Tom Hern: From kid reporter to film producer...

Tom Hern is a film producer who began his screen career as a junior reporter on children’s television show What Now?. He went on to star in The Tribe, where he met his future business partner James Napier Robertson. Hern acted in a number of other TV shows such as Shortland Street and Power Rangers, before producing his first feature film I’m Not Harry Jenson. Since then Hern has produced features Everything We Loved and The Dark Horse.

In this ScreenTalk, Hern talks about: 

• How confidence as an 11-year-old got him a job on What Now?
• Meeting his hero Ben Harper on the show
• Failing his first audition to play the villain in kidult hit The Tribe
• How the show led to meeting his long term business partner 
• Playing his first adult role on Shortland Street
• The changing nature of his character on the soap
• Being in the ‘deep end’ producing I’m Not Harry Jenson
• Using acting relationships to help cast the film 
• How Everything We Loved was the smoothest film he’s worked on
• Working with director Max Currie to set the tone of the film 
• The long hard road making feature film The Dark Horse
• Being blessed by a dream cast, from Cliff Curtis to newbie Wayne Hapi
• Feeling privileged to do the work he does

This video was first uploaded on 31 March 2015, 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