An Appetite for Adventure

Musician, journalist, reporter, presenter, director, producer. These are just some of the roles that Mark Dyson, founder of Creative Touch Films, has taken on during his lifelong interest in radio, television and film. An ability to combine these roles has enabled him to take control of the creative process, turning people’s stories into reality through the medium of film. Dyson’s philosophy is straightforward: while he wants to make programmes that people watch, he also wants his work to make a difference. His films are active, engaging and involved.

This appetite for a great story has driven Mark and his company to extremes. The searing heat of the desert, the ice cold depths of the Arctic, the fear, the exhilaration and the sheer physical and mental exhaustion - Dyson’s interest in the achievements of adventurers has followed them to some of the most hazardous and unwelcoming places in the world. He has a proven ability to create films which allow us to get closer to the real stories, to understand what lies beyond the images on the screen.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to do something different, creating films that go beyond the obvious, that make people sit up and take notice

Mark Dyson, Creative Touch Films

Immediate impact, long term effect

Mark Dyson’s fascination with technology began early. After University he worked at BBC Radio, where he combined his love of music with a growing interest in mixing sound. Moving into news enabled him to develop his skills – the appeal lay in the fact that radio offered a high level of creative control over the whole production process.

A move into television was logical, but initially disappointing. As a reporter, his responsibility was to research and present the story, but the editorial control was left to others.

Instead of accepting the status quo, Dyson taught himself how to operate a camera and edit his own footage. He used these new skills as a television reporter, writing, presenting and producing his own news and factual programmes for television. From there he moved into production and later formed Creative Touch Films with a colleague from the BBC.

The idea was to specialise in stories that had immediate impact and long term effect. They made films that focused on injustice and exposed dishonesty and corruption. One film on mobile phone cloning not only alerted the British government to a growing problem but helped to change the way that mobile phone companies operated in the UK.

Great story, pressing deadline, tight budget

In 2002 Dyson approached National Geographic with a one-hour pilot documentary, compiled largely from footage shot by adventurers and explorers. National Geographic asked Dyson’s company to edit it all into a series of 26 hour-long programmes. The explorers had used DV cameras to capture stories that were exciting, challenging and sometimes heartbreaking. This was reality television at its best.

There were of course quality and production issues associated with a project of this nature and the budget was very limited. The biggest challenge was to find a way to edit often huge amounts of footage – as much as 300 hours for each one hour show, and still create a cohesive and stylish series which would convey the sheer adrenaline of each adventure and capture the feelings of the people involved. Says Dyson: “The problem was often the poor standard of the material we received. People had fantastic stories to tell, but sometimes their film was just unusable.”

With engineering support from Avid we did the job on time and to budget

Mark Dyson

For many film makers it will be a familiar story. Great story, pressing deadline and a tight budget. Dyson was constantly looking for support, searching the best technical route to make the project feasible. He used Avid Xpress DV to help him manage the amount of footage within the timescale and employed a small team of editors with production experience to work alongside him on the project. “With engineering support from Avid we did the job on time and to budget,” says Dyson.

The finished result was Adventure Challenge, a series of 26 programmes aired on the National Geographic channel and still running almost every day on its sister channel ‘Adventure One’. The success of these award-winning programmes led to two more series being commissioned, Total Adventure and Into the Unknown. In total Dyson has made 72 programmes for National Geographic channel and every one of them was created using either Xpress DV or Xpress Pro. He confirms that Avid has been central to his company’s success. “Avid allows us to deal effectively with the pressures of budgets, to prove ourselves and to keep moving forward, increasing turnover and throughput.”

Mark Dyson seems to thrive on challenge. He is determined to remain competitive and continue making powerful films using the best available technology. The National Geographic series has obviously given him an enormous level of personal satisfaction. The hard work involved has not dulled his sense of adventure, but sharpened it. We look forward to seeing what he has in store for us in future.

Avid allows us to deal effectively with the pressures of budgets, to prove ourselves and to keep moving forward.

Mark Dyson, Creative Touch Films

For more information visit www.ctfilms.com