PRODUCER & DIRECTOR

For all productions Jude as producer has been responsible for taking the initial ‘what if’notion from a good idea to reality, supervising the myriad of things that need to happen along the way from pitch to delivery.

Jude’s producer hat has often been interchanged with that of production manager and line producer, taking responsibility for production planning and workflow top to tail. This includes running the budget and reporting back line by line on the same to stakeholders and investors. In all stages of production there are many ‘jobs’ that have often come under her producer job as well to get the job done - be they edit suite assistant, contract negotiator, accounts payable person, translator of legalese or publicist.   

Jude’s core driver as a producer has been to tell a story that makes the person engaging with the content feel moved, better informed and perhaps motivated to do something with that new knowledge.

The natural step to directing comes from writing and researching content you’re passionate about. Jude has particularly enjoyed directing content around New Zealand’s proud military history in WW1 and WW2, bringing life to these stories, either through people talking about their own first hand experiences (WW2), or that of their relatives (WW1). She enjoys making interview subjects feel comfortable with the filming process and therefore talking authentically. Then taking that filmed material, and sifting and sorting the pieces to use to form a narrative in an edit suite is hugely satisfying. Making the story come together top to bottom is a director’s dream.

A goal early on for Jude was to work with Government and NGOs to get their well researched information, (often buried in brochures, academic reports and deep in websites) out to families through audio visual means that they’d like to engage with. Jude set up a second company Raising Children Media Ltd in 2010 to specifically take on these challenges. The Raising Children app and website www.raisingchildren.org.nz holds that content, for which she is the producer.  Homegrown Television Ltd is the vehicle for all other work, which includes broadcast video production, writing, commercial communication and social media work.

Jude as a producer is a serial collaborator – much more can be done together, than as one. Collaboration is key, along with communication. That might be with stakeholders, crews or on camera talent – be it celebrities, academic experts, or everyday folk.

And finally, any producer and director needs passion. For Jude it is to craft a good story, do it knowledgeably and get it to the audience who need to know about it. It has also move a viewer, and ideally change behaviour if that is part of the ‘back room’ plan.

It’s great to be able to make content that moves you to ‘do’ or ‘be’ or ‘feel’ something in your own life - learned through watching someone else’s. That remains the goal. 

July 2018: Jude with Mademoiselle Therese Neveu, after her interview describing her family’s experience of the WW1 German occupation of the town of Le Quesnoy in France.