Filmmaking

Making films is a recent passion of mine.

I have no formal education in film or cinema. I guess it comes down to that adage that you hire for attitude not skill. -I have a good attitude for getting things done, and a breadth of experience behind me which I can draw on in a variety of situations. I have some experience with project management which seems to help in a producer role, and I have some practical creativity that allows me to solve problems on set.

My role in the short films I have been a part of have mostly been General Hand or Stunt Extra (Those years of Karate tournaments and running a dojo finally paid off!). I was the Producer for Only Humane. I am happy to give anything a go, so if you have a project that you need someone for, give me a yell and if my schedule allows I will be happy to help out.

From October 2015 I have been listed with the BGT Talent agency and have been involved in a number of TV advertisements, TV series, and movies. While this has been a great learning experience I have been limited to being an Extra, excuse me – background talent, or Action Extra or Featured Extra. I will list those roles at the bottom of this page as they are interesting, but not really filmmaking in and of themselves.

Here though is my Show Reel to give you some idea of my extra look or acting abilities:

Here are the films I have been a part of:

Lazy Sunday – Lead Actor
This film is our entry into Tropfest 2016. It is an action movie with little dialogue. Still, acting is pushing my comfort zone, and playing the lead is definitely a challenge. Although shortlisted we did not make it into the finals for Tropfest 2016.

Only Humane – Producer.
A short film made for festivals. The world premiere was at the Arohanui Film Festival in 2016. International premiere was at Snowdance in Germany, February 2017. North American premiere at the High Desert Film Festival in Nevada, May 2017 where the film won best short drama and received the People’s Choice award.
You can watch Only Humane here

Mime – 2nd AD (2nd unit).
A short film by Paige Larianova, you can find out more on the Mime Facebook page.This film is finished and I will post on this page when available.

Daredevil: Bad Blood – Stunt Extra
A fan film made specifically for the Armageddon 2015 SciFi/Fantasy Film Festival. I am really proud to have been part of this film as I think it is the best work our group has done to date.

Stumped – Producer
Made for 48 hour film festival 2015, this film was disqualified because we handed in an incomplete render (only part of the film) in the last minutes of the competition. The plan is to tidy up the edit and release it and see how it goes with festivals. Still in post production.

Red on the Green – Producer
I was producer with a small cameo, this film was a 2015 Tropfest Finalist

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You Only Die Forever – Stunt Extra
This film was a 2014 Tropfest finalist and won an award for Special Effects. I played a number of the bad guys (including the ninja) and lost count of how many times I ‘died’ in this film. It also marked the beginning of my work with Adam Harvey, Sash Nixon, Ben Corcoran, and Derek Neal.

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Seeds of Passion – Producer/Writer
Never completed this was an attempt to put together a film for 2013 Tropfest. We shot the footage, but did not have enough coverage to edit together. A very poor attempt at making a film, but I have probably learned more from Seeds of Passion and Karmageddon than from anything else.

Karmageddon – Producer
Made for 48 hour film festival, this was a truly appalling film, and my first venture into film making.

The Last Tattoo (1994) – Stunt Extra
This was a feature movie shot in Wellington under the working title Taking Liberties. I never saw the final result, so if anyone has, please let me know.

These are the Background Talent Roles I’ve Had:

The Wonder (3D) – Background Talent
This is the biggest feature film I have ever been a part of. Directed by Norman Stone with a budget of $17m and shot in China and New Zealand. I play a small background part of an NEI agent.

Roman Empire: Reign of Blood – Featured Extra
I had a role as a Roman legionary who pretty much dobs in the Empress. Lisa who plays the Empress was great, and helped me with my fledgling acting skills.This is now available to watch on Netflix

Roman Empire: Caligula – Action Extra
I was asked back for the second season and did two days on set. One day as a trainee gladiator engaged in swordplay in back of main action shot. The second day I was a Gaul engaged in battle in several battle and aftermath scenes.

Making of the Mob 2 – Action Extra
In this I played one of the Irish mob boss’ henchmen. I had a couple of brief scenes shot in the same day. The big scene was being on the wrong end of an ambush and dying fairly graphically. I am really keen to see how that comes out because it ‘felt’ odd, but I have no idea what it looked like.

Project Fox – Extra
In this documentary on Hugh Hefner I played a Keyholder in the London playboy club.

Pike River Mine – Extra
In this telefeature I play one of the rescue workers forbidden by the NZ police to go in to do my job. It gets a bit ugly.

Why Does Love – Extra
In this TeleFeature on the NZ band the Exponents I have a couple of extra roles, playing a sound engineer in the film crew making their documentary and also playing a security guard at the 1983 David Bowie concert that the Exponents opened for.

No Country for Young Girls – Villain
This short film was shot in the Nevada desert not far from Death Valley. The trip to High Desert International Film Festival for Only Humane gave us the opportunity to team up with some Canadian filmmakers, Ron Devitt & Wayne Bradford to film this short.

Merrin – Music Video – Bar Thug
I really like this song and the video! This was a quick run & gun shoot with minimal direction. Good fun but some of the talent needed some more lessons in theatre fighting.
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TV Commercials
As of October 2016 I have been 6 TV commercials.

TV Series -Extra

• Shortland Street
• Ash Vs Evil Dead
• Brokenwood Mysteries
• Dirty Laundry

Only Humane, image courtesy of Dan Inglis – daninglis.co.nz