Screentalk

New Zealander Phil Keoghan has become an internationally-known TV host thanks to his role on Emmy-winning American reality series The Amazing Race. Keoghan began his career as a TVNZ cameraman before moving into presenting on kids show Spot On. He hosted a number of TV shows in New Zealand, such as That's Fairly Interesting, 3:45 LIVE! and Ya Hoo. Keoghan moved to the USA in the 1990s, where he began to get broadcasting work, eventually landing the coveted role as host of The Amazing Race. Keoghan has also produced and presented other international shows including No Opportunity Wasted, After the Climb, and Keoghan’s Heroes.

In this ScreenTalk, Keoghan talks about:

• Loving the chance to perform on the kids show Spot On
• How That's Fairly Interesting helped hone his story-telling skills
• Being mentored by fellow presenter Mark Leishman
• Learning to cope with live TV on 3:45 LIVE!
• An embarrassing moment with Milli Vanilli on set
• Fighting with actor Kevin Smith on Gloss
• How his kiwi accent lost him the presenter’s role on Survivor
• Faking an American accent to host The Amazing Race
• Believing the show opens up world culture to an American audience
• The challenges of making 'feel good' series No Opportunity Wasted
• How his documentary The Ride  has become his favourite ever TV project
• Being proud of the show earning $1 million for multiple sclerosis

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

Award-winning actor Sarah Peirse is best known for her portrayals of two very different mothers — the ill-fated Honorah Rieper in Heavenly Creatures, and the disaffected sophisticate in Rain. Peirse’s first film was the 80s short Queen Street, followed by tele-feature A Woman of Good Character. More recently, she has appeared in tele-movies Bliss: The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield and Aftershock.

In this ScreenTalk, Peirse talks about:

• Having an intense acting journey in A Woman of Good Character
• Playing the gloriously named Vivienne Wallop in Sylvia
• Being heavily pregnant on the set of The Navigator
• Her experience of working with director Vincent Ward
• Being told not to watch Peter Jackson’s previous films prior to working with him on Heavenly Creatures
• Dreaming about the character she played in the film
• Finding the story in the feature film Rain compelling
• Perspectives on her character’s grief and self-destruction
• Playing a 'constrained and compromised' mother in Bliss: The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield
• Not knowing whether or not her work on the Hobbit films will make the final cut
• Feeling blessed to have been able to do roles integral to many films

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

Lindsay Shelton's career testifies to his love of communicating, and his love of film. After working in newspapers he began a decade programming the Wellington Film Festival, while working in television news. In 1979 he joined the New Zealand Film Commission: over the next 22 years he was an enthusiastic promoter and salesman for New Zealand film around the globe. 

In this ScreenTalk interview, Shelton talks about:

• Getting pulled into the new medium of television, from a globetrotting newspaper career
• Campaigning to sell films for the New Zealand Film Commission
• The golden days of Kiwi movies first breaking into overseas markets: Goodbye Pork Pie, then selling Sleeping Dogs and Smash Palace to the United States
• How the world was discovering New Zealand as a hothouse of new and exciting talent
• Shelton's longheldbelief that the best way to promote New Zealand films is by country rather than genre
• How without the NZ Film Commission there would be no local film industry
• The "wonderful" but stressful story of how Shelton persuaded Jane Campion to turn An Angel at My Table into a movie
• Stunned reactions to the first international screening of Once Were Warriors, at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival

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

Actor and director Murray Keane's first big role on screen was in 1980s television series Peppermint Twist. His acting credits also include Away Laughing, Chunuk Bair and Braindead. In the 1990s, Keane moved into directing, working on popular drama series Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune, The Almighty Johnsons and Go Girls. In this ScreenTalk, Keane talks about:

• Playing a semi-mute drummer on Peppermint Twist
• Working in mud and unwashed costumes for movie Chunuk Bair
• Why the film Braindead was the worst experience of his career
• The pressure of directing episodes of Shortland Street
• Being proud of directing Diplomatic Immunity despite its disappointing ratings
• Enjoying public praise for his contribution to Outrageous Fortune
• How Go Girls proved a great way of improving his directing skills

After making her television debut on Shortland Street in 2004, Siobhan Marshall won fame as straight-talking sister Pascalle West over six seasons of Outrageous Fortune. In 2005 she won celebrity singing contest Sing Like a Superstar. More recently she made a guest appearance on The Almighty Johnsons, and will next join her Outrageous screen sister Antonia Prebble as co-star of The Blue Rose. In this ScreenTalk, Marshall talks about:

• Being inspired into acting by seeing Les Miserables
• Playing her name-sake in Shortland Street
• Being accused of playing a slut on the show
• Moving from comic relief to ‘meaty’ drama in Outrageous Fortune
• Getting room to develop her acting and character on the show
• Having a serious migraine while taping Sing Like a Superstar
• Learning how to behave like a man on The Almighty Johnsons
• Discovering a penchant for bending the truth on Would I Lie to You?
• Being one of the only actors in the cast of Duncan’s Lady to speak English
• Playing a cool Kiwi girl in new drama series The Blue Rose
• Believing acting is the only thing she’s good at

Broadcaster Phillip Leishman has had one of the longest and most successful TV presenting careers in New Zealand. He began presenting sports news and events in the 1970s, and has hosted major live events such as the Olympics and test rugby. Leishman also helmed long-running game show Wheel of Fortune, and, more recently, the internationally-syndicated Golf Show. In this ScreenTalk, Leishman talks about:

• Becoming Glyn Tucker’s ‘little shadow’ on Turf Talk
• How tech problems led to him commentating on the 1976 Olympic Games
• The difficulties of covering the 1981 Springbok Tour
• Loving the pace of production on Wheel of Fortune
• Initially failing to notice David Tua’s infamous ‘O for awesome’ moment
• Hosting the last televised Miss New Zealand contest
• Missing the cool atmosphere of Weekend
• Why The Golf Show has been his favourite gig
• Traveling the world having a good time on Air New Zealand Holiday
• Being proud of his 41 years on air

Canadian-born to New Zealand parents, writer and director Alison Maclean helmed one of the most successful NZ Film Commission-funded short films of all time, Kitchen Sink, which debuted at Cannes and won eight international awards. A graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, she has directed feature films Crush (which she also wrote) and Jesus’ Son. A director of commercials and television series including Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, Maclean divides her time between New York, Canada and New Zealand, and she is developing several feature films. In this ScreenTalk, Maclean talks about:

• Meeting life-long film industry friends whilst working on Geoff Stevens’ Strata as a summer holiday job
• Persuading her sculpture department professors to let her make her first short film, Taunt
• Casting a real rugby player to play an All Black in Rud’s Wife
• The joy of directing anti-apartheid music video Don’t Go with Chris Knox, Don McGlashan and Rick Bryant
• Using film to open up the aural medium of radio in Talkback
• How she treated the writing of Kitchen Sink as an assignment
• How a black and white photograph in the NZ Listener led Maclean to discover Kitchen Sink actress Theresa Healey
• Where all that hair came from for Peter Tait’s character in Kitchen Sink
• The charmed experience and enduring popularity of Kitchen Sink
• How a road trip with a family friend led to her debut feature film, Crush
• Directing episodes of Sex and the City and Gossip Girl

Fiona Samuel has found success as an actor, writer and director. Her first acting job was in long-running soap Close to Home, and she followed that with appearances in a number of film and TV shows. Samuel’s greatest passion, however, is for writing and directing. She was the creative force behind The Marching Girls, and has written scripts for shows such as Outrageous Fortune, The Almighty Johnsons and Rude Awakenings. Samuel also wrote and directed award-winning one-off dramas Piece of My Heart, and Bliss: The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield. In this ScreenTalk, Samuel talks about:

• Being too theatrical on the set of Close to Home
• Creating the concept for The Marching Girls
• Discovering her scriptwriting skills needed an overhaul
• Adding a prostitute to the original story in Home Movie
• How a surprising statistic led her to create the documentary Virginity
• Taking 10 years to get Piece of My Heart funded
• The reasons she picked the main actresses
• Bringing a fresh but authentic feel to Bliss
• Wishing she’d had even more opportunities in her career

Simon Prast made his television debut in cop drama Mortimer’s Patch. Best known for playing spoilt rich kid Alistair Redfern in Gloss, Prast’s biggest film role was playing a gay man in 1998 movie When Love Comes. He also has a strong background in theatre, and for 11 years ran the Auckland Theatre Company. In this ScreenTalk, Prast talks about:

• Learning how to ‘deliver the goods’ on Mortimer’s Patch
• The satisfying intensity of acting on ground-breaking AIDS drama A Death in the Family
• Auditioning alongside Peter Elliott for Gloss
• Finding the show very urban and fresh
• Enjoying playing a psychopath on Shortland Street
• Love and dignity being at the heart of the film When Love Comes
• The irony of the transition from playing sons to fathers on Go Girls
• Realising that an aging actor can develop new roles

Stu Dennison was a much-loved TV presenter in the 1970s who introduced the ‘naughty schoolboy’ and thumbs up to a generation of Kiwi kids on the show Nice One Stu. He went on to host a range of TV shows, often as sidekick to popular TV host Roger Gascoigne. After Dennison ended his on-air career, he re-invented himself as a sports producer at TVNZ. In this ScreenTalk, Dennison talks about:

• Being the ‘everyman’ on Ready to Roll
• Creating the outrageous persona on Nice One Stu
• Becoming famous by being controversial
• How a spontaneous ‘thumbs up’ became his signature gesture
• Winding up the prim and proper Roger Gascoigne on Top Town
• Getting a pie in the face on Telethon
• Enjoying the mix of live entertainment and skits on How’s That
• Moving from presenting to editing and producing sports
• Carrying the torch at the Beijing Olympics