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Posts Tagged ‘Footrot Flats’

Tom Scott – from portraits to production

27 August 2009

Tom Scott made his name for his portraits – both written and drawn – of politics and politicians, and for getting thrown out of the occasional press conference by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. But Scott has also had a diverse career in the screen industry. Apart from writing new feature film Separation City, he has worked with racist school teachers, animated border collies, and written drama and documentaries on iconic Kiwis David Lange and Sir Edmund Hillary.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Tom Scott talks about:

  • the joys of running around “doing all the things that kids do” while making screen romance Separation City, and how his script for the film is better for being more emotionally honest
  • being invited to work with fellow cartoonist Murray Ball, writing the big-screen version of Footrot Flats
  • Scott’s first venture into television, with a play about anorexia nervosa
  • His two projects based around David Lange – mini-series Fallout, and the documentary Reluctant Revolutionary
  • Sir Robert Muldoon actually saying kind words about something Scott wrote
  • how dodgy school teacher Mr Gormsby began his journey to TV screens, after playwright Anthony McCarten begged Danny Mulheron to perform an old stand-up routine
  • being offered the chance to tell Sir Edmund Hillary’s life story, less than 48 hours after meeting him

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

 
 

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Pat Cox on producing

24 February 2009

Producer Pat Cox instigated Kiwiana classic Footrot Flats: The Dog’s (Tail) Tale and has produced some of New Zealand’s most iconic commercials (including the long-running Speights “onya mate”, Mainland Cheese “these things take time”, and the 100% Pure NZ tourism campaigns).

Cox chats to NZ On Screen about his 40-year+ career in film and television:

  • Growing up in Ireland and getting into the business via drumming in bands. He began shooting bands and crewing for docos. Cox recalls “great times” crewing at Ardmore Studios where legendary directors (John Houston, David Lean, John Boorman) were making movies.
  • Shooting concerts for bands in the late sixties in the US, then emigrating in the early seventies to New Zealand with his American wife and their one-year-old boy.
  • Forging a freelance career in a country where there was virtually no film industry, and setting up Film Editing Services, an independent post-production services company that imported the first Steenbeck editing desk into NZ.
  • Teaching film and TV to graphic design students at Wellington Polytech where “we developed a little mini film school”, and where he mentored Annie Collins and Euan Frizzell.
  • The growth of the commercials sector in the seventies and working with Geoff Dixon (Silverscreen), John Blick and Tony Williams.
  • Production-managing for Williams’ pioneering feature, Solo. Williams reflects on the DIY early days of the industry: where crew were being trained “on the job” and they secured finance from used car salesmen and “by knocking on doors.”
  • Getting to grips with New Zealand culture as an Irish-American fresh off the boat by reading Janet Frame and … Footrot Flats. “I saw it as this terrific microcosm of life in New Zealand.”
  • On opening the phone book, ringing Murray Ball and proposing a movie of the strip (and being flatly refused). Cox talks of the challenges of producing the project (with John Barnett): “everything was hand-painted and then filmed … it was this big endeavour and I’m amazed we actually achieved it. To this day no one has made another animated feature in New Zealand.”

Check out the ‘making of’ Footrot Flats documentary on NZ On Screen.

This interview is also available on YouTube.

Images courtesy of Pat Cox. Selected images are from Wikipedia Commons, or courtesy NZFC, or The Dominion Post.

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

 
 

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