Denis Harvey: America’s Cup TV mastermind…

Emmy award-winning producer/director Denis Harvey cut his teeth on TVNZ information shows Dig This, Kaleidoscope, and Science Express. Later he moved into sports. Harvey has gone on to make a significant contribution to television sports coverage both nationally and internationally, particularly in America’s Cup coverage and Olympic yachting. In recent times, he has also produced Asian and Israeli versions of The Amazing Race. 

In this ScreenTalk, Harvey talks about:

• Being a trainee director on classic garden show Dig This
• Creating the garden for the show at the Avalon TV studios
• Remembering the great people and locations on Country Calendar
• His regret that long-running arts show Kaleidoscope disappeared from TV
• Showcasing scientific innovations in Science Express
• Taking Sir Edmund Hillary back to Everest in Hillary: A View from the Top
• The challenges of creating live TV coverage for the America’s Cup
• Making sure coverage of the event is as bipartisan as possible
• Dealing with Team New Zealand’s loss while still on air
• How cutting edge 3D graphics transformed coverage of sailing
• Showing the heroic efforts of the crew in two Team New Zealand documentaries
• Taking up the challenge to cover Olympic yachting
• Winning a Sports Emmy award
• Why working on The Amazing Race was so challenging

This video was first uploaded on 29 September 2014, 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