Meet OUR Team
Emily-Jane “Emmy“ Robinson
Founder & Managing Director
Focus Puller
She/her
Emmy has fifteen years experience working within the camera department and over 12 years as Focus Puller on narrative feature films, music videos, commercials, fashion films, promos, documentary, short films and in television drama.
Signed as a Focus Puller to the prestigious Loop Talent, she has extensive experience working in all working industry digital and film camera formats. She received her MA from The Slade School of Fine Art at UCL, her BA at UCLA in Los Angeles, her formal film familiarisation practical training at the National Film and Television School in 2016 and at the ASC Masterclass in Los Angeles after years of hands-on experience in the field and on the floor.
Her strong leadership and interpersonal skills, go-getter personality, comprehensive technical knowledge and wealth of experience working within the camera department over many years within different roles, combined with her unique background in fine art make her an invaluable asset to any production and to Emmyland!
She has built a strong reputation as a creative, methodical, technically competent, hardworking, charismatic and exceptionally quick and efficient camera assistant with an unmatched precision and attention to detail when it comes to Focus. Emmy is the only woman and Managing Director running a rental company in the film industry in the UK and has become a household name amongst cinematographers, producers and camera crew.
If Emmy isn’t shooting she’s probably pole dancing, long distance cycling across the country or spending time with her two dogs, Merlin and Moon.
Find Emmy on Instagram @emmyw0rld & @emmylegs
Ada Wesolowska
Kitroom Manager & Clapper Loader
She/her
Ada Wesolowska is a 2nd Assistant Camera with unparalleled fervor for all things film. (Nerd alert!).
Her journey into the film industry began in 2014 when she started her BA in Filmmaking at Kingston School of Art. It is there that she spent an unhealthy amount of hours in the darkroom and discovered one of her top passions - all things analogue film, including but not limited to obscure knowledge of Bolex cameras, finding joy in reading Arriflex SR3 manuals and just simply practicing loading any film mag she could get her hands on.
Since graduating in 2017, Ada tried to get her foot and other limbs through the door of the film industry in any way she could, undertaking a range of onset positions in low budget shorts and music videos. These varied from runner, Crowd 2nd AD on a WW2 feature (story for another time), spark and dolly grip.
It wasn’t until 2018 when if finally daunted on her that camera is the only way forward. Everything about that department was endlessly appealing to Ada and she felt that she had a lot to learn. Therefore, she went on to pursue a Masters Degree at Goldsmiths University with focus on Cinematography, where she got hands-on experience with high end digital cameras and began to understand the roles and responsibilities within the camera department.
Upon finishing her Masters, Ada started to crew on short films and music videos as a loader, this is when her film passion and knowledge of working with 16mm film came in handy and helped her discover all the other things she loves about being the 2nd AC.
In 2022, via Equal Access Network managed to secure a position of a Camera Trainee on a Channel4 Pilot “The Odds” lensed by Ryan Eddleston where she had a fantastic opportunity to work with the brilliant Emmyland team, Emmy and Alfie, learn from the best in the business and massively step up her game.
Soon after that production wrapped, Ada was lucky to be offered a position as a Kitroom Technician in-house at Emmyland where she could let loose all her love for camera gear by looking after, maintaining and most importantly scanning it (she loves scanning). She also began working as a Loader on the Wet Hire jobs with Emmy.
At the beginning of 2023, Ada moved into the new position within the Emmyland family as the Kitroom supervisor. She feels this role is extremely rewarding due to it’s interpersonal aspect. The idea of working together and looking after each other as a team, in order to achieve common goals and customer satisfaction with the camera and grip gear we provide here at Emmyland, is the reason Ada thrives in the busy and dynamic environment of the kitroom.
Find Ada on Instagram @wesolowska_ada
Max Openshaw
Director of Operations & Lens Technician
(Retired) Clapper Loader
He/him
“Loader Extraordinaire” - Max Openshaw has been working in the camera department exclusively as a Clapper Loader for 8 years on feature films, commercials, music videos and shorts alongside Emmy as her 2nd AC and business partner at Emmyland.
Max came out of sixth form and went straight into work freelancing as a videographer, photographer, runner and camera trainee which very quickly progressed into his work as a Clapper Loader after falling in love with his job.
He joined Emmyland in 2016 after meeting Emmy on set when he was working as a Camera Trainee and was made a director and business partner within just two years in 2018. Max has worked tirelessly and constantly to grow the business with Emmy and is her right hand man and the driving entrepreneurial force behind pushing the Emmyland brand into the stratosphere!
It is never too late or too early for Emmy to call Max on the phone to plot their strategy of growing the company and getting pumped up on the next step of action. An entrepreneur to his core, Max is Emmyland’s biggest champion and much of the intelligent and forward thinking decision making is due to Max’s laser focus and entrepreneurial drive.
Max and Emmy were a formidable camera assistant duo on the floor and are unlike any other, immediately recognisable when they showed up to any set. With his youth on his side and as a digital native, Max is an invaluable asset to Emmyland as the branding champion the business now he has taken a side step to run the dry hire enterprise.
In 2023, became a fully certified Lens Technician after various training throughout the world with Cooke, Zeiss and other lens manufacturers. We are proud to able to service most lens repairs and to maintain all of our lenses internally here at Emmyland under Max’s meticulous attention to detail.
Max recently became a Father… to a beautiful Australian Shepherd dog named Frank (after Ocean).
Find Max on Instagram @mgocinema
Liam Nevitt
Kitroom Assistant Manager & Technical Lead
He/him
Liam has been working in various kitrooms across London for 6 years now and loves working with cinema camera equipment and helping people make their visions into reality.
Liam is an avid watch collector and is currently learning to service and repair his own watches.
Find Liam on Instagram @liamnevitt
David Woodman
Client Contact
He/him
David joined our bookings team in 2022 having spent time working as a Kitroom Technician at a number of rental companies in London. With an MA in Cinematography from the prestigious NFTS and many years of shooting experience, David knows the industry well and understands the relationships between the key roles in productions. Before transitioning into motion picture he studied photography at art school before landing his dream job as a photographic darkroom technician and apprentice printmaker, getting the chance to meet an amazing roster of photographers including Simon Norfolk, Jane Bown, Philip Jones Griffiths, Peter Marlow, Olivia Arthur, Tim Hetherington, Mimi Mollica, Alex Sturrock, and John Reardon. David remains a strong advocate of analog photography to this day.
David is dedicated climber of 25+ years and a proud father of one.
Find David on Instagram @davidwdm_photo
Alfie Brown
Operations Manager & Lead Client Contact
Clapper Loader
He/him
Alfie has been a integral part of Emmyland since he started with us in 2019 just after completing his degree in Cinematography at London’s South Bank University where he finished with a 1st and the award for “Best Cinematographer.” Alfie was the first employee at Emmyland beyond Emmy and Max and has been responsible for growing the company from an exclusively wet hire operation, into the rental house that we are today alongside Max and Emmy.
In the beginnings of his time with us, he was trained by Emmy and Max to work alongside them as Camera Trainee and eventually as 2nd Assistant Camera alongside Emmy on all of our wet hire jobs. With hundreds of camera assisting credits to his name over the years as both Camera Trainee and 2nd Assistant Camera, Alfie has a deep understanding of the inner workings of the camera department as well as the film set. He also acted as Emmy and Max’s right hand man from day one when it came to booking in all of our jobs and running the business and was responsible for expanding it from it being 3 people to 12 people in 2023. Stepping in to become our Operations Manager and Lead Client Contact was a more than natural progression.
Today, Alfie is Emmyland’s Operations Manager and is responsible for the daily logistical runnings of the business as well as acting as our Lead Client Contact, managing our Bookings Team. There is no better person to look after our clients than Alfie, with years of varied experience between working as a Client Contact as well as working within the department on the floor. He is incredibly hardworking and never stops or goes home before every aspect of the job is complete. He’s also extremely thorough with a deep reverence for his job and for making sure everything gets booked in perfectly so it can then perform perfectly on the floor, leaving both production and camera teams very very happy.
He deeply understands the needs of both production as well as the camera department and there is no one with truly the same level of experience A true and total Emmyland legend! His loyalty, passion, drive, communication and organisational skills accompanied with his unmatched professionalism makes him an invaluable asset to our company. Alfie is the guy!
Find Alfie on Instagram @alfiebrown3
Arla Albertine
Kitroom Technician
She/her
Find Arla on Instagram @arla_albertine
Matthew Hayes
Kitroom Technician
He/him
Originally from Liverpool, Matthew is a tech enthusiast (basically just a nerd) who joined Emmyland at the end of 2023.
Matthew graduated with a Film Production degree, specialising in Cinematography, from the University for the Creative Arts in 2021. After university, he worked as the Lighting & Equipment Manager at Park Royal Studios, while also freelancing as a DoP and AC on shorts & fashion films. Thrilled to join Emmyland as a Kitroom Technician & Camera Trainee, Matthew has been eager to switch from Lighting to Camera since his university days.
Outside of Emmyland, Matthew geeks out about coffee, music, web dev, and Lord of the Rings. You can often find him at any LOTR showing within a 50-mile radius.
Find Matthew on Instagram @matthew_hayes909
Magnus Pawlyn
Kitroom Technician
He/him
Find Mag on Instagram @magnuspawlyn