There is no more reliable weapon in the war for attention than a viral video. And I presume I wasn't alone in assuming Labour's Corrections spokesperson Kelvin Davis had provided the tip for One News' "exclusive" on the so-called "fight club" videos shot inside Mt Eden Correctional Facility. But as we explain in tonight's Media Take, that wasn't the case.
The videos were actually spotted on YouTube by a newsroom staffer looking for something else and when the story went live, Davis was away hunting. He got a phone call alerting him to "the biggest story of your life" and rushed back to work.
The pictures – and the ready phrase "fight club" – made news in a way that no amount of conventional advocacy could have. They created space for stories that needed to be told.
The other factor was political: a vulnerable government minister and the whiff of a cover-up. It's hard to watch this clip of Sam Lotu-Iiga fumbling in Parliament and not feel just a little sorry for him.
Crime and punishment in the media is almost always dominated by the harshest voices. But we now find ourselves with a rare moment to to publicly consider not only the wisdom of inviting Serco to run our prisons – but the way we run our prisons in general. We discuss those things on the show with Davis and with Mike Williams, speaking as the CEO of the Auckland-based NZ Howard League for Penal Reform, and the impressive Julia Amua Whaipooti of JustSpeak.
It's surprising how often what we hear in the building can inform the making of the show. I got the word on One News' story in a chance conversation before we recorded. And before that I got talking to a member of the crew with insight into ACRF and the way Serco runs it.
In his experience, the problems were systemic. The very design of ACRF makes it difficult to keep order. Remarkably, guards do not carry keys and it might take five, even 10 minutes for centralised approval to open a door and enter a space to intervene in a risky situation. Serco's guards don't command the respect of prisoners in the way that Corrections' own staff do. Things get out of hand very easily. People get hurt.
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The third part of tonight's programme is another topic altogether: good news in local film. After years of fretting about New Zealand films not getting made, not reaching audiences and not ever returning their investment, a new kind of low-budget production is beginning to work.
We talk to Ant Timpson, who had a hand in production of the most fun films in this year's New Zealand International Film Festival – Turbo Kid and Deathgasm – and Tom Hern, producer of two of the gems at last year's festival, The Dark Horse and Everything We Loved.
Their respective success is down to more than one thing. On one hand, the changes to the Film Commission's funding system are making it easier to get projects to completion. On the other, there are different sources of funding. Turbo Kid is a Candian co-production, and Hern's partners in Four Knights Film, Ihug founder Tim Wood and his wife Sasha, have brought private money and business sense. It's very notable that the Woods' $500,000 investment in The Dark Horse has already been returned.
UPDATE: You can watch last night's episode here on demand, or again at 9am on Saturday on Maori Television.
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Anyway, tonight's Media Take is the last for the year. We're hopeful of returning next year, but we've had our 20 weeks and we all have to go and find other things to do.
In my case, the first of those things will be LATE at the Museum: Songs of the City next Tuesday evening. There's considerable creative energy going into the event and if you're at all interested in the way music has shaped and signalled Auckland I'm pretty sure you'll love it. Tickets are available for purchase here at the friendly price of $20.
I'm also not far off announcing what will be the first of a series of sponsored talk events, beginning at the end of this month. Pretty excited about that too.
I will, of course, be highly available for work for the rest of the year. For speaking and MCing work, contact my agents, Johnson & Laird. For anything else, drop me a line.
And if you missed Get Your Arse Off the Table, an entertaining and intriguing exploration of tikanga Maori by my Media Take colleague Toi Iti, it's here on demand.