ScreenTalk

Actor Paul Gittins is best known for his portrayal of Dr Michael McKenna, the original clinic director, on the long-running soap opera Shortland Street. He has also acted in a number of feature films, including Other Halves, The End of the Golden Weather, and The Whole of the Moon. Gittins’ love of history led to the creation of two popular docu-drama series Epitaph and Shipwreck, which he hosted and sometimes directed.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Gittins talks about:

• How a novice actor inspired him on the set of Other Halves
• Learning lessons about life in Ian Mune’s The End of the Golden Weather
• Initially struggling to adapt to the face-paced shooting schedule on Shortland Street
• How Epitaph gave him a unique sense of New Zealand history
• Learning how to research, write, and direct television by doing the show
• Finding a solution to his seasickness while shooting Shipwreck
• Loving the process of ‘getting into someone else’s head’ when acting

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

Tony Holden has produced and directed hundreds of hours of NZ television from A Week Of It, Radio with Pictures and Gliding On to Shortland Street, City Life and Dancing with the Stars. Holden’s roles over his 40 year screen career include Head of Production at South Pacific Pictures, General Manager of Commissioning and Production at TVNZ, and CEO of Comedia Pictures.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Holden talks about:

• Auditioning and casting Karyn Hay for Radio with Pictures
• Learning the art of comic timing
• How Gliding On struck a chord with New Zealanders
• Shooting live to tape on A Week Of It
• The early days working with Billy T James
• His emotions producing Billy, the tele-movie about Billy T James
• Commissioning at TVNZ
• The future of NZ television

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

Award-winning documentary maker John Bates is a Scotsman who has lived in New Zealand for over 40 years. His documentaries have covered a range of genres from art: The Dutchman, The Making of an Opera; Sense of Place, Robin Morrison, Photographer; Reflections, Gretchen Albrecht, to social issues: New Faces, Old Fears; Crime and Punishment, to historical: Banned, 100 Years of Censorship in New Zealand; 1951. In 2010, Bates produced and directed the acclaimed series 50 Years of New Zealand Television.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Bates talks about:

• Initially being told he couldn’t direct his documentary Sense of Place
• How the subject of the documentary Robin Morrison passed away while filming was still in progress
• Learning about abstract art through the doco Reflections – Gretchen Albrecht
• How copyright issues mean that Banned – A History of Censorship will never be re-screened
• How his documentary 1951 told the suppressed history of the waterside lock out
• The making of 50 Years of New Zealand Television and why it was better for being produced for Prime

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

Producer/director Gary Scott has spent time in the newsroom, the museum, and on location. Trained as an historian and journalist, Scott has been producing with Wellington company Gibson Group for a decade – though he began his screen career as an assignment editor, in the stressful world of primetime TV news. Alongside his TV work at Gibson Group, Scott also helps the company develop multi-media experiences for museums.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Scott talks about:

• How TV producing involves mediating between art and commerce
• Starting off
• Working on one of his earliest directing projects, documentary Flight 703: about a 1995 air crash in which survivor William McGrory played a key role in guiding emergency services to the downed plane
• “Career highlight” Here to Stay, and how the show explored stories about NZ’s social history, including the roots of Kiwi humour and stoicism
• Working as part of the producing team on a trio of police shows: Undercover (about undercover police), Line of Fire (the armed offenders squad), and NZ Detectives, soon to begin its second series.
• How the stresses of producing can be a sign you have got something wrong in the mix
• Dealing with the Church of Scientology for doco How to Spot a Cult
• The differences between producing and directing for TV

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

Rachel Jean has produced and/or directed over 40 documentaries, made award-winning drama and film, and set up and run production company Isola Productions. Jean has recently moved from producing and directing to the role of Head of Drama and Comedy at TV3 and C4.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Jean reveals:

• Details of her early work at Frame Up Films
• How feature film Memory and Desire was conceived
• Hilarious and embarrassing moments during filming of Love Mussel
• The joys of spending her pregnancy on the floor and laughing while helping write Secret Agent Men
• How The Market came about, and its intriguing production philosophy
• An insight into the making of her documentary Life, Death and a Lung Transplant about her husband’s Cystic Fibrosis and lung transplant
• Her most satisfying achievements so far as Head of Drama and Comedy at TV3 and C4

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

With more than 30 years in the television industry under his belt, veteran drama producer and director Chris Bailey has made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s screen heritage. His many TV credits include Gloss, Mortimer’s Patch, Under the Mountain, Burying Brian, Marlin Bay, City Life, and Greenstone. He was also the first executive producer on Shortland Street. Bailey was a co-founder of production company ScreenWorks which made the popular legal drama Street Legal.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Bailey talks about:

• The fun and challenges of making the kidult TV series Under the Mountain
• Creating a mechanical means of teleportation before the use of CGI technology
• Directing the ‘bitchy’ women on uber-soap Gloss
• Having to be careful casting characters in the historical mini-series Fallout
• Getting the soap Shortland Street up and running
• Casting Jay Laga’aia in the gritty legal drama Street Legal
• The challenge of making sure Go Girls stood up against overseas shows on TV2
• Feeling lucky to have had a challenging yet rewarding and fun career

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

Frank Torley is a Kiwi television legend. Forever known as that Country Calendar guy – he has variously narrated, directed, produced, and reported for the show, over a period of more than 40 years. But Torley hasn’t always been Mr Rural. He has also spent time as a newsreader, Top Town presenter, documentary maker (including an early doco on Aids), and spent time in religious programmes.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Torley talks about:

• breaking into radio as a rural broadcaster, during his Mark III Zephyr/slouch hat period
• the joys of producing Country Calendar (starting in 1982), and offering a front window into farming for the common man
• the origins of Country Calendar’s spoofs, and contributions by cartoonist Burton Silver
• the early Country Calendar producer who kept offending those being interviewed
• the nail-biting dog versus sheep tension that was A Dog’s Show, thanks to host John Gordon – plus the show’s premature death
• being compared to a startled rabbit, while newsreading for the newly reborn TV One
• handling birth scenes for documentary From Here to Maternity
• the days when ratings weren’t so important
• to retire – or not to retire

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

Director David Blyth has created some of New Zealand’s most graphic and challenging movies dealing with horror, sexuality, and the sub-conscious mind. His career began as an assistant director on the film Solo, but it was his first feature Angel Mine which showed his interests in pushing the boundaries of film making. In his time, Blyth has made a number of documentary features, directed episodes of Close to Home and created New Zealand’s first horror film Death Warmed Up and more recently dark tale Wound.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Blyth talks about:

• Being the first director to get interim Film Commission funding for Angel Mine
• How the film predicted the rise of social media and viagra
• How his confidence as a director was knocked by critics of the film
• Why, despite being a cult horror film overseas Death Warmed Up failed in NZ
• Having no original copy of the film because it was burned
• Filming his grandfather for the First World War doco Our Oldest Soldier
• How initially no one was interested in the story
• Making Wound as an antidote to feeling his career was over; the film explores how abuse in the family can lead to dramatic consequences
• How the film has reinvigorated his passion for filmmaking
• How his career has been about looking at the horror in the everyday

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

Award-winning director Brendan Donovan cast Lee Majors in his debut short film. It was a success. Then after eight years working in New York, the Howick native returned to New Zealand, where he has directed and written for television and cinema both here and in Australia, most recently crafting feature film The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Donovan talks about:

• How he cast Lee Majors (The Six Million Dollar Man) in his debut short film Here
• Details from the making of short film Grasp
• His initial reaction to scripts for The Insiders Guide to Happiness
• Details on how The Insiders Guide to Happiness footage was captured and techniques used to achieve visual effects
• Delightful insights into working with Australian actor Bryan Brown on the Aussie TV series Two Twisted
• Behind-the-scenes details of special effects used in tele-feature Aftershock
• How feature film The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell was created

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

Film and television writer/director Michael Bennett has been involved with some of New Zealand’s favourite TV dramas, including Street Legal, Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune. He has written and directed two acclaimed short films – Cow and Kerosene Creek, and penned the feature film Jubilee. In 2010 he directed his first feature – Matariki.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Bennett talks about:

• Exploring communication without dialogue in the short film Cow
• Borrowing a wet set and props from Xena for the film
• Using a ‘cow whisperer’ on set to control a floating bovine
• Exploring childhood grief in the short film Kerosene Creek
• Using the metaphor of transcendence in the film Matariki
• Managing eight lead characters in an ensemble cast
• Shooting the first scene in one take with two young inexperienced actors
• Learning from every filmic experience and moving on to the next project

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