NZ movies rant

Something that I often think is that NZ movies mostly have terrible acting. It's rare to watch a Kiwi film that has consistently good performances, and that's still true today, though I think there's been a shift in the last 20 years or so. I'm not saying that because it's not Hollywood-style acting: I'm saying it because I think it stinks as a Kiwi hoping to hear inflections of how we really pronounce words. 🎥 I think a lot of the actors seem camera-shy. - I often think that line readings are flat and affectless from various characters, plus there's often tonal issues (ie where one actor is underplaying a scene while another actor chews the scenery). Bad dubbing is also something that occasionally derails NZ films, including mine. Plus most of the really talented Kiwi actors end up going overseas. - As for me: I'm not an actor. I'm more of a media personality. 🎥 I wasn't really 'acting' in the Dakumentary: that's just me being me -- I sing a lot IRL. That's why I tipped my hat to the Front Lawn with those episode titles. My Weeded Out screenplay would require real acting. I'd rather write prose: that new story was an experiment with a long-form story, and that's given me confidence that I can probably pull off a novella version of those stories as an author. I don't think that I'm magnetic as a screen presence, and I'm not going to be persuaded. I'm a composer, and I'd rather write music for movies than be in movies. What excites me is being behind the scenes. I love the detail of setting up shots, I love cutting movies. I think my films are better than my performances, and that's me using all of my cinema knowledge to attempt to polish a turd (the turd being me as an 'actor'🤣). I've done enough of that. I enjoyed much of my screen time in the Dakumentary, though it was often more fun to plan than to do, but that's not an audition to act: it's an audition to write, direct, edit and compose. - Chloe's the one with the magnetic screen presence. But she's also a personality rather than an actress: I suppose analogising us to Harry and Meghan is pretty accurate from that POV. - I'm down to do the Fred Dagg thing, though. I'd do that for Approaching the Infinite. That's within my abilities. I'm doing it wearing a lava, though. It's set in the future, so that'll allow me to be me rather than 'a guy' (lava = lei in Samoan). - Bonus thought: I've been ruminating on that blog that I saw which said that women like reading/writing/watching gay male romance because it isn't their own experience, and apparently they prefer that... Cadence did that with In Blind Faith. My main note from the WHS version of that show was that she should have included a kiss or some kind of physical intimacy between those characters. I thought that was the main problem with her second act. I think that's why I like to write straight people rather than gay people. For me, it's fun to examine that world from an outsider's lens; when I wrote my own experiences, I got a huge amount of bullshit criticism from people that it felt too close to home. It wasn't as if I used anyone's real name in that script. I used details from my real life, but I think that's a critique that Ethan and I often have levelled at us: that people thought the character was based on them, and then they were unhappy with our portrayal of them. That's that alt-comedy UK satirical instinct. - Another observation is that NZ film fans aren't all that keen on seeing themselves reflected on the screen. I think that film buffs are attracted to foreign films because they're looking for ways to escape the stultifying conformity and tall poppy crap that characterises mainstream NZ. Goodbye Pork Pie heightened reality, and that's why it was a smash hit. - However, it's interesting that my two musicals are obviously queer, though not gay. Portrait of a Knight is asexual, in that chastity and its relative merits is the core theme, while These Words Are Meant For Someone is translesbian. We insisted that Paul be gay in POAK, though. Emanuel wasn't keen, but I insisted. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧ I don't like explicating my motives. I think that's what makes These Words so awesome.