Natural History New Zealand
Encyclopedia
NHNZ is a New Zealand
-based factual television production company that creates around 60 hours of television programming each year in the genres of nature, history, science, adventure and people.
NHNZ is a subsidiary of Fox International Channels
and an incorporated New Zealand Limited Company (New Zealand Companies Office
registration number 884648).
NHNZ has filmed above and below every ocean and every continent, including Antarctica - where it has produced more films than any other company. The results have earned NHNZ over 200 international awards, among them Emmy Awards, the industry’s highest accolade, and the prestigious Wildscreen
Panda Award.
In addition to its base in Dunedin
, New Zealand, NHNZ has offices in Beijing and Washington DC and, majority ownership of Singapore based production company Beach House Pictures and Aquavision Wildlife Filmmakers in South Africa. It works closely alongside major networks around the world such as Discovery Channel
, Animal Planet
, Discovery Science
, A&E Television Networks
, National Geographic Channel
, Travel Channel
, NHK
(Japan), France 5
and ZDF
(Germany). As a result NHNZ's programmes are seen in more than 200 countries by hundreds of millions of viewers.
The unit's first documentaries made were a series of six 15-minute programmes called Hidden Places and which featured various New Zealand habitats, notably Okarito, White Island, Fiordland
, Mackenzie Country and near-to Dunedin – Sinclair Wetlands
, firmly established the unit. From the outset the programmes made were ambitious, but the programme that captured the attention of international wildlife film-makers was undoubtedly the story of Don Merton
's rescue of the New Zealand black robin
from the brink of extinction. Several programmes were made chronicling this success story – Seven Black Robins, The Robins Return and finally Chatham Island a Black Robin Story. For a more detail about the origins of these early programmes see Morris & Smith.
A focus on New Zealand stories continued during the 1980s and early 1990s, with children’s series Wild Track and the series Wild South becoming cultural icons, still fondly remembered by New Zealanders. 1990 saw the production of a series presented by David Bellamy
, in association with the New Zealand Heritage Foundation, called Moa's Ark. This was the first time NHNZ had worked with an international 'star'.
The early 1990s were not easy times for television in New Zealand. Levels of production in Dunedin (not just in the natural history unit) were severely curtailed. However, the ambitious nature of the documentaries continued – and one of the company's special areas of expertise was born – Antarctica.
The pair of documentaries Emperors of Antarctica and The Longest Night chronicled the over-wintering activities of scientists from Antarctica New Zealand
, produced by Max Quinn in 1992, were joined by a third Solid Water Liquid Rock produced by Mike Single. This trilogy helped to establish the fruitful and long running relationship with Discovery Channel in the USA. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s a string of documentaries were made by both Max and Mike, while an exceptional icy dive team was led by Jeanie Ackley and Ed Jowett. With Mike winning an Emmy for outstanding cinematography for The Crystal Ocean, and Max’s trilogy Ice Worlds completed, NHNZ’s place as a leading documentary film maker in the inhospitable Antarctic was cemented.
A second area of expertise lies in underwater filming. Two major marine based series Deep Blue, and Shark Gordon were filmed at locations throughout the Pacific. Shark Gordon was made for Animal Planet, and featured shark specialist Ian Gordon. Whales have also featured in many documentaries including The Lost Whales about the rejuvenation of the population of southern right whales in New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands, and Killers I Have Known about Dr Ingrid Visser
's investigations into the life and habits of New Zealand orca
.
In 2010 NHNZ started producing 3D factual programming. NHNZ's first 3D documentary China Revealed: The Great Wall of China debuted on one of the world's first full-time 3D networks -3net. In June 2011 NHNZ will have delivered a total of 20 hours of 3D programming.
is The Most Extreme
, series produced by Ian McGee. NHNZ produced 65 episodes of this series from 2002 to 2007. The show counted down the top ten animals on any given theme. The forerunner to The Most Extreme was Twisted Tales, two series produced in 1999 and 2000 which took a single animal group like The Frog or The Bat and focussed on their relationship with people through time, and around the world. Twisted Tales: The Bat earned Ian McGee an Emmy Award
in 1999 for Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming - Writers. The following year, Ian and co-writer Quinn Berentson were again nominated for an Emmy Award
in the same category for Twisted Tales: The Rat.
Managing Director Michael Stedman’s work building relationships in China led to the establishment of an office in Beijing in 2002, which has helped NHNZ become one of the leading production companies operating in China. From earlier productions, including Wild Horses of China and Jade Hunters to China Circus and Inside China, the company’s good relations with the Chinese government and broadcasters have seen it gain unique access to China’s people and institutions.
clips and online video (Streaming media
). NHNZ Moving Images sells Footage
from the company’s programmes as well as outtakes and, also represents the work of around 20 internationally renowned filmmakers including storm shooter Geoff Mackley
and Yusuf Thakur. In 2011 NHNZ Moving Images signed a deal to represent National Geographic Channels Worldwide library of more than 20 years of accumulated footage from its blue-chip factual programming library, including hundreds of hours of HD footage.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
-based factual television production company that creates around 60 hours of television programming each year in the genres of nature, history, science, adventure and people.
NHNZ is a subsidiary of Fox International Channels
Fox International Channels
Fox International Channels is a subsidiary of the Fox Entertainment Group, which is a part of Rupert Murdoch's global media conglomerate News Corporation...
and an incorporated New Zealand Limited Company (New Zealand Companies Office
Companies Office
The New Zealand Companies Office is a government agency that provides business registry services in relation to corporate entities, personal property and capital market securities...
registration number 884648).
NHNZ has filmed above and below every ocean and every continent, including Antarctica - where it has produced more films than any other company. The results have earned NHNZ over 200 international awards, among them Emmy Awards, the industry’s highest accolade, and the prestigious Wildscreen
Wildscreen
Wildscreen is an educational charity based in Bristol, England, working globally to promote the conservation of nature, and the public’s appreciation of biodiversity, through wildlife imagery....
Panda Award.
In addition to its base in Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, New Zealand, NHNZ has offices in Beijing and Washington DC and, majority ownership of Singapore based production company Beach House Pictures and Aquavision Wildlife Filmmakers in South Africa. It works closely alongside major networks around the world such as Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
, Discovery Science
Discovery Science
Discovery science is a scientific methodology which emphasizes analysis of large volumes of experimental data with the goal of finding new patterns or correlations, leading to hypothesis formation and other scientific methodologies.Discovery-based methodologies are often viewed in contrast to...
, A&E Television Networks
A&E Television Networks
A&E Television Networks is a U.S. media company that owns a group of television channels available via cable & satellite in the US and abroad...
, National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
, Travel Channel
Travel Channel
The Travel Channel is a satellite and cable television channel that is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, US. It features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. Programming has included shows in African animal safaris,...
, NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
(Japan), France 5
France 5
France 5 is a public television network in France, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir...
and ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
(Germany). As a result NHNZ's programmes are seen in more than 200 countries by hundreds of millions of viewers.
The early years
NHNZ grew out of the Natural History Unit of TVNZ. The company was formed in 1977 and screened its first documentaries a year later. In 2008, NHNZ celebrated 30 years of television production making it one of the world's longest standing production companies.The unit's first documentaries made were a series of six 15-minute programmes called Hidden Places and which featured various New Zealand habitats, notably Okarito, White Island, Fiordland
Fiordland
Fiordland is a geographic region of New Zealand that is situated on the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the western-most third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes and its ocean-flooded, steep western valleys...
, Mackenzie Country and near-to Dunedin – Sinclair Wetlands
Sinclair Wetlands
The Sinclair Wetlands are an internationally renowned wetlands located to the south west of Dunedin, New Zealand, at the southern edge of the Taieri Plains on the western side of Lake Waipori...
, firmly established the unit. From the outset the programmes made were ambitious, but the programme that captured the attention of international wildlife film-makers was undoubtedly the story of Don Merton
Don Merton
Donald Merton, QSM was a New Zealand conservationist best known for saving the black robin from extinction. He also discovered the lek breeding system of the kakapo....
's rescue of the New Zealand black robin
Black Robin
The Black Robin or Chatham Island Robin is an endangered bird from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. It is closely related to the New Zealand Robin . It was first described by Walter Buller in 1872. The binomial commemorates the New Zealand botanist Henry H. Travers...
from the brink of extinction. Several programmes were made chronicling this success story – Seven Black Robins, The Robins Return and finally Chatham Island a Black Robin Story. For a more detail about the origins of these early programmes see Morris & Smith.
A focus on New Zealand stories continued during the 1980s and early 1990s, with children’s series Wild Track and the series Wild South becoming cultural icons, still fondly remembered by New Zealanders. 1990 saw the production of a series presented by David Bellamy
David Bellamy
David James Bellamy OBE is a British author, broadcaster, environmental campaigner and botanist. He has lived in County Durham since 1960.-Career:...
, in association with the New Zealand Heritage Foundation, called Moa's Ark. This was the first time NHNZ had worked with an international 'star'.
The early 1990s were not easy times for television in New Zealand. Levels of production in Dunedin (not just in the natural history unit) were severely curtailed. However, the ambitious nature of the documentaries continued – and one of the company's special areas of expertise was born – Antarctica.
Focus areas
NHNZ has been making documentaries in Antarctica for over twenty-five years. The first in 1982, featuring the private life of Adelie penguins, paved the way for a further 23 titles. Icebird and Under the Ice were early offshore successes for the company, and were both produced by Neil Harraway.The pair of documentaries Emperors of Antarctica and The Longest Night chronicled the over-wintering activities of scientists from Antarctica New Zealand
Antarctica New Zealand
Antarctica New Zealand is an Institute set up by the New Zealand Government in 1996 to manage its interests in Antarctica and the Ross Sea. As well as providing logistics support to a large scientific programme, it also runs bases such as Scott Base...
, produced by Max Quinn in 1992, were joined by a third Solid Water Liquid Rock produced by Mike Single. This trilogy helped to establish the fruitful and long running relationship with Discovery Channel in the USA. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s a string of documentaries were made by both Max and Mike, while an exceptional icy dive team was led by Jeanie Ackley and Ed Jowett. With Mike winning an Emmy for outstanding cinematography for The Crystal Ocean, and Max’s trilogy Ice Worlds completed, NHNZ’s place as a leading documentary film maker in the inhospitable Antarctic was cemented.
A second area of expertise lies in underwater filming. Two major marine based series Deep Blue, and Shark Gordon were filmed at locations throughout the Pacific. Shark Gordon was made for Animal Planet, and featured shark specialist Ian Gordon. Whales have also featured in many documentaries including The Lost Whales about the rejuvenation of the population of southern right whales in New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands, and Killers I Have Known about Dr Ingrid Visser
Ingrid Visser (researcher)
Ingrid Natasha Visser is a marine biologist known for studying orcas.- Early life :...
's investigations into the life and habits of New Zealand orca
Orca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
.
In 2010 NHNZ started producing 3D factual programming. NHNZ's first 3D documentary China Revealed: The Great Wall of China debuted on one of the world's first full-time 3D networks -3net. In June 2011 NHNZ will have delivered a total of 20 hours of 3D programming.
Successful series
One of the most successful series NHNZ has made for Animal PlanetAnimal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
is The Most Extreme
The Most Extreme
The Most Extreme is a documentary television series on the American cable television network, Animal Planet. It first aired on July 7, 2002. Each episode focuses on a specific animal feature, such as strength, speed, behavior, anatomy, or diet, and examines and ranks ten animals that portray...
, series produced by Ian McGee. NHNZ produced 65 episodes of this series from 2002 to 2007. The show counted down the top ten animals on any given theme. The forerunner to The Most Extreme was Twisted Tales, two series produced in 1999 and 2000 which took a single animal group like The Frog or The Bat and focussed on their relationship with people through time, and around the world. Twisted Tales: The Bat earned Ian McGee an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in 1999 for Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming - Writers. The following year, Ian and co-writer Quinn Berentson were again nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in the same category for Twisted Tales: The Rat.
Diversification
Like many other medium sized production companies, NHNZ has diversified its portfolio of programmes. Over the past decade, genres for television broadcast have included Health (Kill or Cure series); Science (X=Force the Science of ... series; Mega Disaster series); Adventure (Adventure Central series); People (Tribal Life series; The Diva Mummy). With Tuna Wranglers, NHNZ tested the waters of the current popularity of reality shows about the daily lives of blue-collar workers pitting themselves against nature in extreme environments. Engineering programmes have also proven popular with the company making a string of shows from Asia and China under the Man Made Marvels and Megastructures banners.Managing Director Michael Stedman’s work building relationships in China led to the establishment of an office in Beijing in 2002, which has helped NHNZ become one of the leading production companies operating in China. From earlier productions, including Wild Horses of China and Jade Hunters to China Circus and Inside China, the company’s good relations with the Chinese government and broadcasters have seen it gain unique access to China’s people and institutions.
Emerging media
In 2007 NHNZ established an Emerging Media team to maximise opportunities for either selling or reversioning the company’s footage for broadcast via a variety of platforms, including mobile phoneMobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
clips and online video (Streaming media
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
). NHNZ Moving Images sells Footage
Footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work...
from the company’s programmes as well as outtakes and, also represents the work of around 20 internationally renowned filmmakers including storm shooter Geoff Mackley
Geoff Mackley
Geoff Mackley ia a freelance photographer who is also specialized in filming breaking news. Known for chasing storms around the world, he was featured in the TV series Dangerman, made for the Discovery Channel. Mackley was born in Auckland.-References:...
and Yusuf Thakur. In 2011 NHNZ Moving Images signed a deal to represent National Geographic Channels Worldwide library of more than 20 years of accumulated footage from its blue-chip factual programming library, including hundreds of hours of HD footage.