Motorway Patrol

Maths, you know, married at first sight, the bachelor, um, big brother back in the day, you know, uh, Treasure Island, Real Housewives, I could go on.

But then you've also got shows like The Block, Police 107, Motorway Patrol, Border Patrol.

Is that reality TV?

I mean, you know, I had that question when I started to make the program.

Those things have been put together by the producers.

But actually, that's true across most reality television with the exception of, like, a, a purely observational show like a motorway patrol, right? Where you're just driving down the motorway until you see someone do a dangerous lane change.

And you're, and you're obviously in most reality formats also, um, contriving the situation in which they find themselves.

So those things are all true.

You know, I completely get where that's coming from, but I don't know that it's entirely fair in the current environment or that it serves us that well.

I mean, there's a perception, Phil, that it's kind of cheap, right, or cheap to make, um, and easy to put on.

You still- if you're making something like, for example, Motorway Patrol that Dylan mentioned, you know, you need to be spending a long time filming a lot of incidents to be able to harvest enough good ones to make it compelling, right? 'Cause I'm, I'm thinking of like the Australian Border Patrol sometimes has really eye-opening people taking a chance coming through customs, whereas the New Zealand one, which I, I'm, I'm guessing they didn't film quite enough footage to get truly compelling cases.

It seemed to be a lot of folks from Asia who hadn't quite read the card and were bringing in a bit too much-

This idea of a constructed environment was really central when I was trying to define reality for myself at the beginning of this project.

But then I got stuck in what I'm calling the Motorway Patrol conundrum.

You know Motorway Patrol, the show that follows cops on Auckland's motorways as they deal with reckless drivers and unsecured loads.

I think most of us would probably categorize it as reality, but it's not constructed.

The observational reality sub-genre is what I have the most experience in, and that is the stuff like, yeah, Motorway Patrol, Border Patrol, those series.

Greenstone TV CEO Rachel Antony has been producing these shows for 25 years and has spent more time than most thinking about this.

Something like Neighbors at War then fall- falls into a slightly different pocket, right? Because it's slightly more structured and constructed.

Those things have been put together by the producers.

But actually, that's true across most reality television with the exception of, like, a, a purely observational show like a motorway patrol, right, where you're just driving down the motorway until you see someone do a dangerous lane change.

And you're, and you're obviously in most reality formats also contriving the situation in which they find themselves.

So those things are all true.

You know, I completely get where that's coming from, but I don't know that it's entirely fair in the current environment or that it serves us that well.

I mean, there's a perception, Phil, that it's cheap to make and easy to put on.

You still- if you're making something like, for example, Motorway Patrol that Dylan mentioned, you know, [laughs] you need to be spending a long time filming a lot of incidents to be able to harvest enough good ones to make it compelling, right? 'Cause I'm, I'm thinking of, like, the Australian Border Patrol sometimes has really eye-opening people taking a chance coming through customs, whereas the New Zealand one, which I, I'm, I'm guessing they didn't film quite enough footage to get truly [laughs] compelling cases.

It seemed to be a lot of folks from Asia who hadn't quite read the card and were bringing in a bit too much.