Meet the Team

Susan Beckett
Executive Director
Susan oversees all strategic and day to day operations at City Eye including projects and activities ranging from film production to young filmmakers workshops, adult training opportunities and networking for those working, or seeking to work, in the film and wider creative industries. She is also a founder and director of  South.
Prior to joining City Eye in 2023, Susan worked as Development Manager and then General Manager at pioneering community theatre company Solent Peoples Theatre.  Before this Susan trained and worked in HR and development, corporate communications and commercial video production.
City Eye is now located at Studio 144, the centre for arts on Southampton’s Guildhall Square, in spaces purpose-built for its film and training activity. The Studio 144 facilities for film, art and performance were achieved through a partnership of cultural organisations, Southampton City Council, Arts Council England and commercial property developers.  Susan represented City Eye, one of the project's founding partners, along the extended journey from dream to reality. 
Through her time at City Eye Susan is proud of the organisation's resilience and its significant achievements, often against a backdrop of little funding and resource.  She is most proud, however, of the support and opportunities the charity has given to individuals and groups in pursuit of their film dreams.  It is especially gratifying to see participants from a range of projects and placements now enjoying careers in the film and arts industries, and personal success with their own creative projects.  
City Eye’s growth, the development of its home at Studio 144 and the success of Southampton Film Week also make Susan smile!


Aaron West
Head of Production
​Since graduating from Solent University in 2017, Aaron has enjoyed a variety of freelance projects in the film industry, in particular the short thriller 'Alien: Containment,' produced in collaboration with 20th Century Fox to celebrate 40 years since the release of Ridley Scott's ground-breaking film. More recently, Aaron has overseen production for Collaborative Media, a London-based film company producing corporate video and documentary programmes broadcast on Sky Channel 182. As City Eye's Head of Production, he is keen to use his knowledge and experience to push the organisation to even greater heights through its own projects and in its support of established and developing filmmakers.

In February 2023, the team - which then included Liam Calvert (centre) before he moved on to direct his debut feature - made a trip to Grace Lau's Portraits In a Chinese Studio, part of a public art initiative for Southampton led by John Hansard Gallery. 
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