Other

There are always ‘other projects’ along the way in a freelance world. That is the joy of having a production company – to write, research, direct, produce (and sometimes present) content…either on your own, with a tight team you’ve known for years, or by collaborating with new people in other areas of expertise you’ve only just met.

But most importantly, this way of operating has allowed a huge amount of variety in a work life, and the opportunity to learn new skills as well. Learning is growing, and that’s vital. Some projects are short lived, some are charitable, some are way more work than the hours allowed, but all are done with the purpose of making a difference by producing good content.

Jude has always been involved with the different schools her children have attended, and has often come up with various ideas for fundraisers and then produced them.

For one school she’d make a dozen auction clips with their year 13 media studies students – helping them learn to shoot and edit a story to a script she’d written with the provider of the prize.  The end edit would play to a live audience at a fundraiser, with the media students enjoying seeing their work have an audience. Jude would also co-produce and co-present the evening, working up a script to include the various entertainment strands. The banner pic is with a great mate Mark Leishman, as they MC’ed a fundraising ‘circus’ themed event.

For another school she organised the entertainment for over 1000+ people at a black tie dinner fundraiser for two well known Auckland secondary schools who were ‘old foes’ but gallant opponents, including a bespoke version of “7 Days” working in with their producers. She also tracked down ex All Blacks from either school and made clips to play on the night as together they celebrated the most contested school boy rugby cup in NZ, on the eve of their 200th game.  The evening was also a multi camera event to capture it for posterity.

She has also spent time interviewing significant members of the school community, archiving their thoughts and memories in audio visual clips for their school history (and indeed NZ’s history).

Another project has been to supply academically robust, literature reviews for a multinational company around child development and parenting.  This involved getting a review panel together and a suitably qualified writing team to produce scientific literature reviews of various parenting topics (written by qualified academic writers, often PhD level). It also required an accompanying consumer friendly derivative of each topic, true to the intent of the original piece, as well as snackable content for social media.

Jude also produced a one off documentary following the Targa Car rally for Prime TV, raising funds for the Cure Kids charity in NZ. As navigator she sped from Auckland to Wellington in a Mini Cooper often with her head in a map before putting it up to see the scenery speeding by through the special stages. Many navigators feel sick due to the looking up and down nature of the job, which Jude indeed did (all caught on camera of course). It was however not helped by her being pregnant (first trimester), with the usual morning sickness on top!

Jude is also an ambassador for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation and Summerset Retirement Villages.