Cine Wessex help C4’s gardening show to blossom

Local TV and video facilities house Cine Wessex recently completed shooting and editing 'The City Gardener', a major ten-part series by Twofour Productions for Channel 4.
The show, broadcasting on April 1 at 8.30pm, follows garden projects in locations that range from a Southampton ‘bombsite’ and a shady backyard in Leeds, to a balcony in Hackney and a patch of weeds in Brighton.
Maria Knowles, Series Director at Twofour Productions, said: “Cine Wessex provided a complete service including crews, equipment, edit and voiceover.
“We wanted to create a different kind of gardening show: younger, fast moving and hip. For instance, hand-held cameras followed the action, while the edit contributed enormously through fast-cuts and mixing in some great music.”
The City Gardener introduces audiences to 27-year-old presenter Matt James, who aims to get couch potatoes off the sofa and into the garden. He said: "You don’t need to be an expert, but put in a little work and the rewards are priceless. It’s possible to turn the tiniest balcony, the scrappiest backyard, the noisiest, shadiest, pokiest piece of grey space into an oasis of green calm or a stylish area to entertain in.”
With five filming days per episode and a demanding edit schedule, The City Gardener was one of the biggest broadcast projects handled by Cine Wessex in 2002-3. Despite tight deadlines there were no technical hitches.
“I handled the entire job in-house, which is rare for a project of this size,” said editor Paddy Bowerman. “I had to get 15 hours of footage per episode - 150 hours in total - down to a tight 24 minutes per show.”
(GB)