Client, employer & co-worker testimonials on my working methods:
Controller, CBBC, BBC
“I am happy to give Paul Tyler the most glowing of references. Paul is probably one of the most creative and focussed individuals I have come across in my 20 year career in broadcasting. He is a lateral thinker, a team player, a great leader and completely dedicates himself to the task in hand. He is organised and thorough and addresses every project with a passion. I am confident Paul would be an asset to any media project. He has an extremely good and rare understanding of how to suceed with content across multiple platforms. Paul is in his element coming up with new ideas and working to a commissioning brief. He has a strategic brain and the ability to analyse and apply data. Paul has integrity and dedication and I would not hesitate to hire him again.”
Thomas Hailer
Head of Studies for Akademie für Kindermedien & Programme Manager, Berlin International Film Festival.
German.
"As head of studies for the Academy for Children's Media in Germany, it's vital that we attract and retain the very best practitioners to mentor our Film, TV-Series and Interactive media programme. We are therefore very fortunate to have secured Paul Tyler for a 2nd year at the academy as Interactive Mentor, and have also asked that he considers a third year with the group. Paul is a motivator, he thrives in a creative environment, clearly understanding the emerging technologies & trends of digital media whilst making sense of them to those around him. He's a quick thinker and do'er, able to generate ideas on the fly whilst always open to the ideas of others. He's clearly someone who's never satisfied with the status quo, always on the look out for ways to develop and self-develop and with an instinct-driven sensibility to discover errors in the systems you work in and the talent to transform them to potentials.”
Greg Childs
Head of Studies for the Akademie für Kindermedien & Director, Childseye Consulting Ltd and former BBC Executive.
Welsh
“Working with Paul is always exciting and always fun. At the BBC, he was an independent-minded and talented programme maker who would pursue his ideas with determination, but never at the expense of those working around him. The great thing about him is that he is not only a powerhouse of innovative ideas, but also a "people person". This makes him a fantastic asset to the Akademie fur Kindermedien as the tutor of its interactive development course. He is focused on the students' projects but also on their personal development, and works tirelessly for both. I couldn't ask for more.”
Viola Gabrielli
Project Manager, Akademie für Kindermedien
German
"As the project manager of the German Academy for Children’s Media, I have been working with Paul Tyler for two years and have always considered it a great pleasure. His broad knowledge and understanding of the latest digital trends and his way of combining different fields of media opens the minds of not only our participating writers and developers, but also the entire Akademie team. It is clear that Paul is a motivator and a great teacher. He has the ability to break down complex project tasks or technology to makes them understandable and more manageable for everyone to handle. He is extremely careful about the welfare of his students, but equally a great team-player in the management of the Akademie. In our team Paul has the highest respect of all his colleagues not only because of his knowledge but also as a person."
Jenny Thompson
Director, PYGMALION Programme, Performing Arts Labs(PAL)
British
“PYGMALION is a MEDIA funded European Lab programme for development of film, TV, interactive and cross-media projects for child and family audiences which I have been running with PAL since 2002. Each year we invite distinguished specialist practitioners to mentor the professional writers and producers who take part in the programme. Paul Tyler was mentor for the interactive and cross-media projects in 2007 and 2008. Each year he worked with a small group of participants developing digital media projects as each developed the single project they brought to the programme. The projects were enormously varied – some starting as games, live theatre ( with cross platform extensions) , websites linked to a TV series, online drama etc. Paul was extraordinarily versatile in adapting to the needs of each project and brought great ideas, energy and enthusiasm to all of them. Even with such a diverse group of projects and people he quickly fostered a strong group dynamic and enabled the participants to work as a team and help each other, as well as benefit from his own enormously creative and generous input. His energy, sensitivity and ingenuity were of benefit to everyone on the programme: for instance within about the first hour of his arrival in 2008 he had the idea of making a ‘work in progress’ website for all the participants. Within a couple more hours he had created a great online site which served as both visual ‘notebook’, a record and tool for everyone involved which long outlasted the Pygmalion Lab itself. All of the projects made great strides in development under his tutelage and I know he has since remained in touch and involved with many of the people and projects he worked with there. He also gave brilliant sessions for the whole lab group which enthused and enlightened everyone – even the least plugged-in feature film writers- about the creative possibilities of digital media. Sadly lack of match funding has meant there was no PYGMALION this year, but if there had been, he would have been my first call. “
Mario Giordano
Screenplay-writer and novelist ("Das Experiment"), former mentor for the TV-series group at the Academy for children's media" in Erfurt
German
“I collaborated with Paul Tyler for 2 years during the "Academy for children's media" workshop in Erfurt (Germany) where Paul developed fantastic interactive projects with his participants. First of all I learned him to know as a very hard working and dedicated person. Within the staff of mentors and head of studies we all took great benefit from his communication skills and his broad experience in evaluation processes. Paul has a stunning ability to get to the core in the most complex problems immediately and make it understandable and resolvable to others. Beside all of this he is a cheerful, sympathetic and respectful personality who can listen and lead.
As a writer I'm about to develop an interactive TV-series with Paul and do take huge advantage of his analytic skills, experience in TV-production and development of interactive media. Paul is the most inspired, dedicated and focused colleague I ever developed a project with. “
Nicole Kellerhals
Script editor, film producer
German
Feature Film Mentor on Akademie für Kindermedien ( especially the two cross media projects where the Feature film and the Interactive group worked together: development of an interactive website for VISION KINO ( 2008), re-launch website (interactive) Akademie für Kindermedien ( 2009).
Akademie für Kindermedien
2007-2010
“As a collegue Paul gives you the impression that you’re doing a great and interesting job and that he can learn a lot from you. That increases your own creativity and the whole creative process of the team work we are doing in our groups( feature film; tv – and animation series; cross media). That develops not only a more than creative atmosphere but Paul is an incredible source of inspiration- he can think further when you don’t find solutions any more. His theoretical and intellectual knowledge is more than impressive as it technical skills and vitesse, he’s not only the Power Point Guru, he’s always the helping hand and the colleague that you dream of!”
Susanne Stangl
Script consultant
German
Co-mentor collaborating with Paul Tyler at the Akademie für Kindermedien, Interactive Group
2008/09
“Between 2003 and 2009 I worked as a co-mentor for a variety of media training workshops (Pygmalion, Winterakademie, Akademie für Kindermedien), collaborating with several German and international mentors. In those 6 years I seldom came across anyone as knowledgeable, enthusiastic and approachable as Paul. He possesses an extraordinary ability in deconstructing and reconstructing projects, both the participants’ projects and projects on the market. He thinks “out of the box” but he also knows “the box” very well. During our collaboration we tutored students with very different abilities and experiences. I was often impressed at how Paul managed to move the group forward while fulfilling each individual student’s needs, challenging but always encouraging, and always furthering the students’ creativity, never stifling or controlling it. He was extremely respected and liked by the students, both from his group and from other groups. I also had the chance to listen to his lectures, both within the framework of the Akademie and in the context of game workshops and industry events. His lectures are not only well-researched, but also presented in a light and entertaining way, and always enriching facts with an original and interesting point of view.
I highly recommend Paul for any kind of academic position where an original mind combined with analytical skills and industry experience is needed, with the extra bonus of a friendly and approachable personality and a good sense of humour.”
Anna Lidell
Musician and student at Copenhagen University
Attendee at PixelJam 2011
“Your experiences, guidance and presence were very inspiring. You had a very professional performance, yet you were creative using Lego and also open for uncontroversial suggestions. As one of the youngest participants I have learned a lot about pitching and how to develop an idea into a business plan, additionally how to condense a project into one idea, theme or universe. “
Kasper Jørgensen
www.figuramus.dk
Attendee at PixelJam 2011
“I think the LEGO part was brilliant, it was a really nice way to visualize our ideas and really pushed our concept forward. Also your introduction to pitching was a nice tool and we used those guidelines a lot. All in all it was a great creative experience for me and it wouldn´t have been the same without you and the other tutors:) “
René Mogensen
Composer, musician, producer, sound tech
Attendee at PixelJam 2011
“I found the "Legos on the Table" to be a useful, fast way of visualizing the group project. I think it allowed faster communication among the group members that clarified some things, and opened a different perspective. I think your presentation on the first days was interesting, and I found it useful to hear about approaches and techniques of pitch-development. In my own career I think it will be important for me to develop more of an awareness of a meta-system of pitching such as you presented, which could help the business side of my creative work. I'm sure this can the case for many other contents-creatores as well. “
Suvi Andrea Helminen
Freelance director, photographer and editor
Attendee at PixelJam 2011
“The lego really did make the how and the why more clear. “
August Engkilde
Founder at Global Units partner, mixing & mastering engineer, project manager at LiveRec music producer, composer, musician, multi instrumentalist, label owner, mixing & mastering engineer at brumtone
Attendee at PixelJam 2011
“Your inputs and the lego session we made in the 48 hour game group, helped us to dive into some fundamental questions analyzing what kind of journey our project could be about and what kind of journey the user are gonna take, when he/she enter our project/product. The interesting thing is that the Legojam, seems to be usefull in almost all stages in a project. From idea development to the very final lounge. Since every time there is coming new questions/problems to be solved in a project, a lego jam can be useful. “
Vera Richter
Junior Producer
German
Co-Mentor to Paul Tyler during Academy for children's media 2007/2008 (Interactive Media workshop)
“Working with Paul Tyler in the Academy for Children's Media was, besides being a real pleasure and a lot of fun, very fruitful for me since Paul is one of these very rare personalities who work exclusively on a very positive, always constructive and team oriented level. Paul avoids hierarchic teaching and by never losing his interest in the people he deals with, he stimulates them to always go just one step further than they might have thought they can go. His knowledge, dynamics and especially his great attitude make him a very special teacher. “
James Mason
Scriptwriter
Mentor for Animation Group
Pygmalion
“In 2007 and 2008 Paul and I were fellow mentors on the Pygmalion Plus Programme. He was an engaging, supportive and stimulating colleague with an incisive mind, an enthusiasm for problem-solving and a genuine interest in all the participants and their projects. I recommend him thoroughly.”
Tanya Motie
Editorial Executive, BBC One and BBC Three
British
Worked with Paul on developing my multiplatform producing skills by working with three other creatives on their projects.
Pygmalion
2009
"Paul is an excellent teacher. He is completely across his brief and is excited and motivated by the possibilities of digital media. His excitement and enthusiasm is inspiring and he has the ability to engage even the hardest, most cynical individual. Underlying Paul's understanding of digital communications is his sharp, perceptive intellect. He has the ability to strip away the outer wrappings of an idea and get to the very heart of the issue. Analytical thinking, knowledge of the industry and a first class production background combined with creativity, energy and ethusiasm means that Paul Tyler is in a class of his own when it comes to digital media."
Adrian Woolard
R&D Executive, BBC
“Paul is a highly talented, frustratingly productive creative leader who never fails to impress with his passion and knowledge. He could be a pain in the backside but for the fact that he delivers fantastically innovative projects with such good nature that he is a pleasure to work alongside. He is one of the few producers I've met who truly understands how to best exploit research and innovation.”
Head of Development , Illumina Digital Ltd
“Paul is a visionary producer of content that simply makes sense on the platforms he chooses to use. His work within and now outside, the BBC on bleeding edge projects shows that there is a commercial and creative argument for pushing the boundries of traditional media. I'm looking forward to his next big step.”
Andreas Liebal
Degreed engineer.
German
Project: Mission Pudel - Zurück ins Jetzt / Mission Pudel – ‘Back to now’. An educational pc-adventure-game for children , where myths, legends and forgotten traditions and personalities of your surrounding should be discovered
Akademie für Kindermedien
Year: 2008 / 2009
“As I came to the academy I had just an idea of the intention and the main plot of my game. With Paul we constructed the base frame AND a working golden thread of the story. He worked out with me a complicated time travelling and game mechanics and merged it with the original plot idea.
The work was very structured and focused on the particular tasks we had to process stepwise. Because of Paul’s ability to link his medial, technical and narrative knowledge we succeeded very fast and a new innovative and exciting game concept rise.
Also his ideas to induce us to work productive together as a team were a real enrichment. I think he has got the necessary empathy and skills to lead people to their success in their projects and work in interdisciplinary groups. I also learned a lot of cross media. So as a conclusion I can summarize that Paul is a real multi-talent! Thank’ a lot for everything, Paul!”
Anneke Fontani-Dorsman
Cross-media concept developer @ NPS (Dutch broadcaster)
Dutch
‘Het Klokhuis bouwt Het KlokHUIS’ and ‘Het Klokhuis Sportlab’ (in production), both cross-media projects for Het Klokhuis , a Dutch tv-programm for children (8-12 year) Platforms: tv, web, mobile, school-lessons, event
Pygmalion
2007
"Paul is a very inspiring and (important!) funny teacher! He organizes a good atmosphere in the group, it is a joy to go to his lessons. He is very serious in taking the projects of his students to a higher level by asking good questions and making the students think out of their own boxes. Paul has a big archive in his head and in his computer, full of tv-shows and cross-media productions that are inspiring or painful examples of what is being done all over the world, and that we can learn from."
Bronia Evers
Theatre maker
British
Project: The Frozen Memory Project (multiplatform project for children's theatre, TV, book and web)
Pymalion Plus
2008
“Paul is really excellent to work with. To have mentor support from someone with so much experience in the field of digital media, who is also excellent at communicating their passion for what they do, has been enormously helpful and also very inspiring.”
CEO, Gonzoft TV Animation (business partner)
“Paul is a very bright and very innovative person, he always sees new possibilities and brings lots of energy to any project/situation. He has humour and is very pleasant to be with. I would welcome any possibility to work with Paul again.”
Christian Sauer
CEO of Xybris Interactive - developing browser based casual massively multiplayer games.
German
Project: An online world for girls centered around the world of horse riding stables combining the draw of an online community with the fixation of browser based games.
Akademie für Kindermedien
2007/08
“Paul was mentor of the interactive media group at Akademie für Kindermedien 2007 (academy for kids media) which I attended in 2007 - main aim was to develop new concepts for kids content: He teased out great results from everyone and gave good advise to upgrade our own projects.”
Daniel van Gils
Director & Game-designer @ KamerBlauwLicht game studio
Dutch
Project: TwoSide Sammy - PC Game - A game about wrong and right with a twist.
Pygmalion Labs - a master class / course about developing media for children
2007
“Paul is an excellent mentor and turns concepts up-side down and let you think out-of-the-box and let you explore all sides of the concept. He is besides that a funny and social person to work with. Paul got a very wide knowledge about the world of interactive media.”
Joerg Michel
Designer / Developer, KIDS interactive GmbH
German
Project: The future of Rome, Gameconcept for Wii console, Fighting-game with moral aspects
Pygmalion / interactive group
2009
“During the two weeks working with Paul I learned more than in a year at the university...and the best of it all: I was able to deliver my new skills to my colleagues in our company. Paul is a fantastic mentor, a clear and brilliant and creative brain with a big package of intelligent humor. “
Martha Friedrich
Designer
German
Project: I was developing with the help of Paul a concept for a social game targeted to children age 6-12 that could be played over the leading German social media platform Schüler VZ and would help children to learn how to build up a opinion about a subject.
Academy for children’s media
2009
“Great concept visualization skills, great knowledge of creative methods, deep knowledge and understanding of the new digital media technology and 360 degree content, great group moderation skills.“
Maike Coelle
Concept Developer / Games Designer
German
Project: Fun learning game which is currently being produced for Nintendo DS for the international publisher Ubisoft.
Akademie für Kindermedien
2007 / 2008
“Paul is an enthusiast about other peoples’ projects. He is the most creative, motivating and understanding advisor I’ve ever met (and I have met many). Give him the most chaotic, heterogenic group of students, and within 10 minutes, he’ll have them working together creatively like lambs!”
Rik Lander
Cross-platform writer, director and producer
British
Project: “Together Alone - a web drama and global talent quest.”
Pygmalion Plus
2007
“Paul was a great motivator and full of useful ways of deconstructing the issues around digital media. He is highly experienced and knowledgeable and offered me very useful insights into how I could improve and develop my project. I'd recommend him as a teacher because he is personally very engaging and was certainly popular with our group.”
Sam Woolf
Freelance media developer/producer/editor
British
Project: Frozen Memory Project – ‘Mori is the inventor of an incredible machine, a machine that is able to capture and preserve memories by freezing them in ice-cream. ‘
Pygmallion
2008
“Paul was an inspirational mentor who used a broad range of techniques to help us intensively explore and develop our project from the vaguest germ of an idea into a coherent cross-platform pitch. He encouraged us to deconstruct our idea and to explore how its different facets could be targeted to different media platforms, so that the various platforms would feed into and reinforce each other. Paul's experience and knowledge of producing for TV and online helped us to shape our pitch into a form that would stand up to scrutiny from real world commissioners, whilst retaining and reinforcing the core and spirit of our original ideas. Long after completing the course, Paul has stayed in contact with us and has been incredibly helpful in the continuing development of our project, including by using his extensive industry contacts to help us get opportunities to pitch. “
Willem Lagerwaard
Independent Illustrator / Animator / Game Designer
Dutch
Project : ”Two Side Sammy": A PC-Game about an adventurer with a twist, who tries to balance himself between the wrongs and rights of the worlds he tries to save.
Pygmalion
2007
“Paul, as a mentor and a person, is a great inspirator. When he teaches, his knowledge of - and love for his work will pull you right into his world of experience. He has a very clear and analytic way of teaching that makes it very easy to understand the sometimes difficult matter of interaction/game concepts.
If you ask me Paul is the missing link between dull, complicated theory and fun, real life, successful practice of the trade!”
Videnchef / Knowledge Director, Diginet Øresund
President, American Center for Children and Media.
Dave Cliff
