Screentalk

Suzanne Paul made a splash on our TV screens as the Queen of Infomercials in the 1980s. She soon had her own TV show called Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, followed by a range of other popular primetime programmes. Despite breaking a rib in the final episode, Paul won the third season of Dancing with the Stars.

In this ScreenTalk, Paul talks about: 

• Transferring her selling skills from malls to infomercials
• Learning to accept having the mickey taken out of her
• Creating the concept for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
• Running out of celebrities for the show
• Finding out the title of Garage Sale was not literal
• Getting a role on How’s Life? despite being flippant
• How her episode of Intrepid Journeys changed her life
• Believing she was the comic relief on Dancing with the Stars
• Breaking a rib on live television but carrying on with the show
• How a bottle of port lead to the creation of the novelty song and music video The Blue Monkey

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

Ngila Dickson is an Academy Award-winning costume designer who has been involved in some of our biggest film and TV projects. Her first film experience was on User Friendly and since then she has designed for Jack Be Nimble, Heavenly Creatures, Crush and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, she made a name for herself designing costumes for Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Dickson has also worked on a range of international movies.

In this ScreenTalk, Dickson talks about: 

• Creating costumes for acclaimed period piece Heavenly Creatures
• Learning a life lesson from Peter Jackson on the film
• How Xena: Warrior Princess provided her greatest learning curve ever
• Avoiding an obsession with Tolkien on the Lord of the Rings trilogy
• Creating specific design features for each of the story elements
• How winning an Oscar for Lord of the Rings has given her traction in the American film industry
• Trying to achieve perfection on the set of The Last Samurai
• Learning the limits of CGI technology on movie Green Lantern
• The frustration of working on a lot of films that never get made

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

Simon Bennett's extensive CV includes producing and directing episodes of long-running successes Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune. He has also spent time in executive roles at South Pacific Pictures, the production house behind these shows, and directed SPP feature film Sione's 2: Unfinished Business.

In this ScreenTalk, Bennett talks about:

• Having to clean up horse manure for his first TV directing job on Riding High
• Learning to direct fast-turnaround TV drama on Shortland Street
• Being told off by the actors when directing Mercy Peak
• Taking up the reigns as Head of Drama at South Pacific Pictures
• How fantastic writing and acting made Outrageous Fortune a hit
• The unlikely premise of The Almighty Johnsons
• The challenges of making a sequel to a successful film, with Sione's 2: Unfinished Business
• Being intrigued by the scripts of The Blue Rose
• Enjoying the fast-paced nature of the show

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

Award-winning actor Jennifer Ludlam has played a range of strong female characters in TV shows such as Cover Story, Gloss, and Undercover. She spent time in Australia appearing in a number of dramas including Prisoner and Sons and Daughters. Returning to New Zealand, Ludlam starred in Sima Urale’s feature film Apron Strings. She is currently appearing in TV thriller The Blue Rose.

In this ScreenTalk, Ludlam talks about:

• Playing a country girl in a city pub in A Going Concern
• Lying about her horse riding ability for a role in Radio Waves
• Having trouble singing and dancing in Gather Your Dreams
• Forgetting all about one of her roles in Shark in the Park
• Loving the camaraderie on the set of Prisoner
• Playing a 'toughie' on Sons and Daughters
• Being an embarrassment to Ilona Rodgers in Gloss
• Being cast as a strong and forthright woman in Cover Story
• Enjoying playing a homophobic mother in Shortland Street
• Feeling nervous in her first scene in Apron Strings
• Giving up a theatre tour for a role in The Blue Rose
• Her one last ambition in TV

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

Stu Dennison was a much-loved TV presenter in the 1970s who introduced the ‘naughty schoolboy’ and thumbs up to a generation of Kiwi kids on the show Nice One Stu. He went on to host a range of TV shows, often as sidekick to popular TV host Roger Gascoigne. After Dennison ended his on-air career, he re-invented himself as a sports producer at TVNZ. In this ScreenTalk, Dennison talks about:

• Being the ‘everyman’ on Ready to Roll
• Creating the outrageous persona on Nice One Stu
• Becoming famous by being controversial
• How a spontaneous ‘thumbs up’ became his signature gesture
• Winding up the prim and proper Roger Gascoigne on Top Town
• Getting a pie in the face on Telethon
• Enjoying the mix of live entertainment and skits on How’s That
• Moving from presenting to editing and producing sports
• Carrying the torch at the Beijing Olympics

Roger Gascoigne was at one stage the most famous man on New Zealand television. He began his TV career as a continuity announcer and introduced his infamous wink to the nation. He went on to present a huge range of TV shows in the 70s and 80s including Ready to Roll, Top Town and several Telethons. During the 80s he made the transition to news presenting on regional show Today Tonight. In this ScreenTalk, Gascoigne talks about:

• Becoming the face of television
• How ‘the wink’ became an institution
• Getting excited about music videos in the early days of Ready to Roll
• Revamping the midnight to dawn slot on Telethon
• Ruining a valuable piece of equipment on Top Town
• Fearing for his life while being mobbed on the show
• Changing the focus of his career by hosting Today Tonight
• Acting a role similar to his real persona in Peppermint Twist
• How the arrival of Holmes led to him leaving television

Long-time television and radio host Mark Leishman began his TV career as a continuity announcer, and then moved on to the regional news show Today Tonight. Over the years, Leishman has appeared on a number of hit shows including Top Town, That’s Fairly Interesting and Tux Wonderdogs. As well as presenting, he has also directed documentaries such as A Friend For Life and Kohi: A Guide For Life. In this ScreenTalk, Leishman talks about:

• Getting a chance to read the news and create stories on Today Tonight
• Taking over the reins on Top Town
• How budgets and health and safety regulations weren’t an issue
• A future All Black becoming ultra competitive
• Joining a youthful Phil Keoghan hosting That’s Fairly Interesting
• Missing out on some great footage when directing the Peter Blake Bi-Centennial Race Around Australia
• Making Tux Wonderdogs a hit
• Jim Mora’s scripts and voice bringing personality to the show
• Creating a series of documentaries on guide dogs
• Pitting celebrities against a young genius on The Great NZ Spelling Bee
• Feeling fortunate to have had a good long run on TV

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

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

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