Philip J Day

Philip J Day is a British film director and Peabody Award winner. 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 2006, 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 and PBS. Between 2005 and 2014 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.
As well as producing, directing and writing Day is also executive producing popular TV series, such as 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 Africa, when he was eleven years old. They lived in Kabwe, Zambia. This allowed Day to attend Peterhouse Boys' School in Marondera, Zimbabwe. Day was moved back to England to finish High School. He graduated from Ackworth School in West Yorkshire.

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, Song of Norway, and finally Kismet.

Philip Day is the youngest of three children. His brother, Martyn Day gained notoriety when The Times cited him as one of the most powerful and influential lawyers in the UK. The Times has continued to write about his achievements each one more powerful than the next. Martyn has also written his own articles for the Guardian and for the Times. Philip Day has one daughter, Kaya, born in London.

Education

While living in Zambia, Day attended the Peterhouse Boys' School in the neighboring country of Marondera, Zimbabwe, but was moved back to England to finish High School at Ackworth School in West Yorkshire. Day is an alumnus of Ackworth School. Day continued his education by attending film school at Harrow College. He was graduated with Honours obtaining a BA in Photography, Film, and Television. The school is now known as Middlesex University.

Career

Philip J Day, sometimes credited, Phil Day or Philip Day, has nearly two hundred credits as writer, producer or director on network shows. He has specialized in social, historical, and scientific films using elaborate recreations and dynamic interviews to tell his stories. He is a well known and respected filmmaker on both sides of the Atlantic.

He is currently working as a creative Executive Producer and Director on TV series, such as Alaska: The Last Frontier for Discovery and Sex Sent Me to the ER for TLC.

He has worked with notable writer, director Robert Rodriguez appearing in the director's highly regarded BBC showTen Minute Film School. Day wrote and directed nearly twenty TV shows for National Geographic including a film about D. B. Cooper, a man who has eluded the FBI for over thirty years. Many of his films explore the unknown mysteries of 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 Massacre in Luxor has been featured on PBS and BBC News.

InFocus Productions has called Phil Day, "one of Britain's most prolific documentary film makers."

Day began his career working as a video editor in television. His first TV job was for Channel Four (UK) called The Media Show, which was similar to the US current affairs radio program The Media Show. In 1989, Day wrote and directed his first full-length documentary Japan Live Performance for Channel 4 Television (UK) and the Arts Council of Great Britain–The film won the Golden Gate Award for 'Best of Category, Television: Fine Arts and Musical Variety’ at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1991.

For more than a decade Day worked in London as a freelance director, writer and 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. 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,.

Held At Gunpoint

In 2009 Producer Philip J. Day and his team had been filming in the desert of southern Peru on a film about the mysterious Nazca Lines for National Geographic Channel. But in the early hours one morning the project took a dangerous turn. At around 3.45 am five armed men, wearing face masks, scaled a twenty-foot wall to break into the hotel where Mr. Day and his team were asleep. The company was filming extensive recreations, so a large team of thirty-four people was staying at the hotel. The assailants first broke into the apartment of the hotel management, taking receptionist Rosa Miranda Parodi, 55, and the manager, Delcy Rojas, 48, 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 and demanded to know where the 'gringos with the cameras' were asleep.

However, Ms. Rojas refused to aid the assailants, instead leading them to a room where two drivers were sleeping. Both men were bound with wrapping tape, but even though they were beaten with a rifle butt they refused to give their attackers any information. Three more rooms were entered and terrified crew members were awakened with guns at their heads. The five robbers had every intention of going through each room until they located Mr. Day and his cameraman, Wes Dorman. The hostage siege had been quietly taking place for nearly an hour when the hotel owner's son, Jose Maria Pautrat, 25, arrived home from Lima. When Jose realized that a robbery was taking place he was able to leave the building and contact the police. Meanwhile, driver Carlos Rioja managed to break free and ran through the hotel calling for help. Quickly, crew members assembled and searched to find their attackers.

Several computers, phones and photographic cameras were stolen, but the actions of Delcy Rojas and Carlos Rioja saved the crew from a much more severe and potentially life-threatening robbery. Subsequently, the film crew has been provided with 24-hour armed protection from district police for the last few days of their film shoot. Producer, Philip Day commented, "It was an incredible and terrible ordeal, especially for those held by these dangerous and desperate attackers. I am amazed by the heroic actions of the hotel and my crew. I'd also like to thank the Nasca police and local authorities for their excellent assistance in this extraordinary and harrowing incident.”

Collaborations

Day has worked with such individuals as 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 Hollywood Inc., Morwenna Banks Signals, Jon Ronson The Ronson Mission, and Mick Jagger Passion, Pride & Penalties.

TV Shows

(As Director and/or Producer)

• "Japan Live Performance" (1989) Channel 4 (UK)
• "The Day Comics Grew Up" (1989) Channel 4 (UK)
• "The Best of British Snaps" (1989) Channel 4 (UK)
• "The Hero Strikes Back" (1990) Channel 4 (UK)
• "The Seduction of Style" (1990) Channel 4 (UK)
• "Tango With Ninagagwa" (1991) BBC TV
• "The Ronson Mission" (1993) BBC TV
• "The ABC of Democracy" (1994) Channel 4 (UK)
• "The Mind Field" (1995) Channel 4 (UK)
• "Without Walls" (1996) Channel 4 (UK)
• "Moving Pictures" (1996) BBC TV
• "Hello Mr. President" (1997) Channel 4/ History Channel
• "Cancer Wars" (1998) Channel 4/Discovery
• "Casualty 250" (1998) BBC TV
• "Passion, Pride & Penalties" (1998) BBC TV
• "The Johnson Tapes" (1999) Channel 4 (UK)/ History Channel
• "Riddle of the Skies" (1999) Channel 4 (UK)/ Discovery
• "Challenger: Go For Launch" (2000) BBC TV/Discovery
• "Why Doctors Make Mistakes" (2000) Channel 4 (UK)/TLC
• "High Stakes: Bet Your Life on Vegas" (2001) TLC
• "Hollywood Inc" (2002) TLC
• "City of the God Kings" (2002) Channel 4 (UK) / Discovery
• "Massacre in Luxor" (2002) BBC TV/ NHK
• "Mind of a Millionaire" (2003) BBC
• "Ancient Plastic Surgery" (2005) Channel 4 (UK)/ Discovery
• "Megastructures" (2005) National Geographic
• "Inside Rio Carnaval" (2007) PBS
• "The Real Roswell" (2007) National Geographic
• "Lost Cities of the Amazon" (2008) National Geographic
• "Tunnel to a Lost World" (2008) National Geographic
• "Great Escape The Final Secrets" (2009) National Geographic
• "The Skyjacker That Got Away" (2009) National Geographic
• "Nasca Lines The Buried Secrets" (2010) National Geographic
• "Explorer 25 Years" (2010) National Geographic
• "Born To Rage?" (2010) National Geographic
• "Vanished From Alcatraz" (2011) National Geographic
• "Crime Lords of Tokyo" (2011) National Geographic
• "Party Like the Rich and Famous" (2012) National Geographic
• "Party Like the Queen of France" (2012) National Geographic
• "Party Like a Roman Emperor" (2012) National Geographic
• "Volcano Time Bomb" (2012) Discovery Channel
• "Alaska: The Last Frontier" (2013) Discovery Channel
• "Sex Sent Me To The ER" (2014) TLC

Awards

• Golden Gate Award – 1991 "Japan Live Performance" – Best Arts Documentary
• Best Short Comedy – 1995 "My Friend Hellman"
• Best Music and Arts Series – UK Indie Awards, London 1997 "Moving Pictures"
• Best Historical Documentary – Grierson Award Finalist, 1998 "Hello Mr. President"
• Peabody Award Winner – New York 1998 "Hello Mr. President"
• 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"
• Telly Awards – New York, 2002 "Challenger: Go For Launch"
• News and Documentary Emmy Nominee – New York 2002 "Challenger: Go For Launch"
• News and Documentary International Emmy Award– New York 2004 "The Johnson Tapes"
• 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 Emmy Nominee – New York 2010 "The Skyjacker That Got Away"
• Telly Awards – New York, 2011 "Born to Rage"
• Telly Awards – New York, 2011 "Vanished From Alcatraz"
• Telly Awards – New York, 2012 "Crime Lords of Tokyo"
• 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"
• Primetime Emmy Nominee – New York 2014 "Alaska: The Last Frontier"