Iain McGuinness

Iain McGuinness (born 13 August 1984) is a TV producer and director, music video director, and writer. He is currently Creative Director at AND / OR Productions.

Biography
He was born on 13 August 1984, in Alexandria, Scotland.

In 1994, at age 10, he organised a bring and buy sale for Blue Peter's Well Water Appeal, which was in aid of WaterAid's planned work in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

He later received both blue and silver Blue Peter badges, for this, and for sending in some of his artwork to the BBC's flagship children's TV programme. Also, in 1995, he appeared in the WaterAid Annual Review, as an example of a young bring and buy sale organiser.

Art & Design was his favourite subject at school, and was also a hobby for him. On 25 November 1998, at age 14, he appeared on STV's Scotland Today lunchtime news programme, alongside some of his classmates, talking about Clydebank High School's 125th anniversary banners project, which he had worked on.

Upon leaving school in November 2002, he set up his own business (with the help of the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust ) &mdash; a new media agency, which led to him working in video production by 2004.

Since then, he has produced and directed three documentaries for DVD about his home town of Clydebank &mdash; Post-Blitz Clydebank, Clydebank Through A Lens, and The Clydebank Blitz: Beneath The Embers &mdash; as well as a documentary mini-series for the Community Channel, called South Ifrica. He has also worked on music videos and shorts, and educational and corporate videos.

In his book, River of Fire: The Clydebank Blitz, the Scottish Daily Mail journalist, and author, John MacLeod wrote that "the present century has seen the emergence of a gifted young film-maker, Iain McGuinness, who has to date produced two luminous documentaries about his Clydebank hometown, and is a talent to watch."

Post-Blitz Clydebank (2007)
Post-Blitz Clydebank was his first documentary film, and was made for £3,000.

It was originally conceived only as a ten-minute mini-documentary, for entering into a film-making competition, in 2007. A 28-minute director's cut, with additional footage and interviews, was produced, and released on 13 March 2008 &mdash; the 67th anniversary of the Clydebank Blitz.

Clydebank Through A Lens (2009)
On 17 June 2009, he announced in the press that he would work with a local amateur photographer, Owen McGuigan, on the project, Clydebank Through A Lens. Owen's work from the 1970s and '80s had become popular through his Web site, My Clydebank Photos.

Contributors interviewed included Wet Wet Wet drummer and vocalist, Tommy Cunningham, the current Provost of West Dunbartonshire Council, Denis Agnew, and artist, Tom McKendrick.

The DVD was released in December 2009.

The film was screened on 23 September 2009 and 24 November 2009, in Clydebank Town Hall.

South Ifrica (2010)
In October 2008, he travelled to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with seven other young people aged between 17 and 22, and two mentors &mdash; for West Dunbartonshire CVS' Mandela and Beyond project. They developed a computer laboratory in St. James' School. Although he was primarily working as a volunteer with the organisation, he also filmed the project for this fly-on-the-wall documentary mini-series for the Community Channel, hoping to show what it was really like for a young person volunteering abroad.

Off The Wall (2010)
Off The Wall is a 10-minute mini-documentary, described as: "a peek into the increasingly popular urban sport, parkour, whose highly trained participants, known as 'traceurs,' are having to clear bigger obstacles than just the street furniture."

The Clydebank Blitz: Beneath The Embers (2011)
On 12 January 2011, he announced in the press that he would produce a third and final film about Clydebank, this one covering the Blitz itself.

It is a film of short films, with interviews of surviving children and teenagers, living in Clydebank, Old Kilpatrick and Dumbarton, in Scotland, at the time of the Blitz of 13-15 March 1941. The documentary is presented by him in, this, his first feature-length film.

The director's cut of the film received further publicity in March 2012, in the local press , and on Clyde 2's Riddy in the Morning show.

Music videos (2009–present)
He has produced and directed several music videos; one for a track by a local band, and two for a track by an unsigned Glasgow-based rapper; and in October 2010, he produced and directed a music video for the Glaswegian metal band, Senzafine, for their track, Burn the Bridges, which was broadcast on TV. He directs music videos under the moniker, 'GMC.'

Development slate
As of November 2011, three projects were confirmed as being in development &mdash; Bad Mind, Cairo to Cape Town, and jobopoly.

Clydebank ♥s the QE2!
This all-day event was held on 20 September 2010 to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the launch of the QE2. It involved a walking tour during the day, and a talk by Rob Lightbody of theqe2story.com.

Other work
He has also worked as a graphic designer, and as Managing Director of a new media agency.

He narrated three of his documentary films &mdash; Clydebank Through A Lens, South Ifrica, and The Clydebank Blitz: Beneath The Embers. He also appeared on camera in South Ifrica and The Clydebank Blitz: Beneath The Embers, and has made several radio and TV appearances to date, to promote his various projects. He has also been featured in many magazines and newspapers over the years.

He has also given several public talks on his documentary film-making.

During the month of October 2008, while in South Africa, he kept a blog for the local newspaper (the Clydebank Post).

In March 2010, he established a walking tours company, offering 'Clyde-built: a walking tour of Clydebank,' a 90-minute audio-visual walking tour led by a friendly tour guide. It is accompanied by a booklet of the same name, which has been compiled by him. It will be available to download, in English, Dutch, French and German, along with corresponding audio versions.

He is also Sales Director of bairdstravel.com Ltd. bairdstravel.com is the travel advice and tips Web site of experienced traveller and Glasgow walking tour guide, Douglas Baird, who is the creator of #scotlandhour on Twitter.

On 20 August 2011, he appeared in the Evening Times, alongside fellow Bankies, Dragons' Den entrepreneur, Duncan Bannatyne, and former Scotland, Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion footballer, Asa Hartford.

On 28 February 2012, in The Scottish Sun, he commented on the new Sunday edition of the newspaper, saying that: "It looks good to me and the more choice the better."

Awards
In 2008, with Post-Blitz Clydebank, he was the winner of the Marshall Plan Digital Documentary Contest, run by Bebo and the US Embassy.

He won a place at the Charge Music Video Workshop in London, in April 2009, where he and other film-makers received mentoring from experienced music video directors. He was then awarded a grant from the Media Trust to make a music video for an artist of his choice.

He chose to make a music video for an unsigned Glasgow-based rapper. The video was filmed over the early May 2009 Bank Holiday weekend.