ScreenTalk

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

After ten and a half years as CEO of the NZ Film Commission, Dr. Ruth Harley is stepping down to head across the ditch to helm Screen Australia.

Harley began her career as an academic but quickly moved into management in the film and television sector, initially at TVNZ in the 1980s, then as the first Executive Director of the newly formed funding body NZ On Air.

In 1997 she was appointed CEO of the NZ Film Commission. Harley talks to NZ On Screen’s Clare O’Leary about being a sometimes controversial leader of the central industry body as it faces up to growing pains, and the challenges of fostering a sustainable New Zealand film industry.

This video is also available for download and distribution on YouTube.

Credits: Direction and Interview – Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing – Leo Guerchmann