ScreenTalk

Grip Annie Frear trained in television production at the ABC in Australia, and then returned to New Zealand and forged a distinguished film career working on such titles as E Tipu E Rea, Desperate Remedies, The Piano, Hinekaro Goes on a Picnic and Blows up Another Obelisk, and Peach.

Frear was the Grip Co-ordinator for the massive production undertaking that was the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She begins her ScreenTalk interview by describing what it was like working on Lord of the Rings.

She also talks about:

• The importance of the grip’s working relationship with the Director of Photography
• Her first feature film Desperate Remedies and her job as “the skirt lifter”
• The satisfaction of working with Film School students
• The importance of “hands on” training

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

Credits: Direction and interview by Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Actor/director Danny Mulheron has acted alongside drug-addicted frogs, haunted automobiles, and “force of nature” David Fane. After appearing in early Kiwi soap Close to Home, Mulheron went on to act on television, stage and film - including in the cult Peter Jackson puppet movie Meet the Feebles. In the late 80s he found himself working on both sides of the camera on a run of television sketch shows. Mulheron’s lengthy directorial CV now includes drama, comedy, and documentary.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Danny Mulheron talks about:

• working with a stuntman, while acting in Gaylene Preston’s haunted car movie Mr Wrong
• helping write the “outrageous script” for Peter Jackson puppet movie Meet the Feebles, then filming it in a freezing railways shed (Mulheron plays a homicidal hippo)
• working as a writer and actor on a run of sketch comedy shows for producer Dave Gibson, and beginning the move into directing
• directing “force of nature” David Fane on shortlived comedy show The Semisis, about a dysfunctional Samoan family
• moving into drama directing with The Strip, and The Hothouse
• co-creating un-PC TV series Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, and finding an actor who could play Mr Gormsby, a racist, sexist schoolteacher at a low decile school
• showing films in a different way with personal documentary The Third Richard, made with wife Sara Stretton

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

Credits: Direction and Interview by Ian Pryor, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Rock’n'roll couple Karyn Hay and Andrew Fagan have both had long and varied careers in New Zealand music and media. They are currently night-time hosts on Radio Live, but Fagan spent many years as the lead singer of pop band The Mockers, and Hay was the long-time host of iconic music show Radio with Pictures. Hay and Fagan are also both published authors.

In this ScreenTalk interview, the pair talk to James Coleman about:

• The trials and tribulations of getting a music video made in NZ in the 80s through TVNZ’s “sausage factory”
• Radio with Pictures and the decision to play the forbidden video - AFFCO by The Skeptics
• Hay’s work on her favourite music video of all those she has directed - Hey Judith by The Dribbling Darts Of Love in the 90s
• Fagan’s cameo appearance in the Hey Judith video

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

Credits: Interview by James Coleman, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Don McGlashan is one of New Zealand’s foremost singer/songwriters. He was a member of Blam Blam Blam, and the Muttonbirds, and has recorded as a solo artist. He was also a part of the acclaimed musical theatre act The Front Lawn. Through his work with The Front Lawn, McGlashan moved into the film world with the quirky short Walkshort. He has worked as a film composer on An Angel at My Table, No 2, and Dean Spanley.

In this ScreenTalk interview, McGlashan talks about:

• The music video for the Kiwi classic ‘Nature’, shot by Stuart Dryburgh, choreographed by Douglas Wright, and directed by Fane Flaws
• The video for his latest single ‘Bad Blood’, working with director Sally Tran, and the joys of stop-frame animation
• Composing the soundtrack to Dean Spanley, and working with director Toa Fraser
• The difference between working with Fraser on Dean Spanley and Jane Campion on An Angel At My Table
• Working on the classic Front Lawn short film Walkshort

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

Credits: Interview by James Coleman, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Director, photographer and Axemen drummer Stuart Page is a prolific filmmaker, and has made over 40 music videos. Page has directed promos for Superette, The Clean, and The Skeptics’ infamous AFFCO. In 2009 he won Best Feature Documentary and Best Emerging filmmaker at the DocNZ International Film Festival for his film Shustak, a portrait of American photographer Laurence Shustak. Page also compiled alternative music compilation Noisyland.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Page talks about making two of his finest music videos - the controversial AFFCO by The Skeptics and Killer Clown by Superette.

Regarding Killer Clown, Page discusses:

• The themes behind the clip
• The set, and ensuing shambles
• The standout performances

And on AFFCO, Stuart talks about:

• The initial impetus for making the video
• Where and how the opening scenes were shot
• The visit to the abattoir and the incredible story of how these scenes were realised
• The reaction to the clip

This video is available on YouTube for distribution via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Camera and editing - Leo Guerchmann. Interview - James Coleman.

Chris Knox is a musician, film critic and cartoonist. His music career began with legendary Dunedin punk band The Enemy, followed by post-punk heroes Toy Love, then the Tall Dwarfs and his own solo work.

Knox has appeared as a film reviewer on arts TV shows The Edge and Backch@t, and hosted the series The New Artland. He is also the man behind the long-running Max Media cartoon strip in the NZ Herald. Knox has also hosted an Intrepid Journey to India.

As a singer-songwriter and music video director, Knox is known as a pioneer of lo-fi, DIY classics.

For this special two-part ScreenTalk interview, Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd chats with Knox about his life and career. (See the first part here.) In part two of the interview, they discuss:

• Knox moving from appearing in music videos to directing his own with the Tall Dwarfs’ Nothing’s Gonna Happen
• Making the video for the Tall Dwarfs’ Turning Brown and Torn in Two
• Making the video for his solo classic Not Given Lightly
• Becoming a film reviewer on TV arts shows The Edge and Backch@t
• Moving into television presenting, with an episode of Intrepid Journeys, and the series The New Artland
• Knox’s long-running cartoon strip Max Media

This video is available on YouTube for distribution via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview by Roger Shepherd, directed by Clare O’Leary. Camera and editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Chris Knox is a musician, film critic and cartoonist. His music career began with legendary Dunedin punk band The Enemy, followed by post-punk heroes Toy Love, then the Tall Dwarfs and his own solo work.

Knox has appeared as a film reviewer on arts TV shows The Edge and Backch@t, and hosted the series The New Artland. He is also the man behind the long-running Max Media cartoon strip in the NZ Herald. Knox has also hosted an Intrepid Journey to India.

As a singer-songwriter and music video director, Knox is known as a pioneer of lo-fi, DIY classics.

For this special two-part ScreenTalk interview, Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd chats with Knox about his life and career. The pair discuss:

• Knox’s early love of film and how he first got into filmmaking
• The first footage of The Enemy, shot by cameraman Peter Janes
• Making the Toy Love video Squeeze
• Making the later Toy Love videos Rebel and Don’t Ask Me

Part two of this interview can be found here, where Knox talks about moving into making his own videos, being a TV film reviewer and presenter, and Max Media.

This video is available on YouTube for distribution via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview by Roger Shepherd, directed by Clare O’Leary. Camera and editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Tainui Stephens (Te Rarawa) is one of our foremost Māori broadcasters. He has worked as a reporter, writer, director, producer and executive producer. His credits include Maori Battalion March to Victory and The New Zealand Wars.

Stephens was a stalwart of TVNZ’s Māori Programmes department in the 1980s and 90s, working on the regular series Koha, Waka Huia, Marae and Mai Time.

In this interview Tainui Stephens discusses:

• being raised by his Pākehā mother, and his own personal journey “into my Māoridom”
• beginning work at TVNZ Māori Programmes in 1984, and how much he enjoyed his work there
• how he loves all the programmes he has worked on over the years
• the good that Māori broadcasting can do
• the Maori Television Service, its success, and the important role it plays in New Zealand life.

This interview is available on YouTube for distribution via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview by Monika Ahuriri, camera and direction by Clare O’Leary. Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

John A Givins (Johnny) is an actor, director and producer.  His independent production company Livingstone Productions is best known for the long-running TV2 gay series Queer Nation, and the award-winning TV ONE documentary series Captain’s Log.

Givins talks about starting out as a TV actor in Children of Fire Mountain, with director Peter Sharp.  He also tells the story of how Sharp helped him get a break into TV drama directing a few years later.

Givins discusses his drama directing days with TVNZ in the 1980s, working on series such as Country GP, The Seekers, and Peppermint Twist.

He talks about working on Shortland Street in its early days, and how he was also developing his own independent production ideas at that time.

Givins explains where the name for Livingstone Productions came from, and its connection to his Scottish heritage.

Givins also talks about being gay and making gay television, starting with the TV productions of the Hero Parade, and moving on to long-running TVNZ series Queer Nation.

He outlines how he developed Livingstone Productions, and talks about the creation of the Captain’s Log documentary series.

To close, Givins talks about the end of Queer Nation - saying its demise was the result of an “assault” by TVNZ.

This video is also available on YouTube for distribution via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview by Clare O’Leary. Camera and editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Vanessa Alexander wrote stage plays before turning her hand to writing, directing and producing for film and television.  She is best known for her feature film Magik and Rose, for producing innovative children’s drama series Being Eve, and as a director on popular westie TV show Outrageous Fortune.

Alexander tells how extreme persistence paid off early in her screen career when she got to make Magik and Rose, and she discusses her strong working relationship with producer Larry Parr.

She credits Parr with being the first reason she made it into film and television, and says South Pacific Pictures head John Barnett is the second reason.

Alexander discusses why she thinks Barnett gave her a break into producing with Being Eve.  She speculates that this was partly because she was young and female and the series needed that, but says she also puts it down to a story she told at the SPADA conference about her energetic marketing work for Magik and Rose.

She explains that this involved buying all the tickets to a premiere screening herself so that it would appear the film had sold out quickly, and seating family and friends near critics to talk up the film.

Alexander also talks about her directing work on popular TV3 drama series Outrageous Fortune.  She says working on the first episode of the series was extremely stressful because the original idea was so good and expectation was very high.

This interview is available on YouTube for distribution under a Creative Commons license (Non-Commercial, Attribution).

Credits: Interview by Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.