Tell us briefly about what you do:
I’m the Associate Producer of the Breakfast show, in charge of the line up of the show on a daily basis.  It’s about deciding what interviews to run and at what time and also what additional segments we could include to help bring the programme to life and engage our viewers.  We have a fairly small team of producers (considering we produce 2 ½ hours of live television a day).  Our job includes organising interviews and writing up briefing sheets for the presenters, writing and subbing introductions, writing the teasers that are on before the commercial breaks and editing the vision to go along with it.  I also play out the show from the control room and am in charge of the timing and editorial content of the show while it is on air.  It also means I have the job of trying to wrap up Paul Henry (by speaking – or sometimes shouting – into his ear) when he’s in full flight!  

How did you get to where you are, did you study?
I was always passionate about journalism.  I remember deciding I wanted to be a reporter at the age of 9 - and did work experience at a local paper while I was at high school.  I completed a Bachelor of Communications Degree at AUT, working in the TVNZ newsroom part time while I studied.  After uni, I went straight to work as a radio reporter and was at both Newstalk ZB and at Radio NZ for about five years before moving to television.   I had some fantastic experiences in radio: wading through thigh-high floods in the Bay of Plenty holding my reporting equipment above my head, doing traffic reports from a helicopter and working in the Parliamentary press gallery.

Prior to your role at TV1’s Breakfast show, you were a radio journalist.  How does your role in television differ from your radio days?
I learnt so much about being a broadcast journalist in radio – at Newstalk ZB I learnt how to write stories quickly and accurately and how to report live on air.  At Radio NZ, I learnt how to explore the different angles of a story and to delve beneath the surface.  These skills still apply in television journalism.  We just have more to help us tell a story.  You can be so creative with a visual medium – I love that aspect of television.  Plus, when major events happen, like September 11, seeing really is believing!

What does a typical day in your professional life involve?
I get up about 3:30am (after three years, it’s still a shock to hear the alarm at that time!) and start work at 4:30am.  Pippa starts at the same time, along with a number of others involved in the programme – it’s amazing how cheerful we all are at that ungodly time!  Paul arrives at 5am and will invariably entertain us with several stories before we go on air.  Before 6:30am, our team of producers work through the programme, making sure we are on top of all the breaking news from here and overseas.  We edit vision and write introductions to the interviews and chase any additional interviews we might want.  However, because Breakfast is on air for such a long time and is such a fluid programme, there is also a lot to do between 6:30am and 9am too!  After the show, we have a debrief and start preparing the next day’s show.

What have been your career highlights?
I have produced our coverage of three significant events overseas – the British elections in the UK, interviewing Helen Clark at the UN in New York, and the US elections.  I was involved in the planning of each of them from start to finish.  They take a serious amount of organisation and they are definitely not a glamorous holiday, but they are a heck of a lot of fun and hugely rewarding!   Our coverage of the US elections was my first experience as a field producer overseas.  We broadcast the show live from five different cities on five consecutive days in the lead up to the elections.  Along with Paul Henry and our cameraman Peter Day, I travelled to Anchorage in Alaska, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  It was a lofty goal to broadcast from such a range of locations in such a short amount of time and we all worked so hard.  I was arranging interviews in my hotel room, at the airport, on the plane and making notes in our rental car – but the result was great and I’m really proud that we carried it off!  It was also a thrilling experience driving down Sarah Palin’s driveway with the camera rolling and promptly being told to leave by the secret service officers protecting the property!

What do you enjoy most about your role?
We never know what is going to happen before, during or after our show.  There have been times, like when the Samoa Earthquake and Tsunami happened, where we have completely thrown out our scheduled programme and dropped everything to cover breaking news.  We suddenly went from a normal Breakfast show to informing people about a major news event that was emerging as we were on air.  When that happens, we are fulfilling a really important public service role, which is satisfying as a journalist.  And as I have the role of steering our coverage, it is also a really big adrenaline hit!

I also love the people I work with – Breakfast is really like a little family.  We all work tough hours, but my colleagues are fantastic people who really do put their all into the programme.  They also have outrageous stories to tell, a wicked sense of humour and some fairly zany ideas and I spend a lot of my time at work (before, during and after the show) laughing!

Have there been any lessons/skills you have learnt over the course of your career, perhaps from an early job, which have proved invaluable to your career development?
I don’t know when I learnt this, but I try to always “own my mistakes” – by that I mean I don’t try to blame others, and to admit when I’ve made a wrong decision.  I think it earns you respect and also helps you to learn.  You think to yourself:  yep, I stuffed up… so I’m not going to do that again!

How do you maintain a work/life balance?
Sometimes poorly!  I find it hard to switch off because I really do love my job so much!  I’m always on the lookout for great talking points for the show and interesting things the presenters might be able to show on air.  I find myself making observations or eavesdropping on conversations all the time!  However, I try to always have an afternoon nap (so I can see my husband in the evenings and go to bed at a normal time).   To relax, I love blobbing out watching a DVD, catching up with friends, cooking (some of which ends up being slated on the show!), playing golf and escaping to our family beach section at Waihi Beach.

What advice can you give to our readers interested in becoming a TV producer?
Don’t ever be put off by the word “no”.

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