{"id":308,"date":"2017-11-28T09:08:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/?page_id=308"},"modified":"2017-11-28T09:18:59","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:18:59","slug":"the-beehive-and-some-sage-advice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/national-film-and-sound-archive\/the-beehive-and-some-sage-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beehive and some Sage advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme by John Fife.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name is John Fife (JF<\/strong>) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Mmm.\u00a0 What element do you need most.\u00a0 Is it the cameraman\u2019s eye or the journalist\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 You need a combination of both and you need good administration backing.\u00a0 Because you can\u2019t go out and gather all the honey, then come back and construct a beehive.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to have a beehive there already so that you can go out, and you\u2019re free to do all this, and you know that your back up\u2019s going to be there.\u00a0 They go out with little cameras now.\u00a0 ABC gives cameras to kids and they go around with them.\u00a0 That\u2019s pictorial reporting isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Mmm.\u00a0 So it\u2019s come full circle.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 It\u2019s a complete circle.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You talk about that beehive.\u00a0 The backing.\u00a0 What are you talking about?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 The backing of the office.\u00a0 Your producer.\u00a0 Your staff that help you to gather information so that you can be briefed as you go out to do the story.\u00a0 It needs staff that you can ring back and tell them about it, and they can consult with you how you\u2019re going to do it or how you have done it or how you\u2019re going to treat it or what specific things you want to illustrate in it.\u00a0 You need this office back up, this home base that you can feed things back.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Yeah, I understand.\u00a0 I guess that even though you\u2019ve got all that back up in the office, ultimately it\u2019s the cameraman who sees the story\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Basically what you do, you go out and you know there is a certain event happening.\u00a0 So you go out and have a look, and decide how you\u2019re going to treat it.\u00a0 And you start taking pictures to illustrate how you\u2019re going to treat the story.\u00a0 There\u2019s always the possibility that half way through the theme of the story will change.\u00a0 So you\u2019ve got to be flexible so that you can adapt yourself to it.\u00a0 But basically, you are the one that makes up your mind what pictorial reporting or what pictorial revealing are you willing to do.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you don\u2019t go out much with a preconceived idea?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Because it could change.\u00a0 You may have a preconceived idea which you got from the press release, but that could change.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to be flexible, you\u2019ve got to be on your feet.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Well I guess you have to be on your feet even when you\u2019re heading for the job, because something else might come up on the way.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, that has happened.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Looking back, what did being out on the road teach you about life?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 AAhhh!!\u00a0 Lovely!\u00a0 Haven\u2019t taught me any bloody thing!\u00a0 I just enjoyed it.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a ball.\u00a0 I think the job suited me and I suited the job.\u00a0 I think we were compatibly matched.\u00a0 That\u2019s my feeling.\u00a0 And I had my time, and I\u2019m finished, and I\u2019m happy.<\/p>\n

Would I do it again?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Would I do it differently?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Not much.\u00a0 Yeah, I would!\u00a0 I would have kept a few things.\u00a0 Um.\u00a0 (Laughter).\u00a0 That I could use later on.\u00a0 I would love to have some film of *Graham Freudenberg directing Whitlam up at Springvale Town Hall.\u00a0 I would love to have some footage of the golden products being sprouted up to those poor suckers, and our being escorted out of there.\u00a0 That sort of thing I\u2019d love to keep.\u00a0 But that\u2019s about all.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So what\u2019s your fondest memory of it all?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I can\u2019t pick a highlight.\u00a0 Can\u2019t say \u2018Fantastic, that was it.\u2019<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 The people, the places?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Just generally, I just enjoyed myself.\u00a0 I was clever enough not to take the whole thing too seriously \u2013 the importance of it, you know.\u00a0 You go out and say \u2018oh big deal, I am this\u2019 you know.<\/p>\n

This is trouble with some of the people with the ABC camera department in the beginning.\u00a0 All of a sudden they have been elevated from still photographers and amateur photographers into news cameramen.\u00a0 And they would go out and talk to people and just meet people and mingle and mix and what have you.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine for the journalist because he doesn\u2019t have to record anything, he can just write something on the paper.\u00a0 But the cameraman can\u2019t do that \u2013 he doesn\u2019t have the time to do that.\u00a0 He\u2019s got to go out and photograph while it\u2019s happening.\u00a0 And you know, I suppose I would enjoy that that was possible but it wasn\u2019t, so\u2026<\/p>\n

Sometimes people would think \u2018Oh, he\u2019s a bit abrupt\u2019, you know.\u00a0 Don\u2019t want to talk to anybody.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t because you\u2019ve got to think and figure out what you\u2019ve got to do next.\u00a0 And you\u2019ve got to watch what\u2019s going to happen next. And they misunderstand you sometimes.<\/p>\n

But highlights, really I haven\u2019t got any highlights.\u00a0 Nah!\u00a0 It was Good!!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And advice?\u00a0 To anybody who wants to go into it today?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Today!\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Because now, you back where we started, where it\u2019s all yours.\u00a0 Where you can do it your way.\u00a0 You may get your head shot off, and you\u2019ve got people putting stuff on miniature tape cameras doing reporting, and then just turning the camera around and doing on the spot report.\u00a0 That\u2019s it!\u00a0 Good stuff!\u00a0 Fine.<\/p>\n

You need the temper for it, and oh boy, you\u2019ve got to be brave.\u00a0 (Laughter).\u00a0 But um, things starting to become a bit too political.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to accuse somebody, or expose somebody.\u00a0 You can\u2019t just go up and do a nice little story with pleasant pictures and nice people and what have you.\u00a0 That\u2019s not going to get on air because nobody\u2019s getting upset.<\/p>\n

So if you want to do it, do it your way.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you suggest that people go into the industry and enjoy it.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Enjoy it, yeah.\u00a0 But do it your way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme by John Fife. My name is John Fife (JF) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP). JF:\u00a0 Mmm.\u00a0 What element do you need most.\u00a0 Is it the cameraman\u2019s eye or the journalist\u2019s\u2026 MP:\u00a0 You need a combination … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Beehive and some Sage advice”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":167,"menu_order":21,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-308","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/308\/revisions\/314"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}