1961 Magazine Fall 2016

Photo by Michael Schofield
Q: What’s your day to day life like, when you’re not out
on an adventure?
A: It changes so much – I spent the last 2 years living
on a boat on the River Thames in Chelsea – 6 months
ago I decided to live in Barcelona where I write, research
and base myself for my European filming trips. I’ll soon
to be in Columbia fly fishing for a few months.
Q: Umm, fly fishing?
A: I’ll be filming a pilot documentary about a Scottish
fly fisherman (me) in rural Columbia. My girlfriend is
Columbian and she has to go back on business, so I
went to my producers and said ok how about this,
“Scottish guy fly fishing in Columbia”? They loved it!
Q: There must be a tremendous amount of research for
your projects. How many people do you have working on
your team who help you with researching your projects
and bringing everything together?
A: It varies. For example, a television series that involves
filming in several countries, with 6 or 8 episodes, could
require roughly 2 or 3 story writers with myself guiding
them and leading the charge, maybe 4 producers plus
camera and sound people. 15 people plus 5 fixers
working on location, plus support services. I recently
filmed a pilot for North American network and had to
choose a historical story with 6 locations, and it all had
to be original content. I took this all on myself, so you
can be doing everything, depending who suggests the
project as well. You might receive a call where they ask
could you present a show they have already developed?
So it’s already written and locations are chosen and
much of the work is already done. This requires less
people. It is quite taxing both mentally and physically
either way. Imagine cramming all the information in
a short period of time, cramming information until it
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Fall 2016 1961 Magazine