APRIL 2016
Vol 223
The View from Timaru We are in Timaru, it’s a beautiful day and I’m here because one person out of all of you out there actually emailed me to say “yes, I’d love to talk to you Grant, when you’re on your South Island travels.” That person is Brian High and I thank you for that Brian and I hope this interview goes well. Ed: Brian, you’ve been in the industry since the film days, and we’ve got a lovely shot of you with a Bolex – what was the model? Brian: I don’t know – it’s a black and silver one! Ed: As you can see, this is not going to be a technical interview, but Brian, I discovered in my pre-interview talk, is more of an artiste than Brian with a treasured memento from the days of windup and chemicals. a technical person and, of Ed: Ah well, you’ve got to take the rough with the course, to take good pictures, you need to be an artiste. smooth. You’re in this position where there’s no one However, I’ve also discovered he’s very personable, and around to help you, you’re a lone cameraman doing to be a good interviewer and lone cameraman, you need stringer work for the broadcasters. You don’t have the to be personable, because you’ve got to gain the luxury of a reporter, so you’ve got to be the confidence of the person you’re interviewing. Is all of cameraperson, the interviewer and the producer, all in that correct Brian? one? Brian: I guess it is. I mean the reason that I asked you to come down here was to have a cup of tea and to congratulate you for what you do. I wasn’t anticipating this to be quite honest.
Brian: Yes, and it is a little bit like playing tennis against a brick wall with a brick, because you don’t get a lot of bounce off. But it’s not all the time; sometimes we