New U.K.-Based Indie Producer Sets Up Shop

LONDON, March 24: Shimmer
Productions, a new independent British production company, has launched with
backing from BDP Media Group, and is set to produce home-grown multiplatform
drama and entertainment content.

Shimmer Productions will
develop its own drama ideas for TV and multiplatform distribution, as well as
work with clients to develop drama ideas that can be used to deliver specific
messages to targeted audiences.

Joanne Evans, who
co-founded the interactive agency Illumina Digital, will serve as the managing
director. Other team members include Nadine Marsh-Edwards, who was an executive
producer of The Grey Man; Lisa
Lintott, who has been working as a project management consultant for various
companies; and Amanda Jenks, formerly the director of programs at Leopardrama,
will join Shimmer Productions later this year.

“It’s an exciting time for
both drama producers and drama writers,” said Marsh-Edwards. “Over and above
mainstream TV drama, there are new opportunities to reach target audiences in
new ways and new ways of telling stories.”

She continued: “Shimmer
Productions will spearhead projects from the mainstream linear to the
interactive. We can do this because we have brought together the necessary
expertise under one roof. For audiences, interactive drama delivers genuinely new forms of entertainment, as
well as entertainment when and where they want it. It meets audiences’ desire
to be part of the story and premium, professionally produced content provides
the seed around which audiences can create their own content.”

She added: “Online drama
provides platforms that command premium rates from advertisers including
content-specific space, advertiser funded programming and product placement
opportunities. Drama properly aligned with brand values deepens the personality of the brand and can
enhance and fulfill a number of aims around audience interaction and corporate
social responsibility.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski