Whānau Mārama:
New Zealand International Film Festival
VOLUNTEER, CONTRACTOR, EMPLOYEE : 2013 - 2022
The New Zealand International Film Festival is a national event extending the cinematic options of audiences and filmmakers throughout New Zealand. I have worked with and created content for the Festival since 2013, and it has been an incredible, life-changing experience. I have produced everything from printed collateral, social media content, promotional videos, trailers, and video content shown on cinema screens around the country. Below is a snapshot of some of the work I have produced.
A very, very special thanks to Abby Cattermole, Anna Birchall, Bex Shannon, Bill Gosden, Caroline Palmer, Cianna Canning, Daniel Batkin-Smith, David Oxenbridge, Emma Carter, Estela Sangkop, Jessica Hof, Johannes Contag, Kezia Dwyer, Lisa Bomash, Lynnaire MacDonald, Marten Rabarts, Melissa Booth, Nic Marshall, Rebecca McMillan, Rosie Jones, Sally Woodfield, Sharon Byrne, Sophia Romanos, and Tim Prebble.
2013
NEC New Zealand contributed as a sponsor to these festivals over the years, providing technical resources and support. And as a long-time admirer of the Film Festival, it was an honour to work on sponsorship and advertising projects as part of NEC and then later join the festival's volunteer team as a freelancer.
As part of NEC's sponsorship, I produced a 10 second promo video for NZIFF that was displayed on the Wellington Airport video wall for three months. The video had to be 10 seconds in length with an aspect ratio of 3840 x 1080, displaying the dates and locations of the festival and include that year's key art and a mention of NEC's sponsorship. As this was my first experience with large-format motion graphic advertising, I kept it simple and followed the key art's flying ship for inspiration.
2014
In 2014 NEC were in the process of introducing to the market GhostWorks, a digital signage solution package. As part of NEC's sponsorship of NZIFF, we agreed to test Ghostworks on a big scale: it was rolled out on screens mounted to trolleys, distributed to cinemas around the country, with custom digital NZIFF content I designed to promote the films and special events.
This was a massive undertaking. As there were less screens available than cinemas that needed them, we had to ship screens around the country and customise the content for each cinema - trailers had to be sourced, full schedules organised and content written and created for each day and each location. Our deadline was measured in days rather than weeks.
The final result was a great way for casual cinema visitors to get a look into what was available in the festivals and what the latest schedule at their local cinema looked like. We were all very proud of the end result.
2016
As a long-time admirer of the New Zealand International Film Festival, it was an honour to join the volunteer team for 2016. My contributions included creating a series of videos to promote the special live screening of Variety, a 1925 silent film from Germany. Variety is accompanied by a brand new score written by Wellington-based composer Johannes Contag, performed live at the screening by Wellington’s SMP Ensemble, conducted by Karlo Margetic.
To promote this event, I created a series of short clips and promotional videos using footage from an interview with Johannes. The videos were distributed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and screened at special events during the festival. I also assisted with editing and adding title sequences to festival movie trailers and electronic press kits for films including Embrace, HeART of the Matter, and Miss Sharon Jones.
2017 & 2018
I assisted with editing videos, adding title sequences and motion graphics, transcribing subtitles for movie trailers and creating over 40 promotional flyers used to promote individual festival movies, which were distributed across Auckland in public spaces, libraries and cinemas.
2019
After volunteering with the festival in previous years, it was a huge honour and thrill to join the team full-time for the 2019 festival and help out with content creation and social media management for two months.
As part of my role, I came up with a video template that could be used to promote the finalists of the New Zealand's Best Short Film Awards, which had been selected by director Jane Campion. Those six videos were my first trailers created for the festival, raising awareness of the films and encouraging people to attend the screenings and vote for their favourite entries.
I worked with the social media manager to co-ordinate content and release schedules, with my first priority being partners and sponsors. I also established NZIFF's podcasting presence using the Anchor platform, and prepared official regionalised film lists for Letterboxd users to browse.
The Best of 2019 video was produced to showcase the best-selling films from the Festival that would also be available in cinemas across New Zealand, rather than showcasing films only available in Auckland or Wellington.
Images created for social media.
Thumbnails of videos and trailers produced for social media.
After seeing this video I created to promote the Animation NOW! film events, I was asked to re-format it for the big screen.
It was played at Academy Cinemas in Auckland before select film screenings.
This trailer was designed to represent films from the Incredibly Strange collection in the Festival, which is best summarised by this description from the 2020 programme: "Midnight movies, cult oddities, outstanding genre cinema – in other words, films selected to keep you wide awake and save us from respectability by Ant Timpson, founder of the legendary Incredibly Strange Film Festival."
This was filmed on the night of the Wellington Programme Launch.
We did spontaneous interviews with patrons and heard what they were most looking forward to seeing in the Festival.
2020
I was delighted to be asked to rejoin the team for an incredibly unique 2020 Festival. This year there was so much change: a new Festival director Marten Rabarts, a new brand and logo design, and a new online-first approach due to the COVID-19 pandemic placing New Zealand into lockdown. My role as the Film Festival's part-time Online Social Assistant was to assist the Communications team with videos for social media and the on-demand streaming platform.
Over 7 weeks, I created for social media 6 film collection trailers and 36 mini-trailers for individual films. For the online streaming platform, 54 pre-roll introductions, 26 Q&A's and 2 Masterclass videos were edited using footage filmed live at select events in Auckland and others provided by the directors, producers and/or actors in each film. Additional video edits included an introduction by Festival Director Marten Rabarts and an introduction by New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. The colour schemes and styles of animation and design were created by Inhouse.
2021
After a successful online-only event in 2020, Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival returned in 2021 to 30 venues in 13 cities and towns nationwide. To align with Cannes and the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination of the NZ border and MIQ staff, the Festival was moved from July to October, and featured films including The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion), The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson), The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Palme d’Or winner Titane (Julia Ducournau)..
I returned to the Festival this year in the role of Content Creator and worked closely with the social media and marketing teams to deliver a range of digital, print and video content, including eight poster sets, three trailers (one of which was later played on the TV show "What Now"), eight sets of social images and motion graphic videos, 12 filmmaker introductions, and a short memorial video played on cinema screens as part of a specially curated programme of retrospective films to honour the life and work of former Festival Director Bill Gosden.
Digital landscape posters created based on brand guidelines and existing materials produced by Inhouse.
The trailer I created to promote the Square Eyes Animation For Kids programme. A version of this trailer was broadcast on "What Now" (24 October 2021).
Posters promoting Literary Connections, Animation NOW!, Animated Features, LGBTQI+ (not pictured) and French Films, which were printed and distributed across Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The memorial video I created played to honour the life and work of former Festival Director Bill Gosden. This was played on cinema screens as part of a specially curated programme of retrospective films.
2022
2023
