Because of our unrivalled access to talent and our unbeatable client base, 20 million people can come face-to-face with our content every single month.
The Team
Non-Executive Director
Having practiced as a solicitor before working in investment banking and venture capital, Dennis took over the management of MyMovies.net in 2001, where within a year he turned the company around from one making a loss to one consistently making a profit. Subsequently he launched Moviebeat at the Picture Production Company, which was profitable within a year. In March 2010 he re-launched the company as the independent Upbeat Productions.
Dennis’ roles include overseeing the highly motivated and close-knit Upbeat team, and such special projects as the expansion of the company into other territories, other sectors (including comedy and video games), and other media (including TV).
Director of Sales & Editorial
Nick’s experience with the marketing of movies online goes back to 1999, when he joined the nascent MyMovies.net website. Since then he has worked alongside practically all of the UK’s leading ISPS, portals & websites and major & independent film distributors, helping to ensure that the best possible content can be offered to as wide an online audience as possible. He left MyMovies in 2007 to launch Moviebeat at the Picture Production Company alongside Dennis Edmonds, and the two of them subsequently re-launched the company as the independent Upbeat Productions in March 2010.
Prior to becoming involved with the internet Nick spent over ten years in various marketing roles in the UK film industry, working for such companies as Odeon Cinemas, First Independent Pictures, Pathe Films and sales promotion agencies Foresight and Beatwax.
Nick’s roles include identifying and pursuing new sales opportunities, maintaining close relationships with clients and overseeing the delivery of their projects, and ensuring the Upbeat team continues to deliver editorial content of the highest standard.
Head of New Business
Ray Pemberton moved to the print and POS side of public relations and new media company, Foresight, to open their EA account in 1994 after leaving Peartree Associates film agency. He moved over to the marketing and development portion of the company after developing the print side of the agency, dealing with EA UK and Europe for their first film and game joint release, online and instore (Gone in 60 Seconds and Need for Speed 2).
After leaving Foresight in 2002, he moved to the new company TC3 and opened their new account with Microsoft for the launch of Xbox. He also setup the Chocollect campaign for Mars/Xbox, for which Mars Foods increased their turnover by 5%. Ray also worked for BVI UK, setting up their first SMS promotion with the films Kill Bill 1 & 2.
He had accounts with EA and Game POS during his time with the print and POS company, Wonderland. Ray then moved to the online agency Global E, working with Dorna on their MotoGP website, achieving over 4m impressions per month. He set up MotoGP Messenger, the monthly MotoGP competition online and SMS alerts with all their partners.
Ray is Head of New Business, and covers the Games market, entertainment and lifestyle brands.
Head of Productions
Tom Webb has had a passion for film from a very early age. He has had the opportunity to produce, write, and direct many short films throughout his career - many of which were made in creative partnership with Kieran Lefort dating back to 1998.
Originally working to re-edit U.S. television series' for UK broadcast with popular channels such as the Discovery Network, Tom decided to take his editing and production skills to the company Moviebeat in its formative years. He became Head of Production at Upbeat Productions at its founding in 2010.
Tom is perfectly suited to the role at Upbeat thanks to a wide and varied skill base and knowledge on all aspects of the production process. In his free time, Tom enjoys watching movies with his wife and Co-Hosting the "Have You Seen..?" movies podcast with Kieran Lefort. Any time left over is spent playing the guitar or sat at the piano.
Senior Editor
Kieran Lefort first picked up a video camera at age 16 and has been shooting and editing ever since. He has written, directed, filmed, cut, produced and slapped graphics on everything from ad-libbed action comedies to professional wrestling (which, one could argue, is ad-libbed action comedy).
In his spare time, Kieran enjoys pretending he is a global music superstar with the aid of Rock Band and presenting "Have You Seen..?", a weekly movies podcast he hosts with Tom Webb.
Kieran has never worked for Blockbuster Video.
Production Junior
Ros Owino grew up in London and attended university in Brighton. She worked part-time throughout university and, like many of the team, had a brief stint working at Blockbuster Video.
She left Sussex University with a Bachelors degree in Sociology and a Masters in Digital Documentary. Ros then went on to intern with a number of prominent media companies, including BBC'S Watchdog and The Guardian's film department.
Ros joined Upbeat Productions at the end of 2010. Working alongside Tom Webb and Kieran Lefort as a production junior, her responsibilities include a mixture of camerawork, editing and administration.
Senior Content Manager
Born in London, Marianna MacGilp spent most of her childhood in St. Andrews, Scotland after briefly living in Geneva, Switzerland. She received her education as a Media Arts major at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her passion for film was heightened at university. Upon graduating, she moved to London where she worked as a runner for a post-production facility and started an internship with Moviebeat (part of the Picture Production Company) in September 2009. She was asked to stay with the company as an Editorial Assistant after expressing interest in the online portion of the film industry.
Marianna moved over to assist in fostering the new company Upbeat alongside Tom and Nick when it launched in March 2010. She now works as the Senior Content Manager at Upbeat, and continues to interview and manage the content side of the company. Marianna also acts as a liaison with clients, over-sees edits, talent interviews at junkets and premieres, aggregates and uploads film content, and reports from international events.
Editorial, Film and Games
Born in London, Adam Stevens trained to degree level in Journalism at UEL. To keep afloat, he worked as a duty manager in his local Blockbuster Video store, fostering a love for both film and video games. Once graduated, he moved into private sector business marketing. Growing from a marketing assistant role in large independent financial advisor Chiltern PLC, Adam went to property law firm Pemberton Greenish to assist their marketing manager. He was then recruited by Essex County Council to work in their Informatics Team, working with IT solutions.
He joined the newly-founded Upbeat Productions, who were able to foster his passions for film, games, journalism and computing in 2010. Adam currently writes and presents weekly FDA-funded movie show Cinema Scoop, as well as interviewing talent, aggregating and uploading film and games content, and moderating Upbeat’s consumer website, Filmbeat.TV.
Production and Editorial Assistant
Anna Parnigoni joined Upbeat Productions upon graduating with Honors in Media and Professional Communications from the University of Pittsburgh in December of 2011. Anna has a love and passion for the entertainment business stemming from her years spent as a ballet dancer studying dance in both high school and college. She has interned with prestigious arts and media companies including One Management in New York; WPXI Channel 11 News in Pittsburgh, and The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Anna moved to London in Autumn to complete her education.
Anna works as Production and Editorial Assistant at Upbeat, aiding in the uploading and distribution of content, management of the intern program and interviewing talent.
Intern
Marisa Breese is curretly a junior at Missouri State University studying Broadcast Journalism. Marisa works as an intern with Upbeat and Raindance.tv, helping run social media sites, and aiding in the distribution and collection of content.
Intern
Ryanne Dunning arrived in London in early January to continue her degree work in Communications and Film Production. She is currently a senior at the University of Minnesota, and is excited to be working as an intern for Raindance.tv and Upbeat Productions during her time abroad. Ryanne is looking forward to learning about different aspects of the film business including distribution and publicity.
