Nigel Snowden

In the late 1990s Nigel Snowden returned to New Zealand, after working in Hong Kong and London. With a friend, he set out on forming a production company. "After a year together, we'd made $3,000 between us. It was a grand failure.” In the wake of this failure, Snowden was contacted by John Harris of Greenstone Pictures and asked to produce the first season of reality show Motorway Patrol.

Greenstone was still in its infancy. At the Mount Eden office, Snowden joined Harris, Leigh Hart, and Andrea Lamb. The environment was "very collaborative and relaxed, sort of experimental”; everyone worked together to develop formats and concepts for a medium that was not yet well-established. Despite his experience as a TV director, Motorway Patrol was like the reality TV format itself: "a new venture and a new challenge".

Motorway Patrol hit the road in 1999 and continues today; it is now New Zealand's longest-running reality programme. Little has changed in those 25 years; the programme retains the same theme music that Snowden commissioned from ex Screaming Meemees Michael O'Neill and Peter van der Fluit, at Liquid Studios. Motorway Patrol arose "at the beginning of the reality television boom"; but Nigel Snowden was prepared. His numerous jobs within the industry over the decades prior had given him the tools to help tailor and implement the narrative structure of the show, as well as its music and design.

"As I say to people, my career in television wasn't based on a predetermined plan — I just stumbled from job to job." Snowden had dreams of becoming a diplomat. Instead, he began a Master of Arts in History, but then got sidetracked into Auckland's Radio B. After being turned down from journalism school, he heard about an entry level job involving cinetape, from a friend who worked at a post-production house. “I didn’t even know what cinetape was, but it was between me and a guy who was eating a sticky bun during the interview." The role not only drew Snowden into the industry, but taught him the vocabulary of editing.

Snowden spent this period trying to initiate projects and impact the television culture. "Appalled at the state of music shows on television” in the late 1980s, he put together a proposal for a modern music show that was promptly turned down by TV3 for being "way too alternative". Despite this, Snowden soon became TV3's head of Advertising and Sponsorship; he soon left and ended up taking over live music show TVFM, with Karyn Hay. TVFM rapidly transformed from a mainstream Rolling Stone style programme to a "new music series" that played Blur, Primal Scream, Metallica, and many New Zealand bands. "I was told by the network's programmer that if his mum didn't know the names of the bands, he wasn't interested." TVFM was one of a number of shows made by company Kids TV that was cancelled by TV3, to cut costs.

Snowden spent time working at company Communicado, and directed for magazine-style business show Made in New Zealand. "I’d done writing, directing, editing and music videos...they all ended up aiding my journey towards being a producer."

Following the success of Motorway Patrol, Snowden also produced Private Investigators and Choppers in 2002, following real private investigators and search and rescue helicopter teams respectively. During this time working at Greenstone, Snowden also became interested in development, proposing ideas that would become the documentary Hudson and Halls – A Love Story and Secret New Zealand. The later series explored declassified material, like the work towards a 'tsunami bomb' in the Hauraki Gulf during World War II. "He added a sparkle to every project he worked on,” John Harris said of Snowden, recalling his "cheeky character and wit in the office".

Snowden was becoming "slightly frustrated with the remuneration" that came from developing ideas under Greenstone. He decided to leave, and started his own production company: Cream TV (which was later renamed Cream Media). Beginning with three employees based in the lunchroom of an architecture firm — "every time they had lunch, we had to clear out" — Cream eventually became a 40 strong operation, home to a number of high profile shows.

Snowden was primarily interested in the potential for human stories within a reality television context, specifically providing a privileged insight into a line of work — like those captured on Border Patrol, Coastwatch, or Wild Vets. “The secret was always trying to do a couple of agencies within the same show, to vary the kinds of stories and the pacing and timbre." Coastwatch stands as a shining example of this ethos, bringing together the Ministry of Fisheries, the Coastguard, and Police Maritime Units. Meanwhile the South Island set Highway Cops focused on small human interest stories like “sheep on the road, or an overturned truck” rather than high-speed chases.

“We wanted our characters to explain what they’re doing,” Snowden says about these workplace-centred shows. “A voiceover always sounds didactic and lecturing.” Yet this approach cannot be applied to all shows within the reality television medium, such as the Kiwi version of 10 Years Younger in 10 Days, which Snowden executive produced, or financial advice series Money Man, notable for its inventive methods of visually portraying financial concepts. Snowden argues that reality television "can't just be simply categorised”. The diverse catalogue of programmes he has produced is evidence of this.

Snowden and Cream Media also produced landmark seven-part series 50 Years of New Zealand Television, an anniversary Snowden had been paying attention to. He proposed to TVNZ "a deep dive historical overview" —in contrast to the idea circulating within the network that the anniversary be “some shiny floor show with the odd clip and a couple of presenters, and the studio audience applauding". TVNZ turned down his proposal, but the series eventually went forward with Prime; it dissected how New Zealand's television landscape reflected its people, including the marginalised, and covered social changes occurring beyond the screen.

“Cream was a convergence of a happy accident and fortuitous times,” says Snowden. "It operated in a rich period of commissions when the system was geared towards capturing the zeitgeist.” Yet despite Cream Media''s success, and a work environment built on collaboration and fun, leading the company was taking its toll. “It had been 10 very frantic years of high-paced growth and demands, coupled with trying to raise a young family” and thus Snowden sold Cream to his former employer, Greenstone. “The irony wasn’t lost on me.”. His old boss John Harris was happy to "lure him back" into the fold, along with some of Cream's shows.

Following three years developing shows at Greenstone, having signed a restraint of trade agreement, Snowden approached the television landscape with a different mindset, searching for the occasional production rather than another demanding ongoing role.

After doing early development on documentary Hīkoi – The Land March, on the 1975 Māori Land March, Snowden produced two harmonious projects in 2015, under his new company Workhouse Productions. Bogans and Smashed Palace both chronicled life in small-town New Zealand, a place where "you always get good stories and good characters". Yet after getting a single season, neither show was recommissioned. Contractions were starting to rock the industry, coupled with the emergence of new players, like streaming services and paid subscription models.

As the state of New Zealand television was changing, Snowden was asked to work as a commissioner at Māori Television. One of the biggest successes of his tenure was Queens of Panguru, a trailblazing reality miniseries about Takatāpui drag queens returning to their hometown. Snowden’s drive in this period was to be mindful and produce "a gentler sort of programme" — as evidenced by Haka Life, following kapa haka group Ngā Tūmanako, and The Koi Boys, about the Brisbane-based band. After fulfilling his contract, Snowden stayed on to mentor emerging Māori filmmakers.

Nigel Snowden was next approached by Attitude Pictures, a company specialising in disability-focused programming. He was commissioned to produce Inside Outside, which allowed people with disabilities to tell and film their own stories, "as opposed to us imposing our own narrative and direction". Snowden also executive produced the surprise hit Down for Love, a dating show following six New Zealanders with Down Syndrome, and helped sell it to Netflix. Utilising his knowledge of operating a company, he "helped restructure the business, and sort of restructured myself out of a job".

Aside from sharing the occasional idea, Snowden has been freelance ever since. His sights have turned from production to distribution, feeling that the changing broadcast landscape works to underrepresent and exploit producers, through exorbitant fees and reduced returns. “We used to make reasonable money selling our stuff overseas — these days it’s nowhere near as lucrative." As captured so clearly in 50 Years of New Zealand Television, the medium continues to march onward, changing approach every few years. Snowden hopes to continue building a distribution service that will improve the livelihood of the next generation of television producers.

Profile written by Danny Bultitude. Published on 25 September 2024

Sources include
Nigel Snowden
Rachel Antony
John Harris
Greenstone TV website. Accessed 25 September 2024
Unknown writer, 'Greenstone Pictures laps up TV’s Cream' - Herald on Sunday, 21 November 2010