This is my most successful piece of content - as well as ABC Ballarat’s most viewed video - with 59 million views.

Its evergreen nature, visual appeal and Sovereign Hill’s nostalgia factor is the driver of all this success. And yet, it was a production failure.

I had intended to produce a video combining interviews and overlay, but felt the interviews weren’t strong enough and they were only used in an audio package played on Ballarat Breakfast.

To avoid wasting all this great vision, I spent an hour on the weekend cutting it together and putting it out as some throwaway weekend content. Total time spent on this story? Around four hours.

Emergency Broadcasting

The catastrophic 2019/2020 Summer Bushfires threw me into a range of Emergency Broadcasting roles with no prior experience, producing rolling coverage and compiling the torrent of warnings for broadcast.

Some highlights include acting as Victorian EB coordinator and taking a call from the Prime Minister! Can’t forget the Walkley Award either…

These extraordinary few weeks were filled with career defining moments and featured some of my best work.

Digital: A whole of station approach

As a Radio Producer it is difficult to find time to write articles. My contribution to the bureau’s digital strategy usually involves collaborating with colleagues to adapt radio stories to online audiences.

Occasionally I find time to publish my own articles, like this story about Victorian holidaymakers abandoning their cars in Queensland to avoid border problems. It received 71,000 views and reached the top 10 regional state and national news stories for the week.

See my extended portfolio for other examples of online articles.

My experience in features reporting has been prolific, yet brief.

This six week backfill started with two days’ notice. I had no Core Media training, no ABC video experience and no leads. Intent on maximising this opportunity, I intended to create as much high quality content as possible.

I took a cross-platform approach to every story, shooting 4K video, broadcast quality interviews and enough overlay to ensure I could publish anywhere.

Shortform video? That’s a good start.

Programs want me to present a segment? Sure thing.

Behind the News wants a package? No problem, I’ve got enough overlay.

My content is making the rounds in stakeholder groups, driving massive engagement? Brilliant!

I would love to get back into this role someday, even for a short stint. I have published a full archive of works from this Features Reporter backfill on my extended portfolio page, check it out using the link below.