The 28-year-old, who first worked in films six years ago, is directing the fourth episode of the second series of local-based TV murder-mystery drama, A Remarkable Place To Die (ARPTD).
However, she’s also been handed — along with her partner, Shortland Street scriptwriter Christopher Plank — the responsibility of co-writing the episode.
The first draft had been completed by noted Kiwi scriptwriter John Banas, who also wrote the entire first series, but he died suddenly in November.
Executive producer Philly de Lacey and creative producer Charlie Haskell then asked the pair to take over.
‘‘We’ve done subsequent drafts, added new characters and tweaked stuff,’’ Boult says.
‘‘It’s been a real honour to get to take over John’s work, I mean, he’s got such a specific and unique voice, which has been so fun to play on, and we’ve tried to maintain as much of his original work as we possibly could.
‘‘His taste was always to find like a subculture in Queenstown or an unexplored community and explore it through the lens of a writer.’’
Boult says ‘‘writing and directing gives you an intimate understanding of the story you’re telling in a way sometimes directing [only] doesn’t as much’’.
Directing this episode — a feature-film 90 minutes long — is what she calls ‘‘my first ‘adult’ directing gig’’.
A recent experience was directing three of the six episodes of a TV series she co-created, n00b, featuring a group of teenagers in Gore, but they were just 22 minutes long.
For ARPTD, directing’s already involved choosing locations, supporting cast and costumes.
‘‘It’s so crazy to be back here and we’ll be driving around, scouting locations and I’ll be like, ‘oh yeah, that’s where I did drama class and that’s where I did after-school tutoring’, it’s so cool to be able to tell a story about where I grew up.’’
Boult says she’s fortunate to have an ‘‘incredible’’ team around her.
‘‘I’ve been given a position of responsibility, but at the same time I have a lot to learn and so much to grow, and this feels like a really safe place to do that growing.’’
