Philip J Day

Philip J Day
Philip J Day
Born Harrogate, England
Occupation Filmmaker, founder and president of Edge West Productions, writer, and Television producer
Website Philday.tv

Philip J Day is a British film producer and Peabody Award winner.[1] His TV shows have been awarded two Emmy's and seven Emmy nominations as well as multiple other international awards. His credits include, National Geographic Channel, Discovery, BBC TV, Channel Four (UK), The History Channel, TLC and PBS.

In 2008, he began his own production company '‘Edge West Productions'’. Over the years Day has developed a strong working relationship with companies like Discovery, TLC, National Geographic Channel, History, Science and PBS. Between 2008 and 2017 Day wrote, produced, and directed more than 100 films for these networks. Many of these shows were produced by his company; Curiosity (TV Series) "Volcano Time Bomb", "Inside Rio Carnival", "The Real Roswell", "Tunnel to a Lost World", "Lost Cities of the Amazon", The Skyjacker That Got Away, "Great Escape: The Final Secrets", and "Nasca Lines The Buried Secrets".

Day is also executive producing popular TV series, such as Blood Relatives and Love Kills for Discovery, Alaska: The Last Frontier for Discovery and Sex Sent Me to the ER for TLC.

Early life

Philip James Day was born in Harrogate, United Kingdom. He and his family moved to Kabwe, Zambia, when he was eleven years old.

Family

Philip is son of Hazel Day, a notable actress and opera singer and Brian Day, a chartered accountant. Hazel is most well known for performances with the York light Opera company from 1963–1965. Her most popular performances were in Kiss Me Kate,[2] Song of Norway,[3] and finally Kismet.[4]

Philip Day is the youngest of three children. His brother, Martyn Day was described by The Times as one of the most powerful and influential lawyers in the UK.[5]

Education

While living in Zambia, Day attended the Peterhouse Boys' School in the neighboring country of Marondera, Zimbabwe, but moved back to England to finish at Ackworth School in West Yorkshire. Day then attended film school at Harrow College. He obtained a BA in Photography, Film, and Television.

Career

Philip J Day, sometimes credited as Phil Day or Philip Day, has some two hundred credits as producer, director and writer on network shows. He has specialized in social, historical, and scientific films using elaborate recreations and dynamic interviews to tell his stories.

In recent years he has been working as a freelance Executive Producer and Director on TV series such as Stan Lee's Lucky Man for Sky 1, "Navy Seals: America's Secret Warriors" for History (U.S. TV network), "Polar Bear Town" for the Smithsonian Institution, Blood Relatives and Love Kills for Investigation Discovery, Alaska: The Last Frontier for Discovery and Sex Sent Me to the ER for TLC.

For the last three years Day has worked with notable comic book author Stan Lee on Stan Lee's Lucky Man. Day also worked with director Robert Rodriguez for the highly regarded BBC showTen Minute Film School.[6] Day wrote and directed nearly twenty TV shows for National Geographic including a film about D. B. Cooper,[7] a man who has eluded the FBI for over thirty years.[8]

Many of his films explore ancient civilizations. Lost Cities of the Amazon for National Geographic investigates the tragic loss of life to indigenous Amerindians along the Amazon River from disease like influenza brought unwittingly by Spanish Conquistadors after 1492 (some experts believe up to ninety percent of the population perished in the first century of white explorers). Day also works on more scientific based series. His documentary on ancient medicine explores the origins of plastic surgery to 3,000 years before Hollywood face-lifts.

His two-hour film about the Luxor massacre[9][10] Massacre in Luxor[11] has been featured on PBS and BBC News.

After leaving film school Day worked in London as a freelance producer for BBC TV, Channel 4 and ITV. He produced and directed over sixty films in this time achieving many awards and receiving major press accolades. Moving Pictures for BBC TV won the prestigious UK Indies Award for Best Art Series. It was on Moving Pictures that Day started a long relationship with Hollywood, traveling to meet with stars and practitioners for in depth interviews. In 1997 Day produced a documentary about the fledgling animation studio DreamWorks called From Dream To Screen. It told the story how Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen opened their new studio with Prince of Egypt, the story of Moses. By the end of the 1990s Day had established a strong relationship with American broadcasters, such as PBS the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. Day's most notable films during this period includes Hello Mr. President, which garnered him a prestigious Peabody Award and an Emmy Nomination. The eminent journalist Sir Charles Wheeler wrote and narrated the documentary, which revealed for the first time some of the secret recordings taken by Lyndon B Johnson in his first days in Office as President following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. The documentary spawned a multi-part TV series called 'The Whitehouse Tapes' History Channel. The prestigious series went on to win an Emmy Award, five Emmy Award nominations, a Royal Television Society award, and multiple other awards and nominations.

In 2000, Day created an award winning series for The Learning Channel called Why Doctors Make Mistakes. In 2001, Day produced the highly successful TV show High Stakes: Bet Your Life on Vegas which partnered the director with Emmy Award winning actor Ray Liotta.[12] In 2002 Day used his Hollywood contacts to launch a major BBC/Discovery three-part series, The Hollywood Machine, (aka Hollywood, Inc.) The series examined the key reasons behind blockbuster success and dismal failure. Denzel Washington, Hugh Jackman, and Jude Law are just a few of the luminaries who appear in the film. The series played round the world gaining good ratings and excellent press reviews. The Times of London, described it as "highly entertaining", The Observer wrote it was "a must for all aspirants of film".

Some of Day's most noted films are the 2001 International Emmy Award Nominee Challenger: Go For Launch, and The Johnson Tapes, winner of one News and Documentary Emmy Award and three Emmy nominations plus two New York Telly Awards. In 2010 Day's company Edge West won a coveted Telly Award for the production of The Skyjacker That Got Away. In 2010 Philip J. Day was nominated for an Emmy Award at the 2010 News and Documentary Emmy Awards for the film The Skyjacker That Got Away.[13]. In both 2014 & 2015 his series Alaska: The Last Frontier was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award.

Held At Gunpoint

In 2009 Day and his team had been filming in the desert of southern Peru on a film about the Nazca Lines for National Geographic Channel. At around 3.45 am five armed men, wearing face masks, scaled a twenty-foot wall to break into the hotel where Day and his team were asleep. The assailants first took the receptionist and hotel manager hostage at gunpoint. The receptionist was bound and gagged while the manager was forced to provide a master key for all the bedrooms. The attackers had specifically come to steal expensive film equipment. They beat up several people and stole some equipment, but the actions of hotel staff saved the crew from a more severe and potentially life-threatening robbery.[14]

Collaborations

Philip Day has worked with people including Stan Lee on Stan Lee's Lucky Man, Mick Jagger Passion, Pride & Penalties, Henry Rollins on Inside the Warrior Gene, Craig Ferguson in My Friend Hellman & Friday at the Dome, Alan Rickman Tango With Ninagawa, Ray Liotta High Stakes: Bet Your Life on Vegas, Brian Cox The Late Show, Peter Coyote National Geographic Explorer, Akiva Goldsman, Ridley Scott, Kathleen Kennedy Hollywood Inc., Morwenna Banks Signals, and Jon Ronson The Ronson Mission.

TV Shows

Awards

  • Primetime Emmy Nominee – New York 2015 "Alaska: The Last Frontier"
  • Primetime Emmy Nominee – New York 2014 "Alaska: The Last Frontier"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2013 "Party Like The Queen of France"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2013 "Party Like A Roman Emperor"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2013 "Party Like The Rich & Famous"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2012 "Crime Lords of Tokyo"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2011 "Born to Rage"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2011 "Vanished From Alcatraz"
  • News and Documentary Emmy Nominee – New York 2010 "The Skyjacker That Got Away"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2010 "The Skyjacker That Got Away"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2010 "Great Escape: The Final Secrets"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2010 "Lost Cities of the Amazon"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2010 "Tunnel To A Lost World"
  • News and Documentary International Emmy Award– New York 2004 "The Johnson Tapes"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2002 "Challenger: Go For Launch"
  • News and Documentary Emmy Nominee – New York 2002 "Challenger: Go For Launch"
  • British Medical Association Certificate of Educational Merit, London 2000 – "Why Doctors Make Mistakes"
  • News and Documentary Emmy Nominee – New York 2000 "The Johnson Tapes"
  • Telly Awards – New York, 2000 "The Johnson Tapes"
  • Best Historical Documentary – Grierson Award Finalist, 1998 "Hello Mr. President"
  • Peabody Award Winner – New York 1998 "Hello Mr. President"
  • Best Music and Arts Series – UK Indie Awards, London 1997 "Moving Pictures"

References

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