Gemma Hinchey
How long have you been in screen production and how did you get started?
7yrs- My first foray into the film world was a short stint with Weta Workshop, and was closely followed by What We Do in the Shadows. I had made contact with the costume department through the buyer, who had been shopping in my partner's vintage clothing store (so your usual ‘who you know’ story). The team was lovely, and in the years since I have worked with them, and the costume designer Amanda Neale many times. It was a pretty great introduction to the industry.
Why did you choose film/TV as a career?
I had always been interested in costume but hadn’t found the opportunity to jump into it. When I studied Fashion Design, costume was only a small extra module—not exactly a career path, and the film industry was pretty small in the South Island where I was living. So I worked in the fashion industry for 10yrs before switching teams, which was made a lot more likely by a move to Wellington. I was definitely drawn creatively to ‘story telling’ through garments, and the diversity of design work. Fashion was a pretty narrow field as far as challenging and stretching your skills. I think working in film has really allowed me to turn my craft into my art. And I would definitely call myself a cinephile...
What has experience taught you that study couldn’t?
That’s a big question and would be a very long answer—so let’s just say a lot. A lot of specialized skills—and that I LOVE collaboration—both within costume and with other departments, something that would be very unlikely to happen outside of film.
Do you also work outside of film?
Not at the moment.
What have you learnt about your department as a whole? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your department?
You are only as good as your team! It is such a hugely collaborative job, even on a small gig. I have always found the costume department to be extremely dedicated—especially to each other. There is the element of commitment to the project but even more so to the team—we will drop everything to help the gang if they need it. And that we can solve unexpected problems pretty damn fast if we need to.
A weakness may be that our department is seen as predominantly female and lesser earning. I think this may be influencing the number of young people training in the specialized skills we need in the workroom. The fashion industry in NZ has completely diminished so there is far fewer skilled people transferring from industry—which is where a lot of our core crew came from.
Why have you chosen to join the Guild? What do you want and expect of the Guild?
I joined the Guild because I love this industry and I only want to see it grow and become a stronger, more cohesive community. I think groups like the Guild allow us to communicate better with each other, which is a huge part of supporting and growing a team. As well as allowing us to present an informed, organized and clear identity to groups outside or affiliated with our industry. Only good things can come from us talking to each other more.
What strengths do you think the NZ industry has? What could contribute to a more sustainable industry?
One of our strengths is our versatility—there is no job too big, too small, or too strange that we could not tackle. And if it’s something we have never done before.... even better.
Sustainability is a broad issue. Sustaining the crew through peaks and troughs is tricky. Our contract system could possibly be reviewed but to be honest it’s a problem a little out of my expertise, though I would be happy to be part of any discussions about evolving the way we work, and looking at how the industry works well in other centers around the world.
Sustainability as far as waste is concerned is at least a little easier to tackle—we know what needs to be done—and although I have seen changes over the past few years there is still a long way to go. In the end everything we do to reduce waste will have an economic benefit, so it will help with the other side of sustaining our industry!
