Sadly Averil Freeth died in September 2019. This short film was made by Martin during lockdown to celebrate Averil’s garden:
With over 40 years experience in media and film making, Martin draws on his wealth of knowledge and on his BBC experience to produce and manage all types of project from conception to delivery.
Martin spent more than twenty years at the BBC where he directed and produced numerous science productions including executive production of major international series, ‘ Horizon’ and ‘Tomorrow’s World’, and pioneered development of interactive media across the corporation. He set up the BBC’s Multimedia Centre and led the team which first established BBC Online. During this period he also established interactive media awards at BAFTA.
Martin offers a creative, positive approach to any film project; his experience enables him to work fast and to be versatile, flexible, efficient and affordable. Well-versed in the cross-platform world, he delivers compelling and engaging films – examples can be viewed on this site under ‘Projects’. His particular skill lies in telling human stories to communicate complex information and to make ideas and the passions of experts accessible to a wider public. As a director, he enjoys bringing the very best out of people, whether or not they have been filmed before. Human interactions and emotions are at the very heart of what he does.
MFreeth.com calls on the skills of a team of talented and creative freelancers who have all worked regularly with us in the last few years. We look forward to discussing possible commissions or developing projects with you.
Recent work includes projects for commissioners from the corporate, publishing, scientific, engineering and not-for-profit sectors, including Mars Inc., JP Morgan and important charities.
Previous production work
2008 to the present
Now directing his own small company, MFreeth.Com, he is producing some 30 short films each year in the fields of science, medicine and the arts. His main current clients are the international science journal Nature and the British Medical Journal, but he also works for corporate clients (such as J P Morgan and Mars Incorporated) and for charities (such as Addaction , the Mali Development Group and the Pepper Foundation). A recent labour of love is a documentary portrait of a French Village containing some 30 short films and entitled ‘The Living Map’. See: www.labastidevivante.fr.
2005 to 2008
Martin joined Windfall Digital (which was then the interactive and digital arm of Windfall Films) as Managing Director. The work involved creating a major resource (‘DNA Interactive’) making full use of footage created for a Channel 4 series; making online films for the American Lasker Foundation; making science films for The British Council; producing a complex CD-ROM in 15 languages for breast cancer patients around Europe; and creating a media-rich interactive resource for science centres about human genetics entitled ‘Choose Your Character’, funded by the Wellcome Trust.
1999 to 2004
Martin was one of the founding executives who established NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and was responsible for the Sci-Art programme together with the Wellcome Trust, for web site development, and for a large grant- giving programme in the field of innovative education. Within NESTA, he then became responsible for conceiving, establishing and directing ‘Futurelab’ (at that time based in Bristol) which developed and evaluated new kinds of learning software and media.
1998
Martin directed the new hands-on science centre ‘Explore At Bristol’ during the period when it was being designed and established on Bristol’s Harbourside.
1995 to 1997
Martin set up the BBC Multimedia Centre, pioneering new media across the corporation. He led the team which first established BBC Online. During this period he also established interactive media awards at BAFTA (which have now evolved into the Games Awards).
1971 to 1994
With an Master of Art degree from the Royal College of Art Film & TV School and freelance experience as a film editor, Martin joined BBC science in 1971, working on the Horizon series. In his time at the BBC Martin made 20 ‘Horizon’ films (two of them award winning), 5 editions of the BBC2 series ‘Antenna’ and numerous editions of and stories for ‘Tomorrow’s World’. He produced the last series of ‘The Burke Special’, gaining an average audience of 11 million on BBC1. He also produced science ‘specials’ and two major international series for BBC2: the 8-part ‘The Trouble with Medicine’, and 13-part ‘The Mind Machine’, the latter presented by Colin Blakemore.