Watching Julie's Story, it's a nice little video profile. But behind the scenes, this job was actually one of my trickiest production challenges.
That's because it wasn't my job at all, until 11pm on Sunday night before the shoot the next day. That's when my co-producer, who'd been been handling the project, texted to let me know he was in hospital and wouldn't be able to make it.
He'd been trying to organise the shoot for weeks. The talent was a real person, and worked as a nurse so was hard to pin down. The client also wanted to be there, and their availability had been locked in too. Crew and gear had been booked in for the shoot as well. So, we wanted to avoid the headache of rescheduling.
That said, the director/producer was in a hospital bed. Did I mention the shoot was interstate - an hour's flight, followed by a ninety minute drive? And I had about ten hours before call time?
I booked flights and a car, and spent Sunday night poring over the brief, as I'd need to be interviewing Julie for an hour the next day and I didn't know anything about her.
I got the first flight to Sydney, landed, met the clients, reassured them that I was on top of everything, and headed to the shoot. There, I met the family of four, directed a small two-person crew, and interviewed Julie for an hour, while monitoring sound and with the client looking over my shoulder.
I left just in time to make it back for the evening flight back to Melbourne - a bit stressed and tired, but also relieved.
And the best part is, watching the video, you'd have no idea.