David Stubbs - Director

My name's David Stubbs, I'm a director producer. I've been in the industry for 37 years and I've done everything from working as a runner all the way through to editing and art department and production and direction documentaries feature films tv commercials.

How did you come to work for the NFU and what did you do there?

i'd been working in the freelance industry for a couple of years and been trying to get into the film unit and i applied for several jobs production assistant jobs or production assistant trainee scheme jobs and been knocked back many times but i eventually got in i think the interview process for that particular um vacancy i pushed my technical skills rather than my creative ambitions a bit more in the interview and persuaded the producer who was interviewing me that i could fix the car if i stalled or knew how to change the spark plug and that's how i got the job.

The idea was that you would join the film unit and work your way through the various departments editing camera art lighting and and within that you might find the area that suited you or interested you but you get a really good craft background for the whole of the film industry pro the film making process you know including the lab and all the things that you would need to know to become a rounded filmmaker.

What made you get into film making?

When i was growing up my friends and I would make super 8 films in the weekends and the holidays and all of us really enjoyed it as a hobby but because i had an uncle who worked in the film industry and was a cinematographer i was aware probably more so than other people that it was a career that you could pursue there were real real jobs in the film industry and so uh i really pursued that and as soon as I finished university pretty much the last day of university i started as a runner in the film industry .

What was it like working for the NFU?

Most days of the week it was a nine-to-five job which was quite unusual in the film industry most people work 12-hour days or minimum 10 hour days and generally you know crazy hours really at the film unit unless if you went on a shoot then it was a you know 8 30 to 5 job with lunch break and morning and afternoon tea and so it was like a normal job but with all the benefits.

I've been making films on the side many of us were trainees and department we wanted to be in or get into but our official role would be something else so officially I was a production assistant and then i was officially an editor i was never really a director even though i was directing stuff for the film unit and for myself.

How much creative freedom were you given?

It was definitely always the opportunity to contribute creatively . I found that as an editor and then the projects that we , the trainees, did for ourselves were probably the most creatively kind of free projects i've ever been involved in. We wrote, produced, edited , shot and the whole shebang . So many of us who are in the industry now who've come through came through that scheme kind of learnt through working with the seniors in those departments. But being allowed to make mistakes within it you know and try different things out and there are so many different films short films and music videos and many documentaries that were made on the side at the film unit that I don't know whether they're in the archive or not but there's some real gems out there.

The nfu definitely nurtured new talent it probably didn't know it was. It wasn't really its job. Its job was to make films for the publicity department, tourism , foreign department and you know to to capture something in New Zealand culture and New Zealand at the time. And train people up but inevitably the people that were drawn to it, the film unit, had ambitions above and beyond that as well and so it did nurture. Within the group of people there was a lot of enthusiasm. A lot of artists as well as technicians in that building. We all nurtured each other and all helped each other out and you know management officially had certain roles and responsibilities I'm sure as did we but it was generally a sense that everyone was trying to help each other out to make good films and tell good stories.

One of the schemes that the management of the national film units set up was a opportunity for the trainees to make their own films and so we pitched a series of short films about New Zealand kids imagining their world and kind of a hyper hyper real vision of the world. So we set out to have these five different, little mini films we were going to make, and Running For Empties was the first one. It was about a milk run and part of the brief was we had to involve all the departments so we had to train up turn up new camera people trying to use sound people , new editing people and also people within the design and animation department.

So Running for Empties was a documentary about some boys on a milk run . We also had some animated parts to it as well. So animation trainees within that department could demonstrate their skills and try some things out so it's a hybrid of all the different departments working together. I think it's amazing that all the films have been preserved and sort of screened again as well just just randomly a few weeks ago on my facebook feed. Running for Empties appeared. it was great to see that out in the world, especially in the sense that Running for Empties, the New Zealand milk run, which I haven't seen any other films that have really kind of documented that in the same way that we did back then .

So that's that's great. Even back then when we were making those films that they were the audiences weren't really there for them they were seem to be thrown more overseas or in exclusive environments so there's a wealth of material and really amazing historical films and and even some videos in later years that capture a time and a sense of New Zealand back then.

These things have to be looked after and and presented again and be easily accessible to people. I think it's really great that something's happening to preserve those films . I want to see some of those films again.

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