Movie Creative Joins Ideaschool 27 Feb 2015
Related articles
- Australia Jumping on the Boy Bandwagon Living
- Waitakere Mayor championsing NZ film in China Living
- Wellington Band At Top British Film Awards Living
- Budget provides $321m for RS&T activities News
- New Zealand Short Film Wins At Sundance Living
- Avatar delivers $307m to New Zealand economy News
- NZ Film 'Boy' Premieres at Sundance Film Festival News
- New Zealand film qualifies for Oscar consideration Living
- From Hawke's Bay to Berlin - This Way of Life II Living
Media Release
MOVIE CREATIVE JOINS IDEASCHOOL
Having created movie magic at Weta Workshop for 14 years, newly-appointed EIT lecturer and technician Jonathan Brough is now passing on his model-making and set design skills to ideaschool’s screen production students.
A “Wellington boy” for almost all his life, Jonathan and wife and fellow artist Michele Bryant moved to a six-acre hilltop block in Maraekakaho with their children, Jack and Evelyn, earlier this year.
It’s been a big change for the self-confessed city-dwellers, blowing their expectations of Hawke’s Bay “out of the water”.
“The contrast to living in Wellington is marked and we are only coming out of the shock of the move now,” says Jonathan, who is teaching design and storyboarding to Diploma of Screen Production students.
With 17 years in the film industry, three of them as a freelancer, he has built up an impressively varied art department cv.
His experience includes crafting props for films that include King Kong, Avatar, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, District 9 and The Hobbit. A model-maker for The Dambusters, he also constructed and painted sets for the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim.
Jonathan was an illustrator for the 2001 BBC production The Lost World, model-maker, designer, sculptor and storyboard artist on Lord of the Rings and art department manager for the 2002 World of Wearable Arts Awards.
He also taught life-drawing at Wellington Community Institute and Victoria University’s School of Architecture and Design.
Jonathan says film credits can give the wrong impression, however.
“I may have made only two props for a movie and still get a credit. Sometimes it reads better than the reality.”
While he hasn’t necessarily loved every one of the movies he has worked on, he says it’s important for students to understand that the job is about facilitating its completion.
“Students have a taste of the various facets of film-making while they are at EIT but the reality is that nobody is master of them all. Hopefully the students will find out what it is they want to do.
“They will have hobbies and talents they won’t have dreamt could apply in the film industry and they will find that these will give them a special place. Animal wrangling, for example – there could be a place for someone who can work with animals on set. Who would think of that?”
Weta was a fantastic place to work, Jonathan says, and he wouldn’t change anything about his time at the special effects and props company.
“It was all great fun but it can’t be good all the time. The expectations of the directors and art directors can be frustrating at times but when you get a good team together there’s nothing like it.
“No-one on a set is apathetic about what they are doing. They are very aware to maintain the position they have and are on the ball. There is no lack of motivation.”
On campus two days a week, Jonathan is keen to dovetail teaching work with his art practice. Formerly a leadlighter, he moved to portraiture and now focuses on figurative work.
He also wants to maintain his links with the film industry.
“That means staying current. The industry moves fast and it’s technology-driven so it can quickly outpace your experience. Cameras read things differently from the naked eye. With experience you know what level you can take a prop to but high definition film makes some of those things obsolete.
“You have to be very adaptable,” says Jonathan, who is embracing that approach as the family settles into life in Hawke’s Bay.
News
Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students
29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more
New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process
7 Mar 2020 News
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more
Business
NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19
17 Mar 2020 Business News
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more
NZ Government announces aviation relief package
19 Mar 2020 Business News
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more
Living
Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London
6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall.
It was the first... more
Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate
12 Jan 2022 Arts
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...
New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more
Property
Fairer rules for tenants and landlords
17 Nov 2019 Property
17 NOVEMBER 2019
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more
New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax
17 Apr 2019 Property
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more
Migration
Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued
19 Nov 2019 Migration
19 NOVEMBER 2019
We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more
Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location
18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018
HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY
The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more
Travel
Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
more
Sport
The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners
27 Oct 2019 Cricket
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more
PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final
26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more
Columns
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
First published on Werewolf
The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more
Kiwi Success
Congratulations to Loder Cup winner
26 Sep 2018 People
25 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more
Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
HON JENNY SALESA
Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more
Recruitment
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
14 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
22 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more