Stephen Downes – Teaching Fellow, PGDipNHFC Co-ordinator for the Editing part of NHFC 401

Stephen is a man of many talents. He has a First Class BSc(Hons) degree in Zoology from the University of Otago. He has also worked variously as a Researcher, Writer, Cameraman, Director and Producer for nhnz since 1985.

He researched, wrote, filmed, directed and edited Monkeys of Hanuman, which was a finalist at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 1993. Apart from the editing, he performed similar roles in producing Island of the Monkey God, for which he was nominated for Best Director at the 1996 NZ Film and Television Awards.

He has been cameraman/director of photography on many successful nhnz documentaries, from The Forgotten Sun Bear for WNET, through Fantastic Plastic for National Geographic, to The Curse of the Elephant Man for Discovery.

He has also been Director of Photography on a number of dramas shot on 16 mm, including Dream Makers, which won Best Film at Semana De Cine Experimental, Madrid, Spain in 1992. He was also Director of Photography for the 35 mm feature film Scarfies: with the exception of Lord of the Rings, one of the highest grossing New Zealand feature films of all time.

In addition to being primarily responsible for co-ordinating the techniques paper in the PGDipNHFC (NHFC 401), Stephen currently works as a freelance Producer/Director/Cameraman for nhnz, as well as being a freelance Director of Photography for commercials and dramas.