From Pop-a-Long to King Kong – Ray Woolf on the value of variety

Screen Talker — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:15:50 +0000

Veteran entertainer Ray Woolf has appeared on television and film as a pop singer, song and dance man, TV host and actor. Starting out as a singer, Woolf made a splash on television in the swinging 60s music shows C’mon and Happen Inn. His career took an unusual direction when he turned up as co-host on the long-running children’s show Play School. Showing his versatility as a performer, Woolf also hosted his self-titled chat show The Ray Woolf Show, and has appeared in a number of TV dramas such as Xena, Marlin Bay, Street Legal and The Strip. In 2011, he had a guest role in the hit show Nothing Trivial.

In this ScreenTalk, Woolf talks about:

Pre-recording and miming to songs in a tiny studio for the music show C’mon
Loving being part of Happen Inn, and how it gave him a strong public profile
How hosting Play School made him a hit with young mothers
Feeling intimidated by big name celebrities guests on The Ray Woolf Show
Playing bad guys on the set of Xena
Being impressed by the huge scale and skill of everyone involved in the show
The “incredible experience” of working with Peter Jackson on King Kong
Having fun with a coffin on the movie Insatiable Moon
Enjoying playing a philanderer on the TV show Nothing Trivial
Coping with the fast paced shooting on set

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

Tony Hiles interview

Screen Talker — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:59:44 +0000

Director Tony Hiles talks about over 30 years of film-making, from making television and documenting local history and artists, to his involvement in feature films:

His beginnings (“the best years of television in this country”) at TVNZ’s Avalon studios in the seventies, where he directed game shows, music, and current affairs programmes.
Founding production company City Associates with partner Judith Fyfe in 1980, and his experiences making local history documentaries.
Making films with artists Michael Smither (One Man and the Sea; Flight of Fancy) and Robin Morrison (From the Road), and the fun of small-crew, seat-of-your-pants shooting. The key [to the documentaries] “was to be in at the beginning … where we had no idea what was going to happen the next day.”
Being brought onboard as consultant producer on Peter Jackson’s breakout splatstick debut, Bad Taste. Hiles was asked by the Film Commission’s Jim Booth (Bad Taste’s producer) to assess the script and figured, “if it makes me laugh it’ll make someone else laugh as well.” Hiles also directed Good Taste Made Bad Taste, the movie’s ‘making of’ story.
His relationship with Booth and the impact that his untimely death had on Jack Brown Genius: the feature that didn’t fly about a man who dreamed about flying. In the wake of the disappointment of Genius Hiles reflects on the lessons he’s learned over his long career: “if it don’t feel right, don’t do it!”

This interview is also available on YouTube.

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

ScreenTalk » peter jackson

From Pop-a-Long to King Kong – Ray Woolf on the value of variety

Tony Hiles interview