Before I dive into this issue, it feels great to be back writing about the interview. Last year saw the arrival of a new baby, which coincided with the delivery of a new TV show, so it was exciting and hectic times!
On the new show, I’m extremely proud of the body of work that makes season two of I Was Actually There. We continue to excel at putting previously unheard or ignored voices and perspectives to air. This season’s episodes explore the Black Saturday bushfires (2009), Australians in New York on September 11 (2001), the dismissal of the Whitlam Government (1975), the Cronulla riots (2005), the Fairlie Arrow abduction hoax (1993), and the tragic Sydney to Hobart yacht race (1997).
To watch the series, click here if you live in Australia, here if you live internationally. Now, onto the issue.
Kirk
These days, it’s rare I’ve spoken to my interviewees prior to them arriving on set. That work is done by my producers—by design, not by neglect.
With more than 60 individual interviewees comprising a 6-episode season of I Was Actually There, it’s not logistically feasible for me to speak to them in advance. More importantly, speaking to them for the first time on camera keeps their story as fresh and unrehearsed as possible. Instead of coaxing for anecdotes I’ve heard over the phone, I can genuinely discover their experiences in the moment. There’s not much authenticity in prompting a participant to retell a story they’ve omitted in your interview that was freely shared in the pre-interview. And nothing ruins a grab more than the dreaded line, “Like I told you on the phone…”
So for this issue I want to highlight my two key producers, Loni Cooper and Josh Schmidt, and give insight into the way they operate.
Two Producers, Two Paths
Loni and Josh have worked with me for nearly a decade. Both bring sharp editorial instincts and emotional awareness to the team. And while I won’t list their full (and hefty) skill sets, it’s their contrasting backgrounds that give our team balance.
Loni comes from a journalism tradition: detail-oriented, rigorous, sensitive to nuance. Josh brings a commercial sensibility with an eye for pace and audience engagement. Both are key to our fact-driven and entertaining approach. Between them, they’ve spoken to hundreds of potential interviewees and have honed an uncommon level of telephone skill. Both can navigate a wide range of emotions and personalities. They ask the toughest questions of people they’ve just met. They prepare some for the experience of going on television while gently letting others know they won’t be featured. And on any day, they might be cold-calling individuals who have lived through significant trauma or don’t want to be contacted.
What Producers Actually Do
For those who don’t know what a producer does in television, in a few words, their job is to produce the program. Make it happen. In our shows, the producers work with me to decide on episode topics and episode structure. They then find, pre-interview and confirm each interviewee for the episodes. Post interview, producers maintain the relationships with our interviewees or debrief them, then compile notes for the editors.
For the press kit of the recent season of I Was Actually There, Josh and Loni each penned a paragraph outlining their approach to producing.
Josh Schmidt
Reaching out to people who were there at the events that feature in this show isn’t always easy. You’re breaking into their day to ask them about what you might assume is a day they would prefer to forget.
This season, I called a man who had lost good mates while he was sailing in the Sydney to Hobart. We talked for two hours; we laughed, we both cried. In the end, he said he couldn’t do an interview for TV, but it was nice to talk on the phone. I understood that.
The next day, I called a lady whose husband had died in the same yacht race. I spoke softly, a bit nervous, expecting to hear a broken woman on the other end of the line. I was wrong—she wasn’t broken. She was powerful and strong, and had lived her life knowing she’d found great love, even if her husband had passed on. I came to understand that, too. A few weeks later, she came in to share her story on camera.
What I like about this show is that everyone’s reaction to the event they were involved in is different. The experiences stay with them in different ways, neither right nor wrong, better nor worse, just their ways.
I’ve had the chance to speak to a lot of Australians in the making of this show. I’ve learned we are good people. Good when we are broken, good when we are keeping it together, good when we are shouting from rooftops, or holding back tears alone. That’s been the privilege of this job.
Loni Cooper
I Was Actually There has an investigative element I really love. It can feel like detective work, digging back through the archives to find names and faces in old newspapers and then working out how to track those people down, sometimes 50 years later. Hearing a voice in an old newsreel and then, after days or weeks of searching, hearing that very same voice down a phone line … it’s incredibly rewarding.
Sometimes people would prefer to leave history in the past. But other times, they’ve been waiting for years for someone to call them up, to recognise that what they’ve been through is important, that their story is worth being told.
This season, I spoke to a man who was attacked at the Cronulla riots. It took weeks to find his details, as his surname had been misspelled in media coverage at the time. In the stories broadcast about him 20 years ago, he’d said he was planning to return to his home country after the violent attack. But it turned out he’d stayed here and actually lived not far away from me. Getting him on the phone and hearing that he was brave enough to relive what was a truly awful day in his life was a powerful moment.
The courage and graciousness of our interviewees never ceases to amaze me. The generosity with which they share recollections of what might be some of the most difficult moments of their lives, in a bid to help others simply understand, is a constant source of inspiration. I hope our audiences see these incredible people in that same way.
I think a lot of people are unsure about how to approach challenging or difficult conversations, so as a result, they don’t happen. What both Loni and Josh do, as do all my producers, is start by making the call. It’s simple, but it’s only then that a dialogue can begin.
Please hit me up if you have a topic you’d like me to unpack. Otherwise, ‘til next time.
Kirk