ABC Television series – Growing Awareness
‘Growing Awareness’ is a 13-episode series made for broadcast television by the ABC in conjunction with Open Learning Australia and presented by Raelene Boyle. The series has been screened many times throughout Australia as well as into South-East Asia and the Pacific.
I headed the team of content experts that outlined the series, then led the script-development team (of non-scientists) that developed the storylines and wrote the scripts.
In the first phase, each specialist considered their particular area of interest to be more important than the others and, therefore, deserving of closer examination; it was my task to find the appropriate pathway through the information while managing the personalities.
In the second phase, the script-writer needed to be given the freedom to express ideas in his words but those words needed to correctly convey the concepts without either oversimplification or extraneous detail; it was my task to apply rigour while maintaining the style of the product.
During production, I was a member of the team, presenting some materials and working with the director, camera and sound crew.
The entire production schedule depended on timely development of the scripts and, after shooting and rough editing, timely feedback on the rough edit. The timing of this latter stage in particular was often unreasonable, with timeframes of an hour or two, but my team completed the task regardless, ensuring that the episodes went to air on schedule.
The television series is the basis of a full distance-education subject. I oversaw the production of the paper-based materials for the subject and co-ordinated the subject.
The series is sold commercially on video and is used by schools, universities and TAFE.
I received the faculty’s Distance Education Award.