ROUGHCUT
Tropfest Roughcut Symposium 2014
Details on Tropfest Roughcut 2014 are to be announced later this year. Keep checking back here and join our mailing list to stay in the loop!
Tropfest Roughcut Symposium 2013
We were excited to present the inaugural Tropfest Roughcut NZ in 2013.
Established to cultivate outstanding storytelling on screen and to foster a culture of dynamic and creative filmmakers, Roughcut is an intimate day-long series of conversations led by some of New Zealand's leading filmmakers and industry names.
Roughcut Australia was held for the first time in 2012 and featured an amazing line up, including actor Geoffrey Rush and screenwriter Charles Randolph (Love and Other Drugs and The Interpreter).
The inaugural Tropfest Roughcut NZ 2013 featured an incredible line up of the industry’s most creative thinkers.
2013 LINE-UP
Keynote Speaker
John Polson
Founder/Director of Tropfest, Director/Producer
John Polson is an award-winning actor and director (Swimfan, Hide and Seek) as well as the founder and director of Tropfest, the world's largest short film festival. John has been the creative force behind Tropfest's success and global expansion since its humble beginnings as a screening of one of his own short films at Sydney's Tropicana Cafe in 1993. Tropfest Australia now attracts a live audience of around 150,000 people on a single night, as well as many more via a live television broadcast.
Tropfest has expanded internationally to now include new competitions in North America, (New York and Las Vegas), New Zealand and Arabia (across the Middle East and North Africa) with plans to expand to other territories around the world.
At Roughcut, John will discuss his journey as a film maker and how it lead to the development of Tropfest as a national and international event.
Speakers
John Barnett
CEO of South Pacific Pictures, EP/Producer
Since the 1970s John Barnett has brought a host of uniquely Kiwi stories to local and international screens, from Footrot Flats, to Whale Rider and Sione's Wedding and Outrageous Fortune. As one of New Zealand’s most accomplished producers and CEO of the production company South Pacific Pictures since 1993, Barnett has been a driving force behind some of our landmark television dramas and feature films.
John's presentation will focus on ‘being the driving force’. He will take producers through ownership of their projects; how to make money from films; what films work and what don’t; what you need to do to make a career from producing; and why the producer has to be the key to any project.
Katie Wolfe
Actor/Director/Producer (Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga)
New Plymouth born Katie Wolfe has made the transition from actor to director. After leading roles in Marlin Bay, Cover Story, and Mercy Peak, she stepped behind the camera in 2002, becoming the director for Shortland Street. In 2008 she made her debut as a short film director with This Is Her, which was selected for Sundance. Her adaptation of Witi Ihimaera's Nights in the Garden of Spain screened on TV in January 2011.
Katie will discuss the methodology of creating powerful imagery in a film and how she has achieved this in her three films This Is Her, Redemption and Kawa.
Workshop Presenter
Michael Bennett
Writer/ Director (Te Arawa)
Script to Screen presents a 90 minute workshop with Michael Bennett on the essential elements of storytelling, remaining true to the core of your idea and how to keep your audience engaged.
Michael Bennett has been working as a writer/director in NZ film and television for over 15 years. He has written and/or directed many dozens of hours of prime-time television series including Shortland Street, Legal, Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune. his short film Michelle's Third Novel, screened in front of Pulp Fiction at its Us preiere at the 1994 New York Film FEstival. His acclaimed shorts Cow and Kerosene Creek screened in selection at numerous international festivals including Cannes, Berlin Valladolid, Melbourne and Locarno. Michael's feature film directing debut, the co-written multi-narrative Matariki, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.
