BIOGRAPHY

Julia was born in the Northern German town of Bad Homburg. She was first introduced to the pleasures of film through her Father and his love of 1930s and 40s black and white Hollywood movies. Inspired by these images she shot her first film when she was fourteen, called White Shark, an homage to Jaws.

Keen to gain first hand experience Julia left school and joined Filmhaus, a German commercial Production company based in Berlin. Starting out as work experience she was soon recruited to the permanent staff and quickly became a set and location manager. During her first year with the company she worked on a number of shoots both in the studio and on locations in Holland, Spreewald, Munich, London and Berlin. Julia soon became responsible for location scouting, casting, crew and equipment hire and the overall management of the shoot.

Looking to expand her knowledge base she moved across to the postproduction side of the business, starting off as a postproduction assistant before finally becoming the postproduction producer. During this period she worked on 30 plus commercials, 10 corporate videos and two short films. Responsibilities ranged from managing the edit, to client liaison and TV transmission co-ordination. In addition she taught herself how to edit on AVID and Editbox.

Wanting to move across into film production and also eager to broaden her horizons Julia enrolled into the London International Film School. The next two years were spent on both practical and theoretical study on the art and craft of filmmaking. Though interested in camera and editing Julia focused in detail on production. During this period and in collaboration with the Director Martin Stitt, she co–produced the 30 min docu/drama Hamro Jiwan. Shot in the foothills of the Himalayas in West Nepal. In addition she produced and edited the 35mm short film Some Assembly required, directed by Rouven Dawson.

Upon graduation she again teamed up again with Director Martin Stitt working on the low budget feature film Nine Days of hell. The film was shot over 9 days in London and on the south coast. Julia co–ordinated locations ranging from a London Underground station, corporate offices in Victoria, a South London flat, the 606 Jazz club, a cottage on the South Coast and a warehouse in North London. The cast and crew involved over 30 people for whom Julia handled all areas of production and support. With a limited budget Julia was able to maximize the overall look and production value of the film, so much so that one independent producer assumed the budget to be in excess of £500,000.

Julia then joined VTR PLC, an advertising post production house, initially as a runner before quickly moving on to the production side. Keen to be involved in the production of films Julia teamed up again with Martin Stitt. Co–producing the drama Alone Together, adapted from the stage play Rules of Engagement. The film was shot over 8 long days in 4 locations in London. The film has been selected for the feature competition of the Berlin Britspotting Festival (sponsored by the British Council) in May and shortly afterwards will be exhibited at the Cannes Film Market.

© Sprig Productions Ltd 2003