Seadog Productions: to produce world class television and video content targeting a national and international audience

Summary: Seadog Productions aims to produce world class television and video content targeting a national and international audience. Based in the South West, our plan is to create a regional centre of excellence, using our outstanding track record in film making along with our national network of contacts, to ultimately create television programmes and films that should be in demand on a global scale. Seadog will specialise in productions involving adventure, natural history, the environment, diving, and aerial filming.

Opportunity: The British independent television production sector generates international exports valued at more than £1bn per year. With growth in the film and tv content sectors forecast to increase by 6% in 2016 alone, this is a good time to invest in the production of high class programmes and content. The market has consistently shown growth since 2005, when the value of UK tv programmes and associated activities was valued at £632 million, a figure that has grown steadily. In  2012 it was valued at £1,224 million.

Monty Halls, founder of Seadog Productions, has been making television programmes and series with top end production companies and global television networks for over fifteen years. He has worked in various capacities within television production – whether as a presenter, producer, or providing specialist support to other productions – and as such has built up a vast network of contacts within the industry. 

The founding of Seadog Productions provides an opportunity to utilise those contacts, to access a group of world class film-makers, as well as programme commissioners at the major channels, and to create television and video that can sell worldwide. 

In the last fifteen years, Monty and Seadog have been involved in 14 different large scale productions, films, and tv series creating 65 hours of television that is being sold globally to this day. It is a track record that Seadog aims to continue.

Context:  Seadog Productions was formed in response to a requirement for specialised support for documentary filming. Although the brand has existed since 2010, it has operated as a trading name within Monty Halls Ltd, and has only recently been established as a separate company, a focused, dedicated operation geared to securing commissions of high end content. 

Progress: Seadog is a 1st Option Media Safety approved dive contractor, and has worked on several series (three series of BBC2’s “Monty Halls Great Escapes”, and “The Fisherman’s Apprentice”) as well as stand alone projects for “Springwatch.” In 2013 it co-produced – with Tigress Productions – a major exploration series for Channel 5 involving shoots in Egypt, America, Japan and Namibia. In 2014 Seadog provided the aerial filming capability for the “Lost Worlds” Discovery series in Borneo and South America.

Seadog was created as a trading name to give structure to Monty Hall’s ability to create specialised teams for diving, aerial, and adventurous filming tasks to accompany television series he was presenting or in production. It has not – to date – had the capacity to create it’s own productions from initiation to delivery. This has meant that Monty has had to hand over commissioned concepts and ideas for series to other companies to produce. In a bouyant industry sector of independent television production, and with an outstanding track record of getting series and films made, we think now is the an optimum time to take Seadog Productions to the next level and aim to create a significant new player in the independent production company sector. 

Media coverage of Seadog has mainly revolved around it’s founder and the projects in which the company has been involved. Monty Halls has written seven books, and contributes regularly to magazine and national newspapers. Such contacts and resonance should of course be a significant force in the profile of the company.