Matt Dennis

Matt Dennis

Mr

Personal profile

Academic Biography

My career in the television industry began in 1988 after having studied for a Fine Art Sculpture degree in Newcastle. I had spent the final year of my degree making objects and installations using sound as a key element and had also spent a lot of time working with animation and film students to create sound tracks for a number of short films.

 Moving to London provided me with the opportunity to pursue a career in sound editing, initially working as Assistant Editor on a series of educational animations with Richard Taylor and Bob Godfrey for BBC Enterprises. This led to a number of years at the BBC working on many documentary feature programmes such as Horizon, QED and Arena as an Assistant Editor and later as a Dubbing Editor on a number of BBC dramas (including being part of the BAFTA nominated sound team for the 6 part adaptation of George Elliott's Middlemarch).

During this time I had the opportunity to edit an animated documentary A Is For Autism for Channel 4. It went on to become a multi-award winning documentary and remains one of the films I am most proud of having worked on as well as one of my biggest editing challenges.

After many years working in post-production I was offered a job as a Promotions Producer making promotions and film trailers for channels such as Nickelodeon, Discovery, National Geographic and U>Direct. Latterly I worked as a Promotions Manager for the creative agency Bruce Dunlop and Associates in London heading up a team making all the onscreen promotions, graphics, idents and cross channel promotions for the Hallmark Channel in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

During my time in London I was a regular Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, working with post-graduate animation students to edit and post produce their final films - the experience of this has inspired me to pursue teaching as a parallel career and in 2002 I was offered my current post.

Being part time at Teesside University I am also able to continue working in the industry part time as a film editor and much of the professional work I do outside of the University forms an important part of my teaching and the work I do with my students.

I now regularly work as a Film Editor for the Inverness based production company Triple Echo Productions editing documentaries and documentary feature specials for BBC Scotland. I have also regularly worked for the Tyneside Cinema production wing in Newcastle and edited the award winning feature length documentary with Provenance Films about a family of tenant hill farmers in the Peak District. This was shown in Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK and Ireland in 2015/16 and has had numerous screenings on BBC4.

Most recently I have as Film Editor on a collaborative documentary research project with colleagues at York St John University. 

The ‘powerful and distressing’ new documentary 'Pip, Pop and A Pandemic' is a unique insight into the immensely challenging situations of vulnerable people trying to survive through lockdown. It has been submitted as evidence to the COVID 19 inquiry and is supported by charities including the Centre for Mental Health.  

The film was an official selection for the Canberra International Mental Health Film Festival 2023.   

'Pip, Pop and a Pandemic' is also having a special private viewing at UK Parliament on Monday 20 November 2023 supported by York Central MP Rachael Maskell.