Big Screen Symposium & Script to Screen

Three Canadian guests with diverse backgrounds and experiences will discuss international co-productions and industry trends in Canada. The shared concerns, values, and history of New Zealand and Canada make them an ideal country to partner with and partnering is a great way to fully finance your projects. Fraser Ash has worked with renowned creatives on complex film and TV productions, Alain Strati has industry knowledge from his policy and government relations work at the Canadian Media Producers Association, and Paula Devonshire, a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation, brings unique values from her work in the Canadian screen industry. Moderated by Entertainment Lawyer Sarah Cull. The talk is a collaboration with WIFT and the speakers are in New Zealand thanks to support from Ontario Creates, Telefilm Canada, Canadian Heritage, the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Indigenous Screen Office, the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, Te Māngai Pāho and Screen Wellington. They are attending the WIFT New Zealand / Canada Co-Production Summit.

Following the recent New Zealand release of The Moon is Upside Down, Loren Taylor (writer/director/actor) joins moderator and writer Duncan Sarkies (Scarfies, and Two Little Boys) to discuss her writing process, the challenges of creating stories and characters that come alive on screen, and how she and her team moved this unique and beautifully crafted feature from her initial idea to production and release. With a production schedule of just 22 days and a budget of $1.5million The Moon is Upside Down is a significant achievement. This promises to be a fascinating discussion and a rare insight into processes that will appeal to filmmakers at all levels, especially those wanting to make their first feature film.

The eleven regional film offices around New Zealand might be seen as competitors, but they’ve found a way over the last decade to cooperate and collaborate with each other in the spirit of ‘NZ Inc’, recognising the healthy ‘coopetition’ can be the best way to combine resources and achieve shared goals. They’re working towards a vision shared by many, a well-functioning Aotearoa New Zealand screen industry. This panel discusses how and why the RFOs work together and what lessons can be learnt about this collaboration. And most importantly, what exactly does a well-functioning screen industry look like, from North to South? Join this outstanding panel are moderator Jaclyn Philpott (Association of Film Commissioners International) visiting from Los Angeles, Petrina D’Rozario from Screen CanterburyNZ, Mark Westerby from Screen Wellington, Kahli Scott from Film Queenstown Lakes and Jade Kent from Film Bay of Plenty.

ALEXANDER SWORDS presents Diverse Story Telling Patterns. He introduces the building blocks and patterns discovered in his research for Narrative Design. This gives an insight “under the hood” of how the different conventions function to engage audiences around the world. You’ll discover what film and tv writers can learn from narrative design in games.

With many people unable to continue working full time due to changing life circumstances and wellbeing concerns or outright leaving the screen industry, job-sharing is becoming a widely recommended practice. Jonathon Dutton from Screen Well Australia presents the findings from the Screen Australia funded initiative, Breaking Down the Barriers to Job-Sharing which involved piloting job-sharing on a Matchbox Picture’s production in Sydney. Following Jonathon’s presentation, Screen Guild’s ED Kelly Lucas initiates a discussion with the audience to gain some answers about how our screen industry could successfully implement job-sharing.

NZ On Air Head of Music Teresa Patterson presents a conversation with experienced music supervisor Amine Ramer and Executive Producer Philippa Rennie to discuss the use of music in New Zealand screen stories. This includes forensic examination of a script, advice on budgeting for music, deciding how to use what songs where, and collaborating with the director, producer and editor on song choices. This session uses Testify as an example to show the power the right song has, to elevate moments on screen. This session is presented by NZ On Air to encourage more New Zealand music in our screen stories.

Getting on the Same Page is a method devised by Alexander Swords, a designer, a director, and a game runner, to get key creatives working together towards the same outcome. His “one page” of six instruments are taken from a range of creative processes to act as a source of truth. It holds intention, facilitates clearer communication, and helps teams hold themselves to account. During development it acts as prompts for all the important questions, and in production it helps teams understand the relationship between the many elements that come together for screen magic.

Three leading screenwriters, Michael Bennett, Dianne Taylor and Lulu Wang share their experiences on the craft of writing for film and series, from the first idea being conceptualised through to the final draft for production based on examples from their own acclaimed work. This session is moderated by Marc Laureano and presented by South Pacific Pictures.

Celebrating New Zealand talent the 2024 BSS Keynote address included seven New Zealand acting practitioners with unique stories and outlooks. In this podcast Cliff Curtis shares his thoughts on the BSS 2024 theme Stepping into the Unknown. This session, was presented by Te Mangai Paho.

Celebrating New Zealand talent the 2024 BSS Keynote address included seven New Zealand acting practitioners with unique stories and outlooks. In this podcast Jess Hong shares her thoughts on the BSS 2024 theme Stepping into the Unknown. This session, was presented by Te Mangai Paho.

Celebrating New Zealand talent the 2024 BSS Keynote address included seven New Zealand acting practitioners with unique stories and outlooks. In this podcast Lucy Lawless shares her thoughts on the BSS 2024 theme Stepping into the Unknown. This session, was presented by Te Mangai Paho.

Celebrating New Zealand talent the 2024 BSS Keynote address included seven New Zealand acting practitioners with unique stories and outlooks. In this podcast Robyn Malcolm shares her thoughts on the BSS 2024 theme Stepping into the Unknown. This session, was presented by Te Mangai Paho.

Script to Screen was delighted to present this in-conversation with Lee Tamahori, one of New Zealand’s most successful and celebrated filmmakers. He is the director and co-writer of The Convert, starring Guy Pearce and Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne and premiering at Toronto International Film Festival where it was described as ‘a stunning, sweeping & action-packed historical epic’. Paula Morris moderated the discussion exploring Lee's approach to making the film, including story themes, ideology and past experiences that guided his decisions.This talk was held in October 2023 at the Capitol Cinema in Auckland. ----more---- Lee Tamahori has an extraordinary body of work not limited to Once Were Warriors, Mulholland Falls, Along Came A Spider, Die Another Day, and more recently Mahana aka The Patriach. ----more---- This talk contains Explicit Language and mentions domestic violence and sexual assault. These themes and topics could be upsetting for some listeners. Discretion is advised. ----more---- This podcast is brought to you thanks to generous support from the New Zealand Film Commission, Foundation North, Images & Sound, White Studios and The Capitol Cinema. ----more---- The voiceover was recorded by Jamie Irvine, and the music is by Podington Bear. You can read more about these speakers at our website www.script-to-screen.co.nz