Monthly Archives: July 2012

My totally filmtastic week

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I’ve seen four gorgeously entertaining films this week. I’d dipped my toes into the NZ International Film Festival last weekend,but this week was all about film – although I did finally get to see Indian Ink’s Krishnan’s Diary, which more than lived up to the rave reviews (it’s on until Saturday).

But back to films. Bullet points will make this simplest.

- One Man, Two Guvnors – This is a filmed National Theatre performance of a ridiculously funny play. It is based on Goldini’s Harlequin Servant of Two Masters, is set in the 60s and had me laughing way too loud in the cinema – this was okay because everyone else was laughing just as much, even the perfectly dressed elderly folk. The Herald’s tough critic Peter Calder gave it seven stars out of five. So bloody good.

- Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson’s latest masterpiece, a beautifully shot story of runaways, camping and family. The cast is brilliant and the story brought back memories of my brother and I camping down the back of a farm in Te Uku. Last year’s movie of this sort was the equally good Submarine. This was one of the ‘don’t miss’ films of the festival and I’ve heard rumours that it’ll be released here later is year.

- Diana Vreeland The Eye Has To Travel – Before there was Anna Wintour, there was Diana Vreeland, the most influential woman in fashion for the middle decades of the 1900s and someone with an extraordinary world view. From her friendship of Chanel, her discovery of faces like Bacall, to her ability to take the American woman to somewhere she hadn’t dreamed of – Vreeland was a visionary and an adventurer. She may have infuriated many, but her ideas were spectacular. I want to cut my hair like hers, remind me when I turn 40.

- The Princess Bride – oh how I adore this film, and it was even better in a bar filled with fans who laughed, cheered and knew all he important lines. You may think this is a kid’s movie, but I think it is a comedy gem, and Westley is one the great heroes. Kudos to Dave and Dan for making it happen and to Britomart Country Club for the hot water bottles! Next month’s film is Labyrinth and I cannot wait.

More film festival awesomeness this week, plus Gluttony at LATE at the Museum and ATC’s Awatea, which I hear is incredible. I’m looking forward to seeing the third of this trio of plays by Bruce Mason.

Things I like

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A few things I’m really liking right now:
- Cityhop – Car rental by the hour, perfect for CBD dwellers like me for those times when you have to go out to the far-flung suburbs.
- Nails by Leah – I got myself some nail art as a a special treat and I love them.
- Live Below the Line – The challenge to live on $2.25 a day for five days, while raising money for some great charities.
- The New Zealand International Film Festival – I went to First Position at The Civic today, which was warm and inspiring with a touch of mad ballet mother.
- The Sparrow – I bought Lawrence Arabia’s new album when it came out a few weeks ago and went to the live show at Auckland Town Hall on Friday night. So good. I loved seeing Dr John Wells, the city organist up there with the band too.
- The brilliant win by the Waikato/BOP Magic in the ANZ Championship. It is wonderful to finally have that trophy in NZ hands, but also lovely to see the win for Irene van Dyk, a wonderful athlete and one of the finest people I have ever known.
- Sandwiches – I made a great sandwich today. It’s the small things…

Auckland tech startup signs with Telefónica’s UK Accelerator Programme

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Auckland startup Makelight Interactive yesterday put the pen to paper with Wayra UK, O2 parent company Telefonica’s technology accelerator programme.

Makelight Interactive is one of 16 projects selected for Wayra from 1031 applications, and the only project from outside Europe to make the programme. The selection process saw the top 31 projects compete in a Dragon’s Den style pitching week, with Makelight Interactive one of the successful names called.

The contract gives Makelight Interactive a €50,000 cash injection and six months use of the Wayra Academy in London’s tech district, including office space, technology and mentors. In return, Telefónica has received a 10% stake in the company and first right of refusal on the product in December.

“London is a global centre of innovation and through Wayra we hope to find the Facebooks and Zyngas of the future,” said Simon Devonshire, Director of Wayra in Europe.

“We are thrilled to have the Kiwis join the London Wayra Academy. They are one of only sixteen teams selected from over 1,000 applications. We can’t wait to see Makelight come to life, and hope to be the first to test it light-up audiences in O2′s famous concert arenas across Europe.”

Makelight Interactive’s Joanna Alpe says inclusion in the Wayra Academy is a huge boost to the project.

“We see Wayra as a bootcamp for great ideas. An introduction to global clients. A way to be challenged and nurtured, making us commercially robust and market ready,” she said.

For commercial reasons, only limited information about the Makelight application can be distributed at this stage. The pitch to Wayra said:

Turn people, via their mobile phones, into pixels creating a giant screen at a live event. Makelight is an interactive mobile engagement platform for use at large scale live events consisting of a mobile app and a custom wifi router kit to facilitate the engagement.

“We seek to revolutionise the way live events involve and connect to the audience, all over the world,” Joanna says.

“While we’re doing work in London to develop the project, New Zealand is home and we’re keen to show that Kiwi creative technology is more than just the films we’re so famous for.”

Mayor of London Boris Johnson launched the Wayra Academy, but closer to home Auckland Mayor Len Brown praised the innovation and hard work of the four Aucklanders who make up Makelight Interactive.

“Being selected for the Wayra Academy is a big step for the development of the Makelight App. The new Auckland is all about innovation and it’s great to see New Zealand creativity being recognized as up there with the best in the world.”

Ends

Additional details:

· Wayra Academy announcement press release

· Wayra Academy launched by Boris Johnson (Huffington Post)

· Wayra winners announced in the Huffington Post

· Video: Winners announcement (Featuring Joanna and Nick from 1:12, 1:25)

· Video: What it means to be an entrepreneur (Featuring Joanna from 0:40)

· Full list of winners

Who are Makelight Interactive?

JOANNA ALPE

Creative and Business Development

Resides in London & Auckland

After graduating a bachelor of Graphic Design from New Zealand’s top University AUT, Joanna worked in the music industry, designing and photographing for the largest music festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Founder, owner and Creative Director of award winning design studio We Love Inc (est 2008), specialists in branding, communications, digital design and creative direction for interactive technology she works between London and Auckland for some of the biggest brands in the world including Sony UK, UBS Bank, Vodafone and others. She also co-founded We Love I.T, a creative technologies company.

Well versed in building, motivating and managing teams; pitching, brand strategy, art direction and inspiring people with an idea, Joanna brings these skills to the table as Team Leader and Creative Director of the project. www.weloveinc.com

NICK REDWOOD

Technical

Resides in London

Currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Creative Technologies Degree at AUT, Nick also recently co- founded and works as Technical Director of We Love I.T, a creative technologies company that works between New Zealand and the UK.

Previously, he worked for over 5 years as an electrical engineer, travelling around the world to work on electrical engineering projects, servicing machinery and equipment.

Nick’s skills are crucial to the Makelight project – electrical engineering, coding and programming, app development, mechanical fabrication, prototyping, robotics, network development and many more.

To the project he brings business acumen, ingenuity and a strength of dedication to pull out all the stops until the job is done.

PAUL (GOFF) VAN’T HOF

Event and Business Development

Resides in Auckland

Paul (Goff) van’t Hof – Owner, founder and director of The Production Company for over 18 years, Goff has been NZ production manager for artists like Bon Iver, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, P.O.D, David Byrne, Semi Precious Weapons, Anberlin and more.

He was technical director for 15 years on Parachute Music Festival, the largest music festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere (28,000).

His experience working on all the major live music events in New Zealand as well as technically directing corporate roadshows for the likes of Vodafone, Air New Zealand, Vero and Cadbury brings a broad wealth of experience in the event environment, understanding what clients want in this space.

He also brings an extensive network to this project, helping with path to market, having friends all over the world in the production industry – which will continue to prove very useful in gaining insight, market research and innovating the product.

SARAH VAN’T HOF

Event & Operations Management

Resides in Auckland

Sarah owns and runs Event Management company Beaut! She is also co-director of The Production Company. She is an Event, Project Manager and Tour Manager and brings years of experience organising and running events, large and small for a range of clients throughout New Zealand.

She has tour managed for artists like Stan Walker (Australian Idol winner), Mt Eden Dubstep and top NZ band OpShop.

With a strong charitable ethos, she has worked for international charity World Vision, project managing their Kids for Kids events reaching over 30,000 annually, and managed projects like National Young Leaders Days – reaching 10,000 young people annually.

Sarah has a vital indepth knowledge of the inner workings, practicalities and logistics of events on a large scale. This insight is invaluable to the Makelight product – ensuring we understand our audience intimately and can customise the product to their needs www.theproduction.co.nz

I’m looking forward to eating, blending + The Arrival

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Last week was crazy busy with The Nutcracker on Ice,  Melissa Etheridge and a variety of celebrations (baby, birthday and dissertation).  I also headed along to my first LATE at The Museum of 2012 – thie theme for this year is The Seven Deadly Sins and I thought the discussion on PRIDE was awesome – the next one is all about GLUTTONY. Naturally I’m super keen to head along, probably after eating some cake.

Live Below The Line launch

Speaking of gluttony, I’m heading to the launch of Live Below the Line on Tuesday night – the event itself is in September, challenging people to experience life on $2.25 a day for five days. At the launch Ross Birch, chef at Snapdragon is taking up the challenge to prepare a meal for $2.25 a head – the equivalent of the international poverty line. It’s a clever idea to get us thinking…

Orcon Great Blend

When I went to my first Orcon Great Blend a couple of years ago, I discovered that I was a geek. Apparently this was obvious to others, but a fresh revelation of self for me (how pretentious can one sentence sound?) It was so much fun, and this year’s promises to be just as good with a discussion on Creativity in the Internet Age featuring some people who I think are super awesome like Sarah E Laing (you may have seen her cartoons in Metro), Hugh Sundae, Hayden East and Andy Pickering. Then we’ll get impressed by Cut Collective and Home Brew’s Tom Scott and there’ll be a party. Wanna go? Too late, it’s booked out! Sorry to be a tease. You really should keep up with Public Address so that you don’t miss out on future coolness. 

The Arrival

I LOVE Shaun Tan’s graphic novels and his art (I recently saw a stunning exhibition of his paintings at the Freemantle Arts Centre) and I have heard nothing but glowingly positive reports about The Arrival, which is pretty rare when it comes down to it!

The show is returning to Auckland for three performances and I’m heading along on Friday night and I cannot wait. The sets, costumes and puppets all seem magical – but it also features two of my favourite kiwi actors – Jarod Rawiri and Jared Turner, in a really great cast.

Ticket prices are very reasonable for what is an award winning and internationally successful production. If you like stories, graphic novels or just experiencing new things, make seeing this a priority. We’re really lucky to get a second chance to see it. Take a peek at The Arrival promo and a Q&A with the producer.

My first signed Dick Frizzell artwork/iPhone case

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Dick Frizzell's North Island

Dick Frizzell iPhone case - North Island

I just purchased one of these super cool. numbered and signed (super limited edition) iPhone cases by Dick Frizzell. I’m stoked that many of the major locations from my life are featured – Raglan on one side, Auckland on the other and good old Taumarunui (on the main trunk line) in the middle. 

Don’t fret South Island guys, there’s one for you too. These are only just out and you can get one from Holy Sheep for $79. Not bad for a work of art by one of our most iconic creatives.

Take a look

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The arts and I are friends. I love it when I’m at some kind of performance and engage so much that I feel like we – the performers and the audience – are all in the moment together. I get frustrated when I feel like things are self indulgent or one-dimensional because I think the audience is meant to be part of creative expression.

I’m not so experienced with visual arts as I am with performance, even though both my parents have dabbled fairly seriously with painting. I don’t have the language to coherently express my appreciation of art, but I do like looking, wandering and going back to look again at artworks that catch my eye. I’ve been to a couple of exhibitions in the last month, and both drew me in.

The first was in Freemantle – a little far to go just to see some art, unless you’re rich and/or super keen. The gorgeous Freemantle Arts Centre (formerly a lunatic asylum) is hosting an exhibition of paintings by Sean Tan. You might know him as a graphic novelist – his books include The Red Tree and The Arrival. (Mini tangent – I’m really excited about seeing The Arrival staged next week. I have heard VERY good things). He spent his formative years in Freemantle and the exhibition is of the streets where he grew up. It was such a treat, especially because I’m already a fan of his books.

The second is a lot closer to home – just up the road at the gorgeous Auckland Museum, a local treasure I’m planning on spending a lot more time at (another small tangent – this week is LATE at the Museum week – topic = pride!). I’ve already been along to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition but I need to go back again to see the incredible light, the adorable/terrifying creatures and confirmation that truly great photographers are worlds away from our Instagramed photos of cats. This exhibition is special – it is curated by London’s Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife magazine, people who probably know what they’re on about. The exhibition is paired with the best from our shores – NZ-Life, featuring images from the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year. They’re both on now and I think you should go without delay. Make sure you check out the age group sections – like Junior Masterchef they’re guaranteed to help you develop an inferiority complex.

Top tip for making the experience last longer? Invest in the book! I have the book for both the Sean Tan exhibition and Wildlife Photographer of the Year and not only will they look great next to my Maru book on the coffee table, I can take my time looking at the pictures and see if my favourites change according to my mood du jour.

Art is cool. The end.

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This is me meeting a couple of the inmates at Freemantle Arts Centre.