Before the Operations Begin

On Making Before the Operations Begin

By Tony Williams 15/04/2015

Making the documentary was an after thought to the main drive of wanting to take a motor boat to the islands. The ABC encouraged the film to be made so we took along a mini DV digital video camera and covered the voyage as best we could.

The ABC gave us facilities for sound-mixing, graphics, grading and conforming the video to transmission quality. The programme was initially screened as a single long documentary, then later rescreened as a three-part series.

The subject matter inspired many people to undertake unresolved adventures in their lives and we were swamped with letters of inspired Australians selling houses, climbing mountains, buying boats, going bush — before their operations began.