ScreenTalk: Director Tony Hiles

05 Mar 2009

Director Tony Hiles talks about more than 30 years of film-making, from making television

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Director Tony Hiles talks about more than 30 years of film-making, from making television and documenting local history and artists, to his involvement in feature films.

Hiles talks about his beginnings “the best years of television in this country” at TVNZ’s Avalon studios in the seventies, where he directed game shows, music, and current affairs programmes.

In this interview with NZ On Screen Tony Hiles also talks about:

Founding production company City Associates with partner Judith Fyfe in 1980, and his experiences making local history documentaries.

Making films with artists Michael Smither (One Man and the Sea; Flight of Fancy) and Robin Morrison (From the Road), and the fun of small-crew, seat-of-your-pants shooting. The key [to the documentaries] “was to be in at the beginning … where we had no idea what was going to happen the next day.”

Being brought onboard as consultant producer on Peter Jackson’s breakout splatstick debut, Bad Taste. Hiles was asked by the Film Commission’s Jim Booth (Bad Taste’s producer) to assess the script and figured, “if it makes me laugh it’ll make someone else laugh as well.” Hiles also directed Good Taste Made Bad Taste, the movie’s ‘making of’ story.

His relationship with Booth and the impact that his untimely death had on Jack Brown Genius: the feature that didn’t fly about a man who dreamed about flying. In the wake of the disappointment of Genius Hiles reflects on the lessons he’s learned over his long career: “If it don’t feel right, don’t do it!”

Interview by Clare O'Leary for NZ On Screen. NZ On Screen is the home of New Zealand screen content.