Screentalk

Antonia Prebble is best known for playing Loretta West in Outrageous Fortune. Before that, Prebble appeared in the kidult shows Mirror Mirror and The Tribe, and was a presenter on What Now?. In more recent times, she has taken on roles in TV dramas The Almighty Johnsons and The Blue Rose, and now stars in the new movie White Lies. 

In this ScreenTalk, Prebble talks about:

• Coping with filming in mid winter on her first show Mirror Mirror
• Freaking out at having to have purple hair in The Tribe
• Being allowed to have braces while presenting on What Now?
• How she originally auditioned for the role of Pascalle on Outrageous Fortune
• Spending a lot of time giggling on the set of The Blue Rose
• How Jane in the series is the most ‘normal’ character she’s played
• Why her role in White Lies was the most challenging she has done
• Realising that giving birth on screen is a recurring pattern in her career

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

As the founder of production company Desert Road, Steven O'Meagher has produced a long list of documentaries, films and television shows. His documentaries include The Understudy, Million Dollar Tumour, and Reluctant Hero. O'Meagher executive produced TV drama This is Not My Life; his latest dramatic project is Harry, featuring Oscar Kightley in the lead role.

In this ScreenTalk, O'Meagher talks about:

• Throwing away the scripts while working with Paul Holmes on The Way We Were
• Bringing an opera singer's "fantastic ego and sense of theatre" to documentary The Understudy
• How feature film Out of the Blue challenged the people of Aramoana
• Showing a personal journey towards death in award-winning documentary Million Dollar Tumour
• How a phone call led to the documentary Reluctant Hero about Willie Apiata
• Selling This is Not My Life to an American production company
• Being disappointed with how the show rated in New Zealand
• How producing Harry has been a 20 year dream

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland have stacked up so many awards for their film and television work, they must be running out of places to store them. With their first feature Shopping in local cinemas after success at the Berlin Film Festival, the writer/directors and longtime friends sat down to talk about: 

• How they handle creative differences
• How the female character in their new movie Shopping is partly inspired by someone from their childhood
• How they try to balance drama and real-life humour in their films
• Casting Kevin Paulo, the lead actor in Shopping, at a food hall
• Spotting Australian actor Jacek Koman in Moulin Rouge
• How their childhood on the Kapiti Coast feeds into their work
• Crazy "rip, shit and bust" days working on a community television station
• The "incredible" Helayna Seiuli, who co-starred in their short film Run aged 11
• The courageous main character (played by Oscar Vandy-Connor) in The Six Dollar Fifty Man 
• Mark on making The Living Room, an arts show that put artists front and centre 
• Mark on the differences between The Living Room and follow-up The Gravy 
• Louis on being one of the only brown faces at his school, after moving to the Kapiti Coast
• Louis on working with director Danny Mulheron on Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby 
• Louis on playing the two-timing character in The Insiders Guide to Love

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

This ScreenTalk marks the 21st birthday of Shortland St on May 25. Produced by South Pacific Pictures for TVNZ, the serial drama has screened five nights a week on TV2 since its inception. It has won awards, sold internationally and become a part of our national landscape and pop culture. A who's who of New Zealand acting talent, writers, directors and producers have worked on the soap.

In this special edition of ScreenTalk, some of the show's stalwarts reflect on their Shortland St days, and on the programme's importance to NZ and our screen industry.

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Suzanne Paul made a splash on our TV screens as the Queen of Infomercials in the 1980s. She soon had her own TV show called Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, followed by a range of other popular primetime programmes. Despite breaking a rib in the final episode, Paul won the third season of Dancing with the Stars.

In this ScreenTalk, Paul talks about: 

• Transferring her selling skills from malls to infomercials
• Learning to accept having the mickey taken out of her
• Creating the concept for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
• Running out of celebrities for the show
• Finding out the title of Garage Sale was not literal
• Getting a role on How’s Life? despite being flippant
• How her episode of Intrepid Journeys changed her life
• Believing she was the comic relief on Dancing with the Stars
• Breaking a rib on live television but carrying on with the show
• How a bottle of port lead to the creation of the novelty song and music video The Blue Monkey

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Ngila Dickson is an Academy Award-winning costume designer who has been involved in some of our biggest film and TV projects. Her first film experience was on User Friendly and since then she has designed for Jack Be Nimble, Heavenly Creatures, Crush and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, she made a name for herself designing costumes for Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Dickson has also worked on a range of international movies.

In this ScreenTalk, Dickson talks about: 

• Creating costumes for acclaimed period piece Heavenly Creatures
• Learning a life lesson from Peter Jackson on the film
• How Xena: Warrior Princess provided her greatest learning curve ever
• Avoiding an obsession with Tolkien on the Lord of the Rings trilogy
• Creating specific design features for each of the story elements
• How winning an Oscar for Lord of the Rings has given her traction in the American film industry
• Trying to achieve perfection on the set of The Last Samurai
• Learning the limits of CGI technology on movie Green Lantern
• The frustration of working on a lot of films that never get made

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Ray Waru has had a long and distinguished career as a producer and director in both television and radio. He began his TV career working on factual series such as Country Calendar, Fair Go, People Like Us and Tomorrow’s World. In 1980 he established the Māori television production unit at TVNZ, and launched the first regular Māori primetime show Koha. Waru went on to work on major documentary series Our People Our Century and Frontier of Dreams. 

In this ScreenTalk, Waru talks about:

• Discovering an infamous wine while directing Country Calendar
• Having the freedom to be creative on People Like Us
• Introducing Sharon Crosbie to the world on Tomorrow’s World
• The ideological problems of the first regular Māori primetime programme Koha
• Making New Zealand history popular on Our People Our Century
• How Frontier of Dreams tried to make history fun and exciting
• Making deals to get the international footage for the series

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Actor and director John Callen has a voice that is hard to forget. Callen has appeared in a number of TV shows and films including Close to Home, The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and, most recently, The Hobbit. His directing credits include Shortland Street, and the documentary series Epitaph and Taonga.

In this ScreenTalk, Callen talks about:

• Why The Hobbit has been his most extraordinary job
• Still enjoying a good fight despite being older than his contemporaries
• How costuming proved to be a big hassle on the set, and a light moment with co-star Billy Connolly
• How playing a murderer on Close to Home appealed to autograph hounds
• The excitement of directing actors on Shortland Street
• Enjoying directing 'real' stories for Epitaph
• Learning about Māori history on the series Taonga
• The challenge of re-writing scripts on war documentary The Kiwi Who Saved Britain

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Simon Bennett's extensive CV includes producing and directing episodes of long-running successes Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune. He has also spent time in executive roles at South Pacific Pictures, the production house behind these shows, and directed SPP feature film Sione's 2: Unfinished Business.

In this ScreenTalk, Bennett talks about:

• Having to clean up horse manure for his first TV directing job on Riding High
• Learning to direct fast-turnaround TV drama on Shortland Street
• Being told off by the actors when directing Mercy Peak
• Taking up the reigns as Head of Drama at South Pacific Pictures
• How fantastic writing and acting made Outrageous Fortune a hit
• The unlikely premise of The Almighty Johnsons
• The challenges of making a sequel to a successful film, with Sione's 2: Unfinished Business
• Being intrigued by the scripts of The Blue Rose
• Enjoying the fast-paced nature of the show

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Music is Peter Blake's passion. Blake's career has encompassed jazz, Hendrix covers, keyboards for Hello Sailor – and quite a lot of television. After time at radio station 2ZA he began working on TV music show Grunt Machine, then got the job of musical director, and later producer of the high rating, hit-making Ready to Roll. Soon he was commanding a stable of music shows that included RTR, Radio with Pictures, Heartbeat City, and stereo simulcasts of rock concerts. 

In this ScreenTalk, Blake talks about: 

• Eclectic early music show Grunt Machine
• Abolishing cover versions, when he became producer of Ready to Roll
• Having to look after glam rocker Gary Glitter for a day
• The arrival of music videos, and commissioning videos by both TVNZ staffers and freelancers
• RTR's golden age in the 80s, when it ruled both the TV and music charts
• How he moved into composing soundtracks, with drama series Marching Girls
• Composing for himself, versus composing for the screen

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.