November was a particularly busy month in events for DEGNZ. We ran a 2-day weekend Directors Toolkit in Wellington with director Charlie Haskell, which was greatly enjoyed by the directors in attendance.

The following week, DEGNZ vice-president Louise Leitch taught best practices for directing scenes involving intimacy and nudity in Christchurch on Saturday 23 November. Directors and actors left feeling equipped with valuable skills that they could put into practice right away. That same day in Auckland, members of DEGNZ and WIFT gathered for a Screenlink morning tea at Department of Post. Dan Best shared on what it’s like to work as the First Assistant Editor and VFX Editor for a film the size of Mortal Engines.

It was fantastic to see new and familiar faces at our Young Creators night Serious about Series. Flat3 Productions’ Ally Xue and JJ Fong gave an inspiring and useful session on working in the world of web series.

NZWG hosted the last round of the guild Table Reads in 2019. Writer/director and DEGNZ member Linda Niccol travelled up to Auckland with her producers to have their feature film script read. The team came away with lots of excellent feedback from the actors involved.

Our last workshop on November 30 was Rehearsal & Performance with actor/director Ian Hughes in Auckland. Ian led an engaging session with directors and actors dedicated to learning skills around director-actor communication, especially on fast shoots.

To top everything off, we celebrated the year with our members and other screen bodies at the three Screen Guilds Christmas Parties in November and December. Thanks to everyone who came!

You can find photos of our events on Instagram.