Steven Zanoski: From New Zealand's favourite kids show to our favourite soap...

Interview – 2012

Steven Zanoski's first television job was on kids show What Now? He went on to become a storyliner for Shortland Street, and did four years as the programme’s producer. Zanoski also penned one-off TV drama House of Sticks, and — while Head of Development at South Pacific Pictures — had a hand in the birth of classic show Outrageous Fortune.

In this ScreenTalk, Zanoski talks about:

Joining What Now? as a writer/reporter at age 19
Learning that his script for teleplay House of Sticks was actually a mystery
Why Nicky Marshall's direction was a "revelation"
Doing the Shortland Street boot camp, and learning to write for the show
How Shortland Street is written
Having overall control of the show as producer
Keeping a long-running show fresh, by introducing new creative challenges
His favourite storyline: when the clinic was blown up
How great storytelling will see Shortland Street into the future

This video was first uploaded on 8 May 2012, 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

. . . being a storyliner. . . you almost loose your ego, because you learn that you don't just have ideas, everyone has ideas, and that your idea belongs to the entire group. And sometimes something you might have that's half baked will be picked up by someone else, and turned into gold. And vice versa.
– Steven Zanoski on his time in the storyliners team on Shortland Street

Steven's Full Profile