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Ian Duncan - Company Director
Ian is widely recognised as being one of the most visually gifted, original and imaginative film directors of his generation.
He has devised striking and highly evocative ways of bringing the
past to life in science and historical documentaries. Many of his films
are now considered to be classics of the genre, and their innovative
visual ideas have been widely copied. Standout films include The
Elements (RTS Award) The Curse of the Methuselah Tree (Best
Environmental Film, Jackson Hole,) The Dambusters (RTS Award), Playing
Out, and the recent major BBC drama documentary about the sinking of
HMS Coventry, Sea of Fire.
Originally a painter, and famous for having created an utterly
convincing French Revolution with five people and discontinued East
German black and white film stock (“which has beautiful grain the
size of golfballs”), Ian makes a creative virtue out of any
limitation placed on him by budget or commissioner, seeing it as a
formal challenge. Having a complete understanding of the tools of his
trade, he uses the full palette of different film stocks, video formats
and post production tricks to maximum creative effect. His confident
hand developed the breathtaking visual style – the
“Windfall look” - evident in such series as Men of
Iron, Escape From Colditz , Commando and The Real SAS.
A single foray into wildlife documentary revolutionized the
genre. The Ultimate Guide to Elephants won numerous awards for
the Discovery Channel for its innovative approach, and became the model
programme for this groundbreaking series.
Ian has also made powerful cinematic drama for television, often
experimenting with new ways of involving real people in fictional
stories. Twockers, a landmark BBC drama, was entirely
improvised. Ian used the stark landscape of West
Yorkshire to tell the story of a group of Northern lads looking for
love and excitement in the barren wastelands of Halifax.
Equally accomplished in both drama and documentary disciplines, Ian has
developed with Oliver Morse novel ways of making films which combine
the strengths of both. – Films such as
Born With Two Mothers and Richard is My Boyfriend have been recognised
not only for their innovative form, emotional power and intellectual
interest, but also for the beauty with which they were realized.
Ian continues to develop the drama slate for Windfall, whilst acting as
Executive Producer and creative advisor on two major new Windfall
documentary series currently in production.
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