ScreenTalk

Petra Bagust grew up in Christchurch, studied fine arts at Canterbury University and waited tables before being lured into regional TV station Cry TV.

And so began a screen career during which she has hosted many of NZ’s most popular shows, including madcap youth series Ice TV from 1996, and its sequel Ice As, travel show Travel.co.nz, real estate series Hot Property in 2003, the feel-good Dreams Come True, game show Snatch our Booty with Oscar Kightley and Nathan Rarere in 2005, Sing Like a Superstar (2005), and The Perfect Age (2006).

Fronting big live shows like Christmas In The Park and Fight for Life (2001, 2004), Bagust became a regular live anchor for TV3. More recently Bagust fronted daily news satire show @Seven, as well as the factual series What’s Really In Our Food, for which she was nominated for a 2009 Qantas Best Presenter award.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Bagust talks about:

• Considering a TV career over a career as a painter
• Her first experiences at regional station Cry TV
• How she landed her initial audition for Ice TV, and what it was like working on the show
• One of the golden rules of doing travel shows
• Hosting big live shows like Christmas in the Park
• Making What’s Really In Our Food, and the follow up show to come
• Her love of NZ design

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence
Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman. Sound – Cicadas.

Scott Wills began his screen career in the early 90s, with appearances in soap Shortland Street and in short films including Ouch, Permanent Wave and The Hole (shown at the Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival in France).

In 2000, Wills was nominated for two acting awards (one for Ouch and the other for his supporting part in romantic comedy Hopeless) and also starred in feature film Stickmen, a role which earned him the award for best actor at the 2001 New Zealand Film Awards.

Wills followed Stickmen with a run of television performances, including Interrogation and Doves of War.

Big-budget vampire feature Perfect Creature put Wills alongside British actors Saffron Burrows and Dougray Scott, and in 2009 his performance in family drama Apron Strings earned him a Qantas Film and Television Award for Best Lead Actor. In the same year Wills appeared as Saul, the troubled head of security in TV thriller The Cult.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Wills talks about:

• His early work with Danielle Cormack’s underwear
• His personal nightmare at the premiere of Hopeless
• His thoughts on improving the NZ Film and TV awards
• Why he spent time with policemen from Auckland Central CIB
• What it was like working on big budget feature Perfect Creature
• How he crafted his award-winning performance in Apron Strings
• An insight into his disturbing character Saul in The Cult

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

Former Commonwealth Games athlete Kirk Torrance (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa) struggled with asthma and school as a child, before realising his potential as an internationally competitive swimmer. Following his exploits at home and abroad in the pool, Torrance graduated from Toi Whakaari and embarked on a successful career in film and television. His most memorable performances to date include Toa in Fish Skin Suit, Lee Kapene in Shortland St, Holden in award-winning feature film Stickmen, and detective Wayne Judd in the hit TV series Outrageous Fortune.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Torrance shares his experiences on:

• Growing up as an asthmatic kid in Dargaville
• Traveling overseas to swim on the world stage
• Facing unexpected nudity at drama school
• Issues behind the scenes of Fish Skin Suit
• Shooting feature film Stickmen
• His double life on Shortland St
• The Outrageous audition process for Wayne Judd, and the complexities of realising the character
• Facing his family with Wayne Judd’s mustache

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

Sam Pillsbury is a self-described American-Kiwi who has made films in both New Zealand and the US. He began his prolific career at the National Film Unit directing the notable documentaries Ralph Hotere and Men and Supermen. In 1975 he directed the award-winning Birth with R.D. Laing, which became a teaching aid in hospitals around the world. Pillsbury’s first feature film was The Scarecrow starring John Carradine, which was the first New Zealand film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival.

Pillsbury co-wrote the script for The Quiet Earth, but “fired himself” from the director role on the movie. His next major film was Starlight Hotel which was received well overseas but flopped in New Zealand. Pillsbury has directed a number of American TV movies and feature films including Free Willy 3 and Endless Bummer. His most recent Kiwi film was Crooked Earth starring Temuera Morrison.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Pillsbury talks about:

• How his documentary on Ralph Hotere changed the way art films were made
• The fun, chaos and deprivation of making Goodbye Pork Pie
• Mixing necrophilia into a children’s film on The Scarecrow
• Making breakfast for screen legend John Carradine
• Thinking The Quiet Earth was a dog but then watching it go on to commercial success
• The disappointing reaction to Starlight Hotel in New Zealand
• Getting great reviews in America and negative ones in New Zealand for Crooked Earth
• Feeling frustrated by the process of making movies in Hollywood
• How funders in New Zealand need to talk to directors rather than producers

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

Credits: Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

When people think of Ginette McDonald, they often think of one of New Zild’s most defiant and famed purveyers of Godzone English, Lyn of Tawa. But for McDonald, Lyn is only one part among many. Alongside an acting career which began when she was still a teenager, Ginette McDonald has also worked as a producer, director and presenter.

In this ScreenTalk interview, McDonald talks about:

• how her fascination with television first began, while watching wild geese flying across a TV screen in a Wellington radio store
• making her screen debut as a runaway teenager in drama series Pukemanu, alongside Bruno Lawrence
• acting in London
• the fun of playing “a 38-year-old nymphomaniac housewife from Te Puke” in Kiwi soap Close to Home
• how the infamous Lyn of Tawa was born backstage at a theatre when McDonald was only 16, with help from famed playwrights Bruce Mason and Roger Hall; and how Lyn found success on television
• moving into producing and directing, and having a joint brainwave with director Peter Sharp, while casting kidult hit The Fire-Raiser
• the shock of watching offbeat 60s show Peppermint Twist go down like a lead balloon
• her work on TV series Pioneer Women – playing Hera Ngoungou, a Pākehā brought up Māori, and also directing another episode chronicling sexual health campaigner Ettie Rout
• how she won a Feltex award for playing drama, even though comedy is so much harder

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

Credits: Direction and Interview – Ian Pryor.  Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse

A generation of Kiwi kids grew up watching Jason Gunn on television. At the same time Gunn grew up on television himself. Beginning in children’s TV, Gunn hosted Jase TV, Son of a Gunn Show, After School, and What Now? Through many of these shows his co-star was a hugely popular life size puppet named Thingee. Gunn moved on to other programmes such as Young Entertainers and Small Talk.

In recent years Gunn has starred in a host of top-rating primetime entertainment and game shows including Wheel of Fortune, The Rich List and the incredibly popular Dancing with the Stars. As well as his hosting duties, Gunn has appeared as himself on Celebrity Treasure Island.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Gunn talks about:

• Learning the skills of presenting from ‘old hands’ in the industry
• How he grew up on TV hosting Son of a Gunn Show
• Being best mates with a puppet named Thingee
• His love for making children’s TV and how it is the best of all genres
• How his comedic inspiration comes from his everyday life
• The tough path of learning to play piano and sing
• Just being himself on Celebrity Treasure Island
• The drama and excitement of Dancing with the Stars
• Why hosting game shows will lead to new things

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Jeremy Wells made his broadcasting debut on student radio station 95bFM, reading the news on Mikey Havoc’s breakfast show. The pair teamed up again for Havoc, a talk and music show on the fledgling MTV, before hosting travelogue/social commentary shows Havoc and Newsboy’s Sell-Out Tour, and Havoc’s Luxury Suites and Conference Facility on TVNZ.

Wells then worked with producer/director Paul Casserly to produce seven seasons of the media satire show Eating Media Lunch, which won Best Comedy Programme at the Qantas Film and Television Awards in 2008. He also presented the satirical series The Unauthorised History Of New Zealand in 2005, and an episode of Intrepid Journeys in 2007.

In this ScreenTalk Interview, Wells discusses:

• Being sent to boarding school for possessing marijuana
• Being expelled from boarding school for possessing marijuana
• Starting out as a newsreader on 95bFM
• The fun he had working on the Havoc shows
• The ideas behind The Unauthorised History of New Zealand
• The challenges of making seven seasons of Eating Media Lunch
• His experiences in Libya on Intrepid Journeys
• How the Birdland series came about and observations on the birding community
• His career path
• TVNZ

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – James Coleman

The star of TV ONE’s The Investigator, Bryan Bruce has made programmes on everything from Kiwi humour to mass murderers.

In this ScreenTalk interview, the director, writer and presenter talks about:

• making his television debut interviewing Katherine Mansfield and Chopin, after a lucky break while playing piano in a bar
• mortgaging his house to make a documentary on yachtsman Sir Peter Blake, then selling it around the world in the time it took Blake to sail into Auckland harbour
• Some similar features of the famous New Zealanders he has profiled for documentaries, including Whina Cooper, Howard Morrison and John O’Shea
• Discovering the common traits of mass murderers for the documentary In Cold Blood
• How he takes the unusual approach of offering his own opinion, on true-life crime series The Investigator
• How the secret drop box for The Investigator has received much worthwhile information

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

Credits: Direction and Interview – Ian Pryor.  Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse

Geraldine Brophy describes herself as a character actress, but her television and film roles have been very memorable ones. She played the lovable Moira Crombie in Shortland Street for four years, before moving on to roles in Serial Killers, The Insiders Guide to Love, and Outrageous Fortune.

One of her favourite roles was playing the control freak bureaucrat Marion in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. More recently Brophy danced up a storm on Dancing with the Stars, and had a small but memorable part in Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong. In 2008, she received a NZ Film and TV Award for best actress for her lead role in the feel-good feature film Second-Hand Wedding.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Brophy discusses:

• Having a wonderful time on Shortland Street playing the lovable Moira
• Playing a “plumptious woman with a rampant sexuality” in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby
• The joy of performing on Dancing with the Stars even though she knew she’d never win
• Working with Peter Jackson on King Kong
• Working with director Paul Murphy on Second-Hand Wedding
• How her many acting roles have changed her life

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Cinematographer Warrick ‘Waka’ Attewell is something of a legend in the Kiwi film industry. From landmark 70s TV series Tangata Whenua, he has gone on to climb mountains with Sir Ed; shoot commercials, shorts and six and a half features – including the acclaimed Starlight Hotel – plus direct Ian Mune doco In the Shadow of King Lear. These days he is also known as a commentator on screen matters, who often says the things others are too scared to say.

In this ScreenTalk interview we’ve picked out a few highlights from the three decades Attewell has been in the game.

Attewell talks about:

• the cinematographer’s role, in taking viewers into a different world
• the watershed experience of being caught between cultures, while helping make landmark series Tangata Whenua
• working with the late Barry Barclay on Tangata Whenua, and Barclay’s second feature Te Rua (on which Attewell shared cinematography duties with the late Rory O’Shea)
• conquering frozen cameras for hit doco All the Way Up There, which chronicles a disabled climber’s dream of topping Mount Ruapehu
• the challenge of capturing Central Otago on film, while shooting road movie Starlight Hotel – whose look The LA Times compared to screen classic Days of Heaven

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

Credits: Direction and Interview – Ian Pryor.  Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse