Know Your Rights nationwide tour of workshops have added two new dates to the tour!

HAMILTON – Saturday 3 July 2021
Book here

AUCKLAND in conjunction with Ngā Aho Whakaari – Saturday 7 August 2021
Book here

The Know Your Rights Workshop is a ‘must-do’ for any actor, director, editor or writer who seeks a successful career in the New Zealand screen industry, arming you with the knowledge, information and resources you need to negotiate and collaborate successfully and work sustainably.

The next three workshops will be held in Auckland on Friday 25 June, Wellington Friday 30 July and Rotorua Saturday 31 July, with spaces still available! Book your free ticket & lunch here.

Joining the three Executive Directors of the guilds to present on topics will be legal firm Hudson Gavin Martin (experts in media and IP law) and production accountant Natalie Doherty.

Each workshop will be run from 9.30AM to 4.30PM, with lunch provided, in a series of joint and breakout sessions, and will also cover off on topics including:

  • Intellectual Property
  • Copyright
  • The difference between employer and contractor
  • Breakout sessions with specific rights, contracting and career information for Writers, Directors and Editors, and Performers
  • At the Auckland Workshop on August 7, an additional breakout option is available for Māori screen practitioners with Ngā Aho Whakaari Executive Director Hineani Melbourne.
  • Tips and advice on company structures, how to handle taxes, GST, per diems and expenses and more

Tour Dates 2021:

Auckland – Friday 12 March | COMPLETED
Dunedin – Friday 26 March | COMPLETED
Christchurch – Friday 30 April | COMPLETED
Wellington – Friday 21 May | COMPLETED
Nelson – Friday 22 May | COMPLETED
Auckland – Friday 25 June
Hamilton – Saturday 3 July
Wellington – Friday 30 July
Rotorua – Saturday 31 July
Auckland – Saturday 7 August

NB: Venues confirmed closer to the dates

Book HERE for any of the upcoming workshops.

 

These workshops are brought to you with the financial support of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.  

We invite members to join WIFT and DEGNZ on the evening of July 29 for the Director-Editor Relationship in Wellington, back by popular demand.

We thoroughly enjoyed hearing from the Auckland panellists – directors Pietra Brettkelly and Roseanne Liang, editors Cushla Dillon and Jochen FitzHerbert, moderated by director Leanne Pooley – at the beginning of this month. With another superb line-up, you’ll want to reserve your seat early!

The Director-Editor relationship

The Content: How does a director find the right editor? At which point in the process do you bring the editor in? Understanding the parameters of each role and making sure your contract reflects that. Who has creative say? How important are the editor’s fresh pair of eyes? How do the directors and editors navigate the test screening process? What happens if you change editor over the course of the project?  How does the editor help manage the relationship with the commissioner / client? Who leads when? Maintaining a healthy, collaborative relationship that has longevity over more than one project.

So many questions! Come along and get yours answered by this extremely experienced panel:

Panellists:

Dame Gaylene Preston, DNZM, has been a writer/director/producer since 1978, and made the classics of New Zealand cinema Mr Wrong, Ruby and Rata, War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us and Home By Christmas. Her dramatic TV series include Bread & Roses and Hope and Wire, plus many documentaries, her latest being the feature, My Year With Helen. Her work has screened in most high profile international film festivals including Sundance, Toronto, London, and Sydney. Dame Gaylene is the New Zealand Arts Foundation’s inaugural Filmmaker Laureate (2001).

Pietra Brettkelly, recipient of the 2020 South Pacific Pictures Award for Achievement In Film for her acclaimed documentary feature Yellow Is Forbidden. Pietra is a three-time Oscar-selected documentary filmmaker, a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and an Arts Laureate of New Zealand.

Alex Boyd (they/them) editor of the acclaimed recent feature film Cousins, they have also edited all four seasons of Wellington Paranormal. They enjoy working across genres, and have edited documentary, drama, sci-fi, comedy, and animation.

Annie Collins is best known for her extensive resume of documentaries, having edited such landmark productions as Patu!, The Neglected Miracle and Gardening with Soul. The talented editor has also won awards for her work on Scarfies, Two Little Boys and Out of the Blue, with Coming Home in the Dark having premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance and due to be released here in August.

Lala Rolls 
Fijian-European Lala Rolls’ projects often involve explorations of Māori and Polynesian culture. She directs as much as she edits, often doing both on the same project. Rolls has been a multiple finalist at New Zealand awards ceremonies for her work on acclaimed drama series The Insider’s Guide to Happiness and the Rita Angus documentary Lovely Rita. She edited The Man in the Hat (about art dealer Peter McLeavey), and 2018’s Celia, about the late equality advocate Celia Lashlie, and directed, produced and edited the 2020 feature film Tupaia’s Endeavour.

WIFTNZ and DEGNZ members free, non-members $15 cash – includes a drink and nibbles.

Date: Thu 29 July 2021
Location: Taia Studios, 4 Bay Road, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Time: 6pm drinks for a 6.30pm sharp start

RSVP essential to office@wiftnz.org.nz

Directed by members of the Rebel Film Collective: Niva Kay (DEGNZ), Emily McDowell, Nia Phipps and Phil Stebbing, High Tide Don’t Hide follows Kiwi teens as they join the global School Strike for Climate and soon discover that activism, authority and awareness make for a steep learning curve.

Currently participating in our 2021 Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator, Niva has always been passionate about storytelling, environmental and social justice. She was responsible for the production, directing and shooting of key scenes and characters in Auckland and Thames.

At the recent Doc Edge Awards, Thomas Gleeson won the Best New Zealand Editing Award for his work on the film.

High Tide Don’t Hide will premiere in Auckland on June 11 and in Wellington June 25. Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. It will also be available to rent online between June 26 to July 11 as part of the festival.

A teacher is forced to confront a secret from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters take his family on a nightmare road-trip in Coming Home in the Dark. Directed by James Ashcroft and edited by DEGNZ board member Annie Collins, the film is set to open in Aotearoa on August 12 after travelling the festival circuit.

This local thriller, starring Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries), Erik Thomson (The Luminaries), Miriama McDowell (Head High) and Matthias Luafutu (Ghost in the Shell), garnered rave reviews after premiering at Sundance earlier in the year.

With one review from horror website Bloody Disgusting saying the film “succeeds in sheer intensity and extremism”.

Speaking with Sundance, James Ashcroft and writer Eli Kent described it as a “high energy nightmare road-trip”, based on an award winning short story by Owen Marshall.

Watch their Meet the Artist spotlight here:

 

DEGNZ alumni Matthew Saville’s debut feature film Juniper, edited by Peter Roberts (DEGNZ), will be released in NZ cinemas on August 26. Starring Oscar-nominated actress Charlotte Rampling, the movie follows a self-destructive teenager who reluctantly looks after his alcoholic grandmother as punishment and soon finds himself embracing life again.

As part of the Guild’s Drama Editor Attachment Scheme the production provided an opportunity for an emerging editor to shadow Peter Roberts over the course of the edit. DEGNZ member Brendon Chan spoke with us about his experience shadowing Peter, from assembly through to the final cut, an experience that was “really beneficial” and one that eased his worries about working on feature films.

Saville, who wrote and directed Juniper, spoke with NZFC about how this story is inspired by his own experience with his grandmother and how he “can’t wait for audiences to see this intimate story brought to life”.

Watch the trailer here and save the date!