"It wasn’t quite Del Boy, but selling leavers videos which I’d burnt onto CDs for a quid was probably as close as it got…" Alex has had a strong interest in media since he was at school. As someone who enjoyed editing and filming content from a young age, Alex is now leading Sports production within Little Dot Sport. We caught up with him to put a Spotlight on what he and the team have been up to this year so far....
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
After leaving school, I was fortunate to make it to University, studying Television and Broadcasting (BSc) at Portsmouth. What interested me most about this course was the hands-on experience we were given within a production environment - we learnt to edit on Avid and shoot to an amateur level, as well as basic web design and coding.
After graduating in 2014, it was tough gaining experience within the industry. With so many students looking for their first foot in the door, I was lucky to get some unpaid work experience via the ITV talent pool at the time (after many failed attempts!), initially working across The Alan Titchmarsh Show. I made my way to paid work with Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway - working with their games / stunt team. Being pulled up 100 metres from ground level outside ITV studios with the onlooking public was as scary as it got, and definitely outside of my usual coffee making runner responsibilities!
Credit: Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, ITV Towers.
Towards the end of 2014, I was taking on various runner roles, both paid and unpaid to increase my contacts and build up a decent CV. I applied for the IMG Digital Trainee Scheme which I was lucky enough to be selected for. The digital scheme was a 12-month placement within IMG Studios working in their digital department. Within the placement months I learnt how to edit on Premiere and create basic graphics on After Effects, from here I was to spend the next four years of my career, taking on a full time role working as an Assistant Producer / Editor across various accounts including Wimbledon, UEFA, World Rugby and The Open Championship, along with an array of their partners.
In 2019 I decided to take the leap and head to Little Dot Studios, who at the time, was around 150 people strong. I was fortunate to actually get a job, having mistakenly turned up to the interview late, which unbeknown to me, started 30 mins before. Unaware, I was actually in the Starbucks over the road preparing for this interview… something which I later clarified to a very bemused Dan Jones (Little Dot Studios CEO) at the time, probably thinking ‘Who does this guy think he is?’.
Can you tell us more about your role?
I started within the Formula E team as a Producer; after a few years, I took on the Senior Account Lead for the team that involved overseeing content and worldwide race production; managing a team of producers, editors, designers, social media managers, as well as liaising with multiple stakeholders across digital, commercial, broadcast, and marketing at Formula E. I was fortunate to be able to travel around the world in this role, seeing the likes of Mexico, Morocco and Chile to name just a few of the countries I went to.
Three years since I arrived, I have now been overseeing Production within Little Dot Sport since the turn of the year. As Senior Producer, my role involves overseeing a small production team and managing multiple production projects throughout the year. Essentially, from brief through creative development, shoot and post production, I work with the relevant stakeholders at LDS to ensure they are delivered on budget, on time and to the highest quality.
Little Dot’s Sports Production is still fairly unknown to most of our clients and wider industry, but we are quietly going about our business to great success. We work across a range of global clients to deliver high-impact productions on an international scale, from Amazon Prime Sport through to FIFA, and we have vast experience delivering award-winning output for brands, broadcasters and rights holders.
A scalable high-quality outfit who are lucky enough to work across a richly-diverse, international client base and the variety of what we offer is what has earned us our reputation for delivering exciting, cutting-edge output. From “always on” day-to-day output, to more bespoke and complex productions, we’re able to flex to the requirements of the project. This enables us to provide the right level of resource across live sporting environments, deliver flexibility to enable reactivity to ad-hoc requests and allows scalability to meet requirements.
Whether our clients are looking for big budget branded content, episodic long-form series or high-impact short-form clips, Little Dot Sport - and sister company WING - have an array of vastly-experienced, multi-talented staff to deliver premium content. Having close relationships with our roster of clients, combined with our channel management expertise, means we understand the unique needs of each platform, so we are able to tailor the content to suit.
As well as a strong internal team, thanks to a strong freelancer network we have built over the years, we’re able to provide scalable and talented teams based on the requirements of global events, including delivery of original content, vertical video output, and channel and community management. As well as WING, our network of sister production companies such as Aurora Media Worldwide offer us huge flexibility in integrated production scalability.
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Little Dot Studios Headquarters, London
What are some of your favourite bits of work? And is there anything else exciting in the pipeline?
On the back of a successful 2023, in which we and WING delivered 100+ short-form films at the FIFA World Cup, overseen by Executive producer, Nick Birtwistle; delivered behind the scenes content for the Carabao and EFL Playoff Finals at Wembley and produced an inspiring content series for London Lions, called Hoopers, both directed by Will O'Sullivan, we were poised to continue that momentum into 2023 and beyond.
Here’s a brief look at what we’ve been up to this year…
Amazon Prime Video Sport - ‘How Hard Can It Be?’
A three-part content series starring Manchester City and England defender Kyle Walker, alongside goalkeeper Ben Foster and influencers Chunkz and Kieran Brown where they attempted to recreate some of the very best Premier League goals in history.
The FA / WSL - ‘Portraits’
A three-part content series starring some of the WSL’s most iconic players, as they have their portraits painted by our talented artist, Nathan Wyburn. Published across the Women’s Super League’s social channels ahead of the World Cup.
Ascot Racecourse - ‘Frankie Dettori: A Royal Ascot Love Affair’ (Documentary)
A 24-minute special reflecting on Frankie Dettori’s incredible career saw him talking through his 77 wins at Royal Ascot and his love for the event ahead of his final appearance there, 35 years on from his first. Broadcast on Sky Sports, ITV and 25 worldwide broadcasters.
Ascot Racecourse - ‘Ascot Onsite Production’ and ‘Royal Wrap Show’
Our account management and production team have overseen and delivered social content for all of Ascot’s events this year. In addition to this, we took on producing five 30 minute wrap shows during this year's Royal week in June, directed by the fantastic Zoe Lewin each day.
LTA cinch Championships - The Queen's Club
Produced by Guy Barlow, we supported LTA’s internal team onsite at this year's Cinch Championships at Queens, as well as remote edit production for Eastbourne, Nottingham and Birmingham.
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Club App - ‘Meet The Clubs’ and ‘Let’s Settle It’
With Little Dot Studios investing in Formation Games, we produced two series; ‘Meet The Clubs’ and ‘Let’s Settle It’.
The two series focus on opening up the conversation on club ownership and finding the most fascinating stories in football to tell. ‘Let’s Settle It’ is an eight-part TikTok series featuring creators Liban Abdullahi and Faysal Hassan, as they debate some of the hottest topics in the game.
‘Meet The Clubs’, digital creator Mitch Tucker and Sky Sports presenter Olivia Buzaglo visit some of the most fascinating clubs across the country to delve deeper into how they’re run and what makes them unique.
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After a busy summer of sport, our team is preparing for our next batch of projects.
Firstly with our second WSL production with the FA, ‘Threads’. Three players, three unique personalities, three bespoke fashion items. In each episode, we uncover the person behind the player via a specially-commissioned item of clothing that features five key moments or personality traits that represent the individual. Each piece will be created by one of London’s leading, young fashion designers and the episode will see our player presented with the item, before discussing each reference point and unpacking the fascinating stories behind them.
We will then be working with TeamGB in the run up to Paris 2024 to produce exciting, personality-led content pieces that will help viewers get to know the athletes in the team better - much more detail on these exciting production projects, plus a few more will be announced in due course.
If you would like to work with our Sports Production Team or have any questions, please do get in touch!
