CREWEDSEPT.2016 Play Nice NZGDC speakers go back to the future Big Screen Symposium Big themes, big people, big films CREWED | 1 The ultimate in premium Leica glass, the Leica Summilux C prime lenses. Uniformly made, extremely fast, made to work wide open, beautiful bokeh, flares that don’t bloom and that great Leica image. The only set in New Zealand. Check them out at www.qcam.co.nz Brett Mills // Ph: +64 29 932 6685 // www.qcam.co.nz // e: [email protected] CREWED It’s a busy time for the country’s screen industries, or at least for those in the industries who like to get out and about to spend time with friends and colleagues. Earlier in the month, the Game Developers had their annual conference. In five years, it’s grown from its inaugural one-day event into the largest screen industries conference in NZ. Over 500 ticket-holders took to AUT over a couple of days to make decisions about which sessions of five streams they wanted to attend. We report on a couple of sessions that, in different ways, provided some perspective on the industry. 07 VOL.01, no. SEPT.2016 The more modest (and alcohol-fuelled) writers’ awards event, SWANZ, ran last week, closely followed by the Big Screen Symposium over the weekend. Two new awards events run out next month, courtesy of the Cinematographers Society and Nga Aho Whakaari, and looking slightly further ahead, the winners and also-rans from this year’s HP48Hours will be found. We caught up with a couple of the Big Screen Symposium presenters, whose words of wit and wisdom you can enjoy. Also, we've pubished our annual tertiary education supplement into this CREWED is the techo-focused The ultimate in premium Leica glass, month's issue. Check out what's on offer for students in 2017 - and feel free to publication from the share it around with anyone you think it might be useful to. publishers of SCREENZ CREWED publishes 10 times the Leica Summilux C prime lenses. In the PDF and issuu editions, the supplement follows on from this month's a year, monthly from February Crewed content. Online, you can find it here. to November. Editor & Publisher: Keith Barclay [email protected] Uniformly made, extremely fast, made to 021 400 102 work wide open, beautiful bokeh, flares that Publisher & Advertising: Kelly Lucas don’t bloom and that great Leica image. [email protected] 021 996 529 The only set in New Zealand. Subscribe at www.screenz.co.nz/newsletters Check them out at www.qcam.co.nz www.crewed.co.nz/newsletters Keep up with us on Twitter twitter.com/screenznz twitter.com/crewedNZ on Facebook facebook.com/screenz.co.nz facebook.com/crewed.co.nz Copyright in all CREWED content lies with the author. Content may not be reproduced without prior permission. Brett Mills // Ph: +64 29 932 6685 // www.qcam.co.nz // e: [email protected] 3 | CREWED THIS MONTH Editorial 03 Publisher Info 05 Contributors Say What? A Long Road: 06 David Coulson 12 The Ballad of Maddog Quinn Stupid Questions: Making an Christopher Doyle impact: Splendid: 16 on cinematography 24 Ande Schurr 28 Glen Walker All about conversation: Back to the Future: 32 Tony Forster 38 NZGDC16 speakers Noah Falstein and Ken Wong 4 | CREWED CONTRIBUTORS Glen Walker Shelving his career in libraries, Glen is now working at screenwriting and enjoying meeting people working in New Zealand’s creative sectors. [email protected] Ande Schurr Ande has been location sound recording for ten years. He’s worked on 15 feature films including Taika Waititi’sHunt For The Wilderpeople and many TV series including The Moe Show. He is passionate about helping people grow in their business, personal development and he writes articles for freelancers. www.schurrsound.com Tony Forster Tony has worked in theatre and screen production for some decades as a director, first assistant director, script consultant, actor, tutor and writer/editor. He recently created and directed his first feature-length documentary, An Accidental Berliner. CREW Experienced and highly regarded DoPs, camera operators and sound recordists specialising in broadcast and commercial production. Documentaries TV Series Corporate Commercials rocketrentals.com Give us a call for quotes or enquiries Auckland 09 373 4330 Wellington 04 499 9225 Say What? DAVID COULSON David Coulson Editor David Coulson began his career at Avalon working with Caro in Canada on the Netflix TV in the 1970s. He won the Best Editing gong at the drama Anne. NZ Film Awards for Illustrious Energy (1988), The Footstep Man (1992) and Broken English (1996) Take a stroll down Memory Lane. Where did and has edited three shorts which were selected you begin your career? for Cannes Competition: Alison Maclean's Kitchen After leaving Canterbury University I started at Sink, Dorthe Scheffman's The Beach, and Zia Television One at the Avalon Television Centre Mandviwalla's Night Shift. in 1977, when it was the hub for TV production in New Zealand. The whole place was purpose- A regular collaborator with Los Angeles-based built. I remember a corridor that had 20 or director Niki Caro, he's recently completed work more edit suites coming off it – and all of them on Caro's The Zookeeper's Wife, featuring Jessica had editors working in them. The place was Chastain, Daniel Brühl and Johan Heldenbergh. just buzzing. You really felt something was Coulson visited Auckland in August and is now happening in that building. 6 | CREWED Around 1979 I moved up to Auckland to join And what happened in the ‘90s? TV2’s drama department, but after a while I More of the same really, though it was during this decided to get out. Another editor, Alf West and period that I also started editing commercials, I imported a Steenbeck machine from Australia and I was fortunate to work with many of New and we set up shop just off Queen Street, Zealand’s best commercials directors at the picking up independent projects, overflow work time like Gregor Nicholas, Kevin Denholm, Chris from TVNZ and some overseas productions Dudman, Lee Tamahori, Josh Frizzell – those visiting here. kinds of people. I’m a great believer in the cross- pollination of editorial skills and techniques In 1981 I was asked to view some freshly-shot between all the different story forms - be they film for a visiting UK news crew before they had features, documentaries, shorts, dramas or to get it away to London. It turned out to be commercials. I think we are always trying to tell a footage from Gisborne of the protests at the first story one way or another. Test on the Springboks tour. We'd recently seen the news footage from the UK of the Brixton How did the relationship with Niki Caro begin, riots and I thought, 'Wow, the same thing's and what's kept it going? happening here?' We first met working on commercials, and quickly found that we had a good collaborative Through the 1980’s I assisted on some overseas relationship. This was tested under fire when we feature productions which meant work in the made Whale Rider, where we had a great time US, Australia and England whilst editing features, and as a huge bonus, the film turned out really dramas and documentaries here in New Zealand. well! Whale Rider CREWED | 7 Niki has a very open, intelligent, emotional and organic approach to the construction of what is a creative aesthetic. Over the years our relationship very successful scene. has grown. As it turned out, those commercials were good training for working with studios, What did you find different when you started which is where we've progressed to. working overseas? The scale is one of the main differences when Describe a little about your process you work for American studios. It's not the On any new project I spend the first two or budgets per se, though they are different, but three weeks viewing and assembling material what those budgets mean. More money means basically looking for the DNA of that particular more everything – more crew, more equipment, film and what makes it special, different. Once more trucks and, of course, more at stake. you've found that, it gives you a blueprint for the Editorially, since working on my first US film thousands of decisions that follow. North Country, this has meant my standard crew is now an assistant, a second assistant and a PA. Sometimes Niki doesn't know exactly how a Typically this means we’re now occupying more scene will end up looking. Sometimes I don't space and using more equipment than I ever did know how it will work out either, but in those in New Zealand. instances, Niki shoots coverage that allows a lot of possibilities. There's a scene in McFarland USA I remember when we did North Country we worked when the boys are training, running up and down in Minnesota and New Mexico on the shoot, and mounds of almond husks. Niki shot around two then we came back to New Zealand to do the hours of coverage for that. This enabled a very Director's Cut. We returned to Los Angeles not really McFarland USA 8 | CREWED Achieve Your Vision • Same sensor as Varicam35 • EF Mount* and optional user changeable PL Mount • 14+ Stops of Latitude • FullHD 240fps • Dual Native iso800 & iso5000 • Single Super 35mm MOS Sensor • PL Mount • 14+ Stops of Latitude • 4K @ 120fps • Dual Native iso800 & iso5000 knowing what to expect when we showed it to of Green Gables).