Nicky Bolster Showreel

SHOWREEL

Megastorm: World's Biggest Typhoon

ITN Productions for Discovery Networks International

I directed and edit produced this fast-turnaround documentary on Typhoon Haiyan which hit the Philippines in November 2013. Used archive and interviews to tell the story, plus specially shot demos of how the wind and storm surge claimed so many lives.

Clips from Megastorm: World's Biggest Typhoon

Taboo: Changing Gender

Beyond Productions for National Geographic

Film about Balian Buschbaum, the German athlete who took the bold decision to undergo full female-male gender reasssignment surgery.

The Incredible Hulk Woman: Extraordinary People

Transparent Television for Channel 5

I self-shot this in Germany in May 2013, telling the story of a woman suffering from the rare health condition Stiff Person Syndrome.

Shot on the Canon XF305 camera

The Ideas Exchange: Yogi Mehta & Nick Wheeler

Gogglebox Entertainment for BBC World News

I directed and edit produced this documentary, in which entrepreneurs Yogi Mehta and Nick Wheeler swapped stories of their successes and failures. Used actuality and archive to illustrate their dramatic tales.

Shot in Dubai and London.

The Verdict

RDF for BBC2

RDF's ground-breaking reality series which used the device of a fictitious rape trial with real barristers and a retired judge, plus observational filming with a celebrity jury to examine why most rape cases fail, and also to look at the relationships that develop behind the closed door of the jury room.

My role included directing a six-camera PSC shoot, being across everything that was happening to make sure each unit was capturing the most telling actuality throughout the court building at any given moment.

I also ran two suites during the edit, sifting through vast amounts of observational footage to find the best material for my 90-minute film.

The Forgotten Children, BBC1

I was the Director and Edit Producer of this 50-minute observational documentary looking at what happened to the Romanian children adopted by British couples following the fall of Ceausescu. We followed a 10-year-old boy back to Romania, where we filmed his emotional reunion with his birth mother.

Nominated by the BBC for the BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award.

Dispatches: Christmas Credit Crisis

Wall to Wall for Channel 4

As the Producer/Director, I led a team making this fast-turnaround one-hour film looking at credit card debt and how card companies make their money. Made in just six and a half weeks, the programme included secret filming showing how little the people who offer us store cards on the high street know about the products they are selling - and a stunt where we sold a fictitious

credit card in a shopping centre to show how easy it is for companies to hide bad terms and conditions.

Tanked Up Teenagers, Britain’s Streets of Booze, BBC1

I produced, directed and self-shot this 45-minute observational documentary about 17-year-old alcoholic Dan Bent, who was trying to kick his habit. Drinking more than 20 beers a day, he had started having blackouts, which had prompted him to seek counselling to try and stop himself drinking. During the filming Dan and his friends gave us access to one of their outdoor drinking binges. I had just six weeks to make this film: three weeks for the research, to gain this sensitive access and do the filming; three weeks in the edit.

Presenter: Sally Magnusson.

Borrowers Beware, Britain’s Streets of Debt

BBC1

I produced, directed and self-shot this 45-minute observational documentary about a couple whose home was about to be repossessed - and a woman who spent 18 years fighting to stop a lender taking her home after borrowing just a few thousand pounds from him. I had just six weeks to make this film: three weeks for the research, to secure sensitive access and do the filming; three weeks in the edit.

Presenter: Sally Magnusson.

Panorama: The Money Trap, BBC1

I was the second camera on this Panorama doorstep at the Royal Bank of Scotland, and captured the action with the Z1 camera tucked under my arm after we had been told by security guards to stop filming.

The Money Trap was a film about how substantial numbers of people accrued thousands of pounds worth of credit card debt.

Buyer Beware

Animo TV for RTÉ 1

As Series Producer/Director, I led a team making six half-hour investigative programmes. These included a film about people who lost thousands of Euros in an investment scheme run by an American baptist minister, another about women whose lives were blighted by doorstep lenders, and the story of an elaborate property fraud.

Presenter: Philip Boucher-Hayes.

The Secret Life of the Berlin Wall

Diverse Production for BBC2

A 90-minute documentary telling poignant stories from behind the Wall: about the people who fought to bring it down and those who want it back. The film, a combination of newly shot material and archive, won a BAFTA for the editing.

I was confronted by the challenging task of creating a film that would be totally different from all the others already made on this subject, and I produced the story of the grassroots rebellion in Leipzig which ultimately spelt out the end of Communist rule.

Daniel Barenboim, Prodigy & Peacemaker, BBC4

A 30-minute documentary, which observed conductor Daniel Barenboim in rehearsal and performance at the Staatsoper opera house in Berlin.

As well as directing the second camera during a performance of Don Giovanni, I did the interviews in German and directed the observational filming with the world-class singers in their dressing rooms backstage.