Peter Metcalf

In his early days of working at the NZ Broadcasting Corporation, Peter Metcalf appreciated it when senior editors critiqued his work. It was all part of learning to put clarity — and the audience — first.

Metcalf was born in Marton. His father was a military officer, and the family soon headed overseas to postings in Fiji and Singapore. Peter was introduced to photography via a 120 box camera at school, before progressing to "beautiful cameras" with names like Yashica, Pentax and Bolex. His interest in photography evolved into an interest in movies.

When Metcalf was 17 his family returned home to settle in Wellington, and he got his first job, in the editing department of the NZBC in Victoria Street. One of Metcalf’s duties was splicing commercials into film reels, to play between programmes. These were the days of genuine cut n’ paste, physically cutting and gluing frames of film together. 

After assisting on magazine show Town and Around, he got further editing experience on news and current affairs shows. This early period was "magical" — "a close group of 20 or so people in the editing department working right next to each other". It was a time when cameramen — it was then almost solely men — were “seen as gods. They’d go out to a shoot with 16mm cameras with terrible viewfinders — often seeing the image on a 45 degree angle — and come back with this beautiful stuff”.

Metcalf honed his skills on 1970s magazine show This Afternoon, directed by Pamela Meekings-Stewart and Bill Saunders. The reporters included Judith Fyfe and Gillian McGregor. “Fantastic people to work with...a big break for me, and a huge commitment to produce an hour's worth of material a week. You got good at getting it right — you could only cut film once. It was 16mm negative; what we physically spliced together with clear tape is what played on-air."

In 1974 state television moved into its new premises in Avalon, on the edge of Wellington. Metcalf was one of the first editors based there, lugging his equipment into his Fiat 500 for the move up the motorway. That year he became resident editor for Kiwi staple Country Calendar.

In 1977 TVNZ was in the middle of filming its first "million dollar drama", The Governor. Grand in scale and ambition, it examined the life of Governor George Grey over six episodes. A documentary crew followed the Governor team step by step. After the footage came in, Metcalf arrived each evening to cut it. “The shoot took about a year, so it was a year of having this night-time shift”. The Making of The Governor captures the day to day challenges of creating a large scale historical drama in the late 1970s, with snapshots of key players like producer Tony Isaac (fretting about the integrity of the shoots, not to mention the budget) and writer Keith Aberdein. 

As the 1980s rolled in, Metcalf started working on programmes focussed on the arts, like flagship show Kaleidoscope. He edited episodes dedicated to prominent New Zealand artists like Māori filmmaker Barry Barclay (talking about his feature Ngāti), painter Toss Woollaston and director Vincent Ward. Kaleidoscope allowed Metcalf to work alongside director and staunch arts advocate Peter Coates, who deeply impressed Metcalf. “He was determined to make films about the people he considered great artists in this country”.

In 1989 Metcalf was lured to TV3 for a position as Head Video Editor in the Wellington office. The new channel was still finding its feet and didn’t possess the best equipment for editing current affairs. Metcalf and colleague Max Adams spied an opportunity. They launched post-production suite Blue Bicycle Flicks — initially at TV3's offices — and hired the gear back to the channel. Metcalf and fellow editor Emma Patterson operated the suite. 

The same year Adams and reporter Amanda Millar were working on a documentary about eclectic rock n’ roller and rugby manager Lew Pryme. Metcalf came on as editor. Lew Pryme - Welcome to My World screened in 1990. That same year he edited The Only Game in Town, a documentary about international schoolboy rugby, working with his soon to be Blue Bicycle partner Gary Ryan. Although early relations between TVNZ and TV3 could be testy, Metcalf was invited back to edit a one-off TVNZ special on Wellington's first International Festival of the Arts (which he cut at TV3's offices!). In 2000 and 2001 he edited two specials covering the World of Wearable Art Awards. 

In 2007, the year that Blue Bicycle closed down, Metcalf edited Qantas-nominated documentary Right Second Time. It chronicled a reunion tour around New Zealand by legendary act Th' Dudes. 

Editing Kathleen Mantel's Inside New Zealand documentary Leaving the Exclusive Brethren gave Metcalf an early taste of a TV phenomenon. Further insights into closed religious communities came via a trio of documentaries helmed by Amanda Evans: A World Apart (2014), Life and Death (2015) and A Woman’s Place (2016). Each attracted huge ratings. Their ‘hands-off’ style (controversial for some viewers) left subjects to talk about key rites of passage. Metcalf came away impressed by the output of the community, and their sense of purpose. A series of short follow-up documentaries later hit TVNZ OnDemand: Gloriavale - The Return.

In 2014 TV3 began commemorating the First World War by screening a series of short documentary profiles on the prime time news bulletin. The Great War Stories series profiled New Zealanders whose lives were changed forever by the war, from Māori and Pākehā soldiers to nurses, to plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies and sexual health campaigner Ettie Rout. The base materials were challenging; delicate still images and limited footage that needed to be made dynamic — without a ‘Peter Jackson’ budget. “I had to get used to manipulating still images to tell our stories in an engaging way...without bending the truth too much. A lot of material had been  archived on to videotape, probably in the early 90s, severely degrading it”.

Over five seasons Metcalf formed a close working relationship with director Anna Cottrell, and enjoyed the freedom she gave him to invigorate the material.

In recent years Metcalf has edited pictures and sound on two feature-length documentaries for expat American director Robin Greenberg. Each has screened at the New Zealand International Film Festival. The Return of the Free China Junk (2013)  tells the story of an old Taiwanese ‘junk’ boat resurrected for an international yacht race; Team Tibet- Home Away from Home, filmed intermittently over 22 years, focuses on a Tibetan exile who settled downunder.

Metcalf rates The Third Richard (2008) as “probably the most meaningful documentary I’ve worked on”. Shot partly on handicam, the documentary was a deeply personal project for Danny Mulheron (directing with Sara Stretton), who takes his mother on a family trip back to Germany to experience her father’s music performed live.

Following the success of Blue Bicycle Flicks, Metcalf launched 195 Suites in 2007. The boutique post-production house specialises in documentary editing.

Profile written by Gabe McDonnell
Published on 31 January 2019 

Sources include 
Peter Metcalf
195 Post Production website. Accessed 31 January 2019
'Extraordinary Kiwis' NZ On Screen website.  Accessed 31 January 2019
'The Making of the Governor' (Television Documentary) NZ On Screen website. Director Bob Barton. Accessed 31 January 2019