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Premiere
Bond
Producer
-
October / November 2002
LNN
for ITV1 Network (Commissioned by LWT) and VIP CCTV Event Coverage
Tx:
ITV1, 11.30pm, Tuesday 19th November 2002. Presenter: Julia Bradbury.
Monday
18th November 2002 witnessed one of London's biggest ever movie
premieres. James Bond celebrated his Ruby anniversary and twentieth
movie, Die Another Day, while H.M. Queen Elizabeth II completed one
of the last official engagements of her Golden Jubilee year. The two
events coincided at the Royal Albert Hall, in front of the world's media.
Pierce
Brosnan joined his co-stars Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund
Pike, Rick Yune, John Cleese, Will Yun Lee, Madonna and their
director Lee Tamahori in the Royal Box. The V.I.P. audience boasted
three senior Bonds - Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby -
and 40th anniversary guest stars such as Fiona Fullerton, Shirley
Eaton, Maud Adams, Lois Chiles, Richard Kiel, Shirley Bassey and
director Lewis Gilbert.
My
team and I faced two important challenges. First, to cover the star
arrivals and royal presentation. This material was relayed to three
giant video screens on the walls of the Royal Albert Hall. Our brief
was to provide a seamless, live show for the V.I.P. audience inside
and members of the public outside.
Secondly,
in a run-up period of just two weeks, we shot special new interviews
with the costume designer Lindy Hemming, SFX supervisor Chris
Corbould, second unit director Vic Armstrong and composer David
Arnold. We investigated Bond's costumes, gadgets, stunts and music in
Die Another Day, and looked at how these Bond essentials had
developed over forty years.
These
features, plus interviews from our live coverage, had to be combined
into an entertainment special, to be shown on ITV1 the FOLLOWING
NIGHT. I left the Royal Albert Hall with a bag of tapes at 8.30pm,
and sat up all night with editor Danny Harvey to piece it all
together, without a break. We finished at 4pm on Tuesday. Danny's
efforts did us all proud.
Of
all the photographers and film crews in attendance, ours was the
official premiere TV crew, given full access to all the stars
present. Even Madonna granted us a few words.
Despite
the 11.30pm slot, the show won respectable ratings of 2.3million, a
26% share. I'm proud of my team for creating such a strong programme
in the tightest circumstances, and putting in some entertaining
archive content that made it a little bit more than just a puff-piece
for Die Another Day. |