The Blowing of One's Own Trumpet...

I realise it's a bit sad to blow your own trumpet, but that's never stopped me before ! Besides if you can't do it with family and friends, where can you !! My old university wrote this article about me...noone else is gonna read it, so I thought I'd share it here...

The secrets of killers

When little Sue McGregor was 12 years old running around with a video camera making movies in the backyard with her mates, she never dreamt she would produce and direct a documentary series on serial killers.

The Griffith University graduate loves meeting and telling the stories of a wide variety of people from killers and cannibals to ex-Prime Ministers, celebrities and everyday people with a good yarn.

Sue's first project straight out of university was working on a 26 part sitcom called Flotsam and Jetsam. “My role was ‘wardrobe assistant’ which basically meant I was ironing clothes for 16 hours a day for six months in a non-airconditioned bus in the middle of an Australian summer.
“My degree taught me to always be prepared for any task”.

Sue said that the best film she ever made was about organ donors. “It was emotionally a very draining film to make as one of my interviewees died (whilst waiting for a heart and lung transplant) during the making of the film,” she said.

“It was also one of the most meaningful. At the end of the show we flashed up a number that people could call if they wanted to join the organ donor register. Ten thousand people called within an hour of the show airing and that was a really amazing feeling”.

One in a series of Sue’s recent documentaries – Born To Kill – profiling serial killer Ivan Milat aired in July on Network Seven in Australia.

Sue graduated from Griffith with a BA in screen production in 1996. It was in her second year when she studied short film and documentary she realised where her passion lay.

“My time at Griffith was an extremely happy one,” she said. “I was encouraged to push the boundaries and was lucky enough to work with some amazing people and together we created some interesting and entertaining films.”

Former lecturer Trish FitzSimons said Sue was a very keen and competent student. “I have watched her progress from researcher to associate producer to director and in tracing the projects she has worked on it is possible to think about the ways that the documentary form has shifted across an era where television has been its primary way of reaching an audience.

“I'm proud of her achievements and tenacity and very glad that she keeps in touch with both her lecturers and other students that she studied with”.

Sue’s work predominately includes hour-long programs covering all genres. She has made shows for BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4, Five. Living, Sky One, Bravo, Animal Planet, Nine, Seven, Network Ten and SBS in Australia.

Sue is now living and working as a documentary filmmaker in London. Watch out for her next documentary on the secrets of the Freemasons.