Mike Slee
Encyclopedia
Biography
Michael John Slee BA (Hons) (born 23 August 1959, WindleshamWindlesham
Windlesham is a village in the Surrey Heath district of Surrey in South East England. It is also the name of the parish that covers Bagshot and Lightwater, in addition to Windlesham...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
) is a British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
television documentary
Television documentary
Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.* Documentary television series, a television series which is made up of documentary episodes....
producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
/director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, film-maker and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Slee studied Art & Design at Kingston University
Kingston University
Kingston University is a public research university located in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, United Kingdom. It was originally founded in 1899 as Kingston Technical Institute, a polytechnic, and became a university in 1992....
, and graduated with a first class honours degree from the London College of Printing in Photography, Film and TV. He first achieved industry recognition for directing James Burke
James Burke
- Politics :*James F. Burke , United States Representative from Pennsylvania*Séamus Burke , Irish politician and Minister for Local Government 1923 to 1927 in the Government of the 4th Dáil...
, in the 1989 ACE Award-winning PBS documentary series After the Warming. This prescient series dealt with the issue of global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, using virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
computer simulations.
Slee then directed a 20-part TLC
TLC (TV channel)
TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
series with Burke, called Connections 2. By 1997 he was at the forefront of large screen IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
film making, co-devising and directing Wildfire - Feel the Heat for the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, and The Legend of Loch Lomond for the Strathclyde European Partnership. In 2003 he co-wrote and directed BUGS 3D!, a $9 million IMAX 3D natural history drama, narrated by Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
. The film was a semi-finalist at the 2004 Oscars, and was awarded the GSTA Lifelong Learning Honor in the same year.
Slee directed the 2005 British television programme, The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend was a British television show, hosted by Richard Hammond that recreated elements of the Gunpowder Plot in which Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords....
. In 2008 he directed the feature film Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films as a prequel to the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. A scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the film details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming...
, which was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
. Based on the ubiquitous Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
television series, the film was selected for the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
.
Filmography
- The Kid (1986)
- After the Warming (1989)
- Connections 2 (1989)
- Wildfire: Feel the Heat (1999)
- The Legend of Loch Lomond (2001)
- Bugs (2003)
- Megastructures (2004)
- The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The LegendThe Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The LegendThe Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend was a British television show, hosted by Richard Hammond that recreated elements of the Gunpowder Plot in which Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords....
(2005) - Perfect Disaster: Ice Storm (2006)
- Voyages of Discovery (2006)
- Meerkat Manor: The Story BeginsMeerkat Manor: The Story BeginsMeerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films as a prequel to the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. A scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the film details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming...
(2008) - Into the Unknown with Josh BernsteinJosh BernsteinJosh Bernstein is an American explorer, author, survival expert, and TV host best known as the host of Digging for the Truth. He now appears as the host of the Discovery Channel's Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein....
(2008) - Engineering Connections:Taipai Tower/Millau Viaduct/Wembley Stadium/Guggenheim Bilbao (2008/9)