The Jam girls – Melanie Rakena and Jane Andrews
Jam TV is a boutique production company owned and run by Melanie Rakena and Jane Andrews. The duo met while working at TVNZ and formed the company to make Intrepid Journeys, the long-running TV ONE show that takes local celebrities out of their comfort zones and into challenging locations around the globe. Jam has also produced a range of other well-received factual series including Off the Rails, ICE, South, and Off the Radar, as well as the documentary Our Lost War – Passchendaele.
In this ScreenTalk interview, Rakena and Andrews talk about:
- How working together at TVNZ cemented their working relationship
- Being told it would be impossible to film Intrepid Journeys
- How illness and discomfort create close bonds between presenters and crew
- A near death experience on a mountain in Borneo
- Taking Marcus Lush to the ends of the earth in ICE and the ends of New Zealand in South
- Being mistaken for a true-blue West Coaster in Off the Rails
- Living with Te Radar in a paddock while filming Off the Radar
- And wishing Radar would keep his pants on
This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.
NZ ON SCREEN 2012