Directing In the Intimate Zone

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Jennifer Ward-Lealand

Call for Applications.

Until now, many directors have given little thought to directing actors in scenes that involve intimacy, nudity and simulated sex. This needs to be addressed, as these scenes can make actors feel extremely vulnerable, particularly when this sensitive area of performance is not given the preparation and care it is due.

The Directors & Editors Guild of NZ encourages members of the Guild to apply for our one-day workshop on directing intimacy with Jennifer Ward-Lealand Te Atamira.

In this workshop, we will discuss and work with actors on the process of developing an intimate scene for the screen using the best practice guidelines developed by UK intimacy coordinator Ita Oโ€™Brien, who was brought over by Equity to run training workshops in Auckland late last year.

There are four places for directors to participate and up to 14 places for directors to observe.

Participant Directors upon selection will each be invited to submit a short, intimate scene โ€“ either with or without dialogue โ€“ for consideration ahead of the workshop. During the class, Participant Directors will take turns to direct and co-direct pairs of actors in intimate scenes under Jenniferโ€™s guidance.

When: Sunday 10 March 2019, 9am โ€“ 5pm

Where: MTG RM, 2 Kingsland Terrace, Kingsland, Auckland
A travel allowance may be available to selected Participant Directors travelling from outside the Auckland region.

Cost: Free
Light refreshments provided.

About Jennifer Ward-Lealand

Since training at Aucklandโ€™s influential Theatre Corporate, Jennifer has worked extensively in theatre, film, television, musical and radio for over 35 years. Jennifer is one of New Zealandโ€™s most recognisable acting talents and a respected theatre director. She has taught for The Actorsโ€™ Program, Toi Whakaari and NASDA.

Jennifer is currently President of Equity New Zealand, Patron of Q Theatre, and serves as a trust board member of The Actors Benevolent Fund. In the 2007 New Years Honours List, she was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to theatre and the community. She was given the SPADA Industry Champion award in 2018 and in the New Yearโ€™s Honours List was made a CNZM, Companion of the NZ Order of Merit for services to theatre, film and television.

Eligibility to Apply:

This workshop is R18.

If you apply as a Participant and are not selected, you will be considered for a place as an Observer.

Participant Directors:

  • You must be a DEGNZ member.
  • You must have experience directing at least short films/dramatic content, and are working in/moving into longer-form drama/film.

Observer Directors:

  • You must be a DEGNZ member.
  • Preference will be given to those who are actively engaged in directing or preparing to direct narrative drama, especially if you are dealing with scenes of nudity, intimacy, and/or simulated sex.

To Apply

Application Deadline: 3PM, Friday 22 February 2019

STEP 1:ย Sign in below and submit the form.

STEP 2:ย You will be redirected to the File Upload page, which can also be found here. Upload your application file(s) in PDF. Submit before the deadline:

  • a CV/bio with filmography
  • a brief, maximum one-page letter summarising why you would like to participate/observe, what you hope to gain from the workshop, and any experience directing intimacy (not a requirement for selection).

Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

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This initiative is brought to you with the generous support of the New Zealand Film Commission.

NZFC

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First 2019 Table Read Now Open for Applications

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Applications open today for the first 2019 Table Read.

A core cast โ€“ max six actors โ€“ together with a writer+director team OR writer/director will collaborate on each script-in-development table read. The script must have a director attached and have been through a development process.

Four Table Reads per year on Saturdays @NZWG HQ in Grey Lynn.

2019 Table Reads

Table Read #1

Open: 21 January
Close: 15 February
Tableย Read:ย Sat 23 February

Table Read #2

Open: 15 April
Close: 10 May
Tableย Read:ย Sat 18ย May

Table Read #3

Open: 8 July
Close: 2 August
Tableย Read:ย Sat 10 August

โ€‹Table Read #4

Open: 21 October
Close: 15 November
Tableย Read:ย Sat 23 November

A Joint Initiative brought to you by:
NZWG,ย DEGNZย &ย EQUITY Foundation
With warm thanks to theย New Zealand Film Commission

How to Submit a Script

DEGNZ and NZWG members are invited to apply for the script component.

Submit a full-length draft feature film script for your name to go into the draw for a day-long table read (names remain for subsequent draws).

WRITER + DIRECTOR* (OR WRITER/DIRECTOR) โ€“ย Submit script via email toย GuildHQ@nzwg.org.nzย – Please check these details before you enter:

*Both must be a member(s) of NZWG and DEGNZ:

  • A solo Writer/Director must be a member of both NZWG and DEGNZ.
  • In a Writer-Director team, the Writerย must be a member of NZWG, ANDย the Director must be a member of DEGNZ.

When you enter, please include this information:

  • name of writer, and if they belong to NZWG
  • name of director, and if they belong to DEGNZ

Actors: Call for Applicants for Table Read #1

We are looking for actors to work together with writers and directors on a script-in-development table read. Actors must be members ofย Equity New Zealand.

Actors, please register your interest below and the NZWG will contact you if you are cast. You will receive a Prezzy card as a nominal appreciation for your participation.

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Summer Giveaway: Whatever It Takes by John Reid

Whatever It Takes_John Reid

This summer, weโ€™re celebrating the release of the much-anticipated new book by filmmaker, writer and DEGNZ Lifetime member John Reid โ€“ Whatever It Takes: Pacific Films and John Oโ€™Shea 1948-2000.

In Whatever It Takes, Reid tells the true story of a man and his vision, and of the entrepreneurs and dreamers who gathered around him in pursuit of films that would define New Zealand cinema. In a career spanning fifty years, John Oโ€™Shea nurtured a generation of filmmakers.

Pacific Films was founded on the belief that without locally made feature films, a country imperils its very identity. Led by its idiosyncratic producer John Oโ€™Shea, the story of Pacific Films begins at the emergence of a New Zealand national cinema in the second half of the twentieth century, when Pacific was virtually the only independent voice, beholden neither to the government nor the establishment, but determined to establish the value of its production with both.

Win Yourself a Copy of Whatever It Takes

DEGNZ has one copy of this fantastic book to give away to a lucky member, thanks to Victoria University Press ($60).

Every DEGNZ member with a current membership on 28 February 2019 will be entered into the draw with a chance to win. Members who join or renew their membership by 28 February 2019 will also be in the draw.*

One winner will be drawn on 1 March 2019.

 

*Terms and Conditions of entry:

  • To qualify for this competition, your DEGNZ membership must be current on 28 February 2019. New or returning members must join DEGNZ by 28 February 2019.
  • Full, Associate and Student members are eligible.
  • Your membership gives you one entry into the draw.
  • DEGNZ will use reasonable efforts to contact the winner within 7 days of the Prize Draw date.
  • The Winner must respond and accept the Prize within 14 calendar days from the date of such contact or the prize will be forfeited and another draw undertaken.
  • DEGNZโ€™s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to.
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Geoff Murphy, Iconoclastic Filmmaker

When Geoff Murphy died last week, he left a film industry very different from the one that he entered in the 1970s. In those days it couldnโ€™t be called an industry โ€“ just a bunch of mates trying to make movies. Geoff was at the forefront of the renaissance and deserves the accolades bestowed later in life: a lifetime achievement award at the Moa New Zealand Film Awards, one of twenty Arts Foundation โ€œarts iconsโ€, New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2014 Queenโ€™s New Year Honours.

Colourful, irreverent, his anti-authoritarianism was a badge of honour to the end, his signature gesture an up-thrust middle finger to the establishment. I remember, a decade ago, sitting with him on the porch of his man-cave in Holloway Road as, a roll-your-own stuck to his lip (Diane wouldnโ€™t let him smoke inside) he carved miniature cannons for his model warships and railed against the mendacious moguls of Hollywood and bumbling bureaucrats of Wellington.

A budding teaching career didnโ€™t have a hope when he discovered jazz, drugs and Bruno Lawrence. They created BLERTA โ€“ Bruno Lawrenceโ€™s Electric Revelation and Traveling Apparition. A bunch of hippy musos, partners, their kids and assorted hangers-on toured the country in their bus jolting the locals awake with a crazy mix of theatre, jazz, rock, pyrotechnics and psychedelics. And film. They were experimenting with film in their concerts and from this grew their first films – Wild Man and Dagg Day Afternoon.

Some of the BLERTA crew – including Alun Bollinger, Martyn Sanderson, Bruno and Geoff – put their 60s principles into practice scraping together enough to buy some land at Waimarama and establishing a commune focussed around making music and movies.

With no money and no gear, they built their own. He and Andy Grant built the first camera crane in the country. His very kiwi ability to find creative solutions to problems stood him in good stead all his career.

In 1981 I remember coming out of a screening of Goodbye Pork Pie with a silly grin on my face. It was this tongue-in-cheek road movie that established Geoff as New Zealandโ€™s pre-eminent action director and Alun Bollinger as a highly-rated cinematographer. The film somehow captured the zeitgeist of the time and New Zealanders took it to their hearts. To Geoffโ€™s surprise it set box-office records that took years to surpass.

His next film, Utu, is regarded by many as his best. Quentin Tarantino possesses an intimate knowledge of New Zealand cinema and Utu is his favourite. However, the cut that was released had been โ€œimprovedโ€ by the producers and Geoff was not happy. When, in 2013, Nga Taonga Sound and Vision (the NZ Film Archive) was restoring Utu, Geoff was given the chance to recreate his directorโ€™s cut. He leapt at the opportunity. The result was released as Utu Redux. More recently Tarantino was putting together a season of screenings of his favourite films. He rang Geoff to ask for permission to screen Utu and explained that he needed a 35ml print. Geoff insisted he screen the Redux version and when he realized that they could only access a 16ml print of Redux, and Quentin would have to screen the original version, Geoff withdrew permission.

After Quiet Earth Geoff headed to Hollywood to work on action block-busters like Young Guns II, Freejack, Under Seige II and The Last Outlaw. Despite mixing with Hollywood royalty, Geoff, ever the outlaw himself, refused to be impressed by fame. His battered Toyota station-wagon stood out among the Ferraris and Bentleys in the studio carpark.

By this time he had left both his wife Pat and long-time lover Diane and married film-maker Merata Mita. Their son Hepi remembers growing up in Hollywood: โ€œMickey Oโ€™Rourke used to hang out on our couch. One day Mick Jagger rang and invited us down to stay on Mustique, his Caribbean island, so off we went. Dad and Mick got on like a house on fire.โ€

When Peter Jackson invited Murphy to be second unit director on the Rings trilogy, he returned to Wellington where he moved in with old flame Diane Kearns. A solid unit, they were together till the end.

In 2009 I had the privilege of working with Geoff on Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a genre-bending music film based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe with music by Lucien Johnson.

In 2014 his last film was released: Spooked, a cyber-thriller starring Cliff Curtis.

Despite his time in Hollywood, he was very clear about both the difference between Hollywood and New Zealand films, and his identity as primarily a New Zealand film-maker telling โ€œour storiesโ€.

He is survived by his brothers John and Roy, and a number of children, several of whom are in the screen industry โ€“ Robin (production manager and producer), Paul (director – Second Hand Wedding, Lovebirds), Matt (director – Pork Pie โ€“ the remake), Linus, Miles (director โ€“ commercials and short films), Heperi (director – Te Taki A Merata Mita โ€“ How Mum Decolonised The Screen), Rafer, Richard, Rhys, Awatea, and step children Joe and Paul Kearns.

 

Howard Taylor
President

8 December 2018

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Film Talk: Q&A Screening of In The Zone

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In The Zone film

In the Zone posterFrom DEGNZ member Robyn Paterson comes the inspiring, challenging and emotional feature documentary, In The Zone.

Join us on December 6 for a Film Talk of In The Zone at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket, Auckland. After the film, Robyn Paterson and Terrance Wallace, founder of the InZone Project, joins DEGNZ for an audience Q&A. We’d love to see you there.

Throughout its powerful narrative, In The Zone raises poignant questions about education, privilege, diversity, and cycles of inequality across the Western world. A visiting African-American businessman establishes a home for minority teens in New Zealand’s most sought after school zone. But with political and racial tensions rising in the USA, he must choose between the teens in his care, and his own community back home in Chicago.

When: Thu 6 December 2018, 6pm
Where: Rialto Cinemas Newmarket,ย 167-169 Broadway, Newmarket, Auckland

Book Tickets

 

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