In the Producer's Corner

I have decided that I would like to take my career down the path to become a Producer. So, I have produced a few things this semester.

SIT TELEVISION COMMERCIALS

The first thing that I helped to produce, was a series of three television commercials that promoted three different courses offered at SIT - Bachelor of Digital Media, Bachelor of Audio Production and Bachelor of Applied Media Arts. I was resposible for working out the budget and being in charge of the spending of the money, helping to gain permission for filming locations, working out logistics, helping to source things needed for filming and just the general organisation of everything. Adam Browne (another third year Bachelor of Digital Media student) was the Director for these television commercials and he bought me in on this project. I enjoyed the experience of producing these television commercials.

HIRED

Hired is a comedic short film about two hit men that are given an assignment to kill a man who is responsible for stealing a mob boss's prized pet - his cat. Unfortunately, it all goes wrong and they end up shooting the cat as well as the person who stole the cat. After a meeting with a very unhappy mob boss, the pair decide that they will not be bullied by him and decide to turn the tables on the mob boss.

This short film was created by Vincent Bowes-Onions who is a third year Bachelor of Digital Media student but he is majoring in film. He asked me if I could help to produce this film with only a small amount of time to go before he started shooting. I sorted out locations for his film as well as organising the crew to arrive on time and the logistics of the film.

One of the locations was a park called Seaward Bush, which I had to get permission to use from the local Parks and Reserves office. I also had to notify the police (national and local) that we would be filming with fake/replica guns in case somebody from the public thought that they were real guns and called the police. If the police are called with a complaint and nobody is aware that it is actually a film set, then the armed offenders squad are dispatched to the location. If this happens and the police find out that it was only a film, then the police end up very angry with us. We managed to film in this location with no mishaps.

 Crew and cast filming at Seaward Bush, Invercargill.

We also filmed at Marco's Cafe on Tay Street in Invercargill, at SIT and at Vincent's house. There were some shots filmed that require visual effects done to them including some shots on the greenscreen that will require the backgrounds composited into the shots.

This shoot had a few hurdles and hiccups along the way, including two actors pulling out on the day and the day before they were required for filming. This caused some headaches but I was able to solve this by finding replacement actors at late notice. It was definitely a hard film shoot but filming was completed and it was definitely a learning curve for me as a Producer.

TIME LOST EMPIRES

Title made for television series - Artist: Bex Stanley.

I had a one day rest before the next film shoot was due to start. Steven Moseley, a Graduate Diploma in Film student, has created an idea for a television series called Time Lost Empires. It is a fantasy, victorian esk, steam punkish style series. Steven decided to make the first episode as his end of year personal project.

Amaranthine is a city protected by a time wall that the guardian Epoch erected to keep his people safe while thousands died, around the rest of the world. A catastrophic event has happened and all the magic that kept the world united harmoniously, has been shattered and has changed the world as it was known. The world is filled with magic and secrets. There are some people in this world that have magical powers or "gifts" as they are more fondly known as. Princess Aranna has a "gift" and has been kidnapped from Amaranthine. Unless she can be saved, Amaranthine may fall to the chaos that has consumed the rest of the world.

Concept art of King Leodrick - Artist: Bex Stanley.

This project required me to find and gain permission for filming locations, contacting crew and cast for meetings and rehearsals. I helped Steven with his casting auditions as well as helping to get costumes sorted for cast members. I spent every day on set helping where ever I was required which included preparing food for catering, being a runner and just an all round extra set of hands. We had a location drop out on us at the last minute but I was succesfully able to find another location.

Even though we managed to film most of this project, there are still a few shots left for Steven to film. Unfortunately. he will be pushing it for time, as everybody else is filming now and we are nearing the end of the academic year. I also will be unable to be on set for these last shots as I have to focus solely on my own project.

STILL IS THE NIGHT

Still frame from the short film "Still Is The Night".

"Still Is The Night" is a short film about three young men that live in a town similar to Invercargill. This town is not going forward and is stuck in a time warp as it has been struck down by the economic depression that is currently happening. It is almost a ghost town and the people there never progress and just get stuck there with no hope of getting out. The three young men, decide to rob the local petrol station as they seem to think this will be their ticket to bigger and better things. Unfortunately, the robbery goes terribly wrong when one of the men shoots the petrol attendant.

Adam Joseph Browne is the Director of "Still is The Night". I have worked on three different projects this year with Adam as the Director. Late last semester, Adam and I applied for funding for this film from the New Zealand Film Commission. We applied for the short film funding called the Fresh30 fund which gives the succesful applicants $30,000. It was an ambitious amount to apply for on our first attempt but we tried and unfortunately were unsucesful.

We decided we would make the film in spite of not getting the funding. Adam wrote this film and asked me if I would like to produce it. We have been organising and talking about his film for quite a few months now, so out of all three student projects that I produced, this one was by far the best organised, the easiest and the least stressful project to work on.

Adam and I started scouting locations and asking for permission for filming about two months before his shoot commencement date. The week leading up to the film shoot, both Adam and I were on set helping steven with Time Lost Empires but we managed to do the last few things that needed to be sorted which to be honest was not very much and took approximately an hour all together to get done.

On this shoot, Adam kept me off set, so that I could get some work done on my own personal project. I only spent one day on shoot and in actual fact it was a night shoot that started at 3pm and finished at 11pm. This was the night that we had to film the robbery scene in the petrol station. Tramway road Motors was the petrol station that we used in the robbery scene. It is in a residential area and because we were using fake weapons that looked real, I had to notify the police, so that the armed offenders squad was not sent to our location. Adam asked me to be there for this shoot, as the police had my contact details if they needed to speak to somebody about what we were doing. The police came once (mainly to be nosey) and this was because a resident called and said there was a huge light set up, someone taking photos and young people suspiciously moving road cones around at the petrol station. This shoot went off without a hitch or a bad incident involving the armed offenders squad.

Actor Taylor Barrett inside car - still frame taken from "Still Is The Night".

The next step for "Still Is The Night" after all the post production work is completed on it, is that Adam and I would like to send it to as many film festivals as we can. We will be working on this after our academic year is completed.

I have discovered after producing all of these projects that not one project is the same and each project comes with its own set of problems, twists and turns. A lot of the work a Producer does (aside from budgets, logistics, permissions and sourcing) is problem solving and on your feet problem solving at that. Some people think that I am crazy for loving producing and I don't know why I love it, I just do! I can't wait to get out into the industry and be doing it all the time!

Kiwianna

This semester we have been working on our own personal projects. I have decided to create my own animated web series. The web series that I am developing will be intended for New Zealand children from the ages of 9 - 12 years old and will contain 100% "kiwi" content. A majority of children's cartoon and television series shown in New Zealand, come from America and everything about them screams out America. New Zealand children need more exposure to things that are iconically kiwi including cartoons and television shows. I am creating a web series because viewing things online is fast becoming the way that everybody views videos, their favourite television shows and even films. Viewing these things online, means that the viewer is able to have control over when and where they can watch these videos, shows and films.

Kiwianna logo design

Kiwianna is not only the name of this web series but is also the name of the town that the series is based in. Kiwianna is an average sized town where there is little opportunity for young people to progress and there is also not many good activities for young people to participate in and so once you have done each activity in Kiwianna that is all there is to do.

The characters are humanoid New Zealand native birds and animals. They have no human attributes though. Their legs have been extended to make them walk upright like a human and their wings have been lengthened to make them work like arms, hands and fingers. The characters have been influenced by the character designs of Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show.

 Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show

The style of this web series will be having 2D animated characters with black outlines and solid block colours on 3D backgrounds that have a neutral colour pallet to make the characters stand out against them. The influences of the style of this web series are Regular Show and The Amazing World of Gumball. These two cartoon series have 2D animal characters that are humanoid without having actual human attributes. Both series also use neutral backgrounds that make the characters stand out against the backgrounds.

The Amazing World of Gumball

Hey Arnold!

The cartoon series Hey Arnold! has influenced the story. Hey Arnold! is a cartoon series that follows Arnold and a bunch of his teenage friends. It follows their ups and downs and all the issues that this group of teenagers come across. Just like Hey Arnold!, Kiwianna will follow a group of teenagers and watch how they deal with every day problems as well as introducing each character. Pipi Potaka and Tuibelle Turner are the main characters and are best friends. Each episode will follow both of these girls as they deal with new problems and will also let the audience meet Pipi and Tuibelle's friends.

KIWIANNA CHARACTERS

PIPI POTAKA

Pipi is a 16 year old only child who was bought up by her Mother. She is a well read and intelligent girl. Her Mother is a cleaner at the local primary school and they are a lower class family but Pipi's Mother always sacrifices everything and provides Pipi with everything she needs. Pipi appreciates everything she is given and every opportunity that arises for her and never takes anything for granted.

Pipi is well liked by all of her peers, although she has a couple of enemies that are jealous of her intelligence. She is kind and caring and always tries to help people in need. She tends to help too many people at once which usually ends with Pipi having an overload. She has a terrible temper when things have built up on her and everybody is a target when her temper rears it's ugly head.

Pipi's best friend is Tuibelle Turner. They have been best friends for years and years and they compliment each other nicely. The two girls are more like sisters than friends and they integrate into each other's home/family lives seamlessly.

TUIBELLE TURNER

Tuibelle is a 16 year old girl who lives with her Mother and Father in an upper class family. Tuibelle's older brother is studying engineering at university. Tuibelle's parents are very supportive of everything she does. She is Pipi's best friend and the pair are inseparable.

Tuibelle is a beautiful girl with an amazing singing voice. Everybody wants to be as beautiful and talented as her. Tuibelle is very competitive at times and does not always take rejection well. She can also come across as too sure of herself sometimes which can make her rub up people the wrong way.

WENDY WATSON

Wendy is 15 years old and is highly competitive. She is the sporty, athlete of this group of teenagers. Her competitiveness comes from her Mother who is a big time lawyer in Kiwianna. Wendy’s competitive streak can make her come across as aggressive and nasty. Her friends refer to this as beast mode and some people dislike Wendy purely because of this behaviour.

FERNELL FOSTER

Fernell is 16 years old and is a very spoilt girl. Her parents are very wealthy and give in to her every whim. She is left to her own devices a majority of the time as her parents are always away running their company. Fernell is a social butterfly and is constantly on her cell phone text messaging, calling and using social media. She is an awesome social events organiser and her parties are the best to be invited to attend. Unfortunately, this is all Fernell is good at and she is not very liked by anyone because she has little tolerance for people and is very bossy and bitchy. Her friends just tolerate her because it’s not worth getting on the wrong side of her.

KARL KAKARIKI

Karl is a 15 year old boy who has had a little bit of a rough upbringing. He has two younger siblings that his Mother spends most of her time dealing with, so Karl is the forgotten child. He is a clown and makes people laugh. He has the best intentions but tends to get himself in a little bit of trouble from time to time. He has a problem with stealing and will sometimes just steal something because he can. This makes Karl not trustworthy but his friends and people that don’t judge him for the trouble he has been in, find him to be a likeable rogue.

KEVIN KAWAI

Kevin is 16 years old and comes from a rugby crazy family. He is the youngest of four boys. Kevin might look like the stereotypical rugby player but his secret passion is flower arranging. His Mother is a florist and because he is the youngest, he spent a lot of time helping his Mother out in her floristry because he was too small to do bloke stuff with his Father and brothers. Kevin is not the normal boisterous rough and tumble sort of rugby bloke but instead is very caring, quiet and sensitive. He is constantly taken advantage of by people because of his kind, caring nature and he really needs to learn to stand up for himself every once in a while.

METUA MORRISON

Metua is a little older than the other teenagers in the group and is 17 years old. He is an orphan as his parents died when he was just a baby. He has no othe natural family and has been bounced from one foster home to the next. Metua has been living in his current foster home for the last four years which is the longest home he has had. He is wickedly talented at drawing, painting and just art in general. Metua is very pessimistic and spends most of his time depressed. Whenever it looks as though something positive is about to happen for him, Metua sabotages any chance of a positive outcome happening.

TERRENCE THOMPSON

Mr. Thompson is a 76 year old man who has seen many historical events happen in his lifetime. His wife passed away approximately 12 years ago which turned him into a grumpy and bitter old man. He dislikes everybody and especially young people. Even when the young people are nice to him, he cannot tolerate or find a way to like them at all.














The web series will consist of six episodes that run for no longer than three minutes each. I have come up with a plan for all six episodes and an idea or theme that each one is about. In the first series/season, the episodes will introduce each character and will show in depth, each character's personality. The very first episode will be the one that I am making this semester and it will introduce all of the character's briefly, so that the audience can get a rough odea of each character's personality.

TREATMENT

EPISODE ONE

Pipi and Tuibelle are best friends. They are both unique and completely different from
each other but they have a few similarities which is what compliments their relationship. They hang out with a group of teenagers who come from all different walks of life. There is Kevin the rugby player, Wendy the competitive athlete, Fernell the party and drama queen, Metua the quiet artistic orphan and Karl the likeable, delinquent rogue. Then there’s old Mr. Thompson, the grumpy old man who sits on the doorstep constantly yelling and waving his walking stick at the group of friends.

Pipi and her friends are bored and hanging out in Pipi’s garage. They decide that they are going to go fishing but unfortunately, the path that leads to the river is being upgraded and the only way to get to the river is through old man Thompson’s back yard and he does not like people in general, especially not teenagers! The group devise a cunning plan to try and make it through Mr. Thompson’s property undetected while the old man is asleep on his porch in his rocking chair. After many close calls, with a ringing cell phone and fishing gear being dropped, the friends make it through to the old river gate at the back of Mr. Thompson’s property. As Karl fumbles with the latch on the gate, it makes a huge screeching noise which wakes Mr. Thompson. The old man instantly springs to action and walks as fast as he can towards the back fence. Karl panics at the sight of the old man advancing and accidentally latches the gate with his t-shirt stuck in it. Karl is trying to run and can not pull his t-shirt out. All of the friends rush to his aid and pull him with all their might and just as the grumpy old manreaches out to grab Karl, the t-shirt rips and the friends go hurtling to the ground. They all jump up off the ground and start running away down the riverbank with the angry cries of Mr. Thompson getting further and further away.

While the group are running, Pipi reminds the friends that they have to go back home
that way and all the teenagers grimace as they continue running down the bank.

EPISODE TWO

Pipi and Tuibelle team up to sell chocolate bars for their school fundraiser. The student or student’s who sell the most bars get a prize. The girls decide to work together and go halves in the prize. Wendy finds out what the girls are up to and due to her competitive nature, teams up with Fernell and challenges the pair to their own personal chocolate selling competition. The four girls go to war in a chocolate bar selling frenzy. They sabotage each other and come up with creative ways to sell the
bars. This competition makes the girls dislike each other and when it comes to a close, both sides believe that they have done way better than the other. Unfortunately, somebody else entirely, wins the prize for selling twice as much chocolate as all four girls put together. The girls are shocked and stunned but are also forced to apologise to each other and make a mends.

EPISODE THREE

Pipi and Tuibelle go on a mission to help Karl stop stealing and to try and find a way to cheer Metua up. Karl’s stealing is out of control and the two girls work with him to find ways to manage the urge to steal. Meanwhile, Metua is so down and out that the girls decide to find different ways to try and cheer him up. There is a small glimmer of hope that Metua will cheer up and he shows signs of this until something reminds him about his dead parents and they are back to square one. As for Karl, he ends up being accused of stealing old man Thompson’s New Zealand flag from his porch. The
girls have to help Karl clear his name and find out who the real culprit is as well as stop Karl from re-offending. Just when they think they have reached a break through with Karl, he has gone back to his old ways.

EPISODE FOUR

The group of teenagers have had enough of old man Thompson and his constant
yelling and disapproving of everything they do, so they decide to reap revenge on the old timer. They prank Mr. Thompson by covering his entire yard and house in toilet paper. To their surprise Mr. Thompson breaks down in tears when he sees the destruction they have caused. The teenagers start to feel sorry for the old man and approach him to apologise. After speaking to Mr. Thompson, they decide that he isn’t such a bad old guy after all and that he is just misunderstood. The teenagers offer to clean up the mess. They clean it and the old man is very thankful but when the group try to talk to the old man the next day, he is just the same as he has always been –grumpy and sour towards them. It seems the teens just cannot win when it comes to grumpy old Mr. Thompson.

EPISODE FIVE

Pipi and Tuibelle head out to go down to the local skate park. They are chatting about school and life in general when suddenly something grabs Pipi’s attention and before the girls realise, they are reminiscing about how they first met and became friends. They take a trip down memory lane to find out what made them like each other and what caused them to meet.

EPISODE SIX

Pipi and Tuibelle try keeping Kevin’s secret after they accidentally stumble across it. Somebody else also finds out and tells everybody and Kevin automatically accuses Pipi and Tuibelle search for the big mouth and once they find out all the details, Kevin apologises and life in Kiwianna goes back to normal for all the characters once again.

INTENDED OUTCOMES

I would like to get this web series funded first and foremost. I will be putting a proposal together and applying for some funding to make this web series and get it off the ground. The other intended outcome for this web series is for it to become a transmedia product.

The web series has the potential to have more seasons than just the first one. The seasons that follow would expand on the themes of being a teenager living in a small town and the angst and awkwardness that teenagers face in their daily lives.

A social media following will be built up using Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram. YouTube and Vimeo will also be used to showcase behind the scenes footage and interviews with the characters in short skits while the next episode is in production to help keep the audience and fan base captivated and interested.

Merchandising is also an option once the fan base has been built up. Once Kiwianna has a strong following and there is much interest in the series, the merchandising can slowly expand as the fan base expands. T-shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, posters and stationery will be amongst the merchandise that will be available for fans to purchase.

Eventually the series could be made into a feature film and the story could expand further on the daily lives of the characters of Kiwianna and the problems faced by New Zealand teenagers all over the nation 

Bones of Essimer

Bones of Essimer is still in post production. The animation team have been busy modelling and texturing 3D assets and backgrounds. Buildings, market stalls and an epic bone ship have been created. There is a lot of work that has gone into this project so far and there is still much more to go. The next step is to start compositing all these assets and the live action footage together for each shot. Then any atmospherics and colour corrections will be done and the final sound put with it and the cinematic will be done. Even though this sounds like it will be simple, it will not and there is a lot of work to be done.

I have been helping to sort out the final figures for the budget, to make sure that everybody is paid back for any contributions that they made to the project and also trying to sort through all the concept art and behind the scenes photos to create a Bones of Essimer art book. There are hundreds and hundreds of behind the scenes photos to sort through and there are so many good ones that it os hard to choose which ones to put in and which ones don't really need to go in. The book needs to be beautiful as it is one of our Pledge Me rewards. The other Pledge Me rewards are also currently being worked on as they need to be sent out to all of our awesome pledgers.

Our tutors are taking some of the Bones of Essimer concept art, behind the scenes photos and props to Armageddon in Auckland over labour weekend to promote Physical Realm Studio and Bones of Essimer. They will also be promoting SIT and many of the other art students that belong to SIT.

Bones of Essimer has been a really interesting project with lots of twists and turns so far and with so much more to do and so little time left, it will be interesting to see what the outcome of this entire project will end up being.