Jonny Persey
Jonny Persey is the Chief Executive of Met Film, a unique organisation based in Ealing Studios, which comprises the UK's fastest growing film school, an award-winning feature film production company, and a cutting-edge post-production facility – blurring the boundaries between education and industry.
Jonny’s producing credits include Deep Water; Wondrous Oblivion; Village at the End of the World; Donor Unknown; Town of Runners; The Pied Piper of Hutzovina; Heavy Load; French Film; Little Ashes; The Great Hip Hop Hoax; The Dark Matter of Love, and Men Who Swim. Meanwhile, under his leadership, Met Film also produced The Infidel.
Having studied psychology at Cambridge University and worked for several years as a youth worker and training and organisational development consultant, Jonny produced his first feature film, Everyone’s Child, in Zimbabwe, releasing in 1996. He then went on to study at the National Film & Television School where he produced a series of acclaimed short films both through the school and independently. He serves on PACT’s Film Policy Group and is a member of ACE.
Met Film Production is dedicated to the development and production of innovative and commercially driven feature films, and was formed in early 2008 incorporating the team from Jonny’s previous company, APT Films. APT’s first feature film Solomon and Gaenor was nominated for an Oscar in 2000.
The Met Film School trains and educates the next generation of film professionals, through practical filmmaking courses at our campuses in Ealing Studios in London and at BUFA Studios, Berlin, they believe that the best way to learn filmmaking is to make films, with the support and guidance of experienced industry practitioners.
Highlights
I found myself in a sort of circuitous series of events in Zimbabwe…
I want the company, the organisation, the institution to represent the world I want to live in. I want it to be modelled on how I think the world should be
…we give them the resources, the space, the people, the technology, to really go for it….
there is stress associated with the anxiety that you put in, with the desire to make everything just right; and when things don't go right, I take it very personally every time.
One of the key things about training creative people to get into a career like film is they have to really understand the business side of it….
I talk about – with the students and writers, directors, producers I work with – the need to always be bouncing a series of balls, and to see which ones bounce the highest…
I fell in love with the film industry and stayed there
we don't think that you can learn to make films without being in a professional filmmaking environment; so we based ourselves in Ealing Studios which is sort of the heart and birthplace of British cinema
…life isn't always a straight line and I think it's really important to notice that.