Bradley Holdaway

What brought you into the film industry? Was it always something you wanted to do, or did you find yourself with the appropriate skills learned outside of film, and then apply those skills to what you do now?

I was one of those lost teenagers, with no idea what I wanted to do with my life, you know how it goes. Due to medical issues, I dropped out of school and just sat around not doing much. During this phase I began to write creatively, first it was just silly and vulgar stories for my entertainment but then it became more serious. At a later time, I wanted to be a writer, I took a bachelor's in creative writing but due to medical issues, I could only take a year. As time went on I learnt more about making films and it interested me greatly though I figured I would never be able to go near that industry. A few years later once my medical issues were sorted I once again tried for a writing degree. It was here I met a screenwriter, Albert Bellz. He taught me screenwriting and I loved the simplicity of it compared to prose as I always struggled with adding just the right amount of description to get my vision across but not so much that it became a boring read. I wanted to pursue filmmaking before this as with writing you can describe something and everyone pictures it slightly differently whereas film doesn’t have that issue unless you intend for it to. After about a year I once again dropped out as I felt that I simply wasn’t being challenged in my education. I could have stayed on, breezed through classes and gotten a bachelor's but what's the point if I’m not being challenged and learning new things.

After some research, my choices were to go to South Seas Film School or SIT in Invercargill. South Seas was closer but I also wanted to move away from my parents and learn to be independent so I moved to Invercargill for 3 years to study film under Patric Gillies and James Wilkinson. I went there with the dreams of being an auteur like everyone but after a while, I started to fall in love with cameras. I became a resident camera nerd and went to 1st AC. After a year I went to DP for most projects. I fell in love with cinema cameras and bought my first one, a Black Magic Pocket 4k that I've been working on and rigging for a while now. We shot loads of short films throughout our study as it was super practical and being on set was where I learnt the most in the shortest amount of time. I’ve always had this passion for telling stories and film school opened my eyes to what that can mean. I learnt a story doesn’t even have to be a narrative. How you frame, block, light, and your focal length, all are stories, most people just don't think about it. The sheer joy of taking words on paper and filming them, making them come to life, is what brought me into the film industry and what’s going to keep me around forever.

What keeps you here? Is the film and screen industry work something you still love, or will you one day move into something completely different?

I’m still quite fresh to the industry, I’ve only worked on a few small indie, self-funded projects. That being a few shorts and 2 features. It’s hard to nail down what exactly I love about it, I guess there are just too many things to love about filmmaking. My passion for storytelling both as a Cinematographer and also in creating my own stories in the form of Shorts and eventually features is alive and well and won't be going anywhere any time soon and I won't rest until I’ve finished telling stories, that of course is never going to happen so I expect I’ll be making films till I die. That’s the dream.

Why have you joined the Guild now? Is it something you have been considering for a while, or was there a sudden realisation that made you want to join?

To be completely honest I knew of the guild, was meaning to join it and then so much of life happened all at once I just forgot. I was working on this cam op project and the guy who hired me, was an awesome dude named Edward Sampson. He recommended me to join up and that flicked a switch reminding me that I wasn’t meant to but hadn’t yet. So the next day I joined and got my blue book and other helpful resources.

What do you think the Guild can and should work towards, for its members?

As someone who was away for a while and then moving back to Auckland the biggest issue I’ve been having is simple networking. Something they neglected to teach us at film school so having to do it while also learning how to do it is a bit of a challenge. I would love it if the Screen Guild held more networking events. In my first feature, one of the producers told me about a Facebook group that holds networking events monthly just for the sake of networking. Something like that would be great. On their events page, they do have a few but they are quite far apart resulting in newbies like me having to scour Facebook group chats for networking opportunities.

2023 was a very lean year in the film industry, with many workers taking up positions in other trades. Have you been busier in film this year - and what sort of work has there been around?

I mainly worked on self-funded indie projects. A few short films as the DP, some colour grading jobs. Working on my first indie feature was a highlight and netted me an IMDB credit, as well as just working on my projects at home. I very much fit into the cliche of the starving artist. If I can't make films I will use that free time researching, practising, improving or working out so I can carry heavy Arri Alexas on my shoulders.

What would a sustainable, booming film industry look like in NZ? Do you feel we are heading in the right direction to achieve it?

To me, the NZ film industry is in a strange type of limbo. A Lot of countries come over here to film, and that's great but I feel there is a lack of NZ homegrown films. Unless you're talking Taika and some indies here and there, a proper NZ film is quite uncommon. I think this is simply due to the NZ Film Commission's requirement for features they fund to have “significant New Zealand content”, not every feature people want to make is about NZ or NZ culture and I feel that could be leading some amazing creatives to not get their films made or at least have a harder time going about it. We saw what it was like recently with the pandemic shutting down international film productions and that left the NZ film industry to be somewhat barren even over this past year.

To me, a healthy and thriving NZ film industry would be essentially what Netflix did to South Korea a few years back. There was a massive boom in South Korean films and Netflix had a hand in that. Kingdom, Psychokinesis, Pandora, Unlocked, Kill Boksoon, all Netflix originals and non-Netflix originals like Train to Busan and later Parasite, of course, helped to elevate their presence on the world stage for film. I think NZ needs to just make more films, not essentially about NZ or NZ culture or identity. Not everyone is going to make Once Were Warriors and that’s okay. Kiwis will mostly make films that will include New Zealand culture incidentally, regardless of that’s their direct subject matter simply by the fact they are Kiwis.

I feel like the Film Commission and other prominent entities should further expand their efforts in incentivising foreign funding bodies to take on NZ homegrown productions. I know this is being done to some extent but perhaps tightening relations with Netflix would help this goal.

Honestly, I just want it to be easier for Kiwis to make awesome art and unfortunately with film that just tends to cost a lot.

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