Over the weekend of March 27 and 28, Otago University played host to the Dunedin Festival of Film and Television Craft, which brought the who's-who of the New Zealand television, film and media industries to our beautiful city for two days of free workshops at the St David Street Lecture Theatre, writes Georgia Rose.
Key speakers included Janine Morrell-Gunn, Pita Turei, Philippa Campbell, Graeme Tetley, Hone Kouka, Kathryn Akuhata-Brown plus many others.
Organised by Alan Baddock and the New Zealand Writers' Guild, with support from the Dunedin City Council, the festival consisted of numerous workshops, as well as Short Films on a Tall Wall, which transformed the Countdown carpark into a drive-in cinema on Saturday and Sunday nights, to showcase some of the South Island's best short films being projected on to (you guessed it) a tall wall.
The workshops provided insight into this country's film and television industries, and the professionals that help create, develop and maintain these collectives.
Workshop topics included; ‘Developing films for the NZ film commission', ‘Pitching ideas to producers,' Casting and auditioning tips,' ‘Developing projects for the international television market,' ‘An introduction to Te Paepae Ataata Maori Script Development Fund' and numerous others.
The event had a hefty sense of community to it, and in the words of Kathryn Akuhata-Brown, "If you don't got it, what've you got?"
The weekend was a golden opportunity for young and up-and-coming hopefuls and old-hands alike to come together and discuss their interests and livelihoods - the New Zealand film and television industries.
Personally, I felt that I learnt an enormous amount in the space of two days, and was privileged to gain words of wisdom from people who had been in my position before and had carved a name for themselves within not only New Zealand but world-wide.
It was a really insightful and thought-provoking experience, and I was quite surprised there weren't more people there. It is definitely something I would recommend attending to anybody who is even vaguely interested in a career within film, media and/ or television, and hopefully 2011 will be even bigger and better than this year.
Check out NZ Writers' Guild: www.newzealandwritersguild.org.nz
- Georgia Rose is a Year 13 Logan Park High School student.
