NZ+honors+board



back to unit 10314 contributions by filmmakers to New Zealand society. All the producers and Directors on this page have gained awards from the New Zealand Government

Note. listen to the wav file biculturalism on the resources file

ROBIN SCHOLES

http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/robin-scholes

PACIFIC FILMS. Owner: John O'Shea John O'Shea. "Father of New Zealand Cinema" ( left of image) 1960 To start with, no film schools.

The late 1960s and 1970s were Pacific Films’ boom time. The permanent staff grew to 28, many of whom – Gaylene Preston, Michael Seresin, Barry Barclay – were to become important filmmakers both locally and internationally. In the absence of any film schools in New Zealand John O’Shea and Pacific Films filled an important gap. People usually gained a BA in History, English, Law or another of the Arts and then decided to " become a filmmaker".

John O'Shea was one of these. He had just that decade between 1960 and 1970. By the mid 1970s new government directives for “competitive and complementary programming” crippled independent production and Pacific’s staff dwindled to only six. O'Shea would then dedicate years to lobbying for the inception of the New Zealand Film Commission. This the the organisation that invests in film scripts for feature productions.

- John O'Shea champions the need for New Zealanders to tell 'their stories' He returns from the Second World War from the Italian campaign where local cinema flourished. There Italians hear about the life of Sicily and about rural peasants and the drift of poor Sicilians to urban centres. Films during this time were Neo-Realist.( more here http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Neorealism

) eg. de Sica's The Bicycle Thief(1948). ( See RUNAWAY) Here is a well known Italian film from 1948. It may well have been one of OShe's influences. He was in Italy during the War. Italian cinema started fresh after the war with film film that became known as neo-realist. Stories were about "poor people", " ordinary people" not only the people seen in earlier lavish 1930's style films that were " high class" sets. or , pre WWII, "white telephone school" i.e stories in high society settings in the 1930's. ( See more here http://cinewiki.wikispaces.com/White+Telephone+Films)

Look at an investment page link

http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funding/feature-films/production-funding http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/

the modern day New Zealand film industry. Before this you need to read  the opening page of the unit:

unit 10314

1.Pre: read New Zealand MoviesNew Zealand film

Go to

http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/john-oshea

and read DON'T LET IT GET YOU

listen to ideas about society. Watch the trailer on this page about the first Dutch immigrant film to be made here. It tells the stories of three women in the 1950's

http://newmedia-senior.wikispaces.com/NZ+Society

Government Media 2.See: http://newmedia-senior.wikispaces.com/NZ+Film+Studies PACIFIC FILMS middlesenior.wikispaces.com/New+Zealand+in+Context



With the upturn in the New Zealand film industry in the 1980s Pacific Films returned to feature film production, releasing Sons for the Return Home (1979), Pictures(1981), Among the Cinders (1984), Leave all Fair(1985), Ngati (1987) and Te Rua (1991).

“She allowed a platform and a medium and a space for others to be able to tell their stories in their way and in their time as well too. Her ability to attach a story to the telling of those stories though, that’s what set her apart,” Ms Hauiti says.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Producer,director and actor. Merita Meta Documentaries PATU 1981 Bastion Point 1982

news item <span style="font-family: Helvetica,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> 2010. Ms Mita, from Ngati Pikiao and Ngai Te Rangi, died suddenly in Auckland on Monda

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Her body lay in state overnight at the meeting house Tumutumuwhenua on Bastion Point, the scene of her first documentary.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Ngati Whatua kaumatua Joe Hawke told the tangi he believes the presence of Ms Mita's camera on the 507th and last day of the Bastion Point occupation protected the people there from police violence.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Claudette Hauiti, the deputy chair of Maori in film and television Nga Aho Whakaari, says Merata Mita challenged filmmaking conventions in a way which opened the door for other Maori and indigenous people to go through

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Documentaries PATU 1981 Bastion Point 1982

GEOFF MURPHY

listen to Geoff Murphy

**Geoffrey Peter Murphy** [|ONZM] (born 13 October 1938) is a New Zealand filmmaker best known for his work during the renaissance of [|New Zealand cinema] that began in the last half of the 1970s. His second feature // [|Goodbye Pork Pie] // (1981) was the first New Zealand movie to win major commercial success on its own soil.

Murphy directed a string of Hollywood features during the 1990s, before returning to New Zealand as second unit director on // [|The Lord of the Rings] // film trilogy. The versatile Murphy has also been a [|scriptwriter], special effects technician, schoolteacher and trumpet player.

read the class text. BRUNO for details on the trumpet playing.

See and listen to <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 19.5px;">Geoff Murphy : http://screentalk.nzonscreen.com/interviews/geoff-murphy-from-blerta-to-pork-pie-to-hollywood -

<span style="color: #001cff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 22.1px;">John Barnett is the first prolific film producer and telvision producer in New Zealand. See his company South Seas Productions

More

NZ film producers

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">GAYLENE PRESTON Latest Preston fim. Home by Christmas(2009)

Latest TV series Hope and Wire http://www.nzonair.govt.nz/television/showcase/hope-and-wire/

Gaylene Preston has been making feature films and documentaries with a distinctive New Zealand flavour and a strong social message for more than 30 years. In 2001 she was the first filmmaker to be made a Laureate by the Arts Foundation, recognising her contribution to New Zealand film and television. **Gaylene Preston**

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As the world becomes “bristling with electronic media”, Gaylene believes the byte-sized “stories” people are increasingly addicted to work against the age-old need to narrate. “I worry we are losing this very important basic human brain-stem thing – we’re not sitting around sharing great big long stories while we eat and drink and laugh together. Cinema is becoming almost the last bastion of long form storytelling communally shared.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Graeme Tetley <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 1.1em;"> Graeme Tetley was one of New Zealand's most respected scriptwriters. His work ranged from ghost stories (// Mr Wrong //) to impressionist coming of age tales ( //Vigil// ); through real-life tragedies ( //Out of the Blue// ) to domestic comedies (//Ruby and Rata//). Tetley believed that New Zealand's most culturally specific films were "still our most successful". His scripts often explored the complexity and courage of ‘ordinary' - often female - New Zealanders. Graeme Tetley was raised in Havelock North in the Hawke's Bay, where his formative influences included vaudeville, Saturday morning movie sessions and rock'n'roll. While studying english and history at Canterbury University, hey grew increasingly interested in theatre. As an English-teacher, he wrote for a number of school productions, and acted in plays for Court Theatre co-founder Mervyn Thompson. Tetley became curious about film after witnessing it firsthand; after [|Murray Reece] chose him to play the role of Mr Sullivan, father to the main character, in the tele-movie adaptation of the [|Ian Cross] novel //The God Boy// (1976). "The mysterious, complicated, wonderful process that makes a a film grabbed me and scared me", recalled Tetley. "And I wanted more." Tetley's first experience of scriptwriting began with a lucky break, then moved from confusion into excitement. A teaching colleague knew someone who was working on a feature film project. The director had more than a hundred cards, each with a drawing on it. He needed some dialogue. Though not too much. So began the long process of creative exploration which led to the internationally-acclaimed //Vigil// (1984), co-written by Tetley and director Vincent Ward. Towards the end, Tetley was trusted enough to work on the final two drafts alone; he would use cards again to help structure later scripts. Tetley "ran away from teaching" to the farm where //Vigil// was being shot - writers traditionally enter film sets at their own risk - and was even invited to join Ward in the editing suite. In the process, Tetley watched and learned as Ward pursued his belief that "the image is central to film, because a film is a poem before it is story, character or even an idea." Although he loved teaching, it was time for a job change. Next Tetley worked with director Gaylene Preston on the screenplay for Preston's debut feature //Mr Wrong//. It was the start of a writer/director collaboration that continued for many years. Based on a story by another actor-turned-writer (Brit novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard), this tale of woman, ghost and a second hand car was partly an attempt to avoid genre conventions of glamour, sexism and cultural vagueness. //Mr Wrong// won good reviews, and sold to more than 10 countries. Tetley spent much of the 80s working in television, and directing the occasional play for (Lower) Hutt Repertory Theatre. On the television front, he took on a variety of writing roles on // [|Country GP] // (for which Tetley wrote ten episodes), and the ambitious but short-lived // [|Open House] //, an ensemble drama based around an urban community house. He was also a key player in creating //Shark in the Park//, which ran to 37 episodes. The drama series about the working lives of of frontline police officers starred Jeffrey Thomas and [|Russell Smith]. In this period Tetley came up with the idea for a culture-clash comedy about an elderly woman, and the Māori solo mother who moves into part of her house. Gaylene Preston directed it as the feature //Ruby and Rata//, this time from a script by Tetley alone. Reviews were enthusiastic - the //NZ Herald// even suggested crawling across broken glass to see it again; while the //Sunday Star-Times// found it "the sort of film New Zealand should be doing more of; films where the work is put into the characters and what they say". Tetley often found himself adapting other people's stories for the screen. His third collaboration with Preston was one of the most ambitious adaptations yet - // Bread & Roses //, a four part, three-hour adaptation of the life story of peace protester and MP Sonja Davies. Spanning three decades, the script concentrates on the formative influences on Davies' life, ending just as her political career kicks into high gear. Though made for television, //Bread & Roses// won enthusiastic audiences at film festivals in New Zealand and Australia. //The Evening Post// argued that the result "achieves that rare feat of stepping back into the past, yet stay[s] very much alive; it overflows with memorable impressions of our country and our people - especially the women." Tetley's script for high-rating telemovie //Aftershock// (2008) imagines how the events of a major earthquake would effect Wellington. Writing it, stories told by Tetley's mother, a nurse during the 1931 Napier earthquake, stayed in mind. Earlier Tetley had spent eighteen months working on another story which explored how people react in the face of tragic events: // Out of the Blue //, based on the 1990 Aramoana massacre. Tetley and director Robert Sarkies spent roughly ten days staying in a crib close to where killer David Gray had lived, and interviewed policemen, including author Bill O'Brien, and relatives of victims. "Research is everything", said Tetley. He added that he would never want anyone else to research on his behalf - "because then you would miss the tiny little gems that can become scenes and then whole films". As for the ethics of making a film based on real-life tragedy, Tetley argued that filmmakers had a duty to move beyond intrusive news coverage and dramas that used violence to entertain, in order to find greater truths. In 2008 Tetley won an NZ Film and Television Award for co-writing // Out of the Blue // - as he had for his first film //Vigil//, 25 years before. Graeme Tetley died of a heart attack on March 13, 2011. Recently he had been working on a number of projects, including an adaptation of a bestselling historical novel for an American studio. He also provided the script for upcoming TV movie //Cancer Man: The Sir John Scott Story//, based on the case of 70s-era medical fraudster Milan Brych.

**Sources include**

Graeme Tetley

Anonymous, [|'Telling it straight'] (Interview) - //Onfilm//, October 2006.

Anonymous, 'Graeme Tetley - 'Shaping the 'beautiful' script'. Script to Screen Press Release, 5 April 2007

Phoebe Fletcher, 'Graeme Tetley - the storyteller'(Interview) - //The Evening Post//, 18 April 1995 = Richard Taylor (filmmaker) = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Taylor, 2003 A close friend of [|Peter Jackson], he and his company created all of the [|props] , costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epic [|//The Lord of the Rings// film trilogy]. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four [|Academy Awards]. This included two for // [|The Fellowship of the Ring] // in Make Up and Visual Effects, and two for // [|The Return of the King] // in Costume Design and Make Up. Taylor can be seen and heard on all of //The Lord of the Rings// [|DVDs], in behind-the-scenes documentaries and on the audio commentaries on the extended edition DVDs. He also appeared on set to give direction to actors and stunt personnel in several fight scenes. He had a [|cameo appearance] with Peter Jackson and other crew members in the special extended edition of //The Return of the King// as a [|Corsair] pirate. Both Richard Taylor and [|Weta Workshop] appear in the documentary film, // [|Reclaiming the Blade] //, where they discussed the creative and technical process of how movie props (specifically swords) are created at [|Weta Workshop]. Swords created by Weta for films such as // [|The Lord of the Rings] // and // [|The Chronicles of Narnia] // are featured in the film as well. [|[1]][|[2]] [|Weta Workshop] has also worked on // [|The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe] //. Richard Taylor and his crew designed and built all the armor, weapons and special props for the film. The company were also heavily involved in the making of Peter Jackson's interpretation of // [|King Kong] // for which he won his fifth Academy Award, in Visual Effects. Taylor is a graduate of the former [|Wellington Polytechnic]
 * Sir Richard Leslie Taylor**, [|KNZM], is the creator and head of [|New Zealand] [|film] [|prop] and [|special effects] company [|Weta Workshop].

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">AlBol: one New Zealand cinematographer

AlBol, as he is widely referred to in the film business, is renowned for his recent work on //River Queen// and numerous other films stretching back three decades: //Goodbye Pork Pie//,//Heavenly Creatures//, and //Perfect Strangers// to name but a few. He is a member of the New Zealand Film and Television School Trust and enjoys his annual involvement with the about-to-graduate students. He says: 'There’s something about working with students which gives me a fresh view of how we work in the film business. They bring a fresh approach to the work – they aren’t afraid to try things, which is something we should all be open to'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alun_Bollinger

Filmography
Jump to: [|Cinematographer] | [|Camera and Electrical Department] | [|Second Unit Director or Assistant Director] | [|Special Effects] | [|Visual Effects] | [|Director] | [|Self] Hide Cinematographer (27 titles)  2011 ** [|Love Birds] **

2010 ** [|Matariki] **

2010 ** [|Home by Christmas] ** (director of photography)

2005 ** [|Ata Whenua Fiordland on Film] ** (documentary short)

2005 ** [|River Queen] **

2004 ** [|Oyster Farmer] **

2003 ** [|Perfect Strangers] **

1998 ** [|Woundings] **

1996 ** [|The Frighteners] **

1995 ** [|Forgotten Silver] ** (TV movie)

1995 ** [|Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill] ** (documentary)

1995 ** [|War Stories] ** (documentary)

1994 ** [|Heavenly Creatures] **

1991 ** [|The End of the Golden Weather] **

1988 ** [|A Soldier's Tale] **

1987 ** [|The Haunting of Barney Palmer] ** (TV movie)

1986 ** [|For Love Alone] **

1985 ** [|Came a Hot Friday] **

1984 ** [|Vigil] **

1983 ** [|Nearly No Christmas] ** (TV movie)

1982 ** [|Beyond Reasonable Doubt] **

1981 ** [|Goodbye Pork Pie] **

1979 ** [|Middle Age Spread] **

1979 ** [|Sons for the Return Home] **

1978 ** [|A State of Siege] **

1977 ** [|Dagg Day Afternoon] **

1977 ** [|Wild Man] **

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