Digby Rumsey

DIGBY RUMSEY has over thirty years experience in the UK Film and Television industry.

He trained at the London Film School, has an MA in Film from the London University, and a wide-ranging knowledge of the sector with extensive technical skills. These include over one hundred and fifty credits as a film and television editor – sound recording, with experience ranging from features to hard news – and the production and direction of over thirty films, with clients as diverse as the Department of Trade and Industry, the Tate Gallery, Twentieth Century Fox and Medecins Sans Frontieres.

As filmmaker, Rumsey has specialised in the adaptation of Victorian novellas and produced films from the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, James Hogg, Ernest Bramah, and Lord Dunsany. In 2004 he shifted to documentary production and as Director/Cameraman produced 26 short pieces in India, that have subsequently been released on the DVD “Sketches of India”.

Other posts have included administering a Channel4/British Film Institute “Film Workshop” and lecturing on post-production and film technique at Film Schools and Universities across the UK.

He has been involved with Digital Media since 2001, when he set up Auteur DVD, a Soho-based Authoring house. This evolved into Auteur TV – delivering real-time web-streaming to artists and film-makers around the world.

Rumsey is a member of Directors UK, the Writers, Producers and Directors committee of BECTU and is on the working Group on Copyright and Technology for the British Copyright Council.

Digby Rumsey as Producer/Director

In 1984, Twentieth Century Fox signed a 3 year distribution contract to release “The Pledge”, this macabre period drama proved to be the most successful of a series of 19th century adaptations – “In the Twilight”, “Nature and Time” and “Out of Reach” – that had previously screened at film festivals around the world.

Documentary work in the late ’80′s included “Fallacies of Vision”, funded by the BFI and “A Portrait of Colin Self” for the Tate Gallery. Alongside this work, which included several pop promos, Rumsey continued to produce “authored” pieces that have chronicled his life in film – from the epic “Seven Years” (1978) to “A Catalogue of Adjusted Perception” (1997) and “Help!” (2009).

In 1998 he produced the Pre-Raphaelite “Song of the Morrow” and in 2000, “The Red Box”, an adaptation of Nevil Shute’s apocalyptic story, “On the Beach”. These titles are included on the DVD – “Old Fantasy…New Gothic”.

In 2005 Rumsey lived and worked in India as a freelance producer for a year. Here he directed a series of travel pieces and produced the political documentary, “Kashmir – Under the Shadow of the Gun”. In 2007 he was commissioned by Thompsons Solicitors to produce a film that celebrated their 80 years of legal service working with the Trade Union movement.

Editing and Post Production

During the ‘80s and ‘90s, Rumsey edited many influential documentaries – from the 3 hour special on Margaret Thatcher’s resignation, to exposes of corruption at Lloyds of London. With over 150 credits, his experience is diverse, from “Gardener’s World” to “Junkyard Wars”. His editing career started with cutting Terence Davies’ first feature, “Children”.

Administration and Education

Following on from his work with Amber Films of Newcastle in the mid ’70s and the rapid growth of the Independent Sector in the UK, Digby Rumsey was appointed the first salaried Co-ordinator of East Anglian Film-Makers and raised money for the group from Channel 4, the British Film Institute and Norwich City Council. This provided a move to new customised premises, the purchase of equipment and an increase in the group’s annual production budget.

Subsequent to this post was his appointment to the Eastern Arts Film Panel and invitations to lecture – these included:- American Intercontinental University, Norwich School of Art, Wimbledon School of Art, University of Northumberland, and the London Film School.

Today

Digby Rumsey is active across many areas of the industry. As media distribution expands at break-neck speed, Auteur TV offers clients delivery on platforms ranging from mobile phones to Blu-Ray disc. As writer and co-Producer on the feature film “Justified!” Rumsey has engaged in the world of feature film finance. His company, Justified Films, is currently (2011) in production on a documentary about the ‘Godfather’ of fantasy literature, Lord Dunsany.