Homegrown TV
Homegrown is a New Zealand content production company owned by Jude Dobson.
Outputs have been diverse - filmed content is the first, true love. End to end video production ranges from long form prime time broadcast documentaries and multi camera non broadcast events, to television series and short form digital web series.
Similarly, written work ranges from running a writing team of academic writers producing child development literature reviews to more solo pursuits like weekly columns for the Woman’s Weekly and developing social media posts. The driver that feeds everything though is pretty simple - wanting to tell a good story that people want to engage in.
The company came into existence in 2002, when Jude’s daily lifestyle show she had anchored for five years ‘5 o’clock with Jude Dobson’ (and previously to that ‘5.30 with Jude’ ) was not renewed. She decided it was time to go behind the camera and produce content she felt passionate about.
‘Homegrown’ the name came about because as a mum of young children, the company was to be run from home, and she wanted to make homegrown NZ content, shining the light on good Kiwi stories. The original content niche focused on what it took to raise a family, something she was living every day as a mother of two (and soon to be three) children. Given children were ‘grown’ in a home, the company name seemed the perfect fit all round.
Jude also knew that what happened at home was key in a young child’s life. The first 1000 days – conception to age two is a formative period that sets a child up for life. It is when their ‘blueprint’ as such for the adult they become is being formed, as their neural pathways connect. This knowledge, coupled with her background as a registered nurse (before getting ‘side tracked’ into television), and her own ongoing research and reading in this area of interest, made child development and parenting support a key area of focus for early content production.
And so, having pitched and got the broadcast ok, then found the funding from the market and formed a production team, the first series was underway. Before WFH (work from home) was a 2020 norm, it was how early productions worked almost 20 years previous. Employing passionate parents enthused about the content, meant production managers, directors, researchers and writers would meet as needed, but mostly connect in from their home offices. Very often this was late evening, with a productive burst of collaborative work after the children were in bed!
Fast forward to the 2020s and Homegrown has been Jude’s vehicle to make a myriad of content since 2002. While most projects are video based requiring contracting a production team, other ‘Homegrown’ projects are solo ventures for Jude. Her skill base has increased over time from presenting to researching and writing, producing, directing, event management, consulting work and governance.
Stakeholders are always involved in any work, and the collaboration with stakeholders in together making something important to all that they feel proud of and that serves everyone’s needs along the way, is a very rewarding part of the production process.
Most of the broadcast commissioned work has sold offshore and enjoyed diverse international audiences, with the two latest documentaries in 2020 being readied for an international distributor. Video content is not always produced for traditional television broadcast. Short form content produced for digital channels is a common output.