ScreenTalk

Veteran broadcaster and journalist Ian Johnstone helped pioneer current affairs programming in New Zealand by hosting and reporting on the shows Compass and Close Up in the 1960s. Johnstone was the first host of the regional magazine programme Town and Around and went on to co-host Tonight at Nine after the debut of South Pacific Television. Since then Johnstone has been involved in a variety of TV series and documentaries, and has even turned his hand to a bit of character acting in television dramas. Johnstone is perhaps best remembered as the long-time host of the Crimewatch series.

In this ScreenTalk, Johnstone talks about:

• Learning on the job as the host of the original Close Up current affairs show
• How government officials were baffled on camera
• Becoming a household name on Town and Around
• Coming to terms with working in a police state for the ground-breaking documentary South Africa – the Black Future
• Realising that one of their ‘helpers’ was a government informer
• How being tall, English, and bald got him an acting role in Pioneer Women
• Bringing the drama of crime to the screen in Crimewatch
• Loving the live aspect of the show

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

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.

Bill Ralston has had a long, varied, and sometimes controversial career in New Zealand media. He joined South Pacific Television as a news reporter in 1979 and went on to become political correspondent for TVNZ in the era of Muldoon and Lange. Moving to TV3, Ralston was the channel’s Political Editor and hosted a current affairs slot on their nightly news bulletin. Ralston joined the Nightline team and later hosted the popular panel discussion show The Ralston Group, then the arts/media series Backch@t. In 2003 he became Head of News and Current Affairs for TVNZ.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Ralston talks about:

• Reporting from the midst of a riot during the Springbok Tour of 1981
• Learning how to tackle former PM Rob Muldoon in press conferences
• The drama of covering the split between former PM David Lange and Roger Douglas
• How The Ralston Group was successfully modeled on a similar show in the US
• Bringing politics to the art world in the show Backch@t
• How a fight with TV executives brought about the demise of the show
• Finding it hard going, becoming the Head of TVNZ News and Current Affairs
• Being flummoxed by the furore over newsreader Judy Bailey’s salary
• Acknowledging that there is no true objectivity in the media

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

Veteran broadcaster Brian Edwards is an Irish import who made a big impact on New Zealand current affairs television. He was first seen on the 1960s regional programme Town and Around, but soon made a name for himself as a no-nonsense interviewer on Gallery. It was on that show he helped bring about the end of a union dispute with the Post Office while live on air. His bi-weekly TV show Edwards on Saturday followed, and after a controversial start, was a ratings hit. Later, Edwards helped start up the long-running consumer rights TV show Fair Go, and hosted the popular Top of the Morning on Radio New Zealand.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Edwards talks about:

• How being on Town and Around saved him from being a miserable academic
• Getting a reputation for being an ‘aggressive interviewer’ on Gallery
• Creating a political spat after naming SIS agents on the programme
• Having a pivotal role in solving the infamous Post Office strike
• Insulting just about every sector of society in the first episode of Edwards on Saturday
• How Fair Go changed the rules of television by naming and shaming ‘baddies’
• Why he thinks the new look Fair Go has lost its community appeal
• Not enjoying doing the live show Edwards at Large
• Great current affairs now being marginalised on television

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

Rawiri Paratene (Ngā Puhi) was the first Māori student to graduate from the New Zealand Drama School, and has since made an indelible mark on the NZ screenscape.

Paratene’s small screen career began with a small part on The Governor, and playing Koro in 70s sitcom Joe and Koro. Paratene then hosted daily pre-school show Play School – a role familiar to a generation of Kiwi kids.

He went on to star in the long-running comedy sketch show Issues and won praise for his parodies of politician Winston Peters. Paratene is also an acclaimed writer whose credits include the TV dramas Erua and Dead Certs. The latter earned him a 1989 NZ Television Award.

On the big screen Paratene has created some of this country’s most memorable characters. He played the role of reformed gang memeber Mulla in What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?; but it was his role as Koro in Whale Rider that garnered him international recognition.

Paratene has served as deputy chairman of the New Zealand Film Commission. His latest cinema role is playing a psychiatric patient who believes he is the second son of God in The Insatiable Moon.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Paratene talks about:

• creating a stir by portraying a realistic Māori accent in the 70s sitcom Joe and Koro
• being asked to “reign in” his performance playing a dead body in The Governor
• how hosting the iconic kids show Play School helped to get him a long career
• fighting for Māori language and characters to be included in the show
• how ad-libbing boosted the tiny role of Rangi into a major part in Footrot Flats: The Dog’s (Tail) Tale
• creating the back story behind gang member Mulla in What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?
• causing a public stir by wearing his on-screen tattoos out in public
• loving the ‘honesty’ of his character Koro in Whale Rider
• his most humbling and poignant moment on the set of the film

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

George Henare is acting royalty in New Zealand with a huge body of work in theatre, television and movies.

His first screen performance was as a suspected killer in the 1976 TV play The Park Terrace Murder. From there Henare starred as Hone Heke in the epic TV drama The Governor. Moving to the big screen, Henare portrayed the evil tohunga in The Silent One.

Henare’s other film and television credits include Mercy Peak, Shortland Street, Hercules and Xena, Rapa Nui, Once Were Warriors, and The Legend of Johnny Lingo. His most recent project is the yet to screen adaptation of Witi Ihimaera’s novel Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Henare discusses:

• The responsibility of representing a historical ancestor in The Governor
• Having his entire body waxed to play a villain in The Silent One
• Being blown away by the intensity of the storytelling in Once Were Warriors
• His first experience of budget ‘downsizing’ on the set of Crooked Earth
• Fantastic catering and an awkward child co-star on Hercules
• Playing the father of a gay son in Nights in the Gardens of Spain
• Having his role in the The Lovely Bones dramatically downsized
• And why he believes evil characters are the real heroes

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

Although New Zealand actor Martin Henderson made his screen debut more than two decades ago, new film Home by Christmas marks his first movie shot on Kiwi soil.

Directed by Gaylene Preston and based on the wartime experiences of her parents, Home by Christmas sees Henderson playing a young soldier who leaves his wife behind to serve overseas.

After making his screen debut in 1988 on Margaret Mahy TV series Strangers, Henderson spent three years on Shortland Street playing Stuart Nielsen, then moved on to Australia and later the United States. Since then he has acted everywhere from India to Sweden, and in everything from horror (The Ring) to musicals (Bride and Prejudice) to TV’s House MD. His work as Cate Blanchett’s disabled brother in drama Little Fish saw him nominated for an Australian Film Institute supporting actor award. Variety magazine called his performance “a revelation”.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Henderson talks about:

• playing Gaylene Preston’s father in Home by Christmas
• how Preston kept him on his toes
• his lucky break into acting, aged 13, with the TV series Strangers
• how three years on Shortland Street was both good and bad for his acting
• working in the United States, and the success of the remake of The Ring
• donning leathers for motorcycle movie Torque
• the spirit of collaboration on Australian movie Little Fish

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

Ainsley Gardiner (Te-Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Awa) fell in love with the magic of the big screen while growing up in Whakatane, where you could find her most Fridays at the local cinema catching the latest release. Her first formal foray into film and television came in 1995 when she joined producer Larry Parr at Kahukura Productions, eventually producing low budget feature Kombi Nation (2003) and co-producing the 26-part comedy/drama TV series Love Bites (2002).

Following the demise of Kahukura, Gardiner teamed up with Taika Waititi to work on Oscar-nominated short film Two Cars, One Night. Soon after that she established Whenua Films with actor/producer Cliff Curtis. Together the trio struck creative gold with World War II short Tama Tū, Waititi’s debut feature Eagle vs Shark and box office hit Boy.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Gardiner reveals:

• How great early experiences at Kahukura set her up for her successful career
• The highs and lows of low budget film production on Kombi Nation
• The challenges involved in dealing with TV networks
• Her feelings on the liquidation of Kahukura Productions
• Her thoughts on Taika Waititi’s early scripts, and how their working relationship developed
• Her reaction to their Oscar nomination
• Her strategies in producing Eagle vs Shark
• How the script for Boy was developed
• The challenges involved in casting Boy
• How the Boy soundtrack came about
• Plans for her next feature project, a horror movie

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

Actor, acting teacher, and artist Grant Tilly has played cow cockies, assassins, missionaries, and German villains in funny hats. And that’s not even counting his long-running stage career, which has included a run of classic Kiwi plays, one of which became acclaimed movie Middle Age Spread.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Tilly talks about:

• how people sometimes still recognise him from 60s TV show Joe’s World, and the topics he was told never to mention on early series In View of the Circumstances
• acting in 70s mega production The Governor, and the challenges of competing on screen against his bad haircut
• being allowed to go solo by director John Reid while making two farmers and a dead Dad comedy Carry Me Back, for a memorable scene in which his character finally tells his father what he really thinks of him
• squaring off against Men in Black star Tommy Lee Jones for a fight scene in movie epic Savage Islands
• how his career as an actor, stage designer, and co-founder of Wellington’s Circa Theatre has intersected with the works of writer Roger Hall – including his acclaimed performance as a philandering headmaster in Middle Age Spread
• playing a repressed accountant who becomes obsessively interested in a masseuse in movie Skin Deep
• the challenges of portraying real life people on screen
• the similarities between war and movie-making

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

When people think of Ginette McDonald, they often think of one of New Zild’s most defiant and famed purveyers of Godzone English, Lyn of Tawa. But for McDonald, Lyn is only one part among many. Alongside an acting career which began when she was still a teenager, Ginette McDonald has also worked as a producer, director and presenter.

In this ScreenTalk interview, McDonald talks about:

• how her fascination with television first began, while watching wild geese flying across a TV screen in a Wellington radio store
• making her screen debut as a runaway teenager in drama series Pukemanu, alongside Bruno Lawrence
• acting in London
• the fun of playing “a 38-year-old nymphomaniac housewife from Te Puke” in Kiwi soap Close to Home
• how the infamous Lyn of Tawa was born backstage at a theatre when McDonald was only 16, with help from famed playwrights Bruce Mason and Roger Hall; and how Lyn found success on television
• moving into producing and directing, and having a joint brainwave with director Peter Sharp, while casting kidult hit The Fire-Raiser
• the shock of watching offbeat 60s show Peppermint Twist go down like a lead balloon
• her work on TV series Pioneer Women – playing Hera Ngoungou, a Pākehā brought up Māori, and also directing another episode chronicling sexual health campaigner Ettie Rout
• how she won a Feltex award for playing drama, even though comedy is so much harder

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