Writing her own ticket: Korean-American indie star Michelle Zauner on why she's not wasting time
Few touring musicians would have quite the reading list of Michelle Zauner. But there aren't many like the 36-year-old Korean-American frontwoman of the band Japanese Breakfast, who will play one Auckland concert next month.
'I'm reading a great book by Jhumpa Lahiri called In Other Words, which is about her
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30 With Guyon Espiner: Netflix ‘Doesn't Need Us' Or Our ‘Silly' Levy
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30 With Guyon Espiner: Netflix 'Doesn't Need Us' Or Our 'Silly' Levy
Global streaming giant Netflix "doesn't need us" and a proposal to force them in to funding local shows is "silly," says TV production pioneer Dame Julie Christie. Dame Julie, a founding force in reality TV and an internationally successful format producer, is the latest guest on RNZ's multimedia talk show 30 with Guyon Espiner. She is critical of proposals suggested by industry groups and the government that would compel global streamers to invest more in local productions or face bans. More focus needs go on funding ideas and formats that will garner international success, she says. People should not "stand around and whine, or do silly things like threatening Netflix - 'If you don't make more local productions, we'll turn you off in this country.' You can imagine the public reaction to that." Christie, whose production company Touchdown helped define and export iconic shows like Treasure Island and Game of Two Halves, said New Zealand needs to be more realistic about its size and global influence. "Netflix doesn't need us," she says, dismissing suggestions that a levy on streaming giants would fix the problem. "And who's going to decide what's made with that revenue? Netflix. I just don't think it will work." Instead, the country should focus on producing globally appealing content in genres where New Zealand can compete - particularly in unscripted formats and documentaries. "True crime is the biggest genre in the world … and we're not making it, because you usually can't get it publicly funded," she says. "As a result, we're not making what the world wants." NZ On Air has become too narrowly focused on funding projects that meet too specific cultural criteria, often at the expense of international interest. "The number one thing you have to have to get funded by New Zealand on Air is to reflect our cultural identity. Now, what is our cultural identity now?" Highlighting her experience producing a docu-series about Auckland's Football Club, Forever FC, Christie says: "If you go to Auckland FC, it's very different [to NZ On Air criteria]. It's 20 immigrant families within one team. I think that we have to really open up about what we think our culture is." New Zealand's small population, while a challenge, could be turned into a strength if the industry embraced creating distinctively local stories and tailoring them for international sale. "We're belly-gazing, basically," she says. "We don't think, 'If I adjust this show by 20%, I might be able to sell it to Australia or a smaller American channel.'" NZ On Air needs to adapt to the new global content environment and stop treating cultural identity and commercial potential as mutually exclusive. "There should be a massive tick if you've got international viability in anything," she says. Scrambling for cash Christie welcomes the increase in screen production rebates announced in the Budget, but says we should be aiming higher. "It's working in bringing film production into New Zealand. That provides jobs. The problem is, it's working for wages," she says. "It is less than half the cost to make shows here than most places in the world. "We should be taking huge advantage of that, while creating our own IP … creating things we own." New Zealand used to have a stronger international outlook, but the industry has become bogged down in local funding battles, Christie says. "We were leading the world in creating formats in the early 2000s. Now we just don't do it because we're all scrambling to get that little bit of New Zealand On Air money." * Watch the full interview with Dame Julie Christie on 30 With Guyon Espiner.
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
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Lesley Askin (left), Alison Kerr, Chris Lang, Lynne James, Bevan Rogers (sitting), Geoff Tavendale, Hartley Ferrar, Lyall Walker, Jeni Sanderson, Warrick Sinclair (soundman). PHOTO: SUPPLIED Canterbury band Toot'n'Croon will celebrate their 20th anniversary on Saturday night. The band, which was formed in 2005 by Rangiora doctor Bevan Rogers, has played at many celebratory events and in many venues over the years. The band members have changed, but the foundation remains, and all the while their music has continued to be as popular as it was when they began, having changed with the times and the audience. It was Manhattan Transfer that inspired Rogers to get into the swing of forming a band, which still enjoys singing songs of the American harmony jazz group Manhattan Transfer he heard in the Christchurch Town Hall. ''When Manhattan Transfer sang the song Operator I noticed that the crowd really loved it, so I sent away to America for the sheet music — no internet downloads in those days — and in October 2004 I sang Operator at the doctors' concert (NZ Association of Artist Doctors), with the choir and piano, rhythm and brass backing me. ''It was such a blast that I thought, I want to do this more often than once a year. I'm getting older, so now is the time to start my own band.'' Their first public performance was in a variety concert in the Rangiora Town Hall to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2. It was only after the band had been going for five years that they started putting on evenings of stand-alone Toot'n'Croon music. ''The first was at Rossburn Receptions but we soon swapped to the Rangiora RSA, and we found that we were popular enough to put on about three evenings a year.'' Initially 'Toot'n'Croon sang songs from the 1940s, but as their audience grew younger, the music became bouncier with popular numbers, mostly from the 1950s and 1970s. ''Over time we found what sort of music was the most popular with people, and we have slowly changed to singing popular danceable music, mostly from 1950s rock and roll to 1970s Neil Diamond.'' The band's greatest love is having the audience sing along, tap their feet and dance, says Rogers. They have four singers – Bevan Rogers, Lesley Askin, Lynne James and Chris Lang. They perform songs with as much harmony as possible, supported by Alison Kerr on piano, Hartley Ferrar on saxophone, Jeni Sanderson on bass guitar, Geoff Tavendale on guitar and Lyall Walker on drums.
