This exhibition of DIY puppetry and animation features a survey of work by a handful of New Zealand artists, including Dr Lisa Perrott, lecturer from the department of Screen and Media studies at Waikato University, with her unique animation “Highly Strung”; Wellington/Raglan based artist Stuart Shepherd’s kinetic tableau of marionette puppets; post-punk sci-fi stop-motion animations by Wellington artist Mike Heynes, featuring his own brand of budget special effects and pyro technics; Rose Beauchamp’s  beautifully hand crafted shadow puppets melding Asian and European storytelling traditions; Wellington based artist Carlos Wedde’s eclectic animation questioning power structures; film stills from Deborah Puerto Rico, formally of Red Mole Theatre, showing masks as well as  large and small scale hand puppets; animation by renowned Wellington composer Robyn Nathan, and more.

Puppets, in various forms, have always been a medium for storytelling and are evident in all cultures around the world. The lineage of puppetry goes beyond medieval times, and trickles down through the courts and jesters and travelling players of early Europe right through to the avant garde experimentation of the Dada movement. Artists and designers throughout history have applied their skills to the creation of characters and alter egos. Often the puppet assumed the role of the socially subversive and was given license to ridicule authority and social orders in a way that no human critic ever could.

In western culture, puppetry has often been associated with children and has always occupied the lower rungs on the cultural ladder. Puppetry and mask work existed in play and ritualized performance in India and Africa. In ancient China and Japan and South-East Asia puppetry developed into highly stylized story-telling performances and evolved alongside dance and theatre forms.

 In the 1960s New Zealander Len Lye experimented with puppetry, kinetic art, abstraction and animation and in the 70s the traveling N.Z. troupe, Red Mole Theatre, adopted the techniques of puppetry and shadow play to create their cabaret of political satire and surrealism. Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor in early stages of their film making careers worked with puppets on their budget B-schlock horror movie Meet the Feebles. Today puppetry has morphed into all kinds of media from the Vegas styled Cirque de Soleil to Kermit and Miss Piggy on the Muppets.

Scrabble Enthusiasts 4/6/10 – Click here to read PDF

Tokoroa pig hunters 11/6/10 - Click here to read PDF

Airsoft club 18/6/10 – Click here to read PDF

Imperial Dragoons 25/6/10 – Click here to read PDF

Soba drinkers 2/7/10 – Click here to read PDF

Embroidery Guild – 9/7/10 – Click here to read PDF

Wargamers 16/7/10 – Click here to read PDF

Collectors 23/7/10 – Click here to read PDF

Kickboxing 30/7/2010 – Click here to read PDF

Magicians 6/8/10 – Click here to read PDF

Junior Naturalist Club 13/8/10 – Click here to read PDF

Hamilton Pistol Club 20/8/10 – Click here to read PDF

Floral Art 27/8/10 – Click here to read PDF

Greg Page attended, and, notoriously, failed to pass, Wintec’s Bachelor of Media Arts degree in the ‘90s, after his extensive efforts making music videos for local musicians outweighed his inclination for other final coursework. However, developing his talent in this area proved a worthwhile exercise in the long term. Page soon began to attract attention as a music video director and to date has filmed more than 80 clips (including promos for The Datsuns, The D4, Elemenop, Inchworm and P-Money), and at least as many commercials.

His 1994 short film claymation, Decaff gained a cult audience and received Arts Council funding for general release. Page’s forays into animation attracted the attention of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi who commissioned him to make a series of claymation commercials for NZ On Air.

 Page currently works at Flying Fish Productions as a television commercial director, and is in development with his second horror feature, The Vent. Page made his first feature film, a supernatural horror called The Locals, in 2003. He is also a painter and has done stints as a drummer in three bands.  In December 2009 Page was sole recipient of the 2010 Film Commission Writer Award.

We asked Greg a few questions about his latest ventures:

What’s one main thing you hope the students learn about making music vids? The main things I can hope to pass on to my students are enthusiasm and drive. Often those two things will surpass any budget.

What’s it like to come back to Wintec as a tutor? The wave of nostalgia was massive on my first day. The building still has the same energy and a class full of eager students is a daunting thing to face. Luckily, over ten years of film industry experience speaks volumes and I think the students appreciate me telling it like it is.

How’s your feature project ‘The Vent’ going? The Vent is currently in a place called ‘Funding limbo’ The script is great and I have producers and investors all around the world keen to get it going, but the changing financial climate makes lining up all those elements difficult. In the meantime I have been writing more film scripts and making my music videos resemble film extracts to stay in shape.

One script is based on this clip:

And this is my latest:

In other news, I’m currently having a go at being on the other side of camera – watch this space!

The Internship module is designed to allow students to have direct experience with an industry environment that relates closely to their chosen pathway and also keeps their education relevant to and focused on business practices and expectations. An internship is a more structured form of work experience. Students are encouraged to reflect upon and analyse their experience by keeping a daily journal, constructing a portfolio and presenting a seminar and written report to their peers.

We asked two journalism students about their internships: 

Samantha McPherson during her internship

Samantha McPherson
Internship: Rotorua Daily Post

How was the internship experience for you?

It was fantastic. I had a great time there and didn’t want to come back. I never thought I would enjoy it so much and I was very nervous as I didn’t know what to expect. After doing numerous interviews both phone and in person, my skills had increased in a matter of days. I could write short, sharp and effective copy to a deadline. I achieved a total of 40 published articles, including six front pages, a front page lead, covering national stories and other events happening within the community. I went there with two pages of ideas and I had written about most of them by the time I left.  

What were the main things you learned? By throwing yourself into the deep end and giving yourself the challenge of producing material for a daily publication, you give yourself big shoes to fill. You learn a lot not just about the industry but about yourself and how quickly you can work and rise to that challenge.

Do you feel more prepared for post-Wintec life having done it? Being out in the ‘real working journalism world’ was a big eye opener and I believe it has prepared me for post-Wintec life. [Internship] is a valuable paper that gives you the chance to see whether you like journalism or you don’t. It prepares you for what it is like in the real world after you finish your studies. Although, it is up to you, the individual, to apply yourself and to immerse yourself in a newsroom. If you do this correctly, by showing initiative, determination and giving anything a go, then you will succeed and leave an impressive mark on a potential employee.

The staff at The Daily Post were friendly, helpful and they were easy to approach which made it easier. It took me the first two days to get into the swing of things but as soon as I did this, I was away and was treated as part of the team not a journalism student. Each day I bought fresh ideas to the table and always loaded myself up with more stories to work on – sometimes completing three or four stories a day. I pushed myself and I have no regrets of doing so. The photographers were fantastic to work with and it was a great working environment to be part of. 

What was a highlight for you? There were many highlights for me, but securing a front page national lead story was the biggest one. It was about a proposal involving abortions and although I faced some ethical issues, I still managed to work around these to complete the story.   

Austin King

Internship: Gisborne Herald

Tell us about your internship experience.

AMAZING! Like I said in my “day thirteen journal entry” – if you throw in all the hard work, and push the right buttons, you’ll get more than a chocolate cake and a biscuit at the end of the day.
It’s an understatement to say that I enjoyed it at the Gisborne Herald – I would go back there in a heart beat… and I actually am.

The opportunity you get to be out on the beat, chasing stories, taking the company car out for a spin, meeting people who want to talk to you and who don’t even want to know you is beyond worthwhile.

I think the biggest gain from the internship, for me, was getting to know the people of Gisborne and the ins and outs of the trade. I’m not a Gisborne-ite myself so it was easier for me to adapt to the people and the stories, conduct interviews, talk to people out on the street and ring around without people saying to me “oh, how’s it cuz?”

The highlight was the people in the newsroom. I don’t even think my colleagues – when they go into work – ever really leave their homes, because the vibe in the newsroom is very much “family orientated”. Everyone helps everyone, everyone is a court reporter, everyone basically has editorial influences on the paper and everyone does Maori rounds… to some extent. I cannot say anything went wrong at the Gisborne Herald because nothing ever did (except for my very first complaint on my very first story from the National Manager of G.A.S which I dealt to without losing my temper). The people are beyond cool, they’re ice cold! (That means they’re f***** amazing).

I feel that I’m ready to take up journalism and I’m certainly prepared to “get the get” as my fellow chum, Steve Braunias, so put it, in a spiel on what the trade entailed in a nutshell. 

Have a look at the Spark schedule pdf online and plan your week now.

Workshops require booking by email. Other events such as exhibitions, forums and screenings punctuate the week – all details are up now on http://www.spark.net.nz. Follow Spark on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with news during the week.

A quick summary of the speakers this year:

Film: Rastko Ćirić (animation/film/music), KHF Media (Wellington production house), Jane Reeves & Kay Ellmers (filmmakers, creators of ‘Canvassing the Treaty’), Jim Marbrook (filmmaker)

Design: Super Nature (design agency), Simon Wade (graphic designer), Rosie Percival and Ruth Friedlander (creators of ‘Martha Goes Green Cookbook’)

Art: Elisabeth Vaneveld (The Big Idea), Lesley Duxbury (printmaking/art theory),

Interior Design: Helen Lennie (Interior Design)

Photography / painting: Rebecca Swan (artist, photographer), Michael Harrison (artist/painter)

Music: Vince Harder (singer/songwriter), Morgan Samuel (audio post-production)

Journalism/public relations: Greer McDonald (social media manager), Mike O’Donnell (Trademe strategist)

Spark also features a variety of events, including ‘Straight from the horse’s mouth’ graduate session (features ‘Martha goes Green’ cookbook team, designer Simon Wade, Greer McDonald and Morgan Samuel), Pecha Kucha night, premiere screening of sitcom project ‘The Couch’. There will be a Video Lounge exhibition at Ramp Gallery, ‘Human Posts’ exhibition at La Mezz gallery, screening of ‘Canvassing the Treaty’ with director/producer Q+A, NZ documentary discussion forum, and a screening/Q+A of Jim Marbrook’s films ‘Jumbo’ and ‘Cap Bocage’, Media Bites, Waikato Museum ‘Understanding the museum machine’, and lots more. Don’t miss it.

Second-placed poem 'Bird's Eye', by Judy McDonald

Media Arts sponsored a poetry competition for National Poetry Day and the results were announced last Friday, 30th July at one of the local  events. The judge was Sue Emms, who runs the creative writing programme at Waiareki Polytechnic and is a published writer.

The winning poem, Ponting’s Genius, which secured $300.00 worth of book vouchers for Meliors Simms, was described by the judge as “ original, taut, great use of words, fabulous last two lines”. Second prize of $200.00 of book vouchers went to Judy MacDonald, for “Bird’s Eye”, which the judge described as “ well-crafted, insightful, lingers in the reader’s thoughts”. And Stephanie Christie who also had the distinction of having four poems on the shortlist, and one poem, “Brush” , very highly commended, received the third prize of $100.00 of book vouchers for her poem, “The Unit”. Also very highly commended, for economic use of language and many layers of meaning, was Media Arts student Kashka Tunstall’s poem “Last Green/Flamingo”. A second year Communication student,  Kashka wins a set of poetry posters from the phantom poster launch.

Read the winning poems:

Ponting’s Genius

Ponting’s  genius was in his cruel portraits

of heroes on their improbable returns.

Emaciated bodies invisible inside the ice armour

of clothes unchanged for many months.

Hollow eyes, blank, bleak, utterly spent;

dirty desperate faces that have looked straight at death

and now gaze without flinching upon the camera.

What is this few more minutes of relief denied, delayed,

after endless weeks of scurvied sledging on frostbitten feet.

Never has a photographer been less loved by his subjects

than Ponting, pointing his slow Edwardian shutter

at men on the verge of respite,

men looking over his shoulder towards warmth and safety,

already smelling the cocoa and toast of their fantasies.

Men still to be cut out of frozen solid garments

whose health will never fully recover from the ordeal

they have only just survived.

The death in those heroes’ stares

is murderous.

Meliors Simms

The Unit

Privacy can turn to

privation of the heart

and you forget how to get

together the courage

to negotiate daily

with these warm, chaotic

inscrutable others.

Alone, your stories

make a strict sense

and all flavours

can be mixed

to go with bitterness.

Stephanie Christie

Last Green/ Flamingo

I want to be different.

A letter, a ‘b’ that could could transition

easily into a ‘d’ by simply turning the perspective upon itself. 

I want to be

interchangeable,

but not androgynous. 

Unique, 

not bland. 

I wish to be a pink

flamingo, 

an ornate rocking chair

that needs no explanation but fits 

into place perfectly.

I want to be the last green leaf when autumn comes,

the leaf that hears all the others crunching under feet,  

disintegrating into nothingness,

and delights 

at her own 

slow,

abnormal 

development.

Kashka Tunstall

The project has been driven by students and staff from the School of Media Arts’ Moving Image department, with support from local actors’ group Urban Vineyard Collective and a number of performers from around the community. Filming was completed in May.

The Couch is the brainchild of Moving Image tutors John Mandelberg and Joe Citizen, who had been researching the viability of producing a regional television sitcom. Citizen told the Waikato Times that The Couch was about providing a real project for the students. “It’s so students have a vehicle to demonstrate their skills – it’s something they can take to an employer.” Third-year student Chase ten Hove is lighting director on The Couch and said it had already provided him with invaluable experience and given him contacts with industry professionals.

Wintec has incorporated a multi-camera project into the Bachelor of Media Arts (Moving Image) coursework for the past five years, including projects like ‘Show Me The Money’ two years ago – a ‘Dragon’s Den’-style programme involving local business leaders – and live-streamed arts debate ‘Aspire’ in 2009. However, The Couch is the most logistically challenging production to date. A large main set with two rooms was built in the Wintec Moving Image studio, and several sequences were based in external locations – a carpark, Dora’s café, and one ambitious dance sequence in Hamilton’s Garden Place.

The project was shot on high definition video, using a multi-camera technique frequently used by industry production companies and allowing for fast turnaround of content. Students within the School of Media Arts from disciplines outside moving image have also benefitted. Post-production audio students working under sound tutor Bjorn Arntsen and moving graphics students working under graphic design tutor Mark Liu were also involved.

Moving Image lecturer John Mandelberg said he was pleased with the progress made on the 30-minute pilot episode, and that the students had learned a great detail through the production process.

Now that filming and editing is complete, the object will be to raise funding and support to shoot another 13 episodes as a TV series. Central TV, as well as some other Freeview regional networks, have seen the episode in progress and shown some interest in the further development of the project.

The competition is open to poets of all ages, and entrants must be resident in the Waikato.

Prizes:
1st Prize – $300 of book vouchers
2nd Prize – $200.00 of book vouchers
3rd Prize  – $100.00 of book vouchers

Winning poems will be published in the local press.

Rules and how to enter:

1 - Poems must be the original work of the entrant, previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
2 - There is a limit of 40 lines for each poem. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must have a separate cover sheet.
3 - Poems may be emailed to gail.pittaway@wintec.ac.nz with subject , “Poetry competition entry”. Or posted to “Poetry Competition” c/o School of Media Arts, Wintec, Hamilton.
4 - Closing date for entries, Monday 26 July, 5pm.
5 - Winning poems will also be published in Waikato papers.
6 - No handwritten entries – poems, if posted, must be typed on A4 paper.
7 - Any style or subject is acceptable.
8 - The poet’s name must not appear on the manuscript. Please have a covering page with your name, contact details and your poem’s title and send it in with your poem. You must be a resident of the greater Waikato district.

Hamilton events happening on National Poetry Day

- Waikato Museum  is running a poetry scavenger hunt all day

- Year 13 graphics students in the Waikato have been given a brief to design the official Poetry Day flier 

- Garden Place outside Library – lunch time: Phantom Poetry Posters. A New York based international group has selected poems by 5 NZers and is donating them to be pasted around Hamilton. There will be a grand launch in Garden Place with celebrity readers. Open Mic performance 6.30 pm downstairs in library. More details here.

- The Waikato Times is doing features of local poets

Last year's Beat Street

Media Arts students and graduates from the Moving Image department will again be supporting the Beat Street hip hop event, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Saturday 17th July.

Beat Street, presented by the Beatz Collective, will be held at The Meteor, 1 Victoria Street, Hamilton and costs $5 on the door. The event will involve artists, live graffiti art and the famous ’3 on 3 bboy/bgirl (breakdance) competition’. On stage this year will be Bella Kalolo and The Soul Symphony, MC Silva, Frankton Zoo, VMT with DJ’s Kerb and Spel to keep the night flowing.

Beat Street 2010 will be streamed to the web by 4_i_productions, and will be crewed by Media Arts students and graduates. As in previous years, the video equipment used is being loaned courtesy of Wintec’s Moving Image department.

The Beat Street initiative was the brainchild of Mike Rarere, who has worked with the Hamilton youth for many years. Beat Street has supported local hip hop and nurtured it throughout the past 10 years

This event aims to support the 4 elements of hip hop in a safe environment for families to enjoy. The bboy/bgirl competition has always drawn interest from around the country and this year it has confirmed entries from Australia. Beat Street has also provided a platform to showcase graffiti art professionals from all around Aotearoa and enable to present some of the best of up and coming NZ hip hop artists.

Over the years the event has featured the likes of Scribe, Nesian Mystik, Ladi6, Opensouls, 4 Corners, P-Money, PNC, David Dallas, Flowz & Raw, and The Wanderers on stage, and well known grafitti crews Triple S and TMD providing the artwork.

Lumberjack Stirling Hart. Photo: Heather Mayrick

By Sonia Beale

The current lumberjack world champion shows a crowd of captivated onlookers how it’s done when he clambers up a towering 40 foot pole at the Fieldays Carters stall.

The ‘ginger ninja’, also known as 21-year-old Stirling Hart from Vancouver, Canada, has been climbing trees since he was a four-year-old, which explains his record-breaking ability to climb an 80 foot pole in just 18.7 seconds.

A harness consisting of a hemp rope, a pair of spurred boots, gloves, and a big blue mat is the only safety net.

“It’s just such a novelty, and it’s cool to be the centre of attention,” he jokes.

Mr Hart has been the feature of the show for two years, and is glad the weather has turned out well for the amount of pole-climbing he will be in for.

“I’m really happy it’s not raining this year,” he says.

After scanning the crowd and prompting potential competitors to volunteer to climb the pole, an eager young woman puts herself forward for the challenge.

She is half way up the pole, when MC, and show creator Ben James, gets going.

Stirling Hart in action. Photo: Heather Mayrick

“It’s about here the legs start to burn,” he says.

“Nah!” She says, shaking her head and clinging to the pole mid-air.

“One more stop and she’s nearly there – do you want to stop?”

“Nah!” she says, the stoic trooper that she is.

On she goes until she has reaches the top and rings the bell. The crowd cheer, and the victorious competitor descends the pole to safer ground.

Ben James has been doing the Ramsey Roundwood Lumberjack Show at Fieldays for the past eight years, and at gala events around the country for the past ten years.

“It’s a great way to travel the country, and meet a whole bunch of interesting people,” he says.

Click here to read full issues of the Fieldays Exhibitor