Tag Archive for: Educators

DEGANZ Members win at New York Festivals Film & TV Awards

Congratulations to DEGANZ members Jesse Griffin, Jackie Van Beek, Caroline Bell Booth, David de Lautour, and Kerri Roggio for their successes at the 2023 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards!

Three episodes of Educators Season 3, co-written by and starring Jackie with Jesse as director, brings home the Silver Medal in the Best Streaming Comedy category. This season of the improvised comedy, aired in December 2022, is full of more characters’ mischief and actors’ unscripted gems. Like the previous two seasons, it follows the utterly inept teachers’ struggles while working at a secondary school. The show’s classic Kiwi humour has made it a fan favourite, earning positive reviews and various accolades, including the 2020 New York Festivals’ Bronze World Medal in the same category.

Meanwhile, season 8 of The Brokenwood Mysteries earned the Bronze Medal as the Best Crime Drama, with episodes directed by David and Caroline each and episode 4 edited by Kerri. While a completely different genre, it’s also earned its spot as a favourite and Kiwi classic. The new season continues following Detective Mike Shepherd as he digs deeper into his past and the unprecedented crimes of Brokenwood. Now, with the help of Detective Kristine Sims, they investigate more mysterious crimes at a museum, a musical festival, Pateke Point, and much more.

Both series are available to stream on TVNZ+ now! Catch up with the West Auckland school shenanigans or delve in to uncover what else the citizens of Brokenwood are hiding.

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Educators: The Craft of the Laugh – Online

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Comedy isn’t just canned laughter and superficial gags, it has depth and the ability to reveal home truths about ourselves and human nature.

To close the year, director Jesse Griffin and editor Stuart Boone join DEGANZ to discuss the fascinating process of writing, directing and editing the hit, unscripted comedy series Educators. Discover how to mine a scene for golden nuggets of truth, how to find the funniest moments in the edit suite and bring order to improvised comedy. As the duo admits, “It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle except the pieces have nothing on them…”

Join us on Zoom on Tuesday 23 November from 7:30 – 9pm.

Members/Non-members – Free
RSVP essential 

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Educators

Set behind the scenes of an ordinary Kiwi secondary school, this unscripted comedy series follows the hopelessly and hilariously inept people in charge of educating the next generation. Created by Jesse Griffin, Jackie van Beek and Jonathan Brugh, and made with the support of NZ On Air. Available on TVNZ OnDemand.

About Jesse Griffin

Jesse started doing sketch comedy while at Otago University in the early 90’s with Duncan Sarkies, Te Radar and Aaron Watson. After training in physical theatre at the John Bolton School in Melbourne in 1995, he formed the comedy trio the 4 Noels and performed throughout Australia, the UK and NZ until 2007. Jesse began performing country music character Wilson Dixon in 2004, performing live and on televised galas throughout NZ, Australia and the UK, along with a series for BBC Radio and a TVNZ comedy special.

He was the creative exec producer, writer and director for Comedy For Cure Kids from 2012 to 2015 making the song “Feel Inside” with the FOTC amongst other things. He has acted, written and directed for TV since 2010. His credits include 7 Days, Jono and Ben, Would I Lie To You, Word Up, Have You Been Paying Attention, Funny Girls, Educators, Last at 11, 800 Words, and Talkback.

About Stuart Boone

Stuart Boone is an accomplished television editor with over 25 years experience. Specialising in factual and documentary series, Stu is sought after for his skill at crafting story with humanity and humour.

He has a long line of credits including New York Festivals 2020 award-winning unscripted comedy series Educators, Grand Designs series 3-5, Forensics NZ, Making New Zealand, My Big Blue Backyard, Channel 4 UK’s Orangutan Jungle School, Animal Planet’s Redwood Kings, as well as The NZ Film Commission’s 100 Men.

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