Climbing the ladder

A common misconception about the TV and film industry is that everything is exciting and glamorous. But like most industries, it takes hard work and perseverance to succeed—something that Little had learnt over the years in the industry.

Little began her career as a researcher on a game show while finding ways to gain experience across multiple genres. Little explained that as she knew this was a “hard industry to crack”, she was happy to start at the bottom. Her interest and passion for creative storytelling also motivated her to continue climbing the ladder. “I believe what we do is a craft and you have to develop your skills through experience and dedication,” she says.

Currently, Little is the managing director of Beach House Pictures, overseeing operations, production and business development. She is also an executive producer, supervising a range of genres including competitive cooking show Masterchef Singapore, Netflix documentary The Raincoat Killer and competitive baking show Bake Off Japan, among others. Looking back, she explains how she had to build the experience and knowledge to feel confident enough to take on the multiple roles she has.

Training the next generation

From Little’s experience, she doesn’t see the industry in Singapore as male-dominated. She shares how she has worked with “an incredible amount of talented women in both senior management and hands-on production roles”. That said, she believes that women still need to be encouraged in the industry to take on “key creative roles” such as director or writer. “I think that is slowly changing with the new generation that’s coming through,” she says optimistically.

Little has always believed in training the new generation and hiring those with the right attitude and aptitude for the job. This has resulted in a “pretty diverse team” over the years. Back in 2018, Little shared in a LinkedIn post titled, Meet the Incredible Women of Beach House Workshop 2018, 52 per cent of her company consists of women employees. Even today, Little shares how there are still more women than men in the company. Inspired by the 2024 International Women’s Day 2024 campaign theme ‘Inspire Inclusion’, she adds how women need to be “actively aware of your choices and be open to talent and ideas from all walks of life”.

With that, Little is very optimistic when it comes to women shaping the future of the industry. “It’s already happening, especially in Asia,” she adds. One example is the female-led Momo Film Co which creates films and series with the region’s best creative talents.

On top of being open to talent, Little also understands the importance of being open to ideas. She continues: “Even now I feel our industry is constantly evolving so I have to be open to new ideas and where they may come from.”

Big things ahead

The latest acquisition isn’t the end goal for Beach House Pictures as they have big plans ahead. Little shares how the company looks to expand more across various genres including premium documentaries, entertainment formats and scripted content.

She also adds thats the company has “quite a robust slate”, including car culture series The Ride Life, a survival-meets-wildlife series Survival of the Beast, and feature documentary The Elephant Odyssey. The latter will be rolled out theatrically across the globe. “We are also developing quite a lot of scripted IP in both feature length and series, which is now starting to gain international attention,” she hints.

With so much going on, we’re sure that even bigger things are in store for the Asian production company.

Little says it best: “We can never rest on our laurels.”

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