Joanne Rye-McGregor is fired with enthusiasm to kickstart the film industry in Tauranga.
With a degree in film-making and directing, she's got the expertise; but this is one job you can't do alone.
So last year Joanne put out a call to other dedicated film-makers, whether scriptwriters, producers or camera operatives, and,
with a start-up grant from Creative Tauranga, the Tauranga Film Collective was born. Since then this growing fellowship of cinematic aficionados has done several shoots together.
My own experience is in scriptwriting, and I trained in Auckland. I worked on mental-health ads on TV for 10 years, and was thrilled in 2010 to win a New Zealand Writers Guild award.
Now a "Mount local", I am chuffed to be part of the TFC. We're developing our film-making skills together, and having lots of fun.
Our first short was Bird Feed, filmed on location - in my garden - with no planning, no script and no budget. We did it simply for the experience of working together. Tessa Blackett was behind the camera, Joanne directed and I was the star! (And only human actor!) It can be viewed on YouTube.
Our second short was a comedy-drama, again directed by Joanne and filmed by Howard Todd. Believe it or not, this ended up as a unique wedding gift for a local couple.
Next we tackled a musical number - local singer-songwriter Sophie Scott-Maunder performing her composition, Sleep. Joanne and Tessa co-directed, and Sophie's father, Murray Maunder, assisted Howard with the filming. I was in charge of props!
This continuing exchange of roles is important as the more we know of all the skills required in making a prize-winning film, the nearer we'll be to presenting our own film festival, Totally Tauranga.
That's why many of us attended a recent two-day course at the University of Waikato in Tauranga with well-known Auckland scriptwriter Kathryn Burnett. We learned so much! Our budding scriptwriters are now busy crafting ideas into workable storyboards. We're also entering many competitions.
TFC will be at Artfair 2011 on Saturday, March 19.
In the meantime, we're desperately seeking sponsors to fund film-making in the Tauranga community. So don't hold back if you're a millionaire who hankers to tread the red carpet arm-in-arm with our stars of the silver screen!
Contact Janet on 575 5144.
