ScreenTalk

Veteran actor Bruce Allpress has had a long career in theatre, film and television. His television credits include Close to Home, Hanlon, Shark in the Park, Duggan, The Cult, and the lead role in the series Jocko. His many film appearances include The Piano, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and, most recently, Rest for the Wicked.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Allpress talks about:

• Getting a dressing down from a producer on the set of Close to Home
• How being ‘laconic’ at his audition got him the lead role in Jocko
• Having to learn how to use a bullwhip in four days for the show
• How the character of Jocko was a quintessential New Zealand character
• What happened when his mate Ian Mune lost control of a horse on set
• Getting the role of Sparky on Mortimer’s Patch by removing his teeth
• Almost wrecking a camera while riding a quad bike on Duggan
• Finding The Piano an odd film to be in
• Not really understanding his role in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• Acting with his ‘over 60s mates’ in the film Rest for the Wicked
• How the best has yet to come in his career

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

Craig Parker made his television debut in the 80s soap Gloss and then went on to Shortland Street where he played a womanising social worker. After checking out of the long-running soap, Parker played an elf in Lord of the Rings, a doctor on Mercy Peak, a villain in Legend of the Seeker and a diplomat in Diplomatic Immunity. Some of his other screen credits include Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Xena and the soon to be released Spartacus.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Parker discusses:

• How terrifying Gloss was but how it taught him about TV
• Playing annoying social worker Guy Warner on Shortland Street
• The fun of Hercules and Xena
• Fighting with Lucy Lawless on set
• The dangers of on-set catering on Mercy Peak
• An awkward sex scene with good friend Robyn Malcolm
• The enormity of Lord of the Rings
• How he loved making Diplomatic Immunity despite it not being a complete success
• Being part of the yet to be screened TV series Spartacus

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

Grip Annie Frear trained in television production at the ABC in Australia, and then returned to New Zealand and forged a distinguished film career working on such titles as E Tipu E Rea, Desperate Remedies, The Piano, Hinekaro Goes on a Picnic and Blows up Another Obelisk, and Peach.

Frear was the Grip Co-ordinator for the massive production undertaking that was the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She begins her ScreenTalk interview by describing what it was like working on Lord of the Rings.

She also talks about:

• The importance of the grip’s working relationship with the Director of Photography
• Her first feature film Desperate Remedies and her job as “the skirt lifter”
• The satisfaction of working with Film School students
• The importance of “hands on” training

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

Credits: Direction and interview by Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.

Editor Annie Collins has worked with some of New Zealand’s most provocative directors, including Barry Barclay (The Neglected Miracle), and Merata Mita (Patu!) over a 30 year editing career. Collins has also edited key feature films, (Scarfies, Out of the Blue) and was part of the editing team on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

NZ On Screen’s Clare O’Leary visits Collins at her home and Collins reflects on:

• Her beginnings in the industry and being convinced by producer Pat Cox to shelve her design training and become an editor.
• What she requires of directors (“that they’ve done their homework!”)
• Cutting Patu! with Merata Mita: evading the police and becoming conscious of the Springbok Tour Protests’ relevance to New Zealand history and realising the (different) echoes it had for Mita as a Māori filmmaker.
• Working with director Robert Sarkies on Scarfies and Out of the Blue
• The four and a half years she spent working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the realisation that despite the “profound experience” of working on such a massive scale project that she needed to get back to New Zealand stories.
• Her consciousness of the power of the edit: “it takes about five seconds for you to destroy somebody in a cut, or edit, on national TV.”
• The ethics of story-telling: the need for the people who are involved in a documentary (or a story where the subjects are still alive) to follow “good process” and the importance of “clarity of mind and heart.”

Collins is currently working on Graeme Tuckett’s documentary about Barry Barclay due for release later this year.

See Annie Collins’ profile on NZ On Screen.

This interview is available on YouTube for embedding and distribution.

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