workers and people like that would
find a television to catch up on
what was going on in the trial.
Then we would do a recap in the
afternoon and analysis in the late
afternoon. In the early evening we
would do social media
programming, where we focused
on the social media around the
world. We would do word clouds
and see what words were trending
in the UK, in America, in Japan and
so on.
Social media played an
enormous role in the trial, and we
were growing at an enormous
speed. For example, we grew by a
thousand Twitter followers an hour
in the peak points of the trial. We
embraced social media. We wanted
to welcome it and generate that
conversation, and reflect the
conversation that’s going on.
Before we got the permission to
film in court, we had to prepare for
the eventuality of that we might not
be able to, so we prepared 75 films
of varying lengths, several of them
an hour long, dealing with various
aspects of the trial, the crime and
the two legal teams. In the end, we
found that was an enormously
useful body of work, but of course
it had been pretty expensive. Once
we achieved the ability to film in
court, we realised we didn’t really
need that much. Another trial in the
future would cost a great deal less,
because we can build on the
precedent set by this one.
I think in the end Oscar got a fair
trial and we were one of the reasons
he got a fair trial – possibly more
than he might have otherwise.
Casting that much light on
something really makes everyone
behave very carefully.
What did
Carte Blanche
bring to
make the court decide to gowith you?
I think we were addressing the
needs of the court. We understood
what each of the sides would want.
We realised that there was no
point in arguing with the Pistorius
camp because they would oppose
us, no matter what. But we asked
the state, “What are your
concerns?” They were concerned
that witnesses wouldn’t want to be
seen on the screen, or they would
like to give people the option to
decide who does and doesn’t go on
camera. So we said we would cover
the audio of the entire trial, but
agree not to show certain people if
they didn’t want to be seen. And I
think that was a major factor, as
well as the fact that we were
putting it all out unedited, so there
would be a version available to the
public that was unedited.
Could you make money?
A requirement that was imposed on
us was that we weren’t allowed to
carry it exclusively. We needed to
provide a feed for the rest of the
media to share it - free of charge, I
might add. We were compelled by a
court order to do that. So the rest of
the world’s media received it from
us at no expense other than their
own satellite costs.
All we did was put a pipe
outside the court window, so it
didn’t cost any more to do that.
Covering the trial did cost us a bit
of money and it did seem unfair
that we had to provide it all and we
weren’t allowed to monetise it. But
we had made a decision that this
was an experiment and we needed
to see what we could do with it and
how it would work. It would cost
us ‘X’ amount and we would be
willing to take that risk. In return,
we got the most astonishing access
and an enormous credibility with
our audience because we were
providing what they wanted.
Do you think we’ll see more
coverage like this?
Yes, now that we know a lot of
things about how to do it in a cost-
effective matter, and now that the
media and broadcasting are
changing so dramatically. You can
do things a lot more easily and
cheaper, and not necessarily on
traditional broadcasting platforms.
Maybe this is something that could
be streamed or there are other
models that should be examined.
There’s no end to the number of
compelling trials that we see in
South Africa, and I’m sure it
applies to most jurisdictions in the
world. I think there’s a natural
passion for the stuff and I think
we’re on the cutting edge of
something big. I think we have the
ability to take it further and we
have a responsibility to do that.
Thank you, George Mazarakis.
We were
not allowed
to monetise
this
“
”
38
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ISSUE 1 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL
|
JOURNALISM
