All Blog Posts
Tell Us Your Story
BlogI’ve been in a seminar this week with film and television producers from New Zealand, Australia and Denmark, lawyers and finance people from New Zealand, Australia and Sweden, and a major sales agent from the UK. At this point in time, the…
More Like the Luvvies!
BlogThanks to DEGNZ member Leanne Pooley for this guest editorial. I recently attended a play in Auckland and while looking at the audience it struck me how many of them were members of the theatrical community. Like dancers and the musical fraternity…
What’s New?
BlogWhassup?It’s interesting putting pen to paper to write this, close to a year to the day from when I started in my role as Executive Director at the Directors & Editors Guild of NZ. I took over from Fiona Copland who quickly stepped into…
Trans-Tasman Friendship
BlogI took some time off work a couple of weeks ago to go to a script development lab in Margaret River with a writer I am working with. There were six Australian writer or writer/directors and their producers there with their projects. The Australian…
The Power of Film
BlogThis week's piece is written by Samantha Caughey, DEGNZ's Marketing & Events Coordinator, while Tui is overseas.Have you ever watched a film that’s changed your life? Altered your perception of an issue, or spurred you to do something…
What Time Is It?
BlogI was talking to a talented director last night and he related to me his latest experience of that thing we all often go through—being told, “No.” Whether you are pitching for a film, propping a TV show, a documentary idea, a web series,…
How To Get Ahead
BlogProfessional development is an important part of the guild’s activities. A number of the opportunities have limits on participants, so we are constantly having to screen applications and respond to questions about what’s required, and “Why…
Art or Commerce—A Moot Question?
Blog24 July 2015 This week I attended three film-related events that highlighted the polar differences between art and commerce in film. On Wednesday morning I went to the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) briefing on the review of the New…
Correcting the Imbalance
BlogTen years of business-focused government policy is now seeing a correction taking place in the New Zealand labour market. Health and education have been the focus of recent labour matters, but thanks primarily to Radio New Zealand, the independent…
Carving Out a Public Broadcasting Audience
BlogNew Zealand On Air’s Where Are the Audiences? 2018 Report makes for interesting reading. If you haven’t already seen it, the key findings for the screen industry are: Weekly audiences for traditional broadcast media are stable, and…
Movin’ and Shakin’
BlogThe New Zealand International Film Festival is upon us again. And there’s an even bigger selection of New Zealand films on offer, both feature-length and short, than I’ve encountered before—18 offerings, four of which are made up of programmes…
Ni Hao Taiwan
BlogThe New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) took an official delegation to China and Taiwan in June of this year, and I was fortunate to be invited along to Taipei for the Taiwan leg as the ED of DEGNZ. There was a strong indigenous focus to the…
Is it Time to be a Union?
Advocacy, BlogIn 2000, the Guild, which is an incorporated society, discussed whether or not to become a craft union when the Labour Government passed the Employment Relations Act making collective bargaining possible. However, because the majority of Guild…
Fair Pay
Advocacy, BlogOn Tuesday the government announced the appointment of former prime minister Jim Bolger to head a 10-person working group that would report back on the design of Fair Pay Agreements. This is welcome news to me as those of you who have read…