David Paul

David Paul served his cinematic apprenticeship in suburban houses and emergency wards, as part of the camera team on reality shows like Hospital, Home Front and Location Location Location. At the same time he had already begun shooting the first of more than 30 documentaries, including 1996 Maori land claim doco One Land Two Peoples.

Paul’s documentary work includes shooting images of ballet (Black on Red and 50 Years on their Toes), architect Ian Athfield (Architect of Dreams) and meat pies (the “beautifully filmed” Who Ate All the Pies).

In 2004 Paul travelled to Tokelau with brothers Jason and Kris Fa’afoi for acclaimed return home documentary Long Lost Sons. The programme won Paul a nomination for achievement in camera at the 2005 NZ Screen Awards.

Paul had also begun branching out into other genres. He had already helped out on camera duties on sci-fi hit The Tribe and comedy series Love Bites, and in 2004 he was asked to be director of photography for the first two series of fast-turnaround sketch show Facelift. The job was made more challenging by the fact that many of the cast acted under prosthetic make-up.

Paul also worked as director of photography on episodes of the innovative and stylish drama series The Insiders Guide to Happiness. The following year he took on the lion's share of D.O.P. duties for prequel show The Insiders Guide to Love, before adding a third ensemble drama from the Gibson Group stable to his CV: The Hothouse. His work on this trio of dramas would win him a trio of best camera nominations at the Qantas TV Awards.

But Paul had not forsaken documentary entirely. Immigration series Here to Stay took him around the world, while award-winning Gaylene Preston doco The Time of Our Lives saw him travelling to England , alongside 32 war veterans. Undercover, a three-part examination of the world of undercover policemen, would again take him within inches of the winner’s podium at the Qantas TV awards.

In recent years Paul has been dipping his toes into feature-length projects. He shot images for the second unit on Preston’s Home by Christmas and grace-under-fortitude tale Show of Hands. He also helped out behind the camera on low-budget hit Second Hand Wedding.

In 2009 Paul finally scored his Qantas award - for his work as director of photography on tele-movie Until Proven Innocent. The film was based on the true story of David Dougherty, imprisoned and later pardoned for abducting and raping an 11-year-old child.

The same year Paul returned to Margaret Mahy country, after having earlier made a doco on Mahy: Banks Peninsula, where he captured the distinctively earth-toned palette of fantasy Kaitangata Twitch, based on the Mahy novel. The series will premiere on Māori Television in 2010.

Paul has worked extensively on both film and video, having shot images on 16mm, 35mm, Digibeta, HD and with the digital RED camera. On the musical front, his CV includes shooting concert footage of Split Enz and the Eurythmics, and directing four videos for Auckland rockers Tourist.