Michael Stedman

Michael Stedman saw his job commanding company NHNZ as being about creating "the best possible environment" for people to do terrific work. Stedman did some terrific work himself: he began in the industry as an editor, and had over 1000 credits as producer and director.

Stedman grew up in Dunedin. He made his stage debut at age six as a frog at the city's Globe Theatre, and was stage-managing a production of Romeo and Juliet at 13. Television felt like "a very logical step", as some of his theatre colleagues worked in television. Depending on which version you believe, he went to the Dunedin station of the NZ Broadcasting Corporation, and asked to be taken on as a producer, or an editor. He would spend the next five years in front of the editing bench.

Stedman felt that editing was "the heart of filmmaking"; he learnt the basics of structure, story and pacing. In this 2011 interview, he argued that editing was "still the thing I love the most  ... that's where a film really comes to life". 

At the time, "it was very much a young person's industry ... I remember being struck by the fact that almost the entire staff were under 25." Consumed by film, Stedman borrowed cameras and leftover film stock to make films in his spare time. More than once he was threatened with dismissal after being found in the building at two am, working on a film.

He managed to win places on in-house training courses for prospective directors and producers. Most of his classmates wanted to work in drama; Stedman figured he'd gain a lot more directing experience in sports. The Dunedin studio produced a wide range of programmes, but was especially known for its children's shows. At the age of only 22 or 23 he was producing, initially on children's magazine favourite Spot On — for whom Stedman hired presenters Ian Taylor and Danny Watson.

The output of high volume, "reasonably fast turnaround" shows proved an "extraordinarily good training around". Stedman worked on everything from sports to music, to Beauty and the Beast and Fair Go.

In 1979 he was appointed executive producer of New Zealand's Natural History Unit. The unit had been set up a few years before by Dunedin station manager Hal Weston, after some of his staff began providing coverage of a rediscovered Fiordland population of nocturnal kakapo (the large parrot is one of the world's rarest birds). Step by step the nature filming grew until they were producing full-length documentaries, including a landmark trio of films chronicling the rescue of the black robin. The small team"pestered" Stedman to give them a hand; "it was one of those life-changing decisions".

Many of the early documentaries were screened as part of award-winning series Wild South. Stedman also initiated Wildtrack, which won the Feltex Award for Best Children's Programme for three years straight. The show tapped into children's innate curiosity, while providing "an understanding of the world around them". A keen believer in being the "least talented person in the team", he recruited long-time colleague Peter Hayden, and persuaded cameraman Rod Morris to join NHU by sending him an envelope containing a return air ticket to Dunedin. Stedman was sad to see both shows end; they provided "a window on our place".

In 1981 Stedman took up a new opportunity as head of TV training for the Australian Film and Television School. When he grew restless, he spent time as Head of Features at Australian network ABC, created his own production company, and worked as a media consultant for the United Nations.

TVNZ Director-General Julian Mounter invited Stedman back to TVNZ in 1987, in an executive position. He agreed on condition he was allowed to "pick up" the Natural History Unit, and grow it. Within six months Stedman was asked to become director of programme production at Television New Zealand.

For the next two years he found himself commuting regularly between Auckland and Dunedin, juggling both jobs. In an extended 2010 interview with Onfilm, Stedman argued that TVNZ's board saw the NHU as an expensive, non-core business, but were worried about the public relations "nightmare" of closing it. Stedman was given a year to fix the unit, and turn it around. 

NHU shows were winning audiences and awards. But trends in wildlife documentaries were changing. As writer Paul Stanley Ward points out here, Moa's Ark (1990) would be one of the last shows about local flora and fauna to screen in a mainstream Kiwi television slot for many years (the show's British presenter David Bellamy called Stedman a "visionary"). Stedman recalled TVNZ executives telling him "people don't want to think when they're watching television; they just want to relax". Realising that "if you don't adapt, you become extinct", he helped arrange the company's first international co-production deals, and sought an alliance with an international broadcaster and distributor, so the Natural History Unit team could stay together.

During Stedman's first 18 months back, the NHU's output increased by 300%. In late 1997 Fox Television Studios purchased an 80% share in the company, which was renamed Natural History New Zealand Ltd. Two years later Fox purchased the remaining share from TVNZ. Stedman argues here that Fox gave the company "total freedom" over what programmes to make, so long as they made a (marginal) profit. Documentaries were made both for the partly Fox-owned National Geographic, and competitor Discovery Channel.

As part of the Fox International Channels group, NHNZ has grown to become one of the world's largest producers of wildlife programming. In late 2010 the company moved from the former Dunedin Television Studios at Garrison Hall to a new, especially redesigned building. In late 2012 former Fox Networks Group president David Haslingden took what he called "a big personal bet", and purchased NHNZ.

Long before, predicting that the demand for natural history programmes would fall, the company had began expanding into science, adventure, medicine, and more specialised types of nature programming, as the voice-of-God style documentary pioneered by David Attenborough began to decline.

In broadening its output, Stedman told Onfilm, "we were one of the first companies in the world to see that shift and do it." When the natural history market contracted significantly, "many of the condescending English companies that had been so amused at our attempt to have a go on the world stage disappeared".

NHNZ has gone on to co-produce television with a host of companies and networks, including Animal Planet (hit series Most Extreme), PBS, Japan's NHK, and France 3 & 5. As managing director, Stedman worked with his Dunedin staff, plus secondary offices in Washington and Beijing. NHNZ also has controlling stakes in production companies in Singapore and South Africa. NHNZ's offshore growth has partly been about necessity, as the company sees little of its product screened on local channels.

Overseas Stedman appeared on many festival jury panels, and spoke often at conferences about international co-productions and expanding markets. Back home, he was outspoken in his view that public service television — and screen industry training — had been treated as political footballs for far too long.

NHNZ programmes are seen in 200 countries, and have earned roughly 250 international awards. Along the way Stedman was made an ONMZ in the 2004 New Year Honours list, and received an Honorary Doctorate (Laws) from Otago University. In 2009 NHNZ was given the inaugural International Achievement award at the Qantas Awards (for a screen business demonstrating "commercial success in the international business arena", and commitment to further expansion).

The same year, Stedman was made 2009 Industry Champion by Onfilm and New Zealand's Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA). In 2012 the Documentary NZ Trust gave NHNZ an award for Outstanding Contribution to the NZ Documentary Industry — partly in recognition of the natural history filmmaking course NHNZ runs at Otago University.

Michael Stedman retired from NHNZ in early 2013. He died on 30 July 2022; he was 74.

Profile updated on 5 August 2022

Sources include
NHNZ website. Accessed 5 August 2022
David Bellamy and Brian Springett with Peter Hayden, Moa's Ark - The Voyage of New Zealand (1990: Viking - Penguin Books, Auckland)
Nick Grant, 'The natural history of Michael Stedman'(Interview) - Onfilm, August 2010, page 14 (Volume 27, Number 8)
Nick Grant, 'The natural history of Michael Stedman II' - Onfilm, September 2010, page 14 (Volume 27, Number 9)
Nick Grant, 'The natural history of Michael Stedman III' - Onfilm, October 2010 (Volume 27, Number 10)
Philip Wakefield, 'TV Update: Stedman steadier than the Kiwi' (Interview) - Onfilm, August 2007
Paul Stanley Ward, 'Moa's Ark - A Series Perspective' NZ On Screen website. Loaded 25 May 2017. Accessed 5 August 2022
Unknown writer, 'Fox TV sells Dunedin's NHNZ' - The Otago Daily Times, 15 February 2013
Unknown writer, 'Broadcaster Stedman dies' - The Otago Daily Times, 2 August 2022