A Selection of Staff at nhnz who contribute to the Postgraduate Diploma in Natural History Filmmaking and Communication

Alison Ballance - Producer

Alison holds a Masters degree in Zoology and, since joining nhnz in 1990, has used her animal expertise to produce a range of films in many remote parts of the world. She spent four years filming one of the worlds rarest parrots, the kakapo, inhabiting New Zealand’s rugged, offshore islands, and has travelled to Nepal, India, Mongolia and the Russian Far East in search of rare wildlife. Alison is also an accomplished natural history book writer and has published a number of children’s books illustrated with photographs from nhnz’s stills library. She contributes to the storytelling paper (NHFC 402).

Ian McGee - Producer

Ian has an MSc in Zoology and spent several years teaching in the Department of Zoology, University of Otago. He has worked for nhnz since 1996. With his unique sense of humour and his ability to interpret amazing phenomena in the animal kingdom, he has produced and written a number of very successful natural history programmes. Ian has received an Emmy Award for his Twisted Tales series (Animal Planet), as well as being nominated on two other occasions. Ian was also responsible for nhnz’s popular series The Most Extreme, which counts down the most extreme animals on this planet. He shows how it is done in NHFC 402, storytelling.

Rod Morris - Producer

Rod joined nhnz in the early 1980s after a career in the Wildlife Service. For the last two decades, Rod has produced a variety of award-winning films. Many have been about New Zealand and Australia’s unique wildlife, including the kea, kakapo, kiwi and quolls. At Wildscreen 2000, Rod was awarded a prestigious Panda Award (the world’s most prestigious accolade for wildlife filmmakers) for Best Animal Behaviour in his programme about Tasmanian devils called The Devil’s Playground. Rod tells all in NHFC 402, the storytelling paper.

Michael Stedman - Managing Director

Michael brings to his role at nhnz almost 30 years’ experience in television production, international co-production, industry training and senior management. His previous roles have included Head of Features at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Head of Training at the Australian Film and Television School and Head of Production at Television New Zealand. In 1991 he took over the role as Managing Director for nhnz. Since then he has guided the company through unprecedented growth to become the world’s second-largest producer of factual programming; second only to the BBC. Michael’s support for the PGDipNHFC was crucial to its development as the world’s first university-based course in natural history filmmaking. Despite a hectic schedule, he always manages to find time to share his knowledge in NHFC 403, the critique paper.

Andrew Waterworth - Executive Producer

Originally from England, Andrew has worked in the television industry for over two decades in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He has extensive experience of producing a range of documentaries but his expertise lies in science and natural history programming. In 2000 Andrew was awarded Australia’s most prestigious science journalism award, the Michael Daley Eureka Prize. Since joining nhnz he has been executive producer on a number of scientifically-based programmes, including Body Wars and Microbe Invasion. Currently he is overseeing an exciting new series called Animal Face Off for Discovery. He has his bit to say in NHFC 401, the techniques paper.