We Work With the Best

Prospero consistently sources the best crew in the business, establishing relationships that span multiple productions and friendships that extend long after filming has wrapped.

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  • Ed Punchard

    Managing Director

    • Email
    • Phone (+61) 8 9336 6006

    Ed Punchard is a Managing Director of Prospero Productions. He has produced many internationally award-winning documentaries.

    In 1988 Ed survived the world’s worst ever offshore oil rig disaster on board the Piper Alpha in the North Sea, when it exploded with the loss of 167 lives.

    This incident ended Ed’s eight year career offshore and began his role as a documentary film-maker. He advised in the making of programmes for World in Action ITV, First Tuesday ITV, Yorkshire Television and BBC Panorama.

    In 1991 he established Prospero Productions in Fremantle, Western Australia. Ed’s many producer credits include Paying for the Piper (San Francisco Golden Spire Award for Best Television in Current Events), Hutan – Wildlife of the Malaysian Rainforest (Silver Medal – New York Festivals), Diving School (Western Australian Screen Awards, Outstanding Achievement), Selling Australia (2001 Chicago International Television Competition, Certificate of Merit) and the two recent documentary series Aussie Animal Rescue and Shipwreck Detectives.

    Ed joined the ScreenWest board in 1998. In 2001 he became the Chair of the ScreenWest board.

  • Julia Redwood

    Managing Director

    • Email
    • Phone (+61) 8 9336 6006

    Julia Redwood established Prospero Productions with Ed Punchard in Perth in 1991. In addition to being joint Managing Director, Julia is a multi award winning Producer, Director and Writer. In 1998 her directorial debut “Paying for the Piper” was nominated for two AFI awards and won the Golden Spire Award at the 2000 San Francisco Film Festival.

    Her role within Prospero spans a broad spectrum; in addition to overseeing production and the research and development of new ideas, she heads up the marketing and distribution overseas of new and completed projects.

    Julia is currently a member of the Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA) and the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) – this coupled with her extensive creative talents and many years of experience in the marketplace makes Julia one of the leading figures in the Western Australian film industry.

  • Philip Bull

    Cinematographer

    Phil is an award winning cinematographer who has worked in the documentary industry for over 25 years. In that time he has worked extensively on films and series for Australian and International networks including the BBC, National Geographic, SBS and the ABC and Channel Ten. Recent credits include 4 series of the popular Bondi Rescue, Honey Bee Blues, Once Bitten, Bali Rescue, Seed Hunter, Stressbuster as well as Eco House Challenge, Snakebuster and most recently, Navy Divers for Prospero Productions.

    “In observational cinematography, technical competence is a given. The real secret, is to understand people and to give them confidence in the presence of the camera”.

  • Malcolm Ludgate

    Cinematographer ACS

    Malcolm is a director of photography and cinematographer who has worked extensively in Australia and overseas. He is one of the industries leading providers of underwater camera expertise. His underwater camerawork has taken him to Antarctica where he filmed the renowned Imax film Antarctica. He has also worked as underwater Director of Photography on numerous documentaries, commercials and feature films including 20 white shark expeditions. Other recent credits include Venom Hunters with Discovery’s wildlife presenter Nigel Marvin, award winning documentary Cuttlefish – The Brainy Bunch and Prospero projects Shipwreck Detectives and Navy Divers for the ABC.

    “I like to be challenged when making films both underwater and on land. Prospero has given me some of my greatest challenges from Antarctica to the murky waters of Britain”

  • Lawrie Silvestrin

    Editor, Sound Editor

    Lawrence has worked as a drama and documentary picture and sound editor and post production supervisor for more than twenty five years. During that time he has been nominated for three AFI Awards and a Golden Reel Award – winning an AFI Award for Best Sound Editing. His documentary credits include the recent Cracking The Colour Code, The Hunt for HMAS Sydney, Bom Bali, the AFI nominated The Black Road (which won Best Documentary and Best Film at the 2006 Mumbai International Film Festival) Who Do You Think You Are and for Prospero, Paying for the Piper, Pipe Dreams, Snakebuster and Shipwreck Detectives series 1& 2 and most recently, feature length documentary for National Geographic, Death of the Megabeasts.

    “Prospero’s focus on character-based films with strong dramatic storylines, along with their commitment to excellence, has made my work with them some of the most rewarding of my career”.

  • Russell Vines

    Director

    Russell began his work as a documentary maker with the film Fungimentary: The Magic Mushrooms of Balingup (1995). With this film he was named best young filmmaker at the Western Australian Film and Television Awards. Russell has continued to work in documentary. Recent credits include: The Junction House Blues (2005) Eco House Challenge (2006), Desperately Keeping Sheila, Stressbusters and Navy Divers (2007/2008). He directed the one hour science documentary for BBC Scotland Heartbreak Science, currently in post production.

  • Franco Di Chiera

    Director/writer

    Franco Di Chiera is one of Australia’s most successful filmmakers with some of Australia’s the highest rating documentaries to his name including No Milk, No Honey (1997), Auto Stories (2000) Hoover’s Gold and Trafficked (2005). He directed and co-wrote the dramatised documentary Pipe Dreams, part of ABC’s flagship 2007 series Constructing Australia and later that year directed the Ita Buttrose and Denis Cometti episodes of the series Who do you think you are? Drama credits include Bad News Batchelors (1990) the AFI award winning TV mini-series Best Wishes – Under The Skin (1994) and Three Forever (2000). His most recent films include The Fabulous Flag Sisters, In the Mouth of the Wolf and Death of the Megabeasts.

  • Rhian Skirving

    Director

    Rhian Skirving developed her craft at Prospero, joining the company as a researcher before going on to become a successful director notably with two powerful and award winning ob-docs, The Kindness of Strangers which explored the science of altruism and The Darkside of Tim Minchin which followed young australian performer, Tim Minchin’s rise to fame. Prospero credits include The Shipwreck Detective II – Secrets of the Ancients (2005) three episodes of the wildlife adventure series The Snakebuster for Animal Planet (2003) and Director and Associate Producer roles on 2001’s The Shipwreck Detectives series for the ABC.

  • Ian Batt

    Cinematographer

    Ian Batt is a prolific and award-winning documentary and drama cinematographer. His recent credits include Sleepover Club 2 for the Nine network, and for the ABC, Hoover’s Gold, Air Australia, and Constructing Australia – Pipe Dreams, AE2- Gallipoli’s Submarine and Death of the Megabeasts screening soon on SBS.

  • Steve Peddie

    Director

    Since August 1997 Steve Peddie has directed over 70 hours of network televised drama and documentary in Australia and Internationally, clocking up over 40 countries with frequent assignments overseas. As a Director, Steve has also made more than half a dozen Short Features, most of which he has also written and produced. Prior to this he has worked as a cameraman on a wide variety of productions including features, documentaries, commercials, and music clips. His recent factual credits include Passage to Malaysia – Across The Seas for Discovery, The Snake Crusader for Animal Planet and Nuts and Bolts, a 13 part lifestyle series for Channel Seven.

  • Beckett Broda

    Editor

    Perth-based Editor Beckett Broda has worked in film and television since 1999.He first worked for Prospero in 2006 on the second series of the ABC show, Shipwreck Detectives and has gone on to edit numerous productions for Prospero including Eco House Challenge, Snakecrusader, Every Family’s Nightmare, Death of the Megabeasts and most recently, Heartbreak Science . Other TV credits include Surfing the Menu for Mago Films (2003/4, 2006), Saving Andrew Mallard (2006) and Desperately Keeping Sheila (2007). In 2008 he won the award for Best Editing at the West Australian Screen Awards for his work on the feature documentary The Fabulous Flag Sisters for which he was also nominated as a finalist at the recent Australian Screen Editor’s Awards.