ScreenTalk

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.