AUG.2016
CREWED
Poi E
Tearapa Kahi on learning
A Flickering Truth
Pietra Brettkelly in Afghanistan CREWED | 1
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The director of another film fresh from the NZIFF and also dealing with archival material, Pietra Brettkelly, talks about shooting A Flickering Truth in the rather harsher conditions of Afghanistan. In Wellington the council has given its support to the Movie Museum, which will sit across the street from Te Papa. Auckland welcomes another significant inbound production, Meg, currently crewing up while the council is currently not advancing towards a new studio facility. In Christchurch we welcome Glen Walker, who gets to visit the South Island’s biggest studio set-up, Whitebait Media. In a few more days Spring will be on the calendar and – fingers crossed – also in the air. The arrival of a new season sees a fuller calendar of industry events – the Game Developers Conference, Big Screen Symposium, SWANZ Awards and Screenies Festival will all come and go in the next few weeks. We look forward to bringing you coverage of some of them in the next couple of issues. Until then, enjoy this one.
AUG.2016 VOL.01, no. 06
This year’s edition of the NZIFF has pretty much done its dash through the major centres. Festival opener Poi E has begun its general release, quickly becoming one of our most popular theatrical documentaries of recent years. Tony Forster caught up with director Tearepa Kahi on the journey of learning that’s brought the film to our screens.
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Much of August has been about the celebration of achievements, many of those in competition in Rio. As the Olympics close and thousands of viewers forget where Prime is on the remote, we’ve just seen the end of this year’s season of Westside and a perhaps less than sporting victory over visiting Springboks in 1981 and the beginning of the story of one of the the country’s quieter achievers, Sir Edmund Hillary.
CREWED is the techo-focused publication from the publishers of SCREENZ CREWED publishes 10 times a year, monthly from February to November. Editor & Publisher: Keith Barclay editor@crewed.co.nz 021 400 102 Publisher & Advertising: Kelly Lucas kelly@screenz.co.nz 021 996 529 Subscribe at www.screenz.co.nz/newsletters www.crewed.co.nz/newsletters Keep up with us on Twitter twitter.com/screenznz twitter.com/crewedNZ on Facebook facebook.com/screenz.co.nz facebook.com/crewed.co.nz Copyright in all CREWED content lies with the author. Content may not be reproduced without prior permission.
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THIS MONTH
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Contributors
A Flickering Truth Pietra Brettkelly
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06
What Now? Whitebait
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Editorial Publisher Info
Say What? David Jacobs
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Poi E: Tearepa Kahi on learning
The Business of Making Music
CONTRIBUTORS Glen Walker Shelving his career in libraries, Glen is now working at screenwriting and enjoying meeting people working in New Zealand’s creative sectors. librarianz@gmail.com
Ande Schurr Ande has been location sound recording for ten years. He’s worked on 15 feature films including Taika Waititi’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople and many TV series including The Moe Show. He is passionate about helping people grow in their business, personal development and he writes articles for freelancers. www.schurrsound.com Tony Forster
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Tony has worked in theatre and screen production for some decades as a director, first assistant director, script consultant, actor, tutor and writer/editor. He recently created and directed his first feature-length documentary, An Accidental Berliner.
say what? DAVID JACOBS
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David Jacobs is the founder of The Outlook for Someday, which celebrates its 10th edition this year. What’s the background to The Outlook for Someday? I came to live in New Zealand in 1992 and the following year the Connected Media Trust was founded. Initially the Trust distributed an international range of films on sustainability issues, which came from Television Trust for the Environment, who I used to work for in the UK. Alongside Connected Media there was also a production and programming company called Small World. We provided programming for Telecom (now Spark) which was then exploring opportunities for cable TV here, and we made documentaries for television including Rubber Gloves or Green Fingers which was commissioned by TVNZ and funded by NZ On Air. That documentary was about the opportunity of New Zealand embracing organic agriculture. Unfortunately it found itself in controversy. We had to run a campaign to overcome TVNZ’s refusal to broadcast it. Following its eventual screening in 1997 there was a complaint to the BSA by Agcarm,
which represents the agricultural chemicals industry. Although the complaint wasn’t upheld it became clear to me that I wasn’t going to get any more documentaries commissioned. And with Telecom also withdrawing from the idea of cable TV, Small World had to fold. It was a difficult time and my confidence as a film-maker took a hit. But for some reason – I didn’t know what it was at the time – I felt it was important to keep Connected Media Trust going. I did some film teaching at Whitecliffe College. Supporting young people and their filmmaking reignited my energy for using film to tell sustainability stories. My confidence returned and I decided that the trust was the right vehicle for the kind of work I do. Connected Media made three documentaries for TVNZ and BBC World in 2005 under the umbrella title The Middle-earth Connection (Caring For The Woods, Growing Things, Changing The Future). The programmes connected The Lord Of The Rings with some of the environmental challenges facing ‘the home of Middle-earth’.
Someday Ambassadors with Andrew Adamson - The Someday Awards 2013
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Tomairangi Harvey and other New Zealanders from JWFF with deputy ambassador Peter Kell at the NZ Embassy in Tokyo
For Changing The Future I had interviewed Morgan Williams, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE). In 2006 he approached me to develop a film project to coincide with the 2007 celebrations to celebrate 20 years of the PCE.
“sustainability” broadly. As well as environmental issues it encompasses social justice, citizenship, human rights, health, peace, and cultural issues. We encourage young people to tell us with their films what the word means to them.
The PCE gave us some development support, which is always a good way to help a project get going! At first I wasn’t sure what I was developing but at some point I realised that I wanted to create something that would have an ongoing life promoting sustainability film-making - rather than something one-off that would quickly become archival material.
We’ve received a lot of films about bullying over the years and we’re pleased to have The Lowdown Award in the film challenge, sponsored by the Health Promotion Agency. It’s for a film that focuses on social inclusion and mental wellbeing as a sustainability issue for young people.
Through Connected Media I had been advancing the idea of a media empowerment project for young people. Late one Saturday night the idea took off in my head. I rang Morgan on Monday and proposed to him the idea of an annual film challenge. And he went for it. So in 2007 we launched The Outlook for Someday sustainability film challenge for young people. What were the aims? The vision has always been to encourage and support storytelling about sustainability in ways that are as inclusive as possible. We interpret 8 | CREWED
And at the core of sustainability is our relationship with the natural world that we are part of, so we’re also pleased to have the Big Picture Award sponsored by DOC. The project began in 20007 as a film challenge, which we now call the Someday Challenge - make a short film on any camera you like, any genre you like, any length up to 5 minutes. Then in 2011 we began the workshop series as another way we can support young people to use film to tell sustainability stories. The Someday Workshops are standalone events. We want young people to get value from them
whether or not they go on to make a film for the film challenge. Likewise you don’t have to attend a workshop in order to enter the film challenge. But we do of course promote the film challenge in the workshops and we know that leads to a lot of entries. We began with a trial series of 8 one-day workshops in 2011. Last year there were 32 workshops throughout New Zealand. This year we’ve expanded even further to 42 workshops. They include six two-day marae-based workshops for rangatahi and tamariki Māori, supported by Te Māngai Pāho. We’ve also this year launched a trial series of two workshops for Pasifika young people. Over 1000 yºung people now participate in the workshops and the film challenge each year. Last year there were 1022 participants and 156 films entered into the film challenge. That took the total number of entries over 9 years to 1038. We’re proud of those numbers and also of the levels of participation by young women and young Māori. Last year 57% of the participants in the project were young women. We haven’t set up the project
particularly to support young women film-makers but it is doing that in practice. I like to think we’re helping to foster a growth of young women in the film industry in authorial roles like writing and directing. With the workshops and the film challenge we have developed a talent development pathway for young film-makers. The final step in the pathway is an initiative called Someday Stories. The idea is that we will support proven young film-makers to go further into the sustainability theme with longer films – and with production budgets. We’re proposing a series of six 8-12 minute films for online release and international festivals. The opportunity will be open to any young filmmaker or team between the ages of 18 and 28. Once commissioned they’ll be teamed up with a production mentor from the film industry for guidance and support as they make their film. We thought long and hard about whether the opportunity should only be available to young people who had made winning films in the Someday Challenge. But we decided to maintain
Bob Harvey, Karen Soich, David Jacobs, Larry Parr - The Outlook for Someday Launch 2007
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The Body Shop's Barrie Thomas (left) and David Jacobs with 2012 TOFS winner Natasha Bishop
the principle of inclusion. Just as you don’t have to attend a workshop to enter the film challenge you can pitch to make a Someday Story without having previously participated in The Outlook for Someday project. You just have to be a proven young filmmaker with a track record, a great idea and the ability to turn it into a great film. I’ve been talking about Someday Stories for a few years now and, funding permitting, we plan to launch the initiative before the end 2016. It would be great to have got to that point in the 10th year of the project. What’s been key to keeping The Outlook for Someday going and growing over the last decade? It’s always money! We’ve had tremendous support from partners and supporters over the years. But so much effort still has to go into fundraising. I know we’re not the only people who have this challenge but I’d dearly love to have more space to develop the project without the relentless need to raise money to keep it going. The Body Shop has supported the trust since The Middle-earth Connection, and they’ve saved our
bacon more than once. But so have the young people who’ve made some brilliant films for the film challenge. They have also kept the project going with their creativity. 2009 was a really difficult year for the project. We had actually told people that it was going to be the last year. But we stuck it out and that year we got a really great film entered into the film challenge called The Break Up by Charlee Collins, a final-year student at Kaitaia College. The Judging Team wanted to give it some special recognition but up until then we had resisted the idea of ranking the 20 winning films in the film challenge. They said “why don’t you call it the standout winner?” And so the idea of the Standout Winner was born, to which The Body Shop now has naming rights. Charlee’s film was the first one we submitted to an international festival. We entered it for the biennial Panda Awards, which is the gold standard of environment and conservation film festivals. It didn’t win but it did get a special mention from the judges, and that was the start of something new for the project. CREWED | 11
We’ve carried on entering winning films into overseas festivals, with a couple of big successes. And now it’s part of the prize package – we make a commitment each year to enter every winning film into at least one international film festival the following year. Of the 20 winning films from 2015, 11 have been selected for international film festivals this year – more than ever before.
Having launched The Outlook for Someday at Māori Television back in 2007 it’s great to be back in partnership with them. They are showcasing the winning films by rangatahi and tamariki Māori at Māori Television On Demand. They’ve started with five films from 2015 and also Te Ao o te Tuturuatu, which was made by 11 year-old Tōmairangi Harvey in 2014.
What have been some of the key achievements for The Outlook for Someday over the last decade? Our achievements are really the achievements of the films and film-makers we’ve been able to encourage and support.
Two years after Natasha Bishop’s film won in Japan Te Ao o te Tuturuatu also won an award at JWFF in 2015. So Tōmairangi broke Natasha’s record of being the youngest filmmaker ever to have a film selected by the festival.
In 2013 we entered the 2012 Standout Winner Natasha Bishop’s Arboraceous into the Japan Wildlife Film Festival (JWFF), where it won two awards. Natasha made the film when she was 16 and was the youngest filmmaker ever to have a film selected by the festival.
Young viewers are now increasingly watching their screen content via online video. More of them now stream online video each day than watch linear TV .So it works well for them that all of the winning films in the film challenge are hosted on Vimeo and available through The Outlook for Someday website.
I guess another thing we’ve achieved so far is navigating the changes in television and digital media. Anyone who makes films does it so that people can see them, and it’s been important for us to respond to changes in platforms so that young film-makers can tell their stories to large audiences. When the project began there was government support for two digital channels, TVNZ6 and TVNZ7. The winning films were screened initially on TVNZ6. When that channel came to an end the project began its partnership with TVNZ7. But then TVNZ7 also came to an end. So now we have relationships with programmes as much as with channels. We’ve had a long relationship with What Now (which has naming rights for the Primary/Intermediate School Filmmakers Award in the film challenge) and we’ve also maintained a relationship with TV2’s weekday afternoon shows – from The Erin Simpson Show through The 4.30 Show to The Adam & Eve Show. And we also now have partnerships with a number of key digital platforms, including The Wireless, Māori Television On Demand and The Coconet. 12 | CREWED
We’ve also evolved The Someday Awards ceremony. For the first four years of the project TVNZ hosted the ceremony. But when TVNZ7 finished we needed to find a new venue. Thanks to the support of Auckland Council and Auckland Live, we’ve had The Someday Awards at the Aotea Centre since 2011. It’s become its home. And we’ve been able to attract some high-profile industry members to participate in the ceremony. In 2013 Andrew Adamson was our special guest and presented prizes to winning film-makers. He also did a Q+A session with the winners before the ceremony started. The following year The Dark Horse’s James Napier Robertson and Tom Hern did the same. And last year, in keeping with the talent development pathway we’ve been building, the NZFC’s Head of Talent Development, Dale Corbett, had a session with the winning film-makers. *** This year’s Someday Challenge is open to filmmakers aged 24 and under. The Entry Deadline is 9 September.
A Flickering Truth PIETRA BRETTKELLY IN AFGHANISTAN
A Flickering Truth had its world premiere in Venice and then went to Toronto – only the third time a NZ film has been selected for both festivals. As it goes on general release here director Pietra Brettkelly talks about the journey. How did you come to the story? It was a hot day in May more than three years ago in Kabul and I was interested in finding out what had happened to Afghan filmmakers – people like me – during these decades of conflict. There was talk of a slightly mythical place where the films of Afghanistan were stored away but no one really knew what was there. So I decided to investigate. 14 | CREWED
I walked miles through Kabul, and was stopped often by security police to check my passport. I noticed there were a lot of helicopters in the air and soldiers on the ground that day, I felt a lot of tension, more than usual. I wondered if a suicide bomb had gone off that morning. The police kept telling me I couldn’t go into this high security area but I persevered and pushed through, sweating under my heavy layers of clothing, only my face showing. Eventually I made it to the front gates of Afghan Film, the country’s archive collection. Initially I was turned away by the gun-toting security guards, but I pulled out the line, “I’ve come all the way from New Zealand to see your films”.
Finally someone came out and said okay, come and meet our new director employed to try and transform the archive and save the films.
the Film Commission and other organisations, including Doc Pitch, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and Sundance Institute.
Ibrahim Arify agreed to me making a film on the rediscovery of what was in these sheds: the films that had survived the wars, the Taliban, the harsh conditions of Afghanistan. He said, “Let’s discover them together.”
I also became a jewellery seller – I held 13 jewellery parties of the most exquisite Afghan jewellery designed and made in Kabul through a wonderful initiative that insisted that 50% of the students and workers must be female.
In the past you’ve spoken about the challenge of getting documentaries funded. Is it getting harder or easier to secure funding? It’s a privilege to have the career I have, to love every day and be following my passion, the stories that interest me, to remote locations and people. So nothing stops me from that – but yes its becoming more difficult. A Flickering Truth is my fifth documentary, so my reputation helps investors, funders and philanthropists feel confident I will deliver.
Were you ever in danger making A Flickering Truth? I don’t go into situations like that, conflict zones, without knowing we will sometimes be in danger – some instances that we know of, but Afghanistan is an unpredictable place.
For A Flickering Truth, I appealed to family and friends who believed in this story, as well as to traditional funders. The film received support from
When I had edited the film to near completion I returned to Kabul to show everyone at the Archive the film so they can understand what I’d been doing the past two and a half years. One night I was back at the house I was staying in, and there was a loud explosion. The house shook and then there was silence all around, like everyone and everything was holding its breath.
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One of my flatmates was running through the house turning off all the lights. He said I should come downstairs for safety. And then the fighting began and continued around our neighbourhood for the next five hours. We followed it on twitter as journalists were gathering information. After an hour I decided to return to my room, put my passport in my back pocket along with a wad of cash. I emailed Jake Bryant, my director of photography who was back in New Zealand about what was happening and my escape plan if anything was to happen – I knew he would
understand and wouldn’t get alarmed by my email. Then I lay in bed, fully-clothed, ready to run, with my head torch on reading my childhood friend Helena Wisniewska-Brow’s book Give Us This Day. Somehow the stories of home calmed me and made me feel connected to another place. What did you learn making the film? I’m not afraid of dying - I’m afraid of the pain it might inflict on family and friends. At one stage during filming our car had broken down in Taliban country and we were stuck for hours. Our driver told me to put on my burqa and stay in the car. Jake Bryant, the director of photography was dressed like a local so he didn’t stand out. If it had become known that there were foreigners in the car, it might have been a different outcome. When did you know you wanted to be a documentary maker? I grew up in a family of storytellers, in the
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Eastern Bay of Plenty where earthquakes would sometimes shut off the electricity. We would tell stories by candlelight and I recall seeing pictures in my mind, visualizing those stories. Being a documentary filmmaker I’m still visualising other people’s stories. I truly believe stories must be captured and held for our time and the future. And my thirst to tell those stories hasn’t dissipated over my career. There is a Persian poet Rumi, thought to have been born in Afghanistan in the 13th century, who wrote, “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” I love that I continue to be bewildered and fascinated by the world. Is there something you hope audiences take away from A Flickering Truth? In the Afghan people I found the most resilient, welcoming people who for the first time in my
career, never judged me over my right to tell this story – as a woman or a foreigner. I hope audiences see the openness and trust that was gifted to me and director of photography Jake Bryant and the power of the story we were able to tell, one of a people just like us but caught in decades of conflict, a people who cherish their culture and history and the films that have captured that culture. *** Pietra Brettkelly’s A Flickering Truth releases Thursday 25 August. For trivia fans, the other two NZ titles selected for both the Venice Biennale and Toronto International Film Festival were both made by Peter Jackson: Forgotten Silver and Heavenly Creatures.
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Poi E
TEAREPA KAHI ON LEARNING
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There is no escaping the warmth and charm that exudes from Tearepa Kahi the instant he enters a room, even one as spacious and, dare I say, soulless as the cafeteria where we met to converse. That charm, that beaming smile, have been there ever since I first met him at the turn of the millennium when he was cast along with his partner, now wife, Reikura, as the sub-plot lovers Roreneto and Tiehika (Lorenzo and Jessica) in Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Weniti (The Maori Merchant of Venice). The film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play was shot over the summer of 2000–2001, the firstever feature film made totally in te reo Maori. Tearepa was one of many young Maori who were inspired and mentored by director and producer Don Selwyn, known as “The Don”, the godfather of Maori film-making through the 1980s and ‘90s.
Photo credit: Kirsty Griffin
Although at the end of our conversation Tearepa offers to provide some “tech specs” if we’re interested, it’s been patently clear throughout that he has no great interest in discussing these. His focus is on the importance and joys of
storytelling, of bringing the essence of the story to the fore. It’s equally clear that Tearepa knows his visual craft, and how to use it to enhance his storytelling. For example, it was important to him to show the community within which various aspects of the story are set – and so he insisted on holding the camera back a little from the people he was talking with, avoiding the conventional MCU and close-up in favour of a wider lens, letting people pass in and out of the frame, going about their ordinary lives, to reveal the interviewees as part of their community and not as isolated individuals. “It’s really easy to compose artistic frames, it’s really easy to understand positive and negative space, it’s easy to understand how to load a frame, how to minimalise a frame for the purposes of focus and attention,” Tearepa said. “But what’s very difficult is to present a person who is comfortable in that world, in their world, and to be themselves truly. So I was always interested in having more than one person in the
Stan Walker, Tearepa, Taika Waititi
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frame, we wanted a community spirit, so there were always two or three people – it was about people in a frame, rather than a person.”
understanding the relationship between him (singer-songwriter Dalvanius) and Poi E co-writer Ngoi Pewhairangi.
It was also to create a feeling that the camera just happened to be there by accident, that it was just people having a conversation, just being themselves. Hence the single wide two-shot of the chat with Stan Walker and Taika Waititi, for example; the single frame was always reserved for Dalvanius.
Maui Dalvanius Prime was born and grew up in Patea on Taranaki’s West Coast, and Ngoi lived on the opposite side of Te Ika a Maui, (the Fish of Maui, the North Island), in Tokomaru Bay, on the East Coast. In her middle-age in the early ‘80s, she was in the habit of bringing a busload of at-risk kids from the big city down to her small town and giving them an “immersive cultural experience”, or daily life in Tokomaru Bay.
Poi E was and has always been recognized as an earworm since its first release in 1982. For Tearepa, at the age of seven, it was the feeling of pride in being Maori that first created his affinity for the song – but it was the beat and the chorus.
Photo credit: Geoff Short
“I didn’t know all the words – I’ve learnt the words through the making of this film. But it took me a year to figure out the meaning of the song – and the meaning of the song came from
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While performing around the country, Dalvanius was also studying Maori language at the Wellington Polytechnic. He visited Ngoi for a weekend, and stayed for four weeks. It became his immersive cultural experience and led to a dozen songs. Poi E is not the first project that Tearepa and Reikura have done together as producer and
Tearepa Kahi shooting Poi E
director. Last year they produced Romeo and Hulietta; next year they plan to shoot a version of another Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (currently also being explored in the Candle Wasters’ web series Bright Summer Night). “It’s very challenging for Reikura, because I am very stubborn,” Tearepa explained. “I am easily enamoured of some of my ideas, and it’s not always that easy to have them scrutinized so honestly. And then the worst thing is having them improved upon so quickly and dramatically! “But it’s good to be humble through the process; she’s definitely helped and makes all the critical decisions. If I can’t get an idea or a decision past her, then I have to let it go. “Working together is troublesome, fraught with challenges, but it yields good results. I think the basis of any relationship is trust… She’s coming from an awesome place, a strong place, and I trust that, I trust her.” Tearepa sees their work as a development of the kaupapa that was started with one of his earliest mentors, Don Selwyn. “Our focus is the reo and the stories.” In this respect he also references Kiwi film pioneer John O’Shea, who spoke of “arguing an idea into its ascendancy”, a notion given to
Tearepa by his mentor and touchstone on Poi E, filmmaker Eruera Te Whiti. Better known as Ted Nia, he sadly passed away only four weeks after seeing an advance screening of the film. Many of us have a tendency to think of Maori culture as being a pan-Aotearoa entity. But in dealing with two main characters from opposite sides of the North Island, the makers of Poi E were dealing with two very different cultural landscapes: East Coast, West Coast; Te Tai Rawhiti, Te Tai Hauau; Dalvanius, Patea Maori Club, the Pewhairangi whanau – two different landscapes, two different mountains, three different entities, two very diverse whakapapa – and that’s where a lot of both Tearepa’s and Reikura’s time and energy went, on understanding the cultural landscape in order to properly tell the story. When asked about the difference between making a dramatic feature like his Mt Zion and a documentary like Poi E, Tearepa points to the commonality of the goal: “What they both share, in the director’s vision and in the storyteller’s vision, is the desire to bring out magic. Now that’s a very non-technical thing to say, but ultimately when you are watching a screen story in the cinema, it has to be about magic. It has to be about feelings, it has to be about emotion. “You can concentrate on the technicalities of the story, and how great the single shots are, but
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three shots don’t make magic, even though they might look beautiful, even though they might be well-timed. So how do we introduce a heartbeat into the story? “It’s hard to talk about the technicalities and the heartbeat but what I do know is they both take time, and they both take a huge amount of energy, passion and commitment. “With a drama, you have a script and the actors, and you can direct it to bring out the best performances. With a documentary it’s the spirit of the story. You’re relying on elements that are beyond your control, because you haven’t created them, they are living in other people, they reside in different spaces, in different formats. So it’s a beautiful mystery, it requires much more than you think it does, but it’s also incredibly rewarding.” Documentary filming has taught him a lot that he feels he can take back to any narrative or script work. “One thing you can never underplay is how much real people will surprise you. They are always beyond
what you can imagine. You can write the best improvisational script ever, but it will never come close to having Auntie Bib and Uncle Bub sit at the table and talk for 20 seconds – you’ll be eclipsed.” It was this realisation that led Tearepa to withdraw himself from the doco as a narrative voice. “My imagination was constantly eclipsed by Dalvanius’ personality, his phrases, his take, his insight, his honesty, his intimacy.” Working out the structure in the edit is always the most difficult and most challenging aspect of making a film, Tearepa reckons. “You can have fun on a shoot, production’s great, the people are good – we had a really good crew. You are walking together, and although you might be walking blind, you are all forging the road ahead together.” But the edit suite is different. “It’s not that it’s lonely that makes it difficult, that it’s hard to get right – it’s brutal! It might work on a 30inch screen, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to necessarily work on a 40-foot cinema
In production on Poi E
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screen. Then there are the character arcs, the trajectory, the rate of exposition… Then there’s the story, the spirit of the story.” Another tough aspect in the edit was that at the beginning they had forged ahead with some re-creations that later had to be dropped. Radio interviews were recreated using a Digibolex camera, which gave a very 16mm feel to the image. Tearepa felt that they were doing something quite innovative, and was extremely happy with the results but in the end they were let go of to serve the story. “In retrospect, we should’ve filmed the documentary first.” When challenged about using reconstructions in a documentary, Tearepa’s response was to say that a reconstruction is a decision that one has to find one’s way to, to arrive at, after a huge amount of ground work and exploration.
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“I know that now, because I came into this as a writer, rather than as a documentarian.” He paid tribute to his ‘spiritual editing consultant’, Annie Collins, “a Jedi... the most critically in-tune editor – no, storyteller, she’s a storyteller. When she arrives at a decision, it’s already gone through about 20 different filters, 20 different circuit boards. After having put together a cut himself that he was pretty happy with and felt needed just a few tweaks here and there, Tearepa spent a week with Annie. The biggest focus in their critical discussions was not the decisions themselves, but how he had arrived at those decisions – the process. “It was good. Well, it wasn’t good, it was painful!” Annie didn’t lay down any new pathway, but she prepared him for the new steps ahead. Which were
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Photo credit: Geoff Short
meeting and creating that song, along with a long-forgotten cassette of them singing their new creation together, is artfully integrated into Tearepa’s film.
basically, detonate, start again, move forward with more critical thinking. “32 years of story – it’s an ocean of material. You can get very lost very quickly.” But with Collins’ mentoring, Tearepa found what he believed to be the best direction.
Photo credit: Tuteri Rangihaeata
In the making of most documentaries, there are moments of unexpected discovery or serendipity that often provide “documentary gold”. Poi E is no exception, and the footage of Ngoi and Dalvanius
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Discovering they could reunite the original creators of the famous video clip of the song, breakdancer Joe Moana, director Paul Carvell and cinematographer Waka Attewell, was a great blessing for Tearepa, not least because of the passion he had felt for the clip as a child. Finding two forgotten 16mm reels of the original film rushes in a garage in Patea – and discovering that Annie Collins was the original editor of that video clip – was also hugely fulfilling. Asked if he had any regrets about the process, Tearepa said no. “The lessons that I have learned have been hard-fought, and wonderfully realized. If I had known before what I know now, I would’ve arrived at decisions much earlier; but I wouldn’t sacrifice the learning, the lessons that have emerged from this process. Because I don’t think the essence of the story comes out of the speed or efficiency of filming; I think the spirit of the story emerges from realisation and relationships and a real journey.
Aunty Bib and Nana Bub, Patea Maori Club
Photo credit: Kirsty Griffin
“You constantly grow as a storyteller. Ideas marinate.” Inputs from others contributed to this process during Poi E – Tearepa paid tribute to his camera people Fred Renata and Jos Wheeler, editor Francis Glenday who came in at a late stage, sound recordist Colleen Brennan, and Dick Reade who did the sound mix at the highly enjoyable Park Road Post facility. Producer Alex Behse merited a special credit for the amount of time he spent supporting his director. What were th unexpected problems? “The big unexpected problem was that I thought would be releasing this film in February 2015! “Our job is to tell a story as well as we can – it’s not to hit a release date. They are two different things – if you’re going to make a film, make the best film you can. Sony Pictures wanted a release date but Andrew Cornwell was the first person to say to me,
Stan Walker, Taika Waititi
‘No, actually, make the best film you can.’ So when I heard that from the Big Boss, well… It gives you gas, you know you’re not alone. “You serve the audience best when you serve the story first, and the happiness that I feel now is because of where the story has arrived at, and the support of many, many people.” When Don Selwyn passed away in April 2007 followed by two other great totara of Maori filmmaking, Barry Barclay and Merata Mita, many lamented that there was no obvious heir apparent to The Don. Perhaps in Tearepa Kahi we see another such inspirational force emerging – someone to match Don’s passion, commitment and generosity of spirit: qualities that have always struck this Pakeha as pre-eminent in Maori filmmaking – and in all the best filmmaking, of course.
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What Now?
Production photos credit: Whitebait Media
GLEN WALKER VISITS THE SOUTH ISLAND’S LARGEST STUDIO COMPLEX
Jason Gunn’s YouTube studio
There is an air of forward motion at Christchurchbased Whitebait Media - they’re focussed on today’s work but open to new ideas and looking to the future.
the Ilam Studio has been hosting a photoshoot for local radio hosts against their infinity wall. Another commercial video shoot being planned out with clients in the art department.
Today they are filming an entire week’s worth of episodes for The Adam and Eve Show which is an afterschool staple for Kiwi kids. The set is in their massive Hornby Studio while along the hall
Whitebait Media is a continuing success story and labour of love for its directors Janine Morrell-Gunn and Jason Gunn. Founding the company in 1998, they have found repeated
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success with producing television for young people (Bumble, The Erin Simpson Show, The 4:30 Show, What Now?, Jessie.com and Animal Academy are just some of their hits), but also offer full production and editing spaces, technology and expertise for private and commercial filming. Grant Dean (Business & Operations) joined the team earlier this year after extensive experience in the UK and is on hand with Janine to explain more about their ongoing passion for this work. Why Whitebait? Janine: Well, it’s my favourite food. That’s a good start, isn’t it? But the other thing about whitebait is that it’s quite rare, precious and only found in the South Island. Another characteristic of this lovely little fish is that it swims against the tide - which I have a fondness for doing - and it’s also a small fish in the scheme of things, which Whitebait is in the world of media, so there are lots of lovely parallels. You have these lovely purpose-built studios now but they were opened in 2009 - where was Whitebait before that? Janine: We were round in Birmingham Drive - we took on the lease of the old Prime TV studios but that was really for the pre- and post-production; for studio work we used the TVNZ studio in Gloucester Street, which no longer exists now of course. Janine, you raised a million dollars by creating the Adopt A Christchurch Family programme
and saw it all translated into specific aid for families, but what were the earthquake effects on Whitebait and the team here? Janine: I think we had one week off air, maybe two. The first one (September 4th, 2010) was on a Saturday morning so we couldn’t go ahead with What Now? on the Sunday, then the second one (February 22nd, 2011) was on a Tuesday and we didn’t go to air that week. This building and this area did very well, we rocked on - literally. We stand outside every year to let off balloons and remember the people we were closest to and that we lost. If you ask anyone and bring it up, it’s all still very much there with us. Were the studios and the business able to keep running throughout the aftershocks? Janine: Yes, from a business perspective we could carry on. We had support to relocate to another centre if needed but everyone wanted to stay here. It was important to keep going, for the people making it and for our audience. Grant: You opened up the doors to others too... Janine: That’s right, we had Sky come in, we had three or four radio stations come in here and camp out for a while, just part of helping to keep the wheels turning locally. Being local is important obviously, but is it difficult being outside of the larger production centres? What are the pros and cons? Janine: There are only pros really. A lot of roads lead to Auckland certainly but, then, a large
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percentage of the population is there. The lovely thing about New Zealand is that while a third of people may live there, two thirds don’t; they are in small towns all over the country and part of what we’re about is trying to reflect that national sense of identity.
There are great minds and talents in Auckland, producing terrific things but we have a perspective which is very conscious of not being city-centric and reflecting our entire nation. Also, a lot of our colleagues love coming to Christchurch for a day - they love getting out of their office and visiting this small city which is rapidly becoming a jewel in the crown with all of what’s happening here.
Photo credit: Glen Walker
So it’s not difficult to get people to come and work here? Janine: No, not at all. Distance doesn’t matter so much now, people can sometimes work remotely and jobs aren’t so rigidly defined any more. Grant: There are about a dozen here as a core team and we staff up with productions to a total of around 60 with the two main productions from February to November. Then on a film day there
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Kris Muir and Chris Cubitt, The Adam and Eve Show
Photo credit: Glen Walker
could easily be a hundred people in this building, with camera and sound operators, freelancers... If there is anyone working in Christchurch who hasn’t worked on something in this building they haven’t lived! So you help build up a lot of experience for people in the industry... Janine: Our shows contract annually and a lot of them will be younger people - often we (children’s shows) are an introduction to television and we are a springboard for a lot of young talent in front of and behind the screens. That’s a role that we see we play. I imagine you must work with the Film and Broadcasting schools here from time to time? Janine: We have very good relations with all of them, the Christchurch ones but not just here people here come from all round.
The Costume department serves a variety of shows
There is obviously a big investment here in technology, software and equipment here - is it hard to keep up with those evolving needs? Janine: Certainly - all these young people coming in have a wish list of stuff relating to their area and their craft, sound, editing, camera, etcetera. It’s Grant’s job to deal with that. Yes, a huge investment, but once you start off down this road you have to be able to keep up. Grant: Yeah, over the years technology has almost come full circle - once in Hollywood they said you only needed a camera and a girl to go shoot a movie. Requirements have gotten more and more complex over the years but in some ways now it’s almost affordable for anyone to go out and get enough gear to do something pretty reasonable - people are making movies on their iPhones! CREWED | 29
The thing is, that there is now a lot more things to choose from - now we need drones and action cameras, and 360 degree cameras - there is a lot more on the shopping list for us to look at. Speaking of investment, you’re developing a new show? Janine: Yes, Darwin and Newts is a bit of a passion. I have made preschool before but I always thought there was another show in me. This is an international co-production with NZ On Air support made with Toonz Animation in India. We’re stepping into animation and international partnerships. It’s fulfilling a real passion of mine and working in this way is very exciting.
Photo credit: Glen Walker
Did you come up with the show idea here then seek partners? What’s the timeline like? Janine: Yes, exactly that - we worked it out here
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then put together the production. It’s been in development for a year and is probably still eighteen months from broadcast. It’s a big investment to develop a show... Janine: It is. And of course we have a whole drawer full of other ideas too, no shortage of plans! You’re also looking at transiting to digital platforms? Grant: It’s the new challenge isn’t it, but all part of being relevant and relating to our audience. We thought we understood our audience twenty years ago when everyone sat down to watch TV at the same time but understanding our audience in the depth we do now compared to the old days is a huge challenge. We want to make content that can be watched on a phone as easily as a TV, we want to keep them engaged and coming back for more.
Fidelma Corkery at work in one of Whitebait’s 5 edit suites
Janine: Like everyone, we want to be where the audience is - sometimes catching up with them, running alongside, perhaps even offering up something they haven’t seen yet. It’s a 360 degree experience you’re giving the audience now, it’s content as and when they want it - in long form and short form so there’s a lot more demand to do all of this and knowing your audience is at the root of it all. Grant: We’re also keenly aware of the burgeoning generation of young content makers, the abilities of people to create shows and put them onto YouTube. Jason has set up his own studio in the building for his YouTube channel and it’s a great space, really flexible. We’re considering how that could work as a model to encourage other creative people, using our space and creating material with high production values.
Ilam studio
You’ve had Canterbury filmmakers create a TV pilot in one of your studios recently? Grant: Yeah, we pretty much did that for love, they were here at 5:30 in the morning and I thought great they’ll be done by 5pm, but at 11pm at night they were still going! It was all done by volunteers plus everyone here got involved and wanted to support it too because they’re trying to get something off the ground that supports more production in Christchurch.
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Mardo El-Noor @ www.worldofmardo.com
The Business of Making Music ANDE SCHURR LISTENS TO MARSHALL SMITH
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How can you make a living out of your creativity? Run it like a business and don’t be sloppy, says Marshall Smith, co-owner, composer and producer at The Sound Room. In this article, we learn how musicians can make money from their music for screen productions and interactive content. The film and advertising industry is uniquely positioned to be voluminous consumers of every strain of music; no genre too weird, no musical style unbefitting the right story. Respected Kiwi producer and composer, Marshall Smith, who co-owns The Sound Room with Tom Fox, teaches us his canny knack for adapting, surviving and keeping profitable in an age where people are increasingly turning to stock music libraries. Indeed, any business that enjoys year on year growth, provides a good annual income for its principals, and does that in a creative arena that has historically been better known for its starving artists, is worthy of serious examination.
Musical ability is a gift some are born with – or not. Although it’s still a joy playing and composing music as a hobby, many are determined to make a career of it. Besides, who wouldn’t want to ‘do what you love and the money will follow’, as Marsha Sinetar promises in her book of the same title. However, for all but a few who find (or make) their own good fortune, most artists face a real challenge staying afloat financially. With Marshall Smith’s guidance, let’s discover more about this important avenue of revenue for musicians. 16 Steps for music producers to make money in the film and gaming industry: 1. Produce commercial quality music. You already need to be producing high quality music. You need great songs, great sound and something a bit different too. Apple’s Logic Pro is a great music creating package for beginners and pros alike and it’s very affordable compared with Pro Tools.
Jack of All Trades
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“I need to find an angelic sounding voice with acoustic guitar.” It could be that specific. So the music supervisor will research, check their books and collections of music. Check out these New Zealand options: Mana Music, Aeroplane and The Platform.
2. Contact Music Publishers. They are like book publishers but instead they publish songs. They are most people’s main route into film and advertising placements. They will licence your songs. There are publishers all over the world including New Zealand, Australia and the UK. The Sound Room has publishing deals all around the world with a whole heap of small and large, independent publishers. They have about 2500 tracks between them both from jingles to opuses, full orchestral to rock. Check out music publishers in New Zealand. 3. Contact Music Supervisors. Their raison d’etre is to work for film productions and find music to place in their film. A director might say,
4. Contact Advertising Agencies. They’ll have a TV producer attached to the commercial who is looking for a particular kind of song - or they’ll want a specific sound like an indie-pop sound or maybe an up and coming artist so they’ll search through their networks and contact record labels. 5. Pay for Subscription Services. Marshall says that every day he’s getting requests from the services he’s joined, where people put out a call for a song. One recent example read: “we need dark apocalyptic songs for a Belgium action adventure, $2000”. Submit songs and if you’re very lucky and it’s the perfect song then you’ll be placed. Try these: Tracks and Fields, Music Gateway and Film Music. 6. Submit tracks to online music libraries. Sure, they may be killing the industry but only because the quality is often excellent. So why not join them?
7-Up TVC for Vietnam
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It is worth noting that, for films and TV shows, producers want a non-exclusive license to use your track. The Sound Room has their own online library called thesoundlibrary.co.nz with about 1200 tracks, non-exclusively available for anything. The Sound Room represents some local artists for genres that they don’t compose themselves. e.g. new artist Caitlin Blake from Hamilton with her “amazing ambient-style music that we couldn’t do”. Their database has a split of tracks that are 50% vocal, 50% instrumental. Most music libraries offer breakdown versions - the track without drums or lead guitar or vocals which gives the editor many options. When submitting your tracks, have ready a range of different versions so they appeal to every need. 7. Build relationships with filmmakers. Despite the rise in popularity of stock music libraries, 80-90% of The Sound Room’s work is still commissioned; meaning they create music that matches the picture and follows the action. The great news for composers is that it’s often very hard for film directors to find an existing track and fit it perfectly into a scene. It’s often easier and cheaper just to commission something. 8. Join the Screen Composers Guild. Marshall and Bobby Kennedy from Op Shop came up with the idea to start the Screen Composers Guild in New Zealand with help from APRA, Park Road Post and a few others sponsors. They’ve built it
up to 60 paid members who all benefit from the workshops and Q+A sessions throughout the year in Auckland and Wellington. Visit the Screen Composers Guild. 9. Follow up your International Connections. Due to declining funding for documentaries The Sound Room turned its attention to commercials. Smith and Fox do some in New Zealand but mostly for Asian markets: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. How, you might ask, did they break into these markets? They looked through their previous jobs for an Asian connection and followed through. Thailand liked them so they recommended them to Vietnam and it has snowballed from there. Also, Marshall puts in the frequent flyer miles. He flies up there once or twice per year for conferences, networking and meeting people face to face. 10. Keep your integrity. Be straightforward, communicate well, finish projects when you say you will. Marshall laments those in the industry who don’t deliver what they say they will, are difficult to deal with and don’t respond to emails. He calls it sloppy. The key to making a living from music is being business-like and that means being organised. 11. Change with the market. The Sound Room has survived by constantly thinking outside the box and changing its business model. Even though the annual income is healthy, they don’t forgot
THE SOUND ROOM. BEAUTIFUL MUSIC FOR BEAUTIFUL PICTURES. WWW.THESOUNDROOM.CO.NZ CREWED | 35
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Mardo El-Noor @ www.worldofmardo.com
Tom Fox
their mortality. They face up to the reality that there are many people competing for a part of the ‘music composing pie’ so constantly ask the questions “what are we going to do now?” and “who would want music?” Their willingness to reinvent themselves each year keeps them relevant. 12. Seek out computer game publishers and be known to educational providers. The Sound Room regularly composes music for Japanese computer games, ebooks, interactive games including a big Games for the Blind series for AUT. There’s also composition work for art galleries, museums and even Les Mills. Check out a list of New Zealand game developer studios. 13. Market and promote yourself. Every single day, you have to think “how can I move the business forward?” That means making a new connection, cold calling, sending out a showreel, going to met someone, going to gigs, seminars and workshops. 14. Share ideas and collaborate with other composers. Some people are very anti-sharing anything. They keep themselves in their own bubble. They’re the people who are struggling.
Marshall’s attitude is that the more you collaborate, the more you share, the more it helps the business. 15. Be canny with your own survival. With the ever-looming threat of the starving artist who lives on the streets, Marshall worked in a myriad of jobs before starting The Sound Room. From working in design, marketing, the record industry in the UK and even presenting Lotto on TV - all served his goal of making money so he could just do music. 16. Team up. Marshall composes and does all the business, marketing and promotion. Tom Fox, his business partner, also composes and does most of the mixing and the real detail work. Marshall and Tom have been partners as The Sound Room for 13 years, bouncing ideas off each other. They keep a good vibe by not being critical of each other but still give honest feedback. However according to Marshall, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs” before you find the right partner to work with. Try working with people, collaborate, share and see how it goes. It’s so useful having the sounding board of a partnership - otherwise it’s just you alone in a sound proof room.
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