QTV

GLENIS GILES – PRODUCER

Glenis has a background in sales and marketing. She has worked in the New Zealand independent film and television industry since 1988 as a production manager, line producer and producer. Her portfolio of work includes film and television drama, theatrical short films, documentaries, children's television, commercials and music videos. She has worked extensively in the production of television for youth and produced the highly successful and award winning films Song of the Siren, Shoes, The Grocer's Apprentice and Eau de la Vie.

Glenis and her business partner, Di Oliver-Zahl, created Project Q the multi-media science based project with initial support from NIWA and many of the CRI's. Tragically Di was killed in a biking accident just prior to pre-production of the series in February 2005. "Her traumatic loss was devastating, but I'm very proud of our achievement and just wish she was still here to celebrate with us".

Project Q incorporates QTV a multi-media 13 part television series for children, Q Careers - profiles of ten scientists from around NZ and the supporting interactive website designed by Oktobor.

Di and Glenis worked with the CRI's,The Sir Peter Blake Trust, The Ministry of Education, Oktobor, Transpower and TVNZ to get Q to the screen.

Oliver-Zahl and Giles met working on Bread and Roses and established OliverGILES Productions in 1994, (Limited 2003). They made numerous theatrical shorts together but Q was their passion.

Glenis an active member of the Wellington film community currently Chairing the Wellington Fringe Film Festival, and was a founding member of WIFT Wellington Inc. (Women in Film and Television)

OliverGILES Productions Ltd
P.O.Box 9207
Wellington
New Zealand
+ 64 21 650 368
www.olivergiles.co.nz

glenis.g@paradise.net.nz
glenis@qteam.co.nz
www.wgtn.wift.org.nz
www.fringefilmfest.co.nz
www.nzfilm.co.nz

Di Oliver-Zahl – Executive Producer

For the past fifteen years Di worked consistently in the film and television industry, as a producer, creative director, writer and researcher. Di's work received international acclaim at the prestigious Cannes Festival International du Film; the Festival Internationale Cinema Giovani Italy Le Prix de la Jeunesse at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and two awards at Odense International Film Festival in Denmark in 1996.

She produced and developed drama and documentaries for television, feature and theatrical shorts for cinema. More recently her focus had expanded to include the development of new media and next generation technologies. Di held a Master of Communications from Victoria University, her thesis explored the collaborative work of art and science including nanotechnology, biological evolution, natural disasters and mycology and utilised five different communication media, theatre, installation art, painting, sculpture and cinema.

She was a founding trustee in AbeeC, an environmental education trust and the New Zealand representative in the London based NGO, Women Broadcasting for Change for the Television Trust for The Environment (TVE), producers of Earth Report.

Di was a teaching fellow at Victoria University’s School of Management and a tutor in Media Studies. She was about to embark on her PHD prior to her tragic accident in February this year.

Di and Glenis had been developing the concept for project Q over the last three years. She was passionate about Q and had directed several of the career profiles earlier this year. Di was very excited about the prospect of the television series and the interactivity of a web presence.

Clare O'Leary- Co-Director, QTV

Clare is a documentary filmmaker and researcher in the creative and digital sector. She co-directed the QTV and Q Careers :Science series in 2005. She is currently consulting to the National Library on the Digital Content Strategy, an all of government initiative. She also works with NZIER on economic analysis and research. She is on the Tech Angel advisory team at Wellington Girls College and has written a history of the Tech Angel Project and case studies demonstrating how students teach the teachers digital media and communications. Previously she worked for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise from 2001-2004 as a Creative/Digital Sector Manager.

Clare has a Masters in Communications and is about to start her PhD at Victoria University exploring Digital Culture, Gender and Technology Innovation in New Zealand. She formed a new company in 2005 to specialise in research and production in the creative and digital sector, Eve Bay Studio.

Mobile: 027 3110608
www.evebaystudio.co.nz

Megan has been responsible for the underpinning science within each of the television episodes on Project Q and in the Q Careers series. She has also written scripts with writer Dave Armstrong, which include dramatic scenarios or 'quiddles' for the television series.

Megan is a marine biologist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). She has a Masters in Marine Science from the University Canterbury and is currently working on her PhD through the University of Tasmania on “Enhancement of Rock Lobsters”.

Lala Rolls

I am a film director and editor. I migrated to New Zealand from Fiji at the age of 17 in 1981. I have directed Music Videos in Fiji, New Caledonia and Easter Island, Short films, TV stories, including stories a kids TV show 'Wired' in 2000, community service videos, a piece on Hone Tuwhare, the poet and a documentary called 'Children of the Migration', about Pacific Island families in Aotearoa.

I started on a science degree at Otago University, in 1983 changed it to an arts degree and ended up finishing it as a Psychology degree with as many Film papers as I could get away with, at Victoria University in 1997.

Strangely all these things came together in Project Q and QTV. Who would have thought it.

In all my work as a director I am interested in finding the true character. I like to see the real person - even if the person is reading lines or acting or being asked to give us the line they just said naturally again because we need to reset the camera.

We really strove for this on QTV, with our four presenters always trying to bring their real selves to the story even when we were filming set up intros and outros for the show. This is a very big ask of any actor/presenter and I am so proud of how we managed to do that. To stay as true as we could; to ask the questions we might naturally ask (that is if we hadn't done our research); and to laugh when we would ordinarily laugh. We also asked the scientists we interviewed to take this path with us and I was blown away at how open they were to our 'line of inquiry' as chaotic as it sometimes may have seemed.

I have loved this job and have found the science, the scientists and the particular sparks of Barnaby, Chelsie, Paora and Tessa absolutely absorbing.

Johanna Sanders is the editor of the QTV series. She works as a freelance editor, and recently has been working on the comedy Facelift produced by Gibson Group. Johanna completed a Master of Arts at Massey University, specialising in video installation in 2004. She is now travelling around Europe visiting galleries and digital media centres to research and develop ideas for her next experimental work.

Deane O'Connor - Production Manager

Deane has worked in Children's TV for the past six years and holds a bachelor of broadcasting and communications from the New Zealand Broadcasting School.

As the production manager for Project Q he was responsible for setting up the frame works for the show to develop; organising, planning, and dealing with the logistics and the day-to-day managing of the television series.

Deane has also worked as a production manager, production co ordinator and a producer on various documentaries, short films, magazine shows, television drama and theatre productions. He has also worked extensively on various children's programmes such as wntv, Sticky TV, What Now and Studio 2. He is currently working on a nation wide competition for Studio 2 called Super Squad.

Project Q set design. A collaborative project between Candywhistle and d_luxe Interior Architecture.

We were given the task of designing and building the Project Q set in March 2005, with a small budget and only 2 weeks before filming started.
We started by trying to create a space that was both visually appealing and that added to the scientific premise of the show. To do this we wanted to use the space to display scientific objects and imagery that would represent more than just the ‘set’ of a TV show by providing interesting visual material for those watching the show.
200 cardboard boxes were stacked up on top of each other to form the ‘walls’ of the ‘laboratory’ that the presenters work in. Some of these boxes are opened to reveal interesting objects while others were left closed and used to display imagery of scientists, symbols and objects.
Within the space there are 3 zones, all performing different functions. The first is the research zone where the suspended computer and data projector can be used to find information and present it as way of developing ideas and concepts. Next is the discussion zone where these ideas are presented and discussed. This is a light table made from transparent red acrylic. Finally there is the chill out zone, where the presenters can relax and talk about what they have been doing and what is coming up in following episodes.
Each of the four walls represents the scientific process of exploration and discovery. The ‘process’ begins in the research zone using a contemporary representation of research; the Internet, computer and data projector. In this part of the process an idea is researched and developed while the graph paper projected upon records this collected data in a scientific manner. The next part of the process is the ‘notebook’ wall, representing the layering of image, object and ideas as way of representing physical research and the overlaps and cross-referencing that occurs in such research. This is where objects are displayed from each week’s investigations. The next step in the process is where all the collected data is formatted and discussed into a quantifiable resource that can be processed, tested and recorded. This is behind the chill out zone.
Finally, there is the faceted periodic table wall, representing the results, display and distribution of all that comes from scientific experimentation.

Candywhistle is a Wellington Interior Architecture and Furniture design practice.
We are interested in using space and object to explore and challenge the way people experience the modern world, where design is the link between commerce and culture and the fun is finding solutions that are conceptually challenging, culturally relevant and aesthetically pleasing. Ultimately we are interested in ones experience of daily life and how the things that surround us can affect that experience.
Basically, we love making challenging objects, whether it is furniture, spaces or products.
Contact: candywhistle@xtra.co.nz, d_luxe@xtra.co.nz

Backhouse Interiors
Backhouse offers some of the world’s best designed furniture products for the office and for the home. They are dedicated to providing outstanding furniture solutions for design-conscious devotees of modern living. When we approached Gary for something funky in the set he kindly donated the four wonderful La Boheme coloured stools that you'll see throughout the series.
These stools evoke the image of precious amphoras. Plastic like blown glass, illuminated by the reflections of an intense radiant colour. Available in five colours and three shapes.
Backhouse has been at the forefront of the New Zealand furniture industry for over 50 years and has a clear vision of continuing this commitment.
You'll find them at:
12 Kaiwharawhara Road,
Kaiwharawhara,
Wellington, New Zealand

tel 64 4 499 8847 | fax 64 4 499 8849
email: backhouse.interiors@xtra.co.nz
www.backhousenz.com

Formway is this really cool furniture design company down in Seaview, not far from Avalon Television Studios in the Hutt Valley.
They gave us the four black 'life chairs' for the show - you'll see the Q Team swivelling around on them in the set. They are just so comfortable you wouldn't believe.....and environmentally ergonomic! The Team wanted to take them home but......

check out: www.formway.com

www.qteam.co.nz - *'BEST WEB'* review

THE DOMINION POST, 12TH MAY 2006
By from REUBEN SCHWARZ

Science TV for kids is a tough sell. Usually they try way too hard to be cool and totally in your face, or they go the conservative route and become painfully boring. TVNZ's QTV show walked the fine line well. It was funny and disgusting enough for kids but still interesting for cynical grown-ups.

The show, unfortunately, is no longer on the air, but the Qteam site that went along with it is still chocka with neat information, games, and experiments. The shows cover a wide range of topics, from climate change to geology to microbial forensics. There's DIY experiments, including science fair classics (build your own volcano) and tips for budding cops (dusting for fingerprints with cocoa). The best part of the site, though, is the Flash-animation games. In Deep Sea Explorer you plum the depths of the ocean looking for specimens. Shake-a-quake is somewhat more sinister, letting you make your own tsunami to flood a city. You place maggots on a rotting pig in Decomposer and in the delightful Poo Face you connect pipes to steer human waste through the sewers. Watch as it changes colour! It's less disgusting and more fun than it sounds, and kids will love it and learn a lot about where things go when you flush. Fans of the show may want to buy the follow-on DVD, Q Careers, with interviews with 10 young New Zealand scientists.

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Getting scatological for sake of science

THE DOMINION POST, THURSDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2005
By JANE CLIFTON

There's a neat, neat, neat science programme for children on Wednesday afternoons, TV One, which wouldn't go amiss on prime time – except it's a bit scatological for adult sensibilities.QTV is a locally-produced programme which, in a tone considerably less patronising than that of your average lifestyle/decorating show and many supposedly grownup documentaries, brings many areas of science to life. Starting from this weekend, it's being repeated on Saturday mornings, and is well worth a family sit-down – though adults may not be wise to watch it so soon after breakfast. It's the sort of programme which, if it had been on when many of us Of A Certain Age had been at school, might have fanned an interest in and understanding of science, so that the state of scientific literacy might not now be so woeful.

The three biggest strengths of the programme are: it's firmly rooted in daily life, so children (and adults) have an easy reference point for the new things they're learning; it's explained by people who are comfortable and lucid in the TV environment, with four lively teens asking the questions, and a procession of extremely urbane scientists providing the explanations; and it's grubby, icky, earthy and even fairly shocking, in a way that children find irresistible. Add to that the humour, which is quirky and unforced, and the excellent up-close and archival footage, and it's appointment viewing – at least, for those home from school in time. A lot of turf has been covered in this 13-part series, from geology to sewage processing to parasitic pest control. It has a heavy-hitting sponsors team, so there's some reassurance that the information and intent is of high quality: Ministry of Education, the Sir Peter Blake Trust, Vodafone and the Crown Research Institutes – Industrial Research, Hort Research, Crop and Food – among others. There's also a heartwarming contribution from smaller sponsors with, for instance, a Rotary branch stumping up to fund a prize for junior viewers of a week tagging along with leading Maui dolphin conservationist Kirsty Russell in Northland.

The programme is well supported with a website providing notes on each episode. There's no earnestness or goodie-two-shoesing in the scripting, which is a great relief.

One episode opened with the four teens – Barnaby Frederic, Tessa Devereux, Chelsie Preston-Crayford and Paora Durie – talking with admirable frankness about their "gross!" experiences with poo. This leads nose-wrinklingly to a fascinating look at what happens to the stuff after we produce it – all the way from plumbing to useful methane. In another, they are engaged in a furniture-destroying round of "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly," which leads to a "gross!" and compelling expose of insects which lay their eggs in other insects, which then hatch into larvae which eat their way out. This is biological control, in – as Barnaby says – a much more effective way than an old lady swallowing a cow that swallowed a goat. In the episode about fossils and the wealth of information they can tell us, Tessa decides to write a will stipulating that she must be fossilised when she dies, so that future generations will be able to glean a whole lot of information about us. The programme was three years in the planning, and nearly didn't come off, because co-producer Di Oliver-Zahl was killed in an accident while training for a triathlon, just after the contract was signed with TVNZ. But such was the – understandable – support for the project, that her film-making partner Glenis Giles managed to deliver handsomely on the series, with help from, among others, Oliver-Zahl's marine biologist daughter Megan Oliver, a researcher for QTV.

It's hard to recommend this programme highly enough. Aside from anything else, it's the sort of show that gives Charter TV a good name.

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