Directing

In 2002 I co-produced The Red Cross Children's Hospital insert on the advances made in the treatment of paediatric burn victims. The story revolved around a central figure, a girl of seven whose brother had accidentally spilled boiling water on her legs. The story was an extraordinary eye-opener. Prof Heinz Roode who heads up the paediatric unit at the hospital, and his team were frank about the journey they had taken from ignorance about the pain experienced by these children. They openly confessed that ignorance by medical staff had led to inappropriate treatment of these children. Simply put, it was believed that children did not feel pain to the same extent that adults did.

They then formulated what they called a 'pain protocol' to treat children while their bandages were being removed. What was revolutionary about the treatment was that the hospital used the services of a reflexologist to help ease the pain. Jane Beaumont (a colleague and friend of mine) is a volunteer and twice a week spends several hours skilfully relaxing the children with reflexology to reduce their stress levels and provide them with the only pleasurable sensation these children will feel for months on end.

Filming the story was emotionally and physically draining but enormously rewarding and heart-warming. The insert got good ratings because it told a medical story that was factually sound but emotionally charged. The visuals, by cameraman Mike Downey, were superb. We used a PD150 (the large beta cams frighten children and become too intrusive in a shoot) and were able to get intimate close-up shots of a burn victim's bandages being changed.

The dramatic moments in the piece came from footage supplied by the hospital of bandages being changed without a pain control programme. The children's pain and terror, their screams and trauma were horrific. We used barely 30 seconds of this footage. It was simply too traumatising for an audience to see more.

Seton Bailey and I shot and edited the insert but much of the fine detail of post production was left to him. I presented the insert, co-wrote the script and voiced it.

The insert aired on 6 May 2001.

A co-production with Seton Bailey the following year on Robert Swan (Antarctic explorer and champion of the environment) taught me more about the editing process and the advantage of having B-roll (footage shot to illustrate an interview, the 'wallpaper' of an insert) supplied. The footage was of Swan's great Antarctic clean up. There's nothing like frozen wastes and a beautiful, 'alien' environment to spice up the story.

My big production of 2005 was a departure from adventure and medical advancement. My assistant Tess Salusbury had written a funny but revealing magazine article on the booming wedding industry in the Western Cape. We produced a ten minute insert that tracked the wedding of a couple who'd left the grey skies of London to tie the knot in sunny South Africa. We featured wedding planers, florists, hotels, honeymoon suites, all with valuable input from Pam Black who runs the hugely successful Celebration House.

I purposely chose a couple who were for all intents and purposes, ordinary and unglamorous. Top Billing covers celebrity weddings and magazine-cover perfect brides. We chose a young woman who was fulfilling a dream to illustrate the point that the wedding boom was across the board and a multi million rand industry at that. It was a wonderfully cheerful shoot with wedding planners Kirsty Marmarellis and Sally Haines, our central expert characters. To our delight we discovered that Kirsty's brother had just married Victoria Spencer (former Lady Diana Spencer's sister-in-law!) and we had access to the wedding pictures from Hello! It gave just the sliver of celebrity pull we needed. Gert van der Merwe and his gorgeous gowns gave us the glamour, and the statistics from the internet and Celebration House, the 'wow' factor. It turned what might have been a light, fluffy piece into a strong industry piece. The piece got very good ratings on Carte Blanche, to the surprise I believe of many producers.

I think the trick with shooting entertaining television is the core of gravitas it should have. Beautiful visuals count but the research and pre-production provide the backbone of the body of work.

Greg Shaw edited for me and over three days we crafted the piece, writing the script as we went along. Executive producer, George Mazarakis made some very good points to improve it (including giving me an desperately needed two more minutes of air time) and the insert held up well.

This was my 'blooding' in post production. Laying down the sequence of visuals to tell a visually arresting story while keeping up the pace and coherent story line, was tough. Marion Edmunds, who's produced some of the toughest Carte Blanche stories under extreme pressure, gave useful criticism about structure and on the shoot helped direct. It is almost impossible to present an insert and direct simultaneously.

The insert aired on 22 May 2005. Click here to download the script.

What lies ahead is some more well-researched stories for Carte Blanche bearing in mind their push to broaden their audience.