'Jo is a very talented editor and I would welcome the oppurtunity to work with her again. I would have no reservations in recommending her and wish her continued success in all her endeavours' Serena Cullen - Sony Director of Drama and Comedy. Executive Producer, 'Sofia's Diary'
Sofia's Diary is a web and TV show which aired from March 2008. The origins of Sofia's Diary began in Portugal in 2003 'as an experimental web and mobile service. It now has 200,000 visitors per month online, over 19,000 mobile subscribers and has run for four series on Portuguese state broadcaster, RTP2. It has since been adapted for audiences in the US, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Turkey and Vietnam.' (Joanne Oatts. Digital Spy). The shows creator Nuno Bernardo pitched the idea in the UK to Sony and Bebo and Sofia's Diary UK was born.
I began post production on Series 1 in March 2008 cutting the show as it was being filmed. The deadline was extremely tight but we managed to get out 60 daily 3-4 minute episodes shown on bebo.com. We filmed on the Sony EXCAM using a tapeless workflow, avoiding long hours digitising and certainly helping us to meet the upcoming deadlines. I worked as sole editor with input from Nuno Bernardo and Serena Cullen (Executive Producer). The show quickly became a success and built up a significant and loyal fan-base.
The show was sponsored by a number of high profile brands (Sure Deodorent, Goldigga clothing) which presented a problem when it was picked up by Channel 5 to be shown on their sister channel FIVER TV. I had the challenge of removing all product placement in the eleventh hour to meet with broadcasting regulations, whilst maintaining a coherent and entertaining show. This was achieved and the first two catch up omnibuses were broadcast on Channel 5 on the 28th April 2008. FIVER then broadcast daily a 3-4 minute show (which I modified from the original to remove product placement) and a half hour omnibus shown fortnightly. Sofia's Diary is the first UK produced web show to be broadcast on television.
Series 1 was a success online, achieving 5 million viewers in its first two weeks of broadcast, and went on to be a hit on FIVER - becoming the channels second most watched programme. As a result series 2 was commissioned to follow directly on from series 1. I found editing series 2 to be very enjoyable as Sofia had become a much more interesting and entertaining character to work with! Series 2 ran concurrently with its TV counterpart and the transition from web to TV was a lot smoother as the filming and script was designed with both in mind. The series finished in Autumn (Fall) 2008 and began a hiatus as the producers looked for financial sponsorship in the changing economic climate. We did however broadcast several specials over winter and Christmas which I edited using old footage. I really enjoyed this as it allowed me to stretch myself and have fun using the old footage and graphics.
Series 3 was broadcast in May/June 2009. It consisted of just 10 episodes and was not shown on TV. A different production company produced the show and used their in house editor but I was consulted on some matters and contributed several montage sequences.
