Janice Finn: From acting on Close to Home to producing Gloss...

Janice Finn is a television writer/producer who has also spent time in front of the camera. Her acting roles have included parts in Close to Home and The Strip. Finn produced the high camp 80s soap Gloss and 90s drama Marlin Bay, and has written extensively for Shortland Street. She has also produced reality series such as Changing Rooms for Touchdown Productions. Lately Finn has been producing documentaries for Natural History New Zealand.

In this ScreenTalk, Finn talks about:

• Playing ‘mad Jane’ in the first season of Close to Home
• How the show was made as though live, and any mistakes led to an entire re-shoot
• How her love of fashion and humour lead to the creation of Gloss 
• Story-lining the entire series on a huge piece of paper with James Griffin
• Being shocked by male media commentators hatred of Gloss 
• Making reality TV with Julie Christie of Touchdown Productions
• How making Changing Rooms was a complete shambles
• Having fun playing a loony character on The Strip, despite being very self-conscious

This video was first uploaded on 2 November 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside