Gavin Wood: making prime time television…

Interview – 2017

Television producer Gavin Wood has worked on some of New Zealand’s biggest game shows and live events. His first producing role saw him bring Sale of the Century to local screens, then later Wheel of Fortune. His career path led him from TVNZ to TV3, then offshore for FremantleMedia in Asia. Back in New Zealand, Wood turned his talents to New Zealand Idol, TV coverage of the state funeral of Sir Paul Reeves, and memorial services for Pike River and the Christchurch earthquake.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Wood talks about:

Pulling off five episodes of game show Sale of the Century in one day
Which of the show's hosts was quicker to get dressed — Jude Dobson or Steve Parr
How Wheel of Fortune provided the best lead-in a news programme could have
The truth behind David Tua's infamous "O for awesome" moment
Being brought in to oversee the third season of New Zealand Idol
Why Howard Morrison’s tribute concert To Sir with Love was a career highlight
The emotional challenges of working on the live Pike River memorial service
Filming 40 waka on Waitematā Harbour for the 2011 Rugby World Cup opening ceremony
The moment Wood realised he'd done his time in reality television

This video was first uploaded on 7 February 2017, 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, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Most of the people around me said '‘You'll never do it. It isn't possible. You cannot produce five half-hour shows of television in one day'. And on the first day we did two, on the second day we did three . . . .a nd then we came back a week later and we did five. It was a massive project to put together.

– Gavin Wood recalls the light speed pace of production on TV show, Sale Of The Century

Gavin's Full Profile