Storytelling For Factual

Paul Hawker is passionate about the craft of story writing. He places strong emphases on using dramatic techniques in non-fiction television, especially engineering story arcs within segments and whole episodes.

Paul’s credits as a freelance writer/producer include:

The ABC’s Changing Minds, Making Families Happy, Keeping Australia Safe, Hospital Chaplains, Faith and Funerals
SBS’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters and Deadly Women
Animal Planet’s Bugging With Rudd
National Geographic’s Taboo
Channel Seven’s House Rules, Hell’s Kitchen, The Suspects,, Find My Family, Airways, The Zoo, Hot Property, Sydney Weekender
Channel Ten’s Recruits, Paramedics
Channel Nine’s Ready For Take Off, What’s Good For You, Farmer Wants a Wife
Fox Network’s Long Lines.

Michael Cordell is one of Australia’s most established producers and directors. His projects straddle many genres and have won numerous awards.

Michael has been EP and writer on the award-winning format Go Back To Where You Came From on SBS. The series has won a Logie and two UN Media Awards. In an Australian first the format won the Rose d’Or for the Best International TV Production of 2011 and an International Emmy in 2013. A live version in 2018 took the ambitious series to a new level.

In 2018 Michael was an EP on the feature documentary Jimmy Barnes Working Class Boy. It has the biggest cinema opening for an Australian documentary and was a hit for Network Seven.

Michael is an EP on Bondi Rescue, now in its 14th season and a six-time Logie winner. Recent factual production he has overseen include The Obesity Myth for SBS, Revolution School for the ABC and Kebab Kings for SBS. He was EP and co-wrote Pauline Hanson – Please Explain! for SBS. In 2018 the provocative constructed documentary series Muslims Like Us screened on SBS with Christians Like Us currently in production.

Michael directed the documentary feature Three Boys Dreaming and his 1996 documentary feature Year of the Dogs is an Australian classic. Michael’s early career saw him produce and directed the one-hour documentary Franklin Wild River featuring a young Bob Brown and Dykes on Bikes for SBS. Michael has also worked as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and a current affairs reported on Network Ten and the ABC.

Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder (CJZ) was awarded SPAA Independent Producer of the Year in 2016 and is a partnership with producer Nick Murray. CJZ also owns NZ production company Greenstone.

Other CJZ titles include The EX PM, Home Delivery, Gruen, The Checkout (with The Chaser team) You’re Skitting Me, Shitsville Express! and Dumb Drunk and Racist.