Intro to Screen Acting

Step out of your comfort zone and onto the screen. Discover the distinct techniques, nuanced performance styles, and technical demands that separate screen acting from the stage. Work from the inside out to master the unique processes of on-camera performance through a challenging, highly practical intensive. This intensive course will challenge and inspire you.

TUTOR: WILL WALLACE

Will trained as an actor at the Unitec Performing Arts School. His many credits include roles in television and film, such as Vermilion, Step Dave, Shortland Street, Legend of the Seeker, Go Girls, Westside and Head High.

Also an accomplished film maker and editor, Will runs Fiftyone50 Productions – a successful production company specialising in everything from actor showreels to drama, corporate and documentary films. Will also teaches screen acting at Unitec.

TUTOR: johnny barker

Johnny is a director, actor and filmmaker with work spanning television, commercials, music videos and film. He has directed major television series including three seasons of the hit comedy Jono and Ben, a season of Funny Girls, Kura and James Mustapic’s Abandonment Issues. His commercial directing credits include campaigns for Air New Zealand, BMW, The Warehouse and Fonterra.

Johnny’s most recent television work includes Homebound 3.0, an international ensemble romantic comedy, and Baddies, a family adventure series he created for TVNZ+. Johnny has a particular strength in working with young performers. Drawing on his own experience as an actor, he creates relaxed, supportive environments that allow children and young actors to find their confidence and deliver natural, memorable performances.

Experience as an actor — with screen roles in Shortland Street, Go Girls, Mean Mums, The Brokenwood Mysteries and The Locals — gives Johnny a valuable understanding of performance from both sides of the camera. He first became widely recognised for playing Joey Henderson, the notorious “Ferndale Strangler,” on Shortland Street, a role that remains one of New Zealand television’s most memorable villainous turns.

Johnny’s directing craft has also been sharpened through the pressure-cooker environment of New Zealand’s 48Hours Film Festival. He is a two-time Grand National Champion, winning Best Film in 2007 for Lease and 2014 for Pants on Fire. One of his films was also selected as a Wildcard entry by filmmakers Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright.