About

About Blink Films

Blink:Freehand is one of Australia’s leading production companies based in Sydney. We produce award winning “Intelligent Entertainment” for the screen industries.

Blink formed a relationship with Freehand Productions in March 2009. This connection gives Blink greater capacity for production and brings the production of Drama and Kids shows to Freehand.

Over the years, we have won numerous awards for our shows including 2 Logies, an AFI and an Emmy. In 2007, Blink Films was named Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) Independent Producer of the Year.

Blink:Freehand has relationships with all the major funding bodies, broadcasters and distributors in Australia and is familiar with the process of financing film and television directly and in co-productions.

As well as producing shows that it has developed, Blink also works as a service company for producing shows in Australia with international partners. 

Blink provides consultation to the local industry as well as people wishing to do business in Australia

People

Michael Bourchier, Principal and Producer

Michael Bourchier is one of Australia’s highly sought after Executive Producers with an enviable track record for intelligent and entertaining television and films.  In recognition, he has won two Logies, an AFI and was named Independent Producer of the Year in 2007 by the peak industry body, SPAA.

The all-animal children’s feature film Napoleon, on which Michael was Producer and co-Writer, was a breakthrough film on many levels.  Following its successful domestic release in 1996, Napoleon was also released internationally and continues to sell in over 30 countries around the world.

After taking over as Producer on the hit television series, Heartbreak High, Michael Bourchier ran development for Ben Gannon’s group of companies as Executive in Charge of Production.  In this capacity he put together The Man who Sued God starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis, and the 40 x 1 hour ABC/Carlton (UK) youth drama Head Start that he later produced.

In 2002, Michael produced the tween series Out There with Sesame Workshop, the ABC and the BBC and won an AFI for “Best Children’s Television Series” in 2003 as well as being nominated for a Logie (the peak Australian television awards) in that year.  The second season of Out There won a Logie in 2005 and was nominated for an AFI in that year as well as being honoured with other awards and nominations around the world including the Prix Jeunesse.

Blink Films has also produced The Upside Down Show which won the Logie for Most Outstanding Children’s Show 2007 and a silver medal at the Parents Choice Awards as well as a Daytime Emmy for best title design.  It was also nominated for an AFI in 2006.  The Upside Down Show featured the unique physical comedians, The Umbilical Brothers, and was made in partnership with Nickelodeon USA and Sesame Workshop.

Michael was the Executive Producer on the compelling movie Lucky Miles which opened the 2007 Adelaide Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the Sydney Film Festival 2007 as well as the prestigious Special Jury Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In addition, it has won awards at Vladivostok, Dubai, Singapore and St Tropez and has been screened widely at many other international festivals.

Michael is also the Australian Executive Producer for Escape from Scorpion Island, the hit ABC/BBC kids TV series, series of which have been produced in Australia in 2008 and 2010 with RDF.  This production is the result of a collaboration between Michael and Freehand and has resulted in a formal development and production association. Penelope K, by the way – now screening on CBeebies around the world was the first product of this new association.

Michael has an interesting and innovative slate of projects including feature film and a range of children’s programming along with adult drama and comedy projects.


John Gregory, Executive Director

John Gregory has worked as Vice President Business Affairs at Grundy International, General Manager of Beyond International, and Co-CEO of Imagination Entertainment.

At Grundy International John was a member of the senior management team that established the Grundy television business in Europe, South America and South East Asia and readied it for eventual acquisition by Pearson Television.

At Imagination Entertainment John helped establish one of Australia’s first cross-platform media business and developed a range of successful brands that delivered content across both traditional and non-traditional platforms.

John understands that the media business is no longer just about traditional TV. New media means new opportunities for reach, revenue and mutual benefit.


Libbie Doherty, Director of Development and Producer

Libbie Doherty is a television producer and writer whose been working in Australia and the UK for over fifteen years. After graduating from Charles Sturt University with a BA Arts, Majoring in Broadcast Journalism she started her television career on the multi-award winning program BEYOND 2000 as a researcher learning the business and working her way up to producer.

Wanderlust took over in her mid 20’s and she moved to the UK where her career flourished and she expanded her skills and experience. Her first foray into the UK TV world was producing for “Talkin Jazz” (NBC Europe), a late night jazz cult series involving seedy bars and festivals. After too many late nights she moved into the creative services department at NBC working for the first time as one of the directors of on air promotions.

The dot com bubble began to swell and Libbie was approached by international digital agency Razorfish, as one of the founding members of their Future TV team driving

business across Europe in broadcast design and interactive TV. Here she consolidated her producing and writing experience and gained an in-depth understanding of the new interactive world that was looming working with Channel 4, BBC, E4, ARTE, RAI, BSKYB and DIRECT TV USA.

Once that bubble burst she spent some time freelancing for BSKYB and Channel 4 before moving into a permanent role at the BBC where Libbie settled into a role that consolidated all her previous experience. As Research Executive in the Creative Research and Development Department she was responsible for a paper “Digital Britain 2014”, exploring the relevant deep societal trends that could be important to Britain and broadcasting in the year 2014. She also worked across a number of genre areas – News and Sport helping them identify the trends relevant to their audiences. Whilst at the BBC Libbie was selected for the BBC’s Ashridge Leadership Program and trained and worked internally as a management Coach.

After ten years in the UK, Libbie returned to Australia and took a year off to spend time with her son. She re-entered the job market with a clear focus on producing stories for children and teens across all platforms. She worked with Sixty40 before moving across to one of Australia’s leading animation studios, Hackett films. Her role at Hackett Films as Senior Producer involved driving new business and developing original program concepts and properties for local and international broadcasters.

In 2009 Libbie travelled to South Korea as part of the Australian Children’s Producers Delegation and was invited to speak at the KANZ summit in New Zealand representing Australian content producers.

She joined Michael at Blink Films in August 2010.

Awards

Independent Producer of the Year, 2007 (SPAA)
Logie Award 2007, Most Outstanding Children’s Drama (The Upside Down Show)
Independent Producer of the Year, Children’s 2006 (SPAA)
Logie Award 2005, Most Outstanding Children’s Drama (Out There)
AFI Award 2003, Best Children’s Drama (Out There)