Philip Smith: Great Southern producer...
2010 9m
Producer Philip Smith comes from a family of entrepreneurs, so it’s always been in his nature to pursue opportunities. The head of production company Great Southern Television had an eventful career in journalism, before moving into producing. He was once expelled from Tanzania while working as a print journalist, and sold his first production company for several million dollars while still in his early 30s. Great Southern has produced Lion Man, Eating Media Lunch, The Cult and One Lane Bridge. Smith lives in both Auckland and Queenstown, where he does lots of brainstorming out in his woolshed.
In this Screentalk interview, Smith talks about:
- Working as a print journalist, police reporter for The NZ Herald under Susan Wood
- Being expelled as a journalist from Tanzania
- Working to deadline each night as a line producer on Holmes
- Not realising that the guys in the boardroom he was meeting actually just wanted to buy his production company
- How his young son helped come up with the idea for Lion Man
- How reading a Ben Elton book led to Eating Media Lunch
- Developing The Unauthorised History of New Zealand
- Getting Jeremy Wells into primetime television with Birdland
- Finding unexpected inspiration for The Cult, from his crazy neighbours
Interview Credit
Interview, Camera & Editing – Clarke Gayford
“My son came in one day and said he'd been to a backyard zoo . . . I'm thinking 'oh backyard zoo, good show!'. Yeah, even trying to get ideas off your two or three year old, I think he was at the time. And then I got a researcher, and I said find every backyard zoo in New Zealand and see what's out there.”
Philip Smith on the origins of hit show The Lion Man
