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John Charles | |
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| Born | 4 November 1940 |
| Origin | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Genres | Film scores |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, conductor, pianist |
| Instrument(s) | Piano |
| Years active | 1979–2004 |
John Charles (born 4 November 1940) is a New Zealand film composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He created a number of musical works for the New Zealand cinema of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including compositions for films such as Goodbye Pork Pie , Utu , The Quiet Earth , A Soldier's Tale or Spooked . [1]
Born in Wellington, Charles studied art at the Victoria University of Wellington. At the same time, he played jazz music in the university club. During his studies, he worked as a newspaper journalist and as a programmer for the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. With a Bachelor of Music degree, he returned to NZBC and worked as a producer and director. With experience directing a television play in 1973 and directing two episodes of a comedy series, he moved to Australia in 1974 and composed the music for his first television film, The God Boy.
The director with whom Charles worked most often in his career was jazz trumpeter and filmmaker Geoff Murphy. Their acquaintance dates back to 1966 and Murphy's first film, the unfinished children's musical The Magic Hammer. The two starred together as part of the 1970s touring group Blerta and on the Murphy-directed TV show of the same name. Together they turned to the realization of several New Zealand cinema projects in the late 1979s and early 1980s. While Murphy was directing, Charles composed the soundtracks to the films Goodbye Pork Pie , for which Charles wrote a jazz score, the Māori drama Utu , which has a predominantly symphonic score, and the dystopian, award-winning science fiction drama The Quiet Earth , in which he also processed avant-garde and experimental sounds in addition to symphonic ones. Director Murphy and leading actor Bruno Lawrence received several awards for the film The Quiet Earth, including the New Zealand Film and TV Award. Finally, in 2004, the mystery drama Spooked starring Cliff Curtis was created, the last joint work by Charles and Murphy. [1]
In 1996, Charles joined the Australian Film and Broadcasting School as composer-in-residence, where he taught composition for more than a decade.
New Zealand cinema can refer to films made by New Zealand-based production companies in New Zealand. However, it may also refer to films made about New Zealand by filmmakers from other countries. Due to the comparatively small size of its film industry, New Zealand produces many films that are co-financed by overseas companies.
Utu is a 1983 New Zealand war film about the New Zealand Wars. Co-written and directed by Geoff Murphy, the films stars Anzac Wallace, Bruno Lawrence, Tim Eliott, Ilona Rodgers, Wi Kuki Kaa and Merata Mita, and depicts the story of a Māori warrior who sets out on a quest for "utu" (revenge). Inspired by the events of Te Kooti's War, the film is set in 1870 in the North Island and has been described as a New Zealand Western.
Geoffrey Peter Murphy was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, director, and screenwriter best known for his work during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the second half of the 1970s. His second feature Goodbye Pork Pie (1981) was the first New Zealand film to win major commercial success on its soil. Murphy directed several Hollywood features during the 1990s, before returning to New Zealand as second-unit director on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Murphy was also a scriptwriter, special effects technician, schoolteacher and trumpet player at different times. He was married to Merata Mita, a film director, actor, writer.
Goodbye Pork Pie is a 1981 New Zealand comedy film directed by Geoff Murphy, co-produced by Murphy and Nigel Hutchinson, and written by Geoff Murphy and Ian Mune. The film was New Zealand's first large-scale local hit. One book described it as Easy Rider meets the Keystone Cops.
A pork pie hat is one of several different styles of hat that have been worn since the mid-19th century. The pork pie hat gained further popularity in the 20th century, being worn by famous actors and musicians. This style of hat features a flat crown that resembles a traditional pork pie, thus earning its name.
David Charles Lawrence known as Bruno Lawrence was an English-born musician and actor, who was active in the industry in New Zealand and Australia.
Warren Lee Tamahori is a New Zealand film director. He is known for directing the films Once Were Warriors (1994), Along Came a Spider (2001) and Die Another Day (2002).
John Bach is a British-born New Zealand actor who has acted on stage, television and film over a period of more than four decades. Though born in the United Kingdom, he has spent most of his career living and working in New Zealand.
Thomas Hern is a New Zealand actor and independent film producer. He is known for producing NZ feature films The Dark Horse, Everything We Loved, and Pork Pie. Hern also produced the action-comedy Guns Akimbo, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving and TIFF Midnight Madness award-winner Shadow in the Cloud.
Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale is a 1986 New Zealand animated comedy film based on cartoonist Murray Ball's comic strip Footrot Flats about a New Zealand farmer and his border collie sheepdog. The film was written by Ball and Tom Scott, directed by Ball, and produced by John Barnett and Pat Cox, with music by Dave Dobbyn. The voice cast includes leading New Zealand actors John Clarke, Peter Rowley, Rawiri Paratene, Fiona Samuel and Billy T. James. It was New Zealand's first feature-length animated film. The film was released in November 1986 in New Zealand by Kerridge-Odeon, and opened in Australia on 9 April 1987. Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale grossed $2,500,000 at the New Zealand box office . In Australia, it grossed $4,317,000 which is equivalent to $11 million in 2016.
Dame Gaylene Mary Preston is a New Zealand filmmaker with a particular interest in documentary films.
Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill is a documentary about the history of New Zealand cinema written by Sam Neill and co-directed by Neill and Judy Rymer. The film was released in 1995, and was New Zealand's contribution to the British Film Institute's Century of Cinema series. The title refers to the dark and brooding nature of many of New Zealand's most notable films, which Neill considers a reflection of the nation's struggle to find, or form, its own identity. The film screened in the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and won Best Documentary in the 1996 TV Guide Film and Television Awards of New Zealand.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt is a 1980 New Zealand docu-drama feature film directed by John Laing and starring David Hemmings, John Hargreaves, Roy Billing, and Terence Cooper.
Michael J. Horton is a film editor who works primarily in New Zealand. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers that was directed by Peter Jackson.
Alun Robert Bollinger is a New Zealand cinematographer, who has worked on several Peter Jackson films, and many other films in New Zealand. He has also been a Director of Photography, including the second unit for Peter Jackson's trilogy The Lord of the Rings. He started as a trainee cine-camera operator for television with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in 1966.
Merata Mita was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry.
Martyn Sanderson was a New Zealand actor, director, producer, writer and poet.
April Phillips is an actress, writer, singer, director and producer of film and theatre. She was born in Coventry, England, but resides in Wellington, New Zealand. Her production company, Godiva Productions Limited, was named after the Lady Godiva legend of her hometown of Coventry.
Pork Pie is a 2017 New Zealand road comedy film written and directed by New Zealander Matt Murphy and produced by Tom Hern. The film is a remake of the 1981 movie Goodbye Pork Pie, the first New Zealand film to win a substantial local audience. The remake stars Dean O'Gorman, James Rolleston and Ashleigh Cummings as a trio of accidental outlaws who travel the length of New Zealand in a stolen orange New Mini. The film was scored by Jonathan Crayford.
Robert William Nigel Hutchinson was an English-born New Zealand film producer and commercial director best known for co-producing the 1981 film, Goodbye Pork Pie, with Geoff Murphy. Hutchinson also made a small cameo in the classic New Zealand film as a dairy farmer. He produced other films and television commercials, most recently Home by Christmas in 2010.
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