Northern Ireland

BBC Spotlight to examine how economy can get moving after coronavirus

Lockdown has changed the way we work but as Spotlight reporter Jim Fitzpatrick discovered remarkable things can still be achieved in the new 'normal'

Jim Fitzpatrick’s bike camera whilst cycling around Belfast for the programme.
Jim Fitzpatrick’s bike camera whilst cycling around Belfast for the programme. Jim Fitzpatrick’s bike camera whilst cycling around Belfast for the programme.

WHEN lockdown came, the television and film industry, like so many others, changed overnight.

News and Current Affairs had to adapt immediately. Now broadcasters around the globe are producing programmes adhering to social distancing requirements, and BBC Spotlight, Northern Ireland’s flagship investigative current affairs programme is no different.

As I joined colleagues from across the department on our first Skype meeting back in March, it was still unclear quite how we were going to make a series of long-form films amidst the necessary restrictions imposed upon us, and everyone else, by the Covid crisis. But we were determined to try.

The second programme in the current run of Spotlight tonight examines what might be done to help get the economy moving again.

We take a detailed look at some key sectors of the economy and ask industry leaders for their ideas to make things better – something the Executive and Assembly could help with. And I ask our politicians, Diane Dodds and Conor Murphy what they’re prepared to do to get all of us safely back to work.

Safe working in the time of Covid presented a host of challenges that we had to factor into our production schedule. We had to follow the latest safety advice while devising new methods to achieve our ultimate goal as we went along. The starting point was that the whole department had been sent home and all communication was now being done by phone or online.

It was already clear from news programmes that Skype and Zoom and other social media tools were proving useful options for securing “down-the-line” interviews. In our early discussions we were unsure of how restrictions on movement would develop and we wondered if we could assemble entire programmes based on online interviews with a bit of self-shot footage from the reporters.

I’m as handy with a smart phone as the next guy, but that prospect did not fill me or my producer with joy. Such methods can sustain a short news piece, but with Spotlight usually 30 minutes long or more, the production style is more akin to a short film. And so we quickly decided we would want to be “in the field” as much as safely possible with our full professional team.

We had to adopt new ways. The producer, reporter and cameraman (there are camerawomen, but in this case it was three different men) had to travel independently to each location. The cameraman was in charge of all equipment and could receive no help from me or the producer – that meant a lot of heavy lifting for him on his own. I protested how guilty I felt at not being able to help.

Interviews were set up in advance with wide distances (more than the mandatory two metres) between the interviewee and I. We tended not to use personal microphones to avoid contact, but large mics on stands. And we carried a plethora of gloves, wipes, hand-sanitiser and disposal bags for any rubbish.

We also devised a way of filming for this programme which involved my bicycle and a rather special little camera which could be mounted on the bike in various positions. The most unusual set up was on a large pole secured to my waist on a belt.

This allowed us to gather some nice pictures of Belfast in the lockdown. It also drew some surprised looks from passers-by in the city centre and the odd unsolicited comment, such as: “That’s some selfie stick you’ve got there!”

We used the lockdown to our benefit to secure access to places you wouldn’t normally see this quiet – and even brought the bike with us to one particular place which would normally have been impossible.

That took a bit of negotiation, but it was remarkable how keen people were to facilitate our requests. This really helped us paint a picture of our world in lockdown. All is revealed in the opening sequence tonight.

The editing process, hitherto involving all of us squeezing into an edit suite at Broadcasting House for several long days, has also been handled remotely. That has been a logistical stretch – to say the least – but it’s remarkable what can be achieved when there’s no alternative.

What I discovered is that in these unprecedented circumstances people can achieve incredible things. Our learning curve in how to make Spotlight in the lockdown was just one small example of the new ways of working springing up in so many walks of life.

And BBC NI Spotlight’s Spotlight is on tonight on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.45pm.