Directing
In a seemingly quiet country town the newest resident, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, finds that murder lurks in even the most homely location.
City Life was a New Zealand soap opera that screened on TVNZ from 1996-1998. It was portrayed the lives and loves of ten singles who lived in an upmarket apartment building in Auckland, New Zealand. The show was touted as New Zealand's answer to Melrose Place. The show starred Claudia Black, Lisa Chappell, Laurie Foell and Oliver Driver and featured a guest appearance by well known New Zealand actor, Kevin Smith. The show had a long development period, and the original treatment for the show had it set in Wellington with the working title 96 Oriental Parade. However, it was decided to produce the show in Auckland instead, and as such, the shows setting was changed along with the name to City Life. The first episode began with a controversial first scene, featuring a drunken Damon who owned the apartment building, in a homosexual kiss with his former lover Ryan on the night before his wedding. Damon was later killed off in the same episode after being hit by a car on the way to his wedding, and he left his apartment building to all of his friends. However, Damon's fianceè vowed to fight for her share of Damon's estate, leading to a storyline that would span the show's first five episodes.
Jack Vincent, an aristocrat forced by circumstances to become a smuggler, is caught and transported on the IIMS Success to a penal colony on Norfolk Island, off the New Zealand coast. Unhappily for Vincent, the ship's captain is none other than his brother-in-law, Lt.Harry Anderson. The two men have quarreled violently in the past over Anderson's treatment of Vincent's sister, and now Anderson subjects him to particularly harsh and humiliating treatment. Vincent stages a successful mutiny, casting Anderson and those loyal to him adrift, and plans to sail to America. When the Success is shipwrecked, Vincent is one of three survivors; but Anderson also survives the storm, and vows to pursue Vincent until he sees him hanged at Execution Dock. So begins a fight for survival for Vincent and his crew, complete with hostile natives, unscrupulous sea-traders, crazed prophets and buried treasure.
Mysterious Island is a Canadian television series based on Jules Verne's novel L'Île mystérieuse. It ran for one season in 1995. The beginning of the series is much as in the novel. A group of refugees attempting to escape the American Civil War in a balloon wind up stranded on a remote Pacific island, where they are able to improvise a comfortable living for themselves while they wait for a passing ship. As time passes, they become suspicious that some unseen force is watching and directing their movements. The main difference between the protagonists of the series and those of the novel is the addition of a female character, the wife of Pencroft. The unseen watcher, Captain Nemo, is more active and less benevolent than in the novel. Able to monitor the island through steampunk-style closed-circuit television and other advanced devices, he treats the castaways as human laboratory specimens, influencing their environment to test their behaviour under stressful conditions. As the series progresses, his tests become more extreme as their continued co-operation threatens his preferred thesis that all humans are, at base, selfish and untrustworthy. In the series finale, Nemo apparently succeeds in breaking up the group; this proves to be a ruse by the protagonists, who are now certain of Nemo's existence. After they penetrate his hideaway, Nemo admits that the 'experiment' is ruined, and offers to return the castaways to civilisation in his submarine. In a final twist, he puts out to sea without them, apparently leaving them alone on the island, without his influence for good or ill.
Two teenage skateboarders, Jeff and Noodle, are the only ones in their peaceful town of Middledon who realise that the weird strangers from Neo Corporation are actually aliens. Jeff and Noodle do their utmost to prevent the aliens, led by the scheming Astrid and the bumbling Brian, from destroying their beloved skatepark and taking over the town.
Gloss was a television drama series in New Zealand that screened from 1987-1990. The series was about a fictional publishing empire run by the Redfern family. It was a starting point for many actors who went on to many productions in New Zealand, Australia and around the world including Temuera Morrison, Miranda Harcourt, Peter Elliott, Lisa Chappell, Danielle Cormack and Kevin Smith. Writers for the show included James Griffin, who went on to write Outrageous Fortune, Rosemary McLeod and Ian Mune. The show's title theme song was performed by Beaver Morrison. The show has not been rescreened since its original screening, but selected extracts have been made available for viewing on NZ On Screen.
A majestic tale of drama, love, mystery and the clashing of cultures in early 1800's New Zealand.
Burying Brian is a New Zealand television series produced by Eyeworks Touchdown which premiered on Television New Zealand's TV ONE on 2 July 2008, and ran for 6 episodes. The series is about Jodie and her three female friends. At the beginning of the first episode, Jodie's husband Brian dies during a domestic dispute. Jodie believes that she may go to jail for his murder, but her friends convince her not to report the death, but instead to bury the body and make it appear that he has run off with another woman. Although the series was a ratings success, no further episodes were made after the first season.
12 year old Gretchen comes to stay on her uncle's farm for the holidays, but shortly after her arrival strange things start to happen. Gretchen has a passion for science and a talent for all things mechanical, which is why the old brass weathervane fascinates her. But the brass daisy rod has a complex and terrifying significance, and Gretchen and her new friend Ronny discover its links with the far distant Sirius, the Dog Star.
A true story. 1942. New Zealand is at war. Times are desperate. The Japanese invasion seems imminent. At this perilous moment, confidence trickster Syd Ross completes his sentence and is released from Waikeria Prison. He makes a phone call and finds himself in front of Prime Minister Fraser. Syd tells a tale of sabotage and assassination, of a Nazi plot to take over New Zealand.
The whole town becomes alarmed when our three teenage heroes, Bobby, Jack and Kate sight a mysterious black galleon sailing into the harbour with a lone bearded figure at the helm. Stories of enemy warships disguised as sailing ships fuel the mounting paranoia. Together the three young people befriend the 'Raider' and become involved in a plot to expose a local smuggling ring - a plan which leads them to be imprisoned in the galleon and at the mercy of the smugglers. A story full of suspense, intrigue and romance to delight the whole family. Based on novel by Franklin W. Dixon
A young man from a rural area is on the brink of success in the big city, but it all falls apart and he returns to his small home town, to his family and friends who all think he's a hero. His city girlfriend follows and they both discover that going home isn't always easy.
