I’ve watched thousands of car videos from short clips and series to full length movies and documentaries and like me, I’m sure you can relate to that. But it was only up until recently when I was tasked to spearhead our own local motoring show, Be Driven.


Coming from a web/editorial and mostly photographic background, my knowledge of the car scene was vast but it needed to be applied in a slightly different way this time, TV.


Being responsible for content production and generally everything else for the show, people often ask me what I actually do on shoots. My response is, technically I don’t have to do anything, but I must do everything. Confused much?


Well let me enlighten you on some behind the scenes stuff our resident tog, Vaano, shot while on a drift shoot we did at Killarney.


From booking the circuit and keeping everyone there happy, to booking the camera crew, presenters, assistants, photographers, drivers, vehicle owners, workshop owners, transporters, script writers, liaising with TV station management, production management… the list goes on.


When you watch something on TV you really do take for granted the amount of work that has been put into it. And even though that list I just mentioned might seem like a lot to some people, but in actual TV terms its tiny. Yes we are still a small team and will grow as the show demands us to grow.


Weather is always an issue when we have the track booked out. Even though I knew it would rain on the day, I could only make a “call” to cancel the shoot or proceed shooting on the morning. This day, it did rain, intermittently, which was not too bad.

Perks of the job: Ernest Page, the presenter got to drive the 800HP Nissan Skyline GTR Drift car.


And he was brave enough to take it sideways too. Good job Ernie!

We had to stop and wait for the rain to stop a few times, but that didn’t stop the drivers from having some fun on the wet track.


Maybe we got lucky this time, drifters don’t always need grip. Racecars however, are another story, for another day.


When it did eventually stop raining, we hustled to get as many shots in the bag as possible. But now wind was another issue we had to deal with.


Usually we use wireless lapel mic’s but that didn’t work out and a handheld needed to be brought in. Not ideal, but we had to make it work.


Tracking car with front mounted gopro's for those close up follow shots...


Between takes the presenter goes over his lines in the script, which isn’t always word for word but more of a guideline.


At the end of the shoot it was a very stressful day indeed, but it’s all worth it when everything falls into place. Right, that’s half the job, now onto the edit!


Stay tuned to Be Driven which will be airing this summer, but here's a quick preview so long, watch the video below!

RaceMasteR J