Documentary series Takeout Kids is now available to watch in its entirety on The Spinoff. Well done to DEGANZ members director Julie Zhu and editor Josh Yong.
The four episode series follows four young New Zealanders growing up in their parents’ restaurants or takeaway businesses. In the first episode we meet Rama, a 12-year-old who enthusiastically takes orders at her family’s Jordanian restaurant in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland.
Speaking to 1News, Julie states that she wanted to make this observational documentary series “to really showcase the variety of communities that we have here in Aotearoa”. She wanted to explore families who “run restaurants and showcase their lives beyond what is seen when people pick up their takeaways”.
In this workshop, Miranda Harcourt brings front-line advice and on-set insights to you from the major projects she works on every day around the globe. As an acting coach, Miranda has recently led online rehearsals for three BBC projects and for Garth Davis’ film Foe, starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal and Aaron Pierre.
This workshop is perfect for screen directors who want to learn exercises, tools and tips for running successful rehearsals via video call.
Four of the directors in the class will get to direct pairs of actors in Zoom breakouts and receive helpful input and feedback from Miranda. We will provide the scenes ahead of time.
Workshop Details:
When: Saturday 26 March 2022, 9am – 1pm
Where: Zoom Meetings
Cost: Member – Free Non-member – $49 (billed upon selection)
Miranda’s approach is based on years of writing and performing verbatim theatre in prisons in NZ, Australia and the UK, as well as her work as an on-set acting coach with renowned actors and directors on films all over the world.
Miranda has coached Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA-award nominated and winning performances in films and TV shows from Bright Star (2012) to Lion (2015) to Being the Ricardos (2021). She was the dedicated coach for Sunny Pawar (young Saroo) in Lion and was coach and Director: Background Action on Garth Davis’ Mary Magdalene, starring Rooney Mara and Joachim Phoenix. Her first feature film The Changeover, co-directed with Stuart McKenzie, was released to acclaim in NZ, the UK and the US. Miranda’s daughter, Thomasin Mckenzie is the winner of the NBR award for Breakout Talent 2018.
For seven years Miranda was the Head of the Acting Department at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School. She been awarded the ONZM (for services to theatre and the community) and the Centennial Suffrage Medal. Other awards include the NEXT Arts Woman of the Year, the 2018 Women of Influence Arts Woman of the Year and the 2018 Women in Film and TV Award for Achievement in Film. She has also won many awards and nominations for acting and directing including the Media Peace Prize.
Her training was as an actor at Toi Whakaari — New Zealand Drama School and as a Drama-therapist at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Eligibility:
Participant — You must have at least ONE directing credit on a narrative drama short film that has been publicly screened at a festival or on a curated platform (e.g. on demand, Vimeo Staff Picks, Short of the Week).
Breakout Participant — 4 places available
You must have at least ONE directing credit on a scripted audiovisual work – either feature film, telefeature or series commissioned for broadcast.
OR
At least THREE directing credits on narrative drama short films OR scripted web series that have been publicly screened at a festival or on a curated platform (e.g. on demand, Vimeo Staff Picks, Short of the Week).
To Apply
Applications Close: Mon 14 March, 10AM
Please complete the application form below and email your CV to tema@deganz.co.nz. Your CV should clearly list your directing credits and include details such as festival selection, commissioners and/or platforms where your work has publicly screened.
Places are limited – the Guild will select based on applications. We will email you to confirm.
http://degnz.sensedesign.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/miranda-harcourt-compressed-950x360-1.jpeg360949admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2022-02-15 12:02:192022-02-28 16:49:07Online Rehearsal Dynamics with Miranda Harcourt
I originally studied cinematography at film school and ended up getting work in the lighting department for about four years on TV commercials, TV drama and films. I’m a fairly quiet person and had romantic notions of being quiet, cowering behind a camera.
One workless winter, I asked my flatmate, who was an editor about her work and I took an immediate interest in her response. After downloading the trial version of Final Cut Pro 7 and working through hours of tutorials, I made the impulsive choice to switch from lighting to editing, trading one kind of back pain (standing) for another (sitting). Through my flatmate, I spent a few months interning and an additional year working full-time in a tape library, so I could get a handle on the technology.
After cutting a few short films on the side, I really wanted to end up cutting feature films. I did some research (googled ‘how do I become a feature film editor’) and found the best way for me was to become an assistant editor on scripted dramas. I could upskill on the technical side and learn as much as I could working for editors who had made it.
I bothered every production company I’d worked for as a lighting technician and got work ingesting and syncing on travel and cooking shows. From there, I got my first scripted assisting on TV commercials, scripted TV and films until I ended up in assembly editing on set for an NZFC short film. After that, the producer got me into commercial editing work, so I was able to move on from assisting.
I was getting a lot of advertising/content work, but the drama work was pretty scarce. I’m quite bad at networking, but reluctantly ended up bothering a producer I wanted to work with. I met with her for a coffee and from there I cut a music video that she produced.
Brendon’s Diagram of Connections
Through this, I got to cut a drama pilot through the DoP of the music video.
After cutting the music video, the producer I’d spoken to offered me an NZFC short.
The director of the music video offered me another NZFC short.
From someone who’d see the pilot, I was offered a (paid!) web series.
From the two NZFC shorts I’d cut, I got offered a TV drama.
The producer of the web series recently offered me another TV drama.
What I think I’m trying to say is that being keen and possibly the last person a producer had coffee with before crewing can have a huge knock on effect.
The one thing I’d recommend for anyone is to make those seemingly unattainable connections. You could be extremely skilled, but that doesn’t mean a thing if no one knows who you are. I’m admittedly quite shy, however, the last few years which are the best of my career were only possible because I tried to make meaningful connections, despite being extremely reluctant. From there, I was able to trade cowering behind a camera for cowering behind an edit suite.
About Brendon Chan
Brendon entered post production in 2010 as an assistant editor, where he worked on feature films, such as Born to Dance, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Black Christmas. He made the leap to editing full-time in 2017, working across a broad range of television, web and film content. The most recent work he’d like to shamefully promote is the TVNZ drama series The Pact.
How I Got Started in the Industry is a new guest blog series from the Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand (DEGANZ). Our members reflect on how they made their way into assistant editing, editing, and directing—with no two stories the same. They offer advice for those starting out. Get in touch with admin@deganz.co.nz if you’re a member and would like to share your story.
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The Guild wishes to congratulate Michelle Savill (DEGANZ) whose debut feature film Millie Lies Low, will have its North American premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Mark Albiston’s short film Datsun, edited by DEGANZ member Luke Haigh, will also have its North American premiere as part of the Narrative Shorts Competition.
Millie Lies Low will play in the Narrative Spotlight programme and brings Michelle back to SXSW. In 2013, her short film Ellen is Leaving won Best Narrative Short.
The Austin, Texas set SXSW Film Festival (March 11-20) will be a hybrid event with an online component.
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The six successful teams selected to take part in PASC and NZOA’s Episode One Web Series Programme have been announced. DEGANZ members Nahyeon Lee and Bala Murali Shingade are among them with two exciting projects.
Episode One is a PASC initiative that aims to develop more screen content by Pan-Asian New Zealanders. The programme supports six teams to take their projects from a pitch to a produced pilot.
ASIAN 8 – Outraged by the racism at her posh private girls’ school, an ambitious Year 12 student rallies fellow Asian students to support her bid for Head Girl, in exchange for finding them dates to the ball.
Team members: Nahyeon Lee, Vhari Lennox and Sarina Pearson
BOOM SHANKAR – When an overconfident bomb defusal officer and an anxious dairy owner end up dead after a failed bomb defusal, they must work together to navigate the bureaucratic Afterlife for one last chance at redemption.
Team members: Bala Murali Shingade, Aman Bajaj, Gayatri Adi and Porvi Fomra
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