Chris Mugford

Chris Mugford has 25 years' experience as a director and before that 10 years' experience as a writer: a career that's won him nearly 30 awards. In the last three years alone he's won 21 in various film festivals and competitions in Los Angeles: for short film, documentary, music video and branded content. His background is in TV commercials and digital content for clients as diverse as UK Government, the NHS, Pepsico, Universal Music as well as some of the UK's top independent schools. Most recently Chris directed an award-winning short film featuring BAFTA-nominated actor Joe Absolom and scored by Matthew Slater (Grace, Endeavour, Lewis, Hairy Bikers). His commercial work uses sound skills from Joe Driver (BBC: Dr.Who, OBs eg Wimbledon, Royal Weddings) and stunt work by Andy Butcher (Dark Knight Rises, Gladiator) and Phill Matthews (Mr.Turner, Dark Shadows). Over the years Chris has developed expertise in conventional studio and location shoots but also underwater, marine (boat-to-boat), cliffside and climbing shoots. He has built up a wealth of experience in chromakey/green screen as well as motion control and multi-camera shoots. He has taken crew and shot in 9 European countries and directed non-English speaking talent. In particular, he is proud of the speed with which his crews shoot and having run 3 different production companies over 20 years, Chris has a real understanding of how to shoot cost-effectively. He likes nothing more than creating ingenious solutions and in-camera practical effects to solve problems that would otherwise strain budgets. As a writer, Chris worked at some of London's top ad agencies when the industry was spawning talent like Ridley and Tony Scott, Jonathan Glazer and Daniel Kleinman. The ethos was to recruit top crews for shoots so he found himself alongside DoPs such as Oscar-winner Billy Williams (Gandhi), Oscar-nominated Roger Pratt (Harry Potter, Batman) and Howard Atherton (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal). These people sowed the seed that has developed into Chris' unique visual style. Chris also collaborated with Ken Loach to win a major ILR Award. It was Ken Loach's first foray into radio but Chris had already directed many artists in this medium: talent ranging from Art Malik to Stephen Fry to Adrian Edmonson. Moving into directing, Chris continued his aspiration to work with top talent. He teamed up with DoPs like David Tattersall (Star Wars Ep1,2,3), Nick Tebbet (The Fifth Element) and Peter Greenhalgh (Death in Paradise, Poirot) as well as editors such as Neil Smith (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Lois Bygrave (Call the Midwife, Holby City, Mr.Selfridge). Chris developed long relationships with colorist Vince Narduzzo (Midsomer Murders, Call the Midwife, Waking the Dead) and producer Caroline Brodrick (Thames TV, Academy Productions). His strengths lie in a very visual style, his sensitivity in portraying human interaction and particularly working with children (fully DBS registered). He has ridiculous amounts of energy and enthusiasm which he applies in downtime to waterskiing from his home in Cornwall, fell walking and (whenever possible) snowboarding.