What our clients say about us
"After working with Nick Curwin and Scarlett Ewens over the past year, we are hugely excited to make our partnership with Matisse official.
Nick and Scarlett are the best in the business, with a brilliant track record setting up and running production companies that have revolutionised the face of television. They are visionaries of business with enormous creative energy, and as Minnow continues to grow and expand its horizons, we are very much looking forward to a collaboration benefitting from their unparalleled acumen and experience."
Morgan Matthews, CEO, Minnow Films
“The team at Matisse are world class. They have helped us at 72 Films hugely. Their advice is off-the-charts helpful.
Cannot recommend them enough.”
David Glover & Mark Raphael, Founders, 72 Films
“We engaged with Matisse to help us establish a new joint venture in Northern Ireland. Having two companies with a 20-year track record, one wonders what help we should need? Yet Matisse helped us greatly get started with the hard yards around basic starting points, brand of the combined company down to company naming, and set out a strategic plan and get going. It was great to have an outside group of industry experts to kick start the key discussion points. Matisse also acted as the honest brokers on our behalf with networks in terms of seeking out key talent relevant to our new business. The best input has been the feedback on slate and reaction from key network execs to our business and ideas. Great to work with professionals who understand the business focus required to crack new business.”
Larry Bass, CEO Shinawil
“We first engaged with Matisse to seek their guidance on our new JV. We had heard about their prowess by reputation but seeing them in action did not disappoint and our success to date is in no small part due to their efforts and guidance as our partners.”
Danny Fenton, CEO Zig Zag Productions
“The team at Matisse have been instrumental in refining and developing our business. From overhauling our development process to become more streamlined and focused; to helping position Lambent with broadcasters, introducing us to new buyers and moving on our relationships
with others, their support has had clear, tangible outcomes and our business is the better for it.
This is not a remote consultancy; it’s hands-on, practical and is consistently helping us to realise our ambitions and our potential.”
Emma Wakefield, Managing Director, Lambent
Ollie Tait, Managing Director, Lambent
Matisse has been instrumental to our first year of growth. They were crucial to our first commission, a feature doc inside a major London hospital, helping to secure access, strategise the pitch to the broadcaster, budget the film and introducing us to potential staff,
one of whom became the lynchpin for the whole production.
On a more general level, they helped us relaunch — Sandpaper had been a vehicle for my own films — working to place a piece in Broadcast, connecting us to the BBC’s Small Indie Fund and helping us to position ourselves with buyers. I think their biggest contribution has been to help us to develop a business strategy and plan. We’re both creatives and while we will always want the ideas that excite us most to be at the heart of the company, it’s incredibly useful to have advisers to focus us on a long-term strategy to ensure that we have a solid foundation upon which we can do the things we really want to do.
Henry Singer, Managing Director, Sandpaper Films
Susannah Price, Managing Director, Sandpaper Films
"Button Down began working with Matisse in November 2019 and our relationship with them has been instrumental to us scaling-up.
With Matisse’s involvement, we have grown from an indie with a steady flow of documentary singles to pitching and winning series
commissions with greater creative ambition. Matisse has helped position Button Down with broadcasters,
making introductions to new buyers and talking to existing contacts on our behalf. The creative side of our business has benefited from their assistance with slate development and detailed critiques of our pitch materials.
From a corporate perspective, they helped us formulate a detailed business plan that has become the backbone of our company’s strategy.
The assistance Matisse has provided on approaches to budgeting, distribution, legal and HR has also been invaluable.
In addition to these tangible benefits, having Nick, Ed and Scarlett available for ad-hoc advice and assistance has helped put Button Down
in an ideal place to expand through 2021 and beyond."
Pete Brandon, Managing Director, ButtonDown
Louis Bamber, Managing Director, ButtonDown
“The Matisse team have been amazingly patient as I wrestle with that age-old challenge of whether to stay small or go big.
They have given me advice on working hours, business planning and strategy as well as the odd staffing issue and one or two tricky broadcaster contracts. They’re so supportive and I’m looking forward to planning what we can achieve together in 2021.”
Ruth Pitt, Managing Director, Under The Moon
"Matisse has been a great support to Nineteen11 from a creative and commercial point of view. My regular contact with Edwina has produced tangible results in the shape of new broadcaster relationships. She is also hugely helpful regarding development strategy and on specific ideas. From a production and commercial perspective, the team at Matisse has rolled their sleeves up and helped with budgets, negotiation strategy, introductions to other advisors and crucially business strategy."
Brian Hayes, CEO, Nineteen11
“Working with Matisse has been an excellent opportunity to take stock, focus and make change. The scope of their work was precise but their attitude informal and above all enthusiastic; reviewing many of our internal processes and our business winning strategies.
In terms of development Matisse gave us considered feedback on ideas and detailed help with making them more sellable to broadcasters.
There’s been some very useful contact with commissioners directly, but always sensitive to the value of existing relationships.
Matisse have been a catalyst for change, tapping into our company as it is and giving us the confidence to move forward
with a much clearer strategic vision.”
Richard Osborne, Managing Director, Angel Eye Media
“To say that our experience with Matisse has been transformative is something of an understatement.
Their impact was instantaneous and eighteen months later the company is focused, financially stable and has already secured commissions and deals through relationships they have directly brokered.
Their interventions - whilst always subtle and measured - are invariably timely and of huge value.
I don’t use the latter phrase lightly - they have saved us considerable sums of money directly, by intervening in deals that were inefficient, by advising us on potential partnerships and by using their vast array of connections and experience to make sure
we’re talking to precisely the right individuals in the right organisations.
Examples include helping us exit from a distribution deal that wasn’t working for both parties -thus saving us a considerable financial hit in the process, introducing us to suitable partners for our slate -this happens again and again,
whether that be broadcasters or co-producers,and analysing deals on our behalf.
Working with Matisse is a fully co-operative partnership.
They are hands on and yet have a light touch that means you can always make your own decisions.
Through the hugely challenging year of 2020, they have also provided a constant source of encouragement, sage counsel and unflagging support (it’s worth noting they receive a considerable number of emails and calls from us - always replied to promptly and with wisdom and courtesy).
In short, I wanted to work with Matisse so we could take Seadog to the next level. That has been achieved and there’s no question whatsoever that their role has been seminal in that process.”
Monty Halls, Managing Director, Seadog Productions