Editor: Dara McNaught
Executive Director: Steven Gannaway
Features
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Head Cases
Dara McNaught interviews Brad Haami about a radical new concept in Maori comedy/drama – made by a UK TV company.
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Value Added? – the Role of the Maori Script Consultant
From words to wardrobing… WriteUP Online asks: What do Maori script consultants do?
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A Beginner’s Guide to the Logline
Loglines – are they worth the effort? And if so, what’s the point?
by Jane Sherning Warren. -
LA’s a Small Town
Michael Raymond’s adventures as a Nicholl finalist
Edited by Leonie Reynolds
Book Reviews
- Screenwriting for Teens 100 principles of screen writing every budding writer must know. By Christina Hamlett Reviewed by Graeme Tetley
- Archetypes for writers Using the power of your subconscious By Jennifer van Bergen Reviewed by Graeme Tetley
- The Moral Premise Harnessing virtue and vice for box office success By Stanley D. Williams, PhD Reviewed by Jane Sherning Warren
- The Creative Screenwriting Podcast Interviews with writers and directors. By Jeff Goldsmith. Reviewed by Benedict Reid
Quote
Making the Film (Eagle vs Shark) I really noticed how different the two story forms are. The short is free, poetic, limitless in its format, shape and style. The feature is much more conventional – limited by money, it forces you to obey story, plot and ‘acts’, and creates a relationship between you and the audience which is often frustrating and constraining. The short takes a month, the feature several years.
Apart from that they’re exactly the same.
Taika Waititi
(Two Cars, One Night; Eagle vs Shark)
‘Take’ Issue 47.
Editorial
Welcome to the Winter edition of WriteUp Online. I’d like to personally thank all those who gave up their time and shared their knowledge so that this edition could be created. Special thanks to Dara for putting it all together too.
The NZ Writers Guild has been busy over the last few months. The first Date Night, a Writers/Producers networking and pitching evening modelled on speed dating, was a success with good energy on the night and good contacts made. We will be replicating these in other centres round the country. This was a combined event with SPADA and SDGNZ.
The Guild also has a number of other initiatives in pre-production which we will be presenting to you soon. Many of them involve working with other industry groups because it just makes sense. Film and television is a collaborative effort and providing the support for industry professionals should be approached in the same way.
At the end of the day we all want the same thing: a strong, flourishing industry where we all spend every day being brilliantly talented and hugely well paid. Sound good? Cool.
Okay, maybe I’m being somewhat naïve, but lets take a moment and just enjoy the concept. Feel free to add pretty li’l birds singing joyfully and lambs skipping. It is almost spring after all.
Seriously: the goal of these initiatives is to be proactive, to promote professional growth and to facilitate successful communication. If you want to get from point A to point B it helps if everyone else is going in the same direction. One of the things I’ve appreciated the most since starting this job is the number of producers who have contacted the Guild for advice on what they should be offering their writers, and referring the writers on to us to have their contracts looked over. This is hugely encouraging.
The Guild is here primarily to promote and protect the interests of writers and I believe that anything we can do to assist in the facilitation of great projects and the growth of the industry is very much in all our best interests.
Please enjoy this edition of WriteUP Online, and if you have any feedback or if you wish to be a part of the NZWG, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Cheers,
Steven Gannaway
Executive Director
NZWG
Steven Gannaway
