Gary Scott: From Kiwi culture to cults...

Producer/director Gary Scott has spent time in the newsroom, the museum, and on location. Trained as an historian and journalist, Scott has been producing with Wellington company Gibson Group since 2001— though he began his screen career in the stressful world of primetime TV news. Scott also helps Gibson Group develop multmedia experiences for museums.

In this ScreenTalk, Scott talks about:

• How TV producing involves mediating between art and commerce
• Starting off
• Working on one of his earliest directing projects, documentary Flight 703: about a 1995 air crash in which survivor William McGrory played a key role in guiding emergency services to the downed plane
• "Career highlight" Here to Stay, and how the show explored stories about New Zealand’s social history, including the roots of Kiwi humour and stoicism
• Working as part of the producing team on a trio of shows about the police: Undercover (about undercover police), Line of Fire (the armed offenders squad), and NZ Detectives
• How the stresses of producing can be a sign you have got something wrong in the mix
• Dealing with the Church of Scientology for documentary How to Spot a Cult
• The differences between producing and directing for TV

This video was first uploaded on 21 June 2011, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview - Ian Pryor. Camera and Editing - Alex Backhouse