ABOUT ME
Filmmaker.
Actor.
Businessman.
Storyteller.
TL;DR ... My career has taken me from engineering and international business to acting, coaching and filmmaking — giving me a unique mix of technical discipline, commercial understanding and storytelling instinct.
I’m Patrick Poletti, the solo producer/director behind BeeRolling.co.uk
I came to filmmaking by a less conventional route. My working life has moved between international business, professional acting, writing, coaching, home-building and film production.
At first glance they may look like separate careers. In practice, they have given me a combination of skills that I bring to every BeeRolling project: an understanding of people, an instinct for story and performance, commercial experience, and the technical ability to turn an idea into a finished film.
I began my career with an Aerospace Engineering degree from Notre Dame and a decade working in international business. I then made a big change of direction, training as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Since then, I’ve spent three decades working professionally on stage, film and television, including award winning West End and repertory theatre productions. This includes small roles in big budget productions from Mission: Impossible V, Tom & Jerry, The Man Who Fell to Earth Two, and The Veil. You can see my professional acting work on Spotlight and IMDb.
Working as an actor has had a profound influence on the way I film people. I know what it feels like to be on the other side of the lens. I understand how quickly someone can become self-conscious when a camera starts rolling — and how different they become when they stop worrying about “performing” and simply engage with the person opposite them.
That matters enormously when making testimonials, profiles and documentary-style films. My approach is conversational rather than interrogative. I prepare carefully, but I also listen. Often the most interesting part of an interview is not the answer you expected, but the direction the conversation takes you.
Story, however, is about more than conducting a good interview. I also completed an MA with Distinction in Scriptwriting, developing a deeper understanding of structure, character, pace and how an audience experiences a story. Those skills inform the edit: finding the underlying narrative within an hour or more of conversation, deciding what belongs, what doesn’t, and shaping the material so that it feels effort-less, taking the viewer to new place intellectually and emotionally.
My commercial career has never entirely disappeared either. I work internationally in executive coaching for organisations like The Bank of England, Baker McKenzie and Duke University Corporate Education. I was concurrently working in residential property development for nearly a decade, with hands-on experience of finance, sales, and compliance. I understand the realities of running purposeful organisations.
All that means I’m comfortable talking to a company director, a craftsman, a homeowner or a senior executive — and I understand that content ultimately has a job to do.
There is a serious technical side to the work as well. I shoot primarily on a Canon C50 cinema camera with world-class lenses, supported by professional lighting and specialist sound equipment, with additional camera and aerial capability when a project requires it. I handle the complete production process from initial conversations and interview preparation through shooting, sound, and colour grading.
BeeRolling brings all of those strands together. It is about judgement: knowing where the story is, recognising what will interest an audience, understanding people well enough to make them comfortable, and then having the craft to turn what they give you into something worth watching.
If you have an interesting person, business, place or story — even if you’re not yet sure what the film should look like — that is usually a very good place for us to start.