Ben Morice
How long have you been in screen production and how did you get started?
I have only been in the industry for 8-9 months now. My wife is a make-up artist and we relocated home from Australia earlier this year as she had taken on a job. I am not a film student or graduate so it was tough for me to figure it out, but having experience in logistics and transport helped an opportunity present itself and I took it.
Why did you choose Film/TV as a career?
I have always had an interest in videography. When I was younger my brother, my friends and I would take our family’s handycams out and make skateboard videos. We figured out how to rig a stereo and two VCR’s together using AV cords and would edit together videos with our favourite music recorded over top. My passion for film was always driven by what goes on behind the scenes as well.
This being said, I didn’t really start out pursuing the film/TV industry until much later in my life, as I left school early in pursuit of work in the mining and petroleum industries and became quite comfortable there. But of course you need to follow your passions and I am just very thankful to be given the opportunities I have so far.
What has experience taught you that study couldn’t?
Not having the background of studying film makes this quite difficult to answer. But I would have to say experience gives you the ability to go beyond the fundamentals that study teaches you, but also helps you understand the boundaries and when to hold back and let others do their thing. Don’t be too over-zealous is what experience has taught me.
Are you able to make a living in the industry or do you also work outside of it?
Personally I am yet to make a ‘living’ in the industry and I also do other work outside of it. Due to the nature of this beast I believe it is wise to have a back-up or a background project on the go.
What have you learnt about your department as a whole? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your department?
Being confident and assertive is essential, but you need to be likable for it to work. Forget about being two steps ahead – you need to be five steps ahead! If you don’t have an answer to a question you are finding one out, and always follow up. Communicate everything to your HOD. I am still learning what the strengths and weaknesses really are.
How easy or hard is it as a newbie in the industry? What are attitudes of other crew like to you?
So far I feel I have been very lucky by landing my first two jobs back to back at the beginning of the year. It became very hard when those jobs finished up and I did not have a lot of contacts to go to for more work. There are tools out there to help of course, and things like FilmCrews have helped make it easier for me to find those contacts and put my profile out there.
The crews I have worked with so far were just great. Everyone seems more than happy to share their knowledge and even more so their stories and I feel like I learn more from the stories than anything. Some crew are a lot more serious and less friendly than others but when I learnt that was more because of their focus than their personality it made sense.
What strengths do you think the NZ industry has? What could contribute to a more sustainable industry?
Our landscape and the accessibility to that landscape is a big one. You only need to drive one hour from our largest cities and you can find yourself in totally remote and nearly untouched locations.
We have world leading design and effects facilities but in my opinion our biggest strength is that landscape. If we all worked hard to preserve that asset, that would sustain an important part of the NZ industry, I believe.
