Off the Fence Productions
Our production business is known internationally for its dedication to high quality, integrity and innovation. We develop, finance, produce and co-produce international non-fiction programmes across a range of genres including natural history, science, health, adventure, history and social documentaries.
This has resulted in over 200 plus hours of programming in the past four years. Our US production company is based in New York and has just completed a series pilot for Style in the US. The film was critically acclaimed and secured excellent ratings. We are currently producing a pilot for another major US channel.
Our UK production offices are in Bristol, home to some of the very best production talent in the world as well as a variety of post-production facilities, graphics companies and studios. We have an office in Cape Town as a significant part of our production output comes from a number of South Africa’s production companies and independent filmmakers. We also have an office in Singapore that allows us close collaboration with Asian producers and talent to maximise opportunities within this thriving marketplace. In addition, we have an office in Mainz which allows us to work closely with German broadcasters.
Off the Fence co-produces with broadcasters such as Animal Planet, National Geographic, BBC, Discovery, Scripps, History/AETN, NHK, France Television, Arte, BR, ZDF, NDR, Channel News Asia and Food Network Asia We’re proud of the programming we produce and we’ve been fortunate enough to be recognized by others for the hard work we’ve put in – we’ve won over 80 awards over the years and been nominated for two Emmys. We have also just won a 2010 Wildscreen Panda Award.
Recent commissions include Stan Lee’s Superhumans Season II for History/AETN. OTF is also completing the production on Season III of Monkey Thieves for France 5 and High Fidelity Canada and Wildest India (5 hours) for Discovery, High Fidelity and ARTE.
Other recent productions include Kitchen in the Sky; a film for the Scripps’s Food Channel, Wildest Africa (13 hours), for Discovery, ARTE and High Fidelity. Wind Dancer and Africa HD; Africa from Cape to Kruger for ZDF/ARTE; Asian Food Shorts for Food Network Asia; Asian Monarchies for Channel New Asia; Changemakers Asia for Discovery; Monkey Thieves Season II for National Geographic Channel International and France 5; Running with Wolves for Animal Planet, NDR, ORF and Smithsonian; Shark Night for Animal Planet and France Television and Slaveship Munity for ARTE and WNET; Squid vs. Whale for National Geographic.
KEY PRODUCTION STAFF
Ellen Windemuth, CEO (Amsterdam)
Ellen Windemuth is the founder and owner of Off the Fence. After graduating from Brown University in the U.S., Ellen worked in sales and co-productions for leading international companies such as Fremantle and Alliance Atlantis before starting OTF in Amsterdam in 1994. She is a board member of the Wildscreen Trust, of the Jackson Hole Film Festival and of the Wild Talk festival in South Africa, and on the World Science Congress Steering Committee.
Allison Bean, Managing Director, Off The Fence Productions Ltd (Bristol)
Allison joined Off the Fence at the beginning of June 2006. She began her television career at Survival Anglia Ltd 13 years ago after gaining her doctorate in human evolution from Cambridge University. She then went on to develop and produce natural history and science documentaries for Channel 4, ITV and TLC before moving to Granada Wild in Bristol. At Granada Wild she developed, produced and directed a wide range of award winning documentaries for Discovery, TLC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, and Five.
Ralf Blasius, Executive Producer (Mainz)
Ralf joined Off the Fence after seven years at ZDF, where a he was in charge of major primetime documentaries including Tsunami – A Wave Shakes the World and Supercomet: After the Impact, which enjoyed great success in the international market, notably for Discovery USA and France 2. Originally a biologist and science historian, Ralf has many years of experience as a natural history, science and history producer and writer.
Emre Izat, Producer (Amsterdam)
Emre joined Off the Fence in April, 2010 after moving to Holland from Washington, DC. He started in development at National Geographic Television, and later moved on to produce for the National Geographic Channel, Discovery, History, and Investigation Discovery, among others. Emre has filmed on every continent except Antarctica, and hopes to cross the last frontier off his checklist soon!
Josh Asen, Development Producer (Amsterdam)
Joshua joined Off the Fence in 2010, after a 3-year romance with Amsterdam that began in a twist of fate at New York's JFK airport. Prior to Off the Fence, Joshua worked as a freelance producer in New York, producing music videos and related content for various artists, as well as independent short and feature films. He began his career in film and television by producing a feature documentary about the indigenous Hip Hop movement in Morocco, for which he also produced the country's first Hip Hop festival in 2005. Joshua is the newest addition to Off the Fence's development and production team, which means he's always on the lookout for exciting new subjects and stories from around the world and from his new favorite city (after New York), Amsterdam.
Jayne Edwards, Head of Development (Bristol)
Jayne has an extensive track record in making shows for all the major broadcasters and has been with Off The Fence since 2009. She has just series produced Off The Fence¹s successful Stan Lee's Superhumans and is now heading up the development team to further expand and develop the company’s production slate. Jayne has over 14 years experience in television and recent credits include: Shark Patrol (1x60’ for ZDF Enterprises), Vic Reeves’ Pirates (6x30 for ITV and The History Channel), the Rose d’Or nominated series Art School (10x60’ for BBC2), the RTS West of England nominated Children’s Ward (15x30’ for ITV and Discovery) and The Sony award winning The Evacuation for Radio 4.
Karen Meehan, Head of Production Management (Bristol)
Karen joined Off The Fence in March 2007. Having worked in television since 1992 for Partridge Films/United Wildlife/Granada Wild, she has production managed a wide range of natural history and factual programmes for a variety of broadcasters including ITV, National Geographic, WNET/PBS, Discovery, Animal Planet, BBC and Canal +. Karen is based in the Bristol office where she is currently managing over 30 hours of programming.
Celine Ritchie, Development Producer (Bristol)
Celine began her career at Cowboy Films in London, who produced music videos, commercials and feature films before making the move to BBC Scotland where she worked for four years with the Head of Broadcast and the Commissioning Editor, Scotland. In 2002 she then worked for four years at Granada Bristol - helping to develop, and produce both popular and specialist factual documentaries for US and terrestrial broadcasters. ııIn October 2006 Celine joined the Off The Fence Bristol office and is involved in the development and production of a number of projects for key broadcasters.
Colin Collis, Series Producer (Bristol)
Colin began his career at Granada Television 13 years ago developing and producing wildlife and factual documentaries for ITV, Channel 4, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. He recently joined Off the Fence, writing and producing a variety of wildlife films including the multi award winning 26-part animal docu-soap 'Monkey Thieves'.
