Digital transformation for the creative and cultural industries
I have been breathing life into stories and shaping them for screen for more than twenty years. For half of that time, I have worked with The Royal Shakespeare Company as one of their producers of their filmed productions. Alongside, I’ve written books, had plays on tour, delivered programmes to all the major broadcasters, and more recently, been driving digital content strategy for organisations looking to share their stories with audiences.
Over the past twelve months as Head of Content and Digital Broadcast at Coventry UK City of Culture – I have been responsible for all content created that told the story of the City of Culture Year across online, TV, radio, podcast, film, streaming and immersive platforms. My understanding of digital first production, in all its forms, is extensive. In this role, I built and led a diverse team of content creators, editors, filmmakers, writers, social media managers, streaming experts, and TV producers to produce over 500 pieces of digital first content that supported storytelling across our year. To do so I have had to manage many complex interpersonal relationships, budgets, stakeholder agendas and organisational strategy effectively. Our output includes but is not limited to podcasts, TV programmes and series (for BBC and Sky), short film documentary, TV adverts, Tiktoks, Insta reels, Facebook posts, online adverts, live streams, pre-recorded streams – of drama, events, music, and dance, and live outside broadcasts delivered in partnership with BBC Outside Broadcast. Online, we built and curated a YouTube channel with over 1700 subscribers with a headline video at over 400,000 views, distributing digital content direct to the audience wherever they might be, giving due consideration to the wide variety of access needs amongst the public.
I’m a Screenskills Associate, an Associate Member of DirectorsUK, and a consultant to The Space. I am Course Associate on The Space’s Performance on Screen bootcamp. I’m a member of Women in Film & TV, an experienced Chair, Panellist, Public Speaker in Creative Industries and advocate for developing emerging talent. I work with big thinking and interesting collaborators to make thought-provoking work with purpose and vision.
Read what my colleagues and collaborators say about working with me…
AS PRODUCER
Over the past seven years I have worked closely with Hayley on the delivery of the complex and challenging live cinema broadcasts of Royal Shakespeare Company productions. She has proven herself as an exceptional creative producer as well as a dedicated, hard-working and utterly reliable co-ordinator of personnel, logistics, schedules, budgets, data handling, communications and much more.
Throughout all of our demanding work for the RSC Hayley has been the still, calm centre of a large team, substantial expenditure and a bunch of endlessly demanding creatives, all of which she has handled with skill, aplomb and boundless good humour.
At the same time, Hayley has produced and directed numerous documentaries for the broadcasts, identifying exactly the right stories, corralling contributors, organising shoots and edits to maximise cost-effectiveness as well as creativity, and overseeing super-smart, great-looking, informative, pacey and often very funny films. All of these films have been a joy to watch come together and I have been thrilled to feature them in and alongside the live broadcasts.
Hayley is proactive but also a great team member, she is utterly trustworthy, her level-headed common-sense is invaluable, and in general she is a joy to have as a collaborator. I very much hope that she will continue to be partner on our projects for many moons to come.
John Wyver, Director of Screen Productions, RSC
AS DIRECTOR
Hayley is simply one of the best producers and directors I’ve ever worked with. Her preparation for a shoot is impressive, from well-briefed contributors, to realistic schedules that are sympathetic to timescales. Not to mention being incredibly well researched herself on the topics in hand. Friendly and approachable, Hayley is always organised and efficient, but the real magic is the strong sense of collaboration she encourages across everyone on set, from cameras to contributors. She’s a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend working with Hayley.
Mike Johnson, Director of Photography and Managing Director at TVcameracrew.com
IN PRODUCTION
I have recently worked with Hayley on all of the very high pressured productions for the RSC Live to Cinema series of plays transmitted live to cinema. Hayley is ideal in key Producer roles with her fabulously friendly manner and extremely calm head whenever there’s a crisis. Her organisation skills are second to none and I hope I can continue to work with her on any other productions that she is involved with in the future. I should also add that Hayley is also very experienced in Directing and has worked on many documentaries and inserts for programmes too, injecting her creativity at every level. I would highly recommend Hayley for any high level Producer/Director role for which she is the perfect candidate.
Paul Barton, Sound Supervisor