6x 30 Minute Episodes
Production: Docker Media for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Created by: Kirk Docker, Aaron Smith and Jon Casimir
Executive Producer & Series Director: Kirk Docker
Producers: Loni Cooper, Josh Schmidt and Jess Skinner
ABC Commissioning Editor: Julie Hanna
ABC Head of Factual: Susie Jones
Docker Media Line Producer: Megan Nass
DOP: Aaron Smith ACS
Post Production: ZIGZAG Post
Post Producer/ Online: Rob Sarroff
Colour Grade: Angela Cerasi
Post production for this documentary television series was completed by ZIGZAG Post, with colour grading by Angela Cerasi. I Was Actually There was directed by Kirk Docker for Docker Media. Kirk Docker was also the Executive Producer and created the series for ABC Australia along with Aaron Smith and Jon Casimir. The series premiered on ABC and ABC iView from the 9th of June 2024. A companion podcast also premiered on the same date, hosted by Kirk Docker on the ABC Listen App.
I Was Actually There asks the questions: What if our history was told by the people who were actually there? What if this retelling came with all its unvarnished, irreverent and occasionally contradictory humanity still intact?
In I Was Actually There, the six part documentary series features interviews with Australians who were there when our most defining and memorable events happened. What was it like to witness the miraculous rescue at the Beaconsfield Mine? Or to capture the moment on a suburban footy field where a proud Noongar man called out racism? How did it feel to flee the raging waters of the Boxing Day tsunami? Or to wag school to meet the Beatles in their prime? How did it feel to be a first responder on the scene of a terrible massacre? Through powerful contemporary interviews with diverse and colourful characters, the show asks these Australians what they saw, how they reacted and how it changed them. While looking to the past, the series will reflect who we are now and examine why these moments still resonate. The show explores themes of memory, truth and of human experience in the face of high tension, life-changing events.
Kirk Docker and his team previously produced the award-winning series You Can’t Ask That.
The brief for the colour grade was to feel warm and natural. The interviews needed to feel cohesive – as if they were all shot at the same time of day and in the same place even though that differed in reality. The archive footage was cleaned up as much as possible and also made to feel seamless when cutting with the interviews.
To see another documentary television series where colour grading was done by Angela Cerasi for post production company ZIGZAG Post, check out the trailer and stills for Dawn of the Dolphins here.