ShAFF People
The people who make ShAFF happen
If you'd like to get involved in ShAFF (by which we mean doing lots of hard work in return for a free T-shirt), please get in touch, ideally sending a photo of yourself in a silly hat.
MATT BAREFOOT AND JAKE THOMPSON - VIDEOGRAPHY
For the third year, Matt Barefoot and Jake Thompson are back at ShAFF as our official photographers and filmmakers. Matt is a freelance filmmaker and we're delighted to be screening Slacker which he's been involved in producing. We discovered Jake when he was interning for our trailer producer Lukasz Warzecha at LW Images. We can highly recommend both of them.
PS The terrible photo PR Lissa Cook took of Jake and Matt last year shows you why we need their talent.
Paul BARton & Hannah Bird - GRAPHIC DESIGN
Paul and Hannah at Design Everything have come on board this year to give ShAFF brand new look to celebrate our 10th birthday. They've designed our new logo and custom font and done all the artwork for our posters, flyers, brochure, T-shirts and much more. We can't recommend their services too highly enough. Find out more...
As if that weren't enough, their 10 year old son Elliot's film Run Funning is premiering at ShAFF and it has a soundtrack written and sung by their 8 year old daughter Tilly. If we had an award for Creative Family Of The Year, they'd win it.
Martin Blackburn, Volunteer Coordinator
It's no exaggeration to say that without Martin the festival would fall apart. Each year, as if by magic, a huge team of volunteers appears out of nowhere and helps us with everything from feedback forms to filming and ticketing to tech support. (Actually, there's no magic - just lots of hard work, months ahead recruiting, vetting, briefing and training people).
Martin somehow manages to stay calm and cheerful, motivating a team of 50 with lots of caffeine and biscuits.
JP BURGESS, SHOWROOM BOX OFFICE
If Martin is the engine that keeps ShAFF going, then JP is the anchor that stops Box Office imploding under the pressure of 3,000 visitors. He's the public face of the amazing Showroom Cinema team including all the technicians, marketing, catering and bar staff that make ShAFF weekend such an enjoyable experience. When it all gets too much, you can always rely on JP to come up with an anecdote that puts it all into perspective.
PS You might not recognise him from this photo as he's grown a magnificent beard over the past year.
CLAIRE CARTER - JUDGE & PRESENTER
Claire is Kendal Mountain Festival's Film Officer. Coming on board with ShAFF last year means she watches films all year round. She is a writer and poet (she apologises in advance), organises arty events for climbers in Sheffield and is an enthusiastic climber and runner.
She studied digital film at the New York Film Academy before concluding its a very complicated way of getting your point across, so has huge respect for adventure filmmakers, and their ability to keep their kit dry. You can follow Claire on Twitter and Tumblr.
Rebecca Cassidy, Assistant PR
ShAFF PR Lissa Cook apologises to High Peak Radio for stealing their News Editor, Becky Cassidy. The 23 year old radio producer turned freelance journalist and PR works for a variety of clients. She's highly recommended, though we'd rather noone else steals her from us as we really value her.
At ShAFF she'll be working with students from the Rural Derbyshire School Sport Partnership interviewing our Women in Adventure Network panellists as part of their school project on the Sport England #ThisGirlCan campaign. Follow her @rebecca_cassidy
PETE CLAYTON, EXCEL CONSULTANT
It's not all glamour running a film festival. Though Festival Director Matt Heason and PR Lissa Cook love a good adventure film, what they love event more is a good excel spreadsheet. Pete Clayton is the Excel Consultant (or Excel Wizard as we call him).
He has run general elections for emerging democracies from an excel spreadsheet and this year we're running ShAFF from his master programming spreadsheet. As well as being the cleverest person at ShAFF, he's also one of the nicest.
Lissa Cook, Festival PR
Former BBC Radio 4 politics producer fell into helping organise Sheffield Adventure Film Festival through a series of happy accidents. She's the least likely person to be an adventure sports PR, generally being an omniphobe and armchair adventurer. She runs off-road and loves her road bike but struggles with climbing and had to go on a fear of heights course when she started doing this job.
PS Her twitter handle @Heason_Lissa means she's often mistaken for Matt Heason's wife. Actually she's married to Senior Judge Nik Cook.
NIKALAS COOK, SENIOR JUDGE
One of the ironies of adventure sports writer Nik Cook's life is that he spends much of it inside watching other people having adventures. The clocks going back is the signal to start ShAFF film judging and with 118 films in this year's festival, it's a mammoth task.
Over the festival weekend, the judges become the presenters introducing each and every film session and speaker. Nik is the one who makes sure they're all where they should be, saying what they should be saying. He's also the other half of festival PR Lissa Cook. Follow @nikalascook on Twitter.
Matt Heason - Festival Director
From around September Matt spends the long winter evenings watching the 350+ films that we consider for the festival each year including submissions from film makers as well as sourcing films. Before spending an agonising couple of weeks in December juggling the final selection of around 100 films into a programme in time for publication in the New Year.
Once ShAFF's over, he's onto Sheffield's Cliffhanger Festival and programming Cycle To The Cinema's summer season and then Buxton Adventure Festival in the autumn. Originally a climber, he's branched out into ultra-running and cycling and helps organise the annual Grindleford Goat Sportive in September. Follow Matt @HeasonEvents.
PAUL HODGSON - MUSIC JUDGE & SHAFF DJ
Bringing Sheffield producer and DJ Paul Hodgson (aka Grievous Angel) on board fulfils a long-time wish of Matt's to highlight the film soundtracks and all the musicians whose creative energy makes such a huge contribution to the success of a film.
In addition to judging the soundtracks, Paul will be pulling together a #ShAFF2015 playlist of the best tunes that we'll be playing all weekend in the Showroom bar. Can't wait? Listen to his #ShAFF2015 Soundtracks playlist on YouTube. Follow Grievous Angel on Soundcloud and on Twitter @grievousangeluk.
HAYLEY LEVER - JUDGE & PRESENTER
New to our #ShAFF2015 judging panel, Hayley is Co-Director of Derbyshire Sport. Her particular remit is to help judge our new prize category - Best Women In Adventure Film - to encourage female talent both behind and in front of the camera. As a mother of three young girls she's passionate about inspiring women to be active and seek adventure.
A keen runner and cyclist she's completed several long-distance events including triathlons and one of the world's toughest marathons, the Swiss MountainMan. Follow Hayley on Twitter @HayleyLever and follow Derbyshire Sport @DerbysSport
CLAIRE MAXTED - JUDGE AND PRESENTER
Claire is editor of Trail Running Magazine. She's an avid runner and recently returned from attempting the The Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica. She is also an occasional triathlete, a wild swimmer, and rock climber.
With three Running Film sessions and three running talks she's going to be busy at ShAFF presenting and interviewing. Never happy sitting still, she's already booked Sunday morning off to head out on a run with Nikki Kimball. Follow Trail Running magazine on Twitter @TrailRunningMag and like the Trail Running Facebook page
JAMES MACKEDDIE, FILMMAKER/SPEAKER LIAISON
By day, James MacKeddie is Brand Manager for Madison, the UK's largest cycle and action sports distributor. Most weekends he seems to spend doing very long running races. He came on board at Buxton Adventure Festival and that didn't put him off so he's back for more at ShAFF.
James will be working with Martin's team of volunteers, looking after the filmmakers and speakers who are coming to this year's festival, making sure they're in the right place at the right time and - most importantly - having fun.
DAVE MYCROFT, FRINGE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
Dave is the Managing Editor of outdoors news website MyOutdoors.co.uk. He also coordinates the ShAFF photography exhibition which - with the support of Lowepro - has developed into the UK's biggest outdoor and adventure photography exhibition of the year. This year, he's created the Festival Fringe with a whole stack of free talks for the public and invitation only parties for our filmmakers, sponsors, athletes and volunteers.
Oh, and he also runs the Second Hand Kit Sale.
Ed Richardson & JONATHAN FLETCHER
Ed & Jonathan have recently set up a new digital innovation company, Beautiful Everything. Happily for us, they are based in the Showroom Workstation - home to the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. The team there have revamped the ShAFF YouTube channel. We are also proud to be piloting their new audience voting app.
Ed is also a keen off-road runner and cyclist. He's recently completed the 42 mile High Peak Marathon with Matt Heason, though a small navigational error meant they made it into a 44 mile run! Jon is a big mountain biker, starting his competitive racing days in the same team that the legendary Steve Peat come from, BATS.
Zena Toscani - Judge & Presenter
New to this year's judging panel, when she’s not climbing or planning her next adventure, Zena spends her days working as the Deputy Editor on filmmaking magazine Pro Moviemaker, writing features and testing out the latest gear on action sports shorts and documentaries.
Zena's particular remit on the panel will be to judge the films on their technical merit and production values. Follow Zena on Twitter @Zena_t and @promoviemaker
Ian White, working with Beautiful Everything
Ian White is working in collaboration with Ed Richardson at Beautiful Everything. Ian is one of those clever people who actually knows how to design an app. We can't wait to test run the new audience voting app at the festival.
Like Ed and Matt, he's a keen runner and this pic is from the end of their epic High Peak Marathon. A man of many talents, he's also an excellent cook.
You can find his open source work at http://github.com/ianwhite, and he tweets at @i2w
