Journey to space brings men down to Earth
The Age
Thursday July 16, 2009
TUCKED away in an attic office, buried deep inside a narrow London terrace, television producer Richard Dale seems at first glance to be an unlikely salesman for the infinite majesty of outer space. But Dale's latest docu-drama, the visually stunning Moonshot, is just that."This is the story of man's exploration of the moon but really it is the story of man's discovery of the Earth," Dale says. "They're orbiting the moon at 30 miles, they go round the moon 10 times and they see the Earth rise and from then on they don't look at the moon, they just look at the Earth. This is about human endeavour of a kind that you can't really imagine. It is something that flavours our lives for all time."Dale's credits include the big-ticket docu-dramas D-Day 6.6.1944 (2004), 9/11: The Twin Towers (2006) and Diana: Last Days of a Princess (2007).He says those stories, like the moon landing, resonate not because of the events themselves but because of the prominence they have in the audience's life."Because we lived through it, somehow we're part of the story ourselves," he says.Unlike the 9/11 and Diana stories, which Dale lived through, the challenge of telling the story of man's first landing on the moon was difficult without an emotional memory of the events."It's very important to tell these stories as a present-tense experience, so we have to go back to a time when those events were happening. Moonshot is a drama, so we've identified those characters and we're living through those experiences with them. Luckily for us, the '60s are popular now. Mad Men is in the middle of it, so it's sexy and cool ... these people were at the coolest end of it."Production on the film took more than a year and involved accessing original NASA footage that was kept under armed guard because of its historical importance."We went back to the original film negative and spent a lot of time cleaning it up. All the views you see outside the window are real views, which we have remastered."The money shot, Dale says, is the moment the crew realise the significance of their journey."It's two or three guys in a tin can, arguing about who's going to get out first. One is good at space walks, another says he should be doing it and you realise, almost as they realise, that they are the first human beings to stand on another celestial body ... The thrill of it creeps on you, as it did for them."Moonshot screens Monday at 8.30pm on the History Channel. Preview,page 36.
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