Screentalk

Bruce Morrison's career as a producer, director and writer has brought some memorable New Zealand stories to the screen. He has been involved in a number of arts shows such as Kaleidoscope and Profiles, as well as poetry documentaries The Roaring 40's Tour and The Road to Jerusalem. Morrison directed the feature films Constance, Shaker Run and Queen City Rocker, and was a long-time director on Gary McCormick's iconic Heartland documentary series.

In this ScreenTalk, Morrison talks about: 

• Getting funding for his Profiles series of art documentaries
• How a collection of old liquor bottles lead to the film Constance
• Learning to direct action films from the car chase scenes on Shaker Run
• Making Queen City Rocker a musical film without ‘breaking into song’
• Having an initially low opinion of Raglan by the Sea
• Creating a fake living room for McCormick Country
• How the show Heartland gave rural life a voice
• Bringing poetry and imagery together in The Roaring 40's Tour
• His favourite moment in The Roaring 40's documentary
• How being appalled by settler history lead to Bastion Point — An Untold Story

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

Fiona Samuel has found success as an actor, writer and director. Her first acting job was in long-running soap Close to Home, and she followed that with appearances in a number of film and TV shows. Samuel’s greatest passion, however, is for writing and directing. She was the creative force behind The Marching Girls, and has written scripts for shows such as Outrageous Fortune, The Almighty Johnsons and Rude Awakenings. Samuel also wrote and directed award-winning one-off dramas Piece of My Heart, and Bliss: The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield. In this ScreenTalk, Samuel talks about:

• Being too theatrical on the set of Close to Home
• Creating the concept for The Marching Girls
• Discovering her scriptwriting skills needed an overhaul
• Adding a prostitute to the original story in Home Movie
• How a surprising statistic led her to create the documentary Virginity
• Taking 10 years to get Piece of My Heart funded
• The reasons she picked the main actresses
• Bringing a fresh but authentic feel to Bliss
• Wishing she’d had even more opportunities in her career

Nick Ward is a prolific and award-winning screenwriter. He attracted notice with the hit feature film Stickmen, a Wellington lads-on-the-make tale that potted him the best script gong in the 2001 New Zealand Film and TV Awards. He originated, and then co-wrote, popular recycling relationship comedy Second-Hand Wedding (2008); and wrote the original script for Love Birds (2011). His TV screenwriting credits include Outrageous Fortune, Burying Brian, Nothing Trivial and The Cult. Ward has also worked in front of the camera, co-presenting The Big Art Trip with Douglas Lloyd Jenkins. In this ScreenTalk, Ward talks about:

• How he plagiarised his own life in writing Stickmen
• Creating a fake bar for the film that everyone seemed to know
• Acting a ‘hurtful’ sex scene with Luanne Gordon
• Driving Douglas Lloyd Jenkins up the wall in The Big Art Trip
• Basing the script of Second-Hand Wedding on his own family
• How all of the second-hand props in the movie belonged to his Mum
• Resisting pressure to change the film
• Bringing his obsession for pub quizzes into the scripts of Nothing Trivial
• Realising he is still learning the craft after 10 years writing

Judy Callingham has had a long and varied television career as a reporter, presenter, and writer. She first appeared on our screens as a continuity announcer, but then moved on to reporting on the 1960s regional programme Town and Around. Callingham then developed her skills as a television drama writer on shows such as Close to Home, Gloss, Shark in the Park and Shortland Street. In this ScreenTalk interview, Callingham talks about:

• How a friendly rivalry with a co-reporter on Town and Around forced her to confront a fear of heights
• Loving being a show runner on Close to Home
• How the show led to complaints that it didn’t represent real New Zealanders
• Why writing for Gloss made her a better person to live with
• That the superb cast of the show made the scripts better
• Basing the lead character of her TV play Casualties of Peace on her father
• The ‘organic’ process of writing the scripts for The Billy T James Show
• Doing a writing experiment while creating scene breakdowns for Shortland Street
• Admitting she became a writer because she was appalling at being an actress

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

Playwright and screenwriter Roger Hall has made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s television landscape. Two of his highly successful stage comedies became TV hits - Gliding On and Neighbourhood Watch. Hall wrote three one-off TV plays for the Spotlight series:The Bach, The Reward, and Some People Get All the Luck. As well as his own creations, Hall has also written for Pukemanu and Spin Doctors. In this ScreenTalk interview, Hall talks about:

• Rolling on the floor laughing while writing for the sitcom Buck House
• Why he took his name off the credits in series two
• How mega-hit Gliding On was initially rejected by TVNZ and why the show became so popular
• The genesis of Middle Age Spread and the complexity of the story
• The joy of writing for the very topical and fast turn-around satire Spin Doctors
• Trying to bribe his way out of a visit to Uganda in Intrepid Journeys
• Getting dumped in the Nile on a rafting trip

Aussie import Gavin Strawhan is a screen writer who has had a hand in many of our recent TV drama successes. After assisting with the set up of Shortland Street, Strawhan then teamed with writing colleague Rachel Lang to create the drama series Jackson's Wharf, Mercy Peak, Lawless, and This is Not My Life. Strawhan has worked on Burying Brian, Go Girls, and Outrageous Fortune; and co-created the kidult drama Being Eve. He also helped develop a number of feature films such as Crooked Earth, Whale Rider, and Jubilee, and in 2010 wrote the screenplay for Matariki. In this ScreenTalk interview, Strawhan talks about:

• The difficulty in finding experienced writers at the beginning of Shortland Street
• How bringing on writer Rachel Lang made a huge difference to the soap
• How Shortland Street brought real kiwi accents and characters to the small screen
• Realising the impact writers have on a show while writing for Lawless
• Go Girls being a show about kindness and optimism
• How This is Not My Life was partly a critique of capitalism
• How the finished version of Matariki was a lot more serious than the script he worked on
• How a director’s vision differs from a writer’s vision
• Why being a writer involves ‘fraud’

David Fane failed comedy at drama school. But since leaving Toi Whakaari, Fane has delighted audiences with his comic performances in Skitz, The Semisis, Tongan Ninja, bro’Town, Sione's Wedding, Outrageous Fortune, Eagle vs Shark and Radiradirah. Fane has also appeared in the drama series The Market and The Strip, and the feature film The Tattooist. In this ScreenTalk interview, Fane discusses:

• His feelings about Toi Whakaari
• How he landed his first TV role on Skitz
• What it was like acting with his mates on The Semisis
• How his character’s name came about in Tongan Ninja
• Behind-the-scenes observations from The Strip
• How bro’Town began, and the important messages behind some of the silliness
• The joys of playing Falani in Outrageous Fortune
• Hilarious behind-the-scenes details from Eagle vs Shark
• How performances were worked up in Radiradirah
• An insight into upcoming feature film Love Birds

Actor and writer Tim Balme has played an integral part in the NZ film and television scene for longer than he chooses to remember, having portrayed good guys, bad guys, the guy next door, creepy guys, dopey guys, lovable guys, clever guys and almost every other guy in between. Lately, Balme has diversified his portfolio and is currently Head of Development at South Pacific Pictures. In this ScreenTalk interview, Balme reveals:

• His early theatre aspirations - still never realised
• What it was like amongst the gore on the set of Braindead
• His thoughts on playing Jack Brown Genius in the feature film
• One of the defining and more risque moments from feature film Via Satellite
• His take on NZ cinema audiences
• How he became a writer on Outrageous Fortune
• Thoughts on the successful formula behind Outrageous Fortune
• Scoring an acting role in the new South Pacific Pictures series The Almighty Johnsons

Janice Finn is a television writer/producer who has also spent time in front of the camera. Her acting roles have included parts in Close to Home, and The Strip. Finn produced the high camp 80s soap Gloss and 90s drama Marlin Bay, and has written extensively for Shortland Street. She has also produced reality series such as Changing Rooms for Touchdown Productions. Lately Finn has been producing documentaries for Natural History New Zealand. In this ScreenTalk interview, Finn talks about:

• Playing ‘mad Jane’ in the first season of Close to Home
• How the show was made as though live, and any mistakes led to an entire re-shoot
• How her love of fashion and humour lead to the creation of Gloss
• Story-lining the entire series on a huge piece of paper with James Griffin
• Being shocked by male media commentators hatred of Gloss
• Making reality TV with Julie Christie of Touchdown Productions
• How making Changing Rooms was a complete shambles
• Having fun playing a loony character on The Strip, despite being very self-conscious

Ian Mune is a multi-talented and award-winning veteran of the New Zealand film and TV industry. He has been involved in a huge range of projects as an actor (Pukemanu, Moynihan, Erebus: The Aftermath, Fallout); writer (Sleeping Dogs, Gloss, Goodbye Pork Pie) and director (The End of the Golden Weather, Came a Hot Friday, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted). Three of the five films Mune has directed have won awards for New Zealand film of the year. In this ScreenTalk interview, Mune talks about:

• Why Pukemanu changed New Zealand television drama
• How Sleeping Dogs only got made because of Roger Donaldson’s determination
• American actor Warren Oates sneaking a script into shot in the film
• Tackling the script for Geoff Murphy’s Goodbye Pork Pie
• How the film led to car thefts up and down the country
• The joy of directing his first feature Came a Hot Friday
• How designer Ron Highfield took advantage of Mune’s colour blindness
• Disappointing audience expectations in directing What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
• Finding it ‘hell on wheels’ when others direct his scripts
• Suspecting that Came a Hot Friday will be seen as his best film
• Still wanting to have fun in the film industry after a long and distinguished career