ScreenTalk

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.

Credits: Direction and Interview – Ian Pryor.  Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse

When not riding the motorcycles he loves, Craig Hall performs in a wide variety of theatrical, film and TV roles. His big screen debut was in the feature film Savage Honeymoon and his first major TV role was playing the sexy but dumb Clint in The Strip. He has also made regular appearances on the TV shows Burying Brian and Outrageous Fortune. Hall has co-starred in large Hollywood film projects King Kong and The World’s Fastest Indian. His other New Zealand film credits include The Ferryman, Eagle vs Shark and Show of Hands.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Hall discusses:

• How stripping in front of a group of pensioners caused a stir on The Strip
• Working with Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian
• Being directed by Peter Jackson in King Kong
• Struggling to like his character Nicky Greegan in Outrageous Fortune
• How he loved being in the mini-series Burying Brian and the craziness of the story
• Anthony McCarten’s storytelling and the challenges of the script for the film Show of Hands
• Still getting excited whenever he gets a role

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Even as a schoolboy, Oliver Driver knew he wanted to be an actor. Since leaving school he has had a varied career in theatre, television and film.

Playing the role of male nurse Mike Galloway in Shortland Street made Driver a famous face in New Zealand, but he has also appeared in other homemade TV shows such as The Strip, Serial Killers, and Letter to Blanchy, and the films Topless Women Talk about Their Lives, Magik and Rose, Black Sheep, and A Death in the Family.

Driver can now be seen every weekday morning on TV3’s Sunrise, and is appearing as the villainous ‘Mr Wilberforce’ in the upcoming feature film Under the Mountain.

In this interview, Driver talks about:

• How he left school and jumped into theatresports
• The love he has for directing theatre, and the creative process involved in getting a script to the stage
• How City Life gave him his first and most memorable TV experience
• Hosting Sunrise and the pressure of live television, and whether or not he “sold out” by taking the job
• Playing the role of Mr Wilberforce in Under the Mountain and how a prosthetic face brought him to tears

This interview is available on YouTube to embed via a Creative Commons Licence.

Credits: Interview, Camera and Editing by Andrew Whiteside

Scriptwriter, playwright and columnist James Griffin has been writing for most of his life. Since becoming a scriptwriter in the 1980s Griffin has written many of New Zealand’s most well known and best loved TV shows as well as the feature film Sione’s Wedding.

In this interview, he discusses

• His love of writing from an early age but his desire to be a TV director
• Getting “side-tracked” in to script editing and learning the mechanics of how a script works
• The popularity of Gloss and blending comedy and drama
• His surprise that the TV drama City Life flopped
• The rollercoaster ride that is Outrageous Fortune and when its run should end
• Criticism of NZ comedy
• What it takes to make a “hit” TV show

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

Credits:  Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Vanessa Alexander wrote stage plays before turning her hand to writing, directing and producing for film and television.  She is best known for her feature film Magik and Rose, for producing innovative children’s drama series Being Eve, and as a director on popular westie TV show Outrageous Fortune.

Alexander tells how extreme persistence paid off early in her screen career when she got to make Magik and Rose, and she discusses her strong working relationship with producer Larry Parr.

She credits Parr with being the first reason she made it into film and television, and says South Pacific Pictures head John Barnett is the second reason.

Alexander discusses why she thinks Barnett gave her a break into producing with Being Eve.  She speculates that this was partly because she was young and female and the series needed that, but says she also puts it down to a story she told at the SPADA conference about her energetic marketing work for Magik and Rose.

She explains that this involved buying all the tickets to a premiere screening herself so that it would appear the film had sold out quickly, and seating family and friends near critics to talk up the film.

Alexander also talks about her directing work on popular TV3 drama series Outrageous Fortune.  She says working on the first episode of the series was extremely stressful because the original idea was so good and expectation was very high.

This interview is available on YouTube for distribution under a Creative Commons license (Non-Commercial, Attribution).

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

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

It is hard to imagine a credit roll for the New Zealand film and television industry without the name John Barnett being high on the titles.

Since the 1970’s John Barnett has been key in bringing a host of uniquely Kiwi stories to local and international screens, from Fred Dagg to Footrot Flats, from Whale Rider to Sione’s Wedding and What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?, from iconic soap Shortland Street to the wildly successful Westie family drama, Outrageous Fortune.

Barnett talks to NZ On Screen’s Clare O’Leary about his 30+ years as a driving force in New Zealand television and film:

• his beginnings in the television and film industry in the seventies, from working on children’s series The Games Affair, and the Endeavour Productions’ documentary series on Janet Frame, Ngaio Marsh and Sylvia Aston-Warner, to managing John Clarke (aka Fred Dagg)
• branching out into feature film production with Dagg Day Afternoon, Middle Aged Spread and Beyond Reasonable Doubt
• on his motivation: making films that “people understand immediately” and telling universal stories (Whale Rider, Sione’s Wedding)
• being involved in lobbying for the formation of the New Zealand Film Commission.
• heading South Pacific Pictures, New Zealand’s largest film and television production company and developing programmes (Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune) that “reflect the way we [New Zealanders] see ourselves.”
• on his favourite production: “They’re all my children … I love everything we’ve made … we have a kind of mantra here [at SPP] : we’re not going to get involved unless we love it … I like stories in which people challenge the system and win: beating the odds is something that everybody understands.”

For more clips and background information, and profiles of cast and crew from the film and television titles produced by Barnett and South Pacific Pictures, see NZ On Screen.

This interview is available for download and distribution on YouTube as Part 1 and Part 2.

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

Actor Rena Owen came to international fame through her role as matriarch Beth Heke in the hard-hitting feature film, Once Were Warriors, based on the Alan Duff novel about a Māori family struggling with domestic violence, gang culture and urban alienation.

She is currently living and working in Los Angeles and and is developing an adaptation of the novel, Behind the Tattooed Face by Heretaunga Pat Baker. Behind the Tattooed Face was the first novel written by a Māori about pre-European Māori. Owen hopes to return to NZ to film it once the financing is in place.

Owen was back in New Zealand recently to work on Vincent Ward’s Rain of the Children and Fiona Samuel’s upcoming TV drama, Piece of My Heart.

In this interview she talks with Clare O’Leary about:

• her beginnings in theatre as an actor and playwright;
• her many television drama roles and how she got her break on the landmark drama series, E Tipu E Rea;
• her role as Beth in Warriors;
• making a living as a Kiwi actor overseas;
• working on New Zealand stories (Behind the Tattooed Face, Piece of My Heart);
• the significance of working with Māori creative teams and crew.

Find out more about Rena Owen on NZ On Screen.

This interview is available to download and distribute in two parts (Part One and Part Two) on YouTube.

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