A Creative Cracker

In 2009 we heard from managers, producers, performers and makers in the creative sector and each interview was an inspiring insight into their work and how to ‘survive and thrive’.

As Writer Briar Grace-Smith said when asked what is the most thrilling part of her practice - “I like unwrapping the gifts that others bring to the table: the director, the actors, set design, costume – when that happens it can be like Christmas.”

So we’ve unwrapped and repackaged some of our favourite quotes from the year and highlighted the interviews where The Big Idea community asked the questions. Enjoy!

During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired?

Costume Designer Nic Smillie
Mornings usually, unfortunately though sometimes that can be 4.00am.  I find I do some of my best work in my pyjamas.

Events Manager Elise Goodge
I actually am at my most inspired between 11pm and about 2am. Right when everyone else is getting ready to bed down I come alive! It can be quite annoying when you work a 9-5 job.

How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style?

Comedian Ben Hurley
Big, Hairy and funny.
 
Art+Object Managing Director Hamish Coney
Dress wise blissfully style free – art wise catholic, chaotic and all the about the big idea!!

Artist and The Gravy presenter Ross Liew
I don't have any good friends but if you asked Kurt who I work in the Cut Collective with he'd say I just copied him. And I'd describe his style as nostalgic cut and paste that's been run through a rusty blender on pulse setting.

What aspect of your creative practice gives you the biggest thrill?

Dixon Nacey from the Samsom Nacey Haines Trio
That point at the height of a gig where the audience is enthralled, and the musicians onstage are all connected, and the sound takes on a complete life of its own, carrying you along to an indescribably beautiful, joyous moment where all is forgotten, lost in the music and the moment.

Writer Briar Grace-Smith
There are different kinds of thrills at different parts of the writing process. A big one is when you have finally discovered what your idea really is.  Yes! When the printer pushes out the final page of the very first draft. The ink smells so good!
 
Italy's theatrical maestro Ferruccio Soleri / Arlecchino
The relationship with the audience. I confess that every time I play Arlecchino it’s a new emotion, and every time it’s something different. Especially when I’m improvising, something happens between me on stage and the audience in the stalls: it’s a direct relationship; a physical contact, I would say.  

How does your environment affect your work?

Performance Designer Sam Trubridge
Space, an environment, and an appropriate landscape are critical for the creation of my performances. I am not interested in the performer operating in a void, rather I see them operating in a field of architectural, social, and conceptual relationships created by the environment around them.

Taonga choreographer Louise Potiki Bryant
I live in Piha and I think living by the sea amongst bush has definitely had an affect on my work. I often incorporate natural elements into my work and I consider the natural cycles of things a lot more.

Do you like to look at the big picture or focus on the details?

Maaka Pepene
Consciously or sub-consciously we are assessing the environment that we find ourselves in continuously and it’s all the little things that add up to create a larger picture that influence how we see, feel, hear, touch and taste the part of the world we find ourselves in.

Performer Charlie McDermott
I used to be a big picture person. Big ideas and dreams. However as I have grown older I have realised that it is the finer details that make up the big picture. So my big ideas and dreams become hundreds of smaller lists.

What's your number one business tip for surviving (and thriving) in the creative industries?

Singer-songwriter L.A Mitchell
Knowledge! Learn your craft then learn your business. Don't feel compelled to compromise your intuitive creative responses.

Choreographer Alexa Wilson
Being tough and being passionate. As sensitive beings able to tap into shit beneath the surface it can be hard not to be affected by criticism, judgment or tall poppy syndrome. You need to weather the bad times and keep focusing on the positives. It is a privilege to make art. Good friends are also a must.

Auckland Festival of Photography Director Julia Durkin
With any cultural event or project the main thing is to maintain relevance to your audience.

Which of your projects to date has given you the most satisfaction?

Actor/Director Peter Elliott
My first solo directorial debut with The Scene for Silo Theatre. I feel I have finally grown up and found my anchor for this restless waka of mine. 

Chelsie Preston Crayford
This is an easy one – I recently played my own grandmother as a young woman in “Home by Christmas”, a feature film due to come out next April. My mum was the director, so it was amazing to be able to work so closely together on a story we both knew so intimately. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Who or what has inspired you recently?

Auckland Theatre Company creative development manager Lynne Cardy
The teenage crew on Young and Hungry – they are bright, fun, energetic & dedicated…everything you need to be to survive in theatre.
 
Choreographer Timothy Gordon
How we as a world body are now having to embrace each other as nations that rely on each other for our productivity as well as our understanding of our dependence on the natural environment as our life source that is shared and respected by all peoples and all nations.

Multi-media artist and curator Pippa Sanderson
A painting called ‘Bright Cloud of Fulfillment’ by Eileen Leung. I like the optimism.  I’m inspired by people who can sustain their practice in the face of obstacles.

If you could go back and choose a completely different career path to the one you've chosen, what would it be?

BATS (former) Business Manager Clare Kerrison
Indiana Jones. A cultural academic who gets their hands dirty. With great one liners. And a whip.

Ferruccio Soleri / Arlecchino
I would choose exactly the same path. Theatre has been and still is the reason of my life. I would have never expected such a big satisfaction.

What place is always with you, wherever you go?

Photographer Edith Amituanai
Samoa and then West Auckland because they rule.

Multi-media artist and curator Pippa Sanderson
Waimarama in Hawkes Bay, and the place in my heart for my kids.

What's the best way to listen to music, and why?

Leon Radojkovic from Dr Colossus
I only listen to music that has been heavily compressed and encoded in Mp3 format, using tiny white earbuds. Why? Because I hate music.

Photographer Edith Amituanai
In the car while thinking about all the cool dance moves I'm going to do in front of my friends which never come out the way I picture it in my head.

You are given a piece of string, a stick and some fabric. What do you make?

Film maker Roger Horrocks
If I was Len Lye, I would play or “doodle” with them. He made a great film (Colour Cry) out of fabric and string and other bits and pieces which he positioned on strips of film stock and then exposed (without a camera).  

Performer Madeleine Sami
A wave harnessing electricity turbine that can meet the energy requirements of the whole world cleanly and efficiently. Or a wigwam for ants.

What's the best stress relief advice you've ever been given?

Luise Fong, McCahon House Artist in Residence
Just when the caterpillar thought its life was over, it turned into a butterfly.

Chelsie Preston Crayford
“Go stick your head in a bucket” – Ellie Smith.

What's great about today?

Weaver Kohai Grace
That I’m alive and my hands are still working, and I still have some coffee left.

Writer Richard Holloway
It is NOW and now is where we exist, not yesterday or tomorrow.

What’s your big idea for 2010?

Programme Director Murray Gray
Presenting another Going West and competing with the Rugby World Cup.

Director Niki Caro
No big ideas, just lots of little ones. Generosity, curiosity, a sense of wonder and a sense of humour.

American museum experience designer Nina Simon
In 2010, I hope we start seeing a new generation of community centers pop up—in museums, in libraries, in cafes, wherever—that are designed to specifically optimize social connections among individuals in physical space. Building supportive social networks is too important a community project to leave to websites and corporations alone.

• The Big Idea Community Questions

What do you get when you let the creative community ask the questions? Some great answers... follow the links to read the QnAs.

Auckland Festival Associate Director Mark Burlace answered questions from The Big Idea members about selecting works for the festival, cultivating activity in Auckland's arts community and the role the creative industries (and events such as AK09) have to play in improving the region's economy and New Zealand's global competitive advantage.

Taonga choreographer Louise Potiki Bryant talked about Maori contemporary dance and the Atamira Dance Collective, belonging to the land, cultural change, what remains a taonga (treasure) and being inspired by stories from her whanau, hapu and iwi.

Circus Oz founding member Tim Coldwell answered questions about his inspirations, production ideas, preparing for a world tour, selecting performers and behind-the-scenes conflicts which are "part of sharing work with a diverse group of passionate people".

Documentary filmmaker Leanne Pooley talked about directing The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.

Costume Designer Nic Smillie on the difference between designing for opera, The Italian Girl in Algiers, compared to film or TV.
 
Mezzo soprano Kristen Darragh reveals how she discovered her dream to be an opera singer and her future ambitions, including acting and her ultimate opera role.

"I think I felt in my heart at that moment that my life's dream was to be an opera singer."

Actor/Director Peter Elliott had 53 different jobs before he became an actor, at the Court Theatre in Christchurch.  It led to a 30-year career - spanning television, film, theatre, opera and radio - that he could not, and would not, change.  But he can try new things. 

Elliott answered The Big Idea community questions about his solo directorial debut with The Scene for Silo Theatre.

Choreographer Timothy Gordon talks about the dance component of the NBR New Zealand Opera’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Arts Laureate Briar Grace-Smith has written for the page, stage and screen and now her first feature film, The Strength of Water. Grace-Smith talks about writing, completing shelved projects, the audience and Sundance workshops. 

Kung Fu Panda co-Director John Stevenson answered The Big Idea community questions about creating emotional connections, re-writes and storyboarding, and coming up with new ideas.

“The only way I know to stay on the path and not lose your way is to have a simple theme that you believe in passionately."

“If you can hold onto the simple idea that made you want to tell the story in the first place through all the panics of production, eventually you will find your way home.”

Director Niki Caro answered questions from the community, including her response to reviews about her latest film The Vintner’s Luck, based on the award-winning novel by New Zealand writer Elizabeth Knox.

• More Q&As

Read more Q&As from 2009.