Made in China

After producing and directing half a dozen of NHNZ’s growing catalogue of China programs, the country and its people never cease to amaze NHNZ producer-director Jayashree Panjabi.

From a program capturing the arrival of an endangered Panda cub to an hour long special about an acrobatic school for children, the well traveled producer-director has found China to be a country with a wealth of stories to tell.

More recently Jayashree has immersed herself in the mind blowing world of mega builds producing and directing three programmes in the past 18 months on some of China’s newest and most remarkable buildings.

Over the past six months she’s made two visits to Guangzhou City chronicling the rise and rise of Pearl River Tower, a 72 storey high building which is leading the way in the next generation of super tall, green buildings. Pearl River Tower is on track to becoming a successful prototype for a new wave of architecture integrating high performance and sustainability into building design.

As Jayashree explains, “The architects looked at the site, at how natural resources could be harvested for energy. They looked at the culture of the people who will be using the building and at making sure it is in tune with the natural environment. It’s a whole new approach to building design and many people believe it is the way of the future.”

Under the careful supervision of the Guangzhou Design Institute, the Pearl River Tower should be finished before the Asian games open in Guangzhou in October 2010.

As a producer with several years experience working in China, Jayashree says the language barrier remains the biggest challenge to a successful production. “You become very reliant on your fixer and translator but we’ve got to the stage where we have an excellent team of people to call on such as Beijing-based cameraman Curtis Rodda who we’ve worked with on several projects. A good crew makes all the difference to a successful shoot.”

The flipside of these challenges are the “pinch me” moments which have included interviewing world renowned architects such as Adrian Smith who co-designed Pearl River Tower with Gordon Gill, spending time in the Tuscan-like countryside of Hebei province and witnessing the precious first days of a Panda cub at Chengdu’s Giant Panda Centre.