television, he has narrated over 250 wildlife documentaries, becoming the sound of nature for generations of audiences. In addition, he was controller of BBC2 from 1965 to 1969, and has campaigned to raise awareness for the environment.
For Wild City, Sir David examines the unique and amazing creatures of Singapore, showing the amazing diversity of the urban and hidden environments that live in the city.
As one of the founding partners of BHP, Jocelyn oversees company operations and international co-productions, forging partnerships with global brands that include Nat Geo, Discovery, A&E Networks, Lonely Planet, Fox Sports, NBC Universal and BBC Worldwide. As Executive Producer, she supervises over 30 hours of content a year covering a range of factual genres.In 2011, she spearheaded BHP’s move into factual formats, producing programs such as Hot Guys Who Cook (DIVA Universal). 2013 saw Jocelyn oversee BHP’s expansion into three divisions including Beach House Pictures (factual), Beach House Kids (children’s TV) and Beach House Entertainment (reality formats). Jocelyn’s extensive program credits include 12 engineering documentaries under the Man Made Marvel series (Discovery Channel) and over 15 hours of Stereoscopic 3D programs for 3net and Nat Geo International. In the travel space, she oversaw 25 hours of Lonely Planet Six Degrees (Lonely Planet TV) and in the documentary genre, multiple seasons of the award winning China First Time Filmmakers and Afterlife (Discovery Channel). With Nat Geo, she also produced Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled, Malaysian Journey with Jason Scott Lee and Bodysnatchers of Bangkok (Best Documentary – ATV Awards & NGC/EDB Awards). Jocelyn is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is on the panel of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency’s Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) system.
Donovan is a founding partner of BHP and spearheads content development. He also executive produces, writes and directs many of the company’s international productions, and is overseeing BHP’s expansion into reality formats and brand funded programming. One of Asia’s most experienced factual filmmakers, Donovan has worked on award winning shows including Lonely Planet Six Degrees for TLC (Best Entertainment & Best Editing – Asian TV Awards), Asia’s Deadliest Snakes for Nat Geo Wild (Silver World Medal – New York Festivals) and Megastructures: Singapore’s Vegas for Nat Geo International (Silver World Medal – New York Festivals). He is an expert in science and engineering programs such as Man-Made Marvels (Discovery Channel) and Innovasians for Nat Geo (Finalist – New York Festivals). Donovan was a key creative in the Nat Geo Adventure and Travel Channel series Lonely Planet Roads Less Travelled, the Star Sports series Freedom Riders Asia (Best Cross Platform Program, Asian TV Awards) and co-created Hidden Cities for HISTORY Asia, as well as the hugely popular spin off Hidden Cities Extreme. Donovan was also instrumental in producing ground breaking Stereo 3D documentaries for 3net (Jewels of the World, Secrets of Shaolin with Jason Scott Lee) and Nat Geo International (Fight Club Asia) and is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
As a producer and director of wildlife and science documentary for twenty-five years, John has produced highly rated shows for BBC, Discovery, National Geographic and many other well-known broadcasters. He led the team that made Beach House Pictures’ Asia’s Deadliest Snakes, shot in Singapore, India, Bali and Malaysia. The show won the silver medal in Natural History in the 2012 New York Film Festival. Trained in the world-renown BBC Natural History Unit John has an in depth background in revelatory filming technology that can be applied with great success to filming the natural history of Singapore to delight and surprise the audience.
Recent highlights include Valley of the Sharks, filmed in French Polynesia during 2013, in which John led and directed three underwater shoots on ultra high definition 4K cameras.
Also in 2013, a documentary John shot and directed, called Great White Triangle, pioneered Discovery’s first ever web-based Shark Week documentary. In 2011 John produced Hunt for the Giant Squid, a show using revelatory night camera technology to film deep-sea creatures in total darkness. The programme received the best ever ratings for National Geographic Expedition Week.
From producing iconic images across the Emmy Award winning Blue Planet series to directing actors inside a WW2 U-boat or following venomous snakes throughout Asia, John has a wide cross-genre experience including blue chip natural history, drama, presenter led science shows and the web.
Andrew Scott is a Filmmaker and Marine Biologist from Banff, Scotland. Bringing his twin passions for wildlife and documentary filmmaking, Andrew began his career writing and co-directing with the acclaimed short film “Tangled Waters”, which blended factual content with comedy to tell the tale of the only anti-shark nets in New Zealand. Since then he has worked as a development producer at NHNZ, working on shows like “LA Frock Stars”, “Built for the Kill” and “Big Pacific”.
More recently he was an assistant producer, diver and cameraman on “Our Big Blue Backyard”, a landmark natural history series about New Zealand’s marine life. Spending weeks at sea and on uninhabited islands, the series has been a high point in his career so far. Relocating to Singapore with Beach House Pictures, Andrew helped to develop Singapore: Wild City, and eagerly lent his skills for what will be an unforgettable television experience.
Claire’s love of wildlife and natural history saw her initially pursue a career in conservation and wildlife communication. During this time she spent a year living and working in a remote Chinese mountain amongst wild Giant panda’s; tagged Australian sea lions on uninhabited islands in South Australia; and travelled South East Asia capturing footage of wildlife in National Parks. Combining wildlife and film led to a new career in documentary film and after completing a Masters in Natural History film making in New Zealand she has worked primarily on natural history productions at NHNZ and Beach House Pictures. These include “Wild About New Zealand” a landmark 6 part series on New Zealand’s National Parks. Shot over one year, Claire was the primary researcher, producer and 2nd cameraperson. During the 14 weeks in the field, Claire spent hours in helicopters, climbing snowy alps, caving, micro-lighting, boating and even horse riding, all with a camera in hand. This was a definite high point in Claire’s filming career.
Other productions include producer, director and cameraperson for “Mystery Bird”, a short film about a quirky rare NZ sea bird; topside cameraperson for a section of “Our Big Blue Backyard” another recent NZ natural history series; and a short independent film for the BBC Knowledge “A Bach Somewhere” depicting remote living in New Zealand. In Singapore Claire has worked as a director and cameraperson on “ZooMoo”, a children’s animal and wildlife education channel currently on Starhub and most recently Wild City.
Syafiqah joined Beach House Pictures in 2012. Since then she has written and produced a number of international productions including two seasons of the highly rated travel adventure series “Hidden Cities Extreme” for History Channel. One of her biggest highlights for BHP was writing and post directing “Outback Rangers” (Animal Planet and Eden TV), an action-packed 10x30min series that follows rangers in Kakadu National Park on their quests to preserve the pristine outback wilderness. Her most recent work sees her field directing and post producing season 2 of the award-winning ‘Kids Vs Film’ (Discovery Kids) reality series where kids get to direct, shoot and edit their own Discovery-style mini documentaries. A journalism major, Syafiqah’s passion for storytelling has also taken her to Pakistan where she spent many weeks traversing and documenting the remote Karakoram Highway.
For the past 8 years, Shalini has produced and production managed extensively for Mediacorp Channel 5 (Delivering Suzy, Against All Odds), Channel News Asia (Trail Blazers, Bridging Giants), Suria (Wasiat, Mata) and Vasantham (Saj & Kumar, Rehai, Helping Hands). The projects Rehai and Helping Hands scored Best Reality Series and Best Drama at the annual Vasantham Awards show. On the international front, Shalini produced a series of vignettes for CNN Japan featuring famous brands like Mizuho, Sumitomo, TDK and Mitsubishi. She was involved in the documentary Hip Korea for Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific. Shalini was also a committee member of the 2014 Asian Side of the Doc Festival, a yearly event that promotes co‐productions between Asia and the rest of the world.