Zara Hayden

Zara absolutely loves her job. For her, workmates are a big part of it: "most days, I go to work, look around, and see a group of my favorite friends. I love the camaraderie of being part of a crew."

"I love NZ’s hard work ethic, and our team spirit, and our physical strength, and our ingenuity. It brings me much joy to arrive on set in the early morning and see a crew of fantastic people doing cool things together. I love that a crew consists of a diverse group – ranging from very artistic to very practical."

She sees being part of a crew as a "wonderful life for a voyeur… Always looking into someone else’s life… someone’s home, or job… [seeing] the back of airports, the inside of the military, into the studios of TVNZ, or meeting some geezers at a local bowling club.

The work brings very diverse experiences. Every workday is different… "the job involves equal amounts of time in the office, and time on-set… Time dressing up, and time dressing down [and getting to] visit some very beautiful and interesting parts of New Zealand."

Zara started in screen production 15 years ago – having "a couple of useless degrees (MA Eng Lit)" from university – at Flying Start Pictures as a receptionist. She thanks** Amanda Langkilde** who got her an interview from where it all began.

She recalls "a ‘light bulb moment’ that I wanted to work in the industry." She was in a job she "was hating, and had this revelation that I wanted in to film and TV". She says it shouldn’t have been such a revelation with then partner and friends in the industry. Needing to get a foot in the door, meant taking "almost any job to get in. So, hello reception!"

Following Flying Start was PA (Production Assistant) at Digital Masters. Next up was a year in facilities/producing at Liquid Studios (audio and music composition, newly starting up)… Then off to Melbourne to work as a producer in a post-production house.

"It was a lousy time to be in the screen industry in Australia: the second year following the introduction of GST, the end of Olympics year (budgets had been spent), the remaining work was going to Sydney and there was new deregulation of overseas [quotas] – so there was not much shooting in Melbourne. Just re-doing audio, and adding new end tags to American TVCs."

Zara left the Aussie job "before I was fired", returning to New Zealand where she made "a concerted effort to work up the production side of the ladder… runner, PA, coordinator – the usual pathway." She name checks Mark Foster and **Blu Steven **as two of the first people to give her work in production.

These days Zara works almost entirely, and happily, in the TVC sector, enjoying the short duration. She feels very fortunate to "make all my income from the industry" getting "lucky with a role that is often in demand." She adds "it’s a bit of an odd role… a successful job judged upon things that don’t go wrong." If the job goes smoothly, and things don’t go wrong, that’s the marker that leaves her pleased with her work.

Zara agrees with recent profile subjects in not seeing much of an increase rates over her time in production. She feels fortunate to have been working for long enough to have advanced up the skill ladder, commanding a better daily rate than some more junior crew.

Being "no slacker on the computer" herself, Zara is "often wowed by how fast young people are on computers.** Vince McMillan **particularly springs to mind, the Automatic directors’ assistant. And my sister, a production coordinator who’s 10 years younger than me."

Zara does see room for improvement "I’d love to see better sustainability practices. I’d like crew to bring their own cups and water bottles to work. I’d love to see recycling of paper and food scraps." Though she "love[s] the intensity of working hard" she’s "really unhappy with the ‘looooong’ days and level of exhaustion that crew are faced with. Particularly in the summer season, when we have those – fantastic and crazy – line productions going through. I personally hate to be completely exhausted – it means I can’t do my job properly which feels bad."

She does wish "crew [would] remember that Production are actually part of the team, not the enemy – haha!". Sometimes she says "it feels like a gilded cage, as there’s no doubt it’s easy to let the industry own you when the work is abundant and frantic. But I absolutely love it."