PRODUCER & DIRECTOR

For all productions Jude 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.

Her producer hat has often been interchanged with that of production manager and line producer, taking responsibility for production planning and workflow top to tail. She wants the end product to make a viewer feel moved, better informed and perhaps motivated to do something with that new found 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 WW I and WW II, bringing life to these stories, either through people talking about their own first hand experiences (WW II), or that of their relatives (WW I). She enjoys making interview subjects feel comfortable with the filming process so they can talk authentically about things that have often been traumatic and thus buried away. Taking that filmed material, and sifting and sorting the pieces to form a narrative in an edit suite is hugely satisfying.

A goal early on was to work with Government and NGOs to get their well-researched information, (often deep in brochures, academic reports and layers into websites) out to families through audio visual means. Jude set up a second company Raising Children Media Ltd in 2010 to specifically take on these challenges. The Raising Children website www.raisingchildren.org.nz holds that content.

Jude as a producer is a serial collaborator – much more can be done together, than as one. Collaboration is key. 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 appropriate audience. 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.