The History - Act VII

Pip Hall has written for television and theatre, and won awards in both mediums. She started her screen career writing for sketch shows like Skitz and Telly Laughs, and enjoyed a long working relationship with soap Shortland Street. She went on to work on the scripts for Kiwi TV movies Why Does Love? and Runaway Millionaires, miniseries Jonah (about Jonah Lomu) and crime show One Lane Bridge.

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Act Seven: 2013 - 2017 by Pip Hall

To be fair, 2013–2017 is a little hazy. Ah yes, those heady pre-COVID days. Having joined the NZWG Board only a year earlier, and with Peter Cox deciding to step down after a decent stint, somehow, I ended up becoming the new President. Totally thrown in the deep end.

Steve Gannaway was Executive Director and the Guild operated out of the iconic Ponsonby Road offices. Graeme Mason was head of the New Zealand Film Commission, shortly to be succeeded by Dave Gibson. There was upheaval and hoops to jump through, as different funding rounds were mooted. The choice went from three year allocation of core funding to three monthly allocations (an impossible suggestion), to finally settling on annual funding.

So, as well as core funding, we got funding for a new film development initiative - SEED.

At that time we also partnered with Script to Screen to help develop Story Camp. The first Story Camp was well received and drew international mentors to work with New Zealand writers. As far as the NZWG was concerned, we had a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship with Script to Screen and it came as a shock to the organisation when, late in 2015, they removed the NZWG, along with other Guild partners, from their governance structure without consultation. Script to Screen formed an independent body. As the founding organisation who set up Script to Screen, NZWG lobbied hard to reverse this decision, but no such luck. We did, however, manage to get Script to Screen to ensure there would always be working writers sitting on their board - to advocate for writers.

After seven years, Steve Gannaway stepped down to move to Wellington and Alice Shearman was appointed. Not only did this herald a change in staff, but also premises. We moved out of Ponsonby Road and into the first of many new offices in Great North Road.

IAWG continued to be pivotal for the NZWG. We attended conferences in Toronto and Warsaw. Steve Gannaway was also part of the organising committee for the 3rd World Conference of Script Writers. The 2015 conference was held in Israel and, by a narrow margin, the Board voted not to attend. New Zealand declined the invitation. At the 2016 Paris IAWG, Alice Shearman and Pip Hall attended and secured funding to help get collective bargaining off the ground.

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