The Lifestyle Experts

This research took the form of a 2 x 26 minute documentary series, pre- sold to SBS Television and funded by investments from Film Victoria and the Australian Film Commission. Produced by Cracker Night it screened on SBS national free-to-air TV. Carlin was sound-recordist and co-producer with Nicolette Freeman, VCA Film and TV lecturer, who also directed. In recent years a number of TV documentaries have examined social issues around growing contemporary tensions in Western societies between work and family life as women enter the workforce in greater numbers. This series places a particular focus, new to Australian documentary, on the phenomenon of the growth of new service industries, where areas of previously private domestic life are now subject to advice from 'expert' consultants such as life coaches and 'lifestyle assistants'. The aim was to use documentary techniques of observation and personal storytelling to intervene within the genre of mainstream 'lifestyle' television by introducing critical questions around how the professionalisation of domestic competencies has surfaced in Australian society as a specific response to widely felt work/life pressures. The series adopts a personal case study approach to draw out the larger issues and follows time-poor people who call in professionals to help them rebalance work and family life. It takes a fresh perspective, showing how these new professional industries offer time-pressured people enticing ways to improve their lives. It screened in prime-time on SBS TV to an audience of some 256 000, with a skew to older women, reflecting that it reached its target audience, and was widely reviewed. SBS Sales selected it for distribution to the educational sector and the general public.