Standing Room Only for Sunday 7 November 2021

12:16  The Gaming industry in NZ 

The world-wide gaming industry is big.  It's really big.  Just ten years ago it generated over 25 billion dollars of income a year in the US alone.   Last year it took in 135 billion dollars.   Taking in the rest of the world it's been estimated that gaming is worth over 300 billion dollars - that's more than the film and music industries combined.  

But it's also one of the most challenging and creative industries to work in.  The production of a top-end game can rival most movie blockbusters - there's narrative, story arcs, even characters.  But the range is extraordinary - from cellphone word games and brain teasers to empire-building, shoot-'em-ups and My Little Pony.

What many of us don't realise is how many Kiwi companies are doing games - and doing very well with them.  Today, we take a look at one of this country's biggest audience generators.

What counts as a video game in 2021?  Who's playing them, what's the range, how many people does it take to make them and where does Aotearoa New Zealand fit in the gaming world?

Yadana Saw talks to Chelsea Rapp - Chairperson of the NZ Game Developers Association,  Patrick Wagner - head of interactive Weta Workshop, and Zoe Hobson - CEO of Runaway Play in Dunedin. 

 

12:42  Sound artist Anonymouz is inspired by tatau art

Resample Tatau is an ambitious new work from award-winning creative producer and sound artist Faiumu Matthew Salapu, better known as Anonymouz. 

Inspired by his personal journey to receive his tatau - a traditional hand tapped Sāmoan tattoo - Anonymouz has expanded on his usual hip hop sampling style.  

Resample Tatau - Tali le 'au (lean into the pain) fuses audio recordings of the tatau process, live strings and indigenous percussion to create a seven-movement composition to be played live with a video projection next year. 

The Auckland-based artist and producer is also the 2021 inaugural recipient of the new virtual Toi Rauwhārangi Pacific Art Residency.  It's taking place online due to the COVID-19 restrictions. 

Anonymouz talks to Yadana Saw about a busy year, including his historic opening soundscape for the New Zealand Government's official apology to the Pasifika community for the Dawn Raids.
 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews Amazon Prime's The Green Knight, Ron's Gone Wrong and Antlers.

 

1:31  Music editor Stephen Gallagher

Swedish record label Moviescore Media has just released the original score for a short documentary about endangered elephants called  Kimana Tuskers.  The score was composed and produced by film and music legend - and Peter Jackson's go-to music editor - Stephen Gallagher.   

Stephen's worked on everything from blockbusters like The Hobbit trilogy, Lovely Bones and District Nine to - well, little films about the last remaining large tusker elephants as they pass through a wildlife corridor in Kenya.

Among his many fans are Eno - "such sensitive ears", said Brian - and Hollywood composer Conrad Pope - "one of the most humble yet tremendously gifted composers...  to call him a colleague honours me, not him"!

Stephen Gallagher talks about his life and times with Yadana Saw.

 

1:45  The story of Australian indigenous company Bangarra Dance Theatre

One of the notable elements in this year's International Film Festival is the strong representation of Indigenous films and film-makers.   One of them is an Australian documentary called Firestarter.  

In 1989 the Bangarra Dance Theatre was formed in Sydney.  It was entirely made up of indigenous Australians - Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders - and its impact was immeasurable.
 
At its heart were three brothers - the Page brothers - the Holy Trinity they were called, not entirely jokingly.  

The name "Bangarra" means "to make fire".  And the documentary that's about to show at the New Zealand International Film Festival is called Firestarter.    Simon Morris speaks to Aboriginal director Wayne Blair, who he last spoke to 10 years ago about his first film, the delightful The Sapphires.  

2:06 The Laugh Track - Lucien Johnson

Today marks one of the very few times we've had a jazz sax player on the Laugh Track.

But in fact comedians and jazz musicians have a lot in common.  They're best seen live, they often rely on improvisation, they perform in clubs where heckling is not uncommon, and they're very rarely overpaid!  

Today our guest is Lucien Johnson, once described as "a saxophonist and composer of rare excellence and mettle".

His picks include Stewart Lee, the Flight of the Concords and the TV series Toast of London. 

Find Lucien's latest album Wax//Wane here
 

2:25  Jane Campion's location manager Sally Sherratt

It's no surprise that the opening movie to launch the New Zealand International Film Festival this year should be the highly-anticipated The Power of the Dog.  Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst, it won director Dame Jane Campion the coveted Best Director award at this year's Venice Festival.

But films like The Power of the Dog don't happen by accident.  It was shot mostly around Otago, employing hundreds of locals as crew, extras, caterers and the rest.   And everyone agreed that the person who did most of the heavy lifting in making the film happen was location manager Sally Sherratt. 

Yadana Saw speaks to Sally from lockdown in Auckland.

2:40  Wellington crime writer Anne Harré

It's taken a while but finally Wellington joins New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Paul Cleave's Christchurch as a cool crime novel city.

As Anne Harre described it:  "Dig a little deeper and the city is unforgiving and unrepentant.  Forget the politicians, they're poor amateurs in deception and crime..."

Before launching her life of crime writing, Anne has been a music teacher, bookseller, freelance editor and reviewer, and editor for the New Zealand Poetry Society anthology.   All the better to dive into the many layers of Wellington life in her debut novel The Leaning Man.

It centres on Stella Weston - relentless, foul-mouthed and tenacious, everything you want in a private eye.  Yadana Saw asks Anne who inspired her anti-heroine.

 

2:49  The Eastern Sound Collective

With the world pretty much kept out of Aotearoa New Zealand thanks to a certain pandemic, we have to find the world within our shores.  And the surprising thing is how often that seems to be happening.

Take the Eastern Sound Collective - a loose network of pan-Asian musicians mostly located in Wellington. The group recently formed after one of the founders saw the success of such groups in the UK.

After a major event was postponed, thanks to Covid, a new event ESC IN SESSION has been scheduled for next week at the Capital's live venue Meow.

Yadana Saw caught up with Collective members Karnan Saba and founding member Aridnam Sen. 

3:06 Drama at 3 - When Sun and Moon collide by Briar Grace Smith

A sometimes comic small-town tale of separated kids, dark deeds and fierce retribution.  The secret lives of four rural New Zealanders are revealed in a series of events that begin when a local  returns home after a lengthy absence.

 

Music played in this show

Artist: Mi Sex
Song: Computer Games
Composer:  Burns-Gilpin-Stanton
Album: The Essential
Label: Sony
Played at: 12.12

Artist: D'Angelo
Song: Unshaken
Composer:  Lanois-D'Angelo
Album: N/A
Label: EMI
Played at: 12.39

Artist: Bob Seger
Song: Hollywood nights
Composer: Seger
Album: Greatest hits
Label: Capitol
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Theme
Song: Tetris
Composer: 
Album:  Greatest Video Game Music
Label:  XFIVE
Played at:  1.07

Artist: Petula Clark
Song: Downtown
Composer:  Hatch
Album: Anthology
Label:  HIPO
Played at: 1.42

Artist: Lana Del Ray
Song: Video games
Composer: Del Ray-Parker
Album:  Born to Die
Label:  Interscope
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Super Smash Brothers
Song: Lifelight
Composer: Hideki Sakamoto
Album: N/A
Label: Super Smash Brothers
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Blur
Song: Song 2
Composer: Albarn-Coxon
Album:  Blur
Label:  Parlophone
Played at: 2.36

Artist: No One Knows
Song: Queens of the Stone Age
Composer: Homee-Lanegan
Album: Songs for the deaf
Label:  Interscope
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Blondie
Song: Heart of Glass
Composer: Harry-Stein
Album: Best of
Label:  Capitol
Played at: 2.58