Hurricane Choir - Documentary Director

Members \| Home \| Contact

Documentary Director

Home » Documentary » Documentary Crew » The Director

Hereward Dundas-Taylor

TV Documentary Director

From Downunder (Australia)

With mask to protect against the toxic mould in the devistated area inside New Orleans

Hereward is a 'Queenslander' that came to us from Sydney, Australia. He is a dual citizen of both Australia and the United Kingdom that came to us via his long association with our original Musical Director, Martin Meader. Together they worked on the development of the movie 'Paradise Road' (a $26million feature starring Glenn Close & Cate Blanchett) which spawned the initial inspiration of our amazing Choir following the hurricanes. This collaboration has since led to many more between the two in film and television production. Hereward is directing the 90 minute feature documentary which has world wide broadcast interests.

Following many years in Public radio as a breakfast announcer, Hereward did his first degree in film and television production and studied Film and Television Producing and Production Management at Australia's most prestigious film & TV institution, The Australian Film, Television & Radio School, or 'AFTRS'. The AFTRS has spawned the cream of Australia’s film and television Directors, Producers and Cinematographers including Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy), Jane Campion (The Piano) and Dion Beebe (Moulin Rouge) who are all well known here.

The role of the Hurricane Choir's visual content Producer and Television Director was accepted by Hereward, and he produced and directed 6 hours of our first spectacular concert series filmed here in Baton Rouge. These three concerts were filmed live with 5 cameras and mixed in the control room on the fly. Exciting excerpts of his work with 'Concert Series One' will be available on the website and also DVD. He also produced and directed the fabulous 4 minute Hurricane Choir trailer that has been exhibited all around the world and it also generally appears on the home page of our website.

Hereward has television production experience (both Associate Producer and Production Manager credits) with 30 hours of prime time programs broadcast on the ABC. He has a multitude and wide experience with feature film development and production and has other production skills as evident in editing short form drama in both commercial and entertainment sector to long form documentary. His all round experience was most important in our circumstances and his participation was crucital in successfully recording our concerts and making that fantastic and inspirational video to promote us worldwide. Hereward is planning to return to us to update the production and finalize the television documentary of the choir next year.

The process of film and television development and production has taken Hereward to many worldwide locations including the United Kingdom, France, Asia, Japan, Australia, Canada, several locations in the upper region of North America, and now we are extremely glad he can add Southern Louisiana and Mississippi to his tally!

Hereward is a Member of the Screen Producers Association of Australia and also the Australian Film Industry Association whose annuals awards are the equivalent to our Oscars. It was his combined ability to quickly troubleshoot unforeseen circumstances on the run with his professionalism that finally got this series filmed. We all saw how hard he worked and applied himself above and beyond to achieve the fantastic results. Hereward was initially approached to direct the documentary for his great skills as a filmmaker, but also for his knowledge of the healing power of music as demonstrated in 'Paradise Road'. He is a person with very diverse interests: he is a very keen scuba diver, glider pilot and just about any outdoor activity you can imagine. He also has an intimate understanding of trauma being the survivor of his own recreational accident that hospitalized him for 12 months and left him in rehabilitation for many years. It is obvious that this unfortunate experience has also allowed him an intimate understanding to some of the more personal issues our survivors face.

Hereward has also played a very important role in readministering the choir and establish with us as a bonafide Federal not for profit in our own right so that all money raised in the future goes directly to mental health services, most notably the VoA, to address the on going deep trauma many of our people still suffer in the post hurricane experience. He plans to bring in corporate participation to sponsor the activities of the choir in 2010/11 including a number of appearances of the choir in his own country Downunder!

Hereward's Many Credits Include:

Series Producer: Zabba Cadaba (Childrens TV Series); Associate Producer/Production Manager: TVTV (30hrs of prime time national ABC television); Short drama's: Caught in the Net, Our Feral Friends (ABC TV & SBS TV), Letters to the Future, Fresh Bread, Wired & Running. Line Producer: Art.ads.life (drama); Director: The Surfside Chef (TV Pilot), Vintage Years (documentary) and The Body Chef (TV Pilot); One Voice One Purpose (The Hurricane Choir's feature documentary); First Assistant Director credits: Apparitions (feature), See (corporate drama), The Sky's the Limit (corporate drama), Just One More (corporate drama), Devils Insurance (corporate drama), Surface Tension (short drama), People Who Care (TVC) & Isolation (TVC); Editor (Off Line & On Line) Credits include: Crossing Thresholds (feature documentary), Caught in the Net (comedy drama), See (corporate drama), The Sky's the Limit (corporate drama); Assistant Editor: Charters Towers Country Music Festival (feature documentary), Mingela Races (documentary); Script Editor: Apparitions (feature film) and numerous drama projects in development; He started out doing 2nd unit Camera on the Charter Towers Country Music Festival and Mingela Races documentaries.

His producer credits of feature films currently in development include the childrens drama, The Adventures of Charlie and Moon; The Fall of the King; and Cracker Box Palace.

Members Only Area:

Directors Commentary:
I thought the documentary would take about 6 weeks to shoot and as many weeks to edit. But after landing in southern Louisiana I surveyed the thousands of miles of the devastated region by vehicle and aircraft along the Gulf Coast from the Texas border, through Louisiana and Mississippi almost to Florida, I then realised it was going to be so much more.

I was not prepared in anyway for what I saw, but the vast collateral damage still pales insignificant when compared to the psychological trauma that has become the new threat, particularly with those from the New Orleans district. The twin storms were simply catastrophic and did not distinguish between age, creed, colour, nor rich or poor. It didn't take a scientist to realise this production was going to stretch in to a year or five The financial challenge of this frightened me, but did not deter my sense of calling.

When sees such endless physical destruction day in and day out week after week, one gets strangely accustomed to it seeing it and it almost becomes 'normal', but the emotional torment to so many good hard working people and their children still brings an occasionally tear to my eye. For those in the know, the experience has been a definite challenge to me on many levels. It is freshinh however, thar having an understanding to another set of twins, that of the power of the human spirit and the healing power of music has hit home a beautiful messager on this journey. It's given me a different perspective of the American people in the deep south which can be a model for everyone on the planet suffering traumatic circumstances. The way it has empowered people in this situation is an inspiration in itself. I feel extremely privileged to be involved with the many others in this effort.

But let's not kid ourselves, it does not end here. This disaster has been gigantic and it is among the first of mother natures warnings over the way we have treated her home. Recently on the BBC TV program 'The Michael Parkinson Show', Sir David Attenborough said to the effect: "We do not have the right to plunder the Earth solely for ourselves, there are a hundred thousand other living species on the planet and we have a duty to maintain and respect it for it is also their home". This should be a reminder that our actions not only affect us, but all living things we share on the planet. We should be looking deeper at ‘cause and effect’ . I think we must ask each ourselves, "do we really want to provoke mother nature to be the new global terrorist?"

There are many plots driving the two central themes in documentary I planing to put together in 2010/2011. I call these the Twin Powers: the healing power of music and the power of the human spirit. Both are explored in the Post Traumatic state. The many topics within the documentary iinclude mportant fringe aspects such as why this disaster has been made worse for our treatment of the environment and what have the repercussions on the enviorment. At the far end of spectrum on the musical front, the most popular comments to date has been the music and the quality of it. How a large group of everyday people who generally have little or no background in singing, can sound so amazing and sing with such gusto and diversity. To hear these people sing so passioantely from the heart in the wake of such a disaster with tunes such as the 'Ngnoongar Song' (the Welcome Song), sung in the traditional Indigenous tongue of an Aboriginal tribe from Western Australia is nothing short of fantastic!

There is no shortage of human misery from a disaster like this, but I have found and focused on positive themes and I want to offer the audience a message that inspires us as a common people to take control and empower ourselves in times of adversity and to believe there is a way forward - even if you can't see it in the beginning.

The spirit of the people in Southern Louisiana, the twin themes, the multi-cultural flow of uplifting music, the plight of the individual in time of disaster, the political hot potato in New Orleans, and the increasing fallout from global warming have given 'One Voice One Purpose' an amazing diversity. This is what attracts me to this unique and very challenging documentary production of 2010.

It is alo with great pleasure that I ammounce that the documentary has been accepted into the Documentary Austalia Fundation as a 100% tax deducatable project which may help to generate financial support from a corporate body or high net worth individuals.

Donate

Our Purpose

Our one purpose is to join together as many voices as we can from the communities of southern Louisiana who were devastated by massive hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Through coming together to sing, we will continue to raise funds for Volunteers of America, build social networks, raise awareness of singing as an instrument for healing, and continue data collection for a world first research project to measure the effects of choral singing on mental health.