The Makers

Made in NZ

ScreenWorks was formed by producer Chris Hampson, director Chris Bailey and writer Greg McGee in 1998 to produce Street Legal, which they had been developing since 1993.

The company has to date produced four series (51 episodes) of their flagship prime time drama Street Legal, plus the new 13-episode children’s series, Hard Out, both for TV2 and the short film, Tick, written and directed by Rebecca Hobbs, which opened the New York Film Festival, with the premiere of Jack Nicholson’s About Schmidt.

It is a niche production company, concentrating on feature films and high production value film drama for television. The founders see the company as a vehicle which allows them to keep their hands directly on the creative process and do better and more satisfying work.

They are now developing other projects and have a feature film, Skin and Bone, an adaptation of partner Greg McGee’s successful stage play Foreskin’s Lament, in pre-production and Liability, 13 x one-hour prime time drama series in development, commissioned by TVNZ.

They are also developing a feature film adaptation of the children’s classic Under the Mountain.

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Chris Bailey, executive producer / director

Chris Bailey is one of the founders of Screenworks, the company established to produce Street Legal.

In addition to Street Legal, his other recent project is a new children’s series, Hard Out, produced by Screenworks for TV2.

With over 30 years in the New Zealand television industry, Bailey is regarded as one of the country's top producers and directors. He has also gained recognition overseas and in 1986 directed New Zealand's first ever international co-production: The Adventurer, with Thames Television, which starred Temuera Morrison and Street Legal’s Carl Bland.

His numerous television credits includes direction of Letter to Blanchy, Cover Story, Plainclothes, Marlin Bay, City Life and Greenstone. In 1991 he won a New Zealand Film and Television Award for his direction of the series Gold, and many other productions, either directed or produced by him, have won various awards both at home and abroad.

For several years he was head of production at South Pacific Pictures, overseeing numerous co-productions with the UK, France, Canada and the USA. He was also executive producer on New Zealand’s longest running drama, Shortland Street.

Bailey’s early television credits include work as director on such New Zealand icons as Gloss, Mortimer’s Patch and the cult children’s hit Under the Mountain, which he is currently revisiting to develop as a feature film.

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Greg McGee, executive producer / series writer

Greg McGee is one of the founders of Screen Works, the company formed to produce Street Legal.

He is one of New Zealand's most successful play and screenwriters. His enduring success, Foreskin's Lament, written in the 1970s, won best play award in 1981 and is still being performed in theatres throughout New Zealand. ScreenWorks now has a feature film version, Skin and Bone, in pre-production.

In addition to Foreskin’s Lament, he has written Tooth and Claw, Out in the Cold, White Men and This Train I’m On for the stage.

His feature film writing includes Crooked Earth (with Waihoroi Shortland), Via Satellite (with Anthony McCarten) and Old Scores (with Dean Parker), which won best screenplay at the NZ Film and Television Awards in 1992.

He won NZ Film and Television Awards best television drama writer awards for the mini-series Erebus: The Aftermath (1988), the series Marlin Bay (1993), for which he was also associate producer and the miniseries Fallout (1995), with Tom Scott.

Marlin Bay also brought him a US Writer’s Guild Foundation International Screen and Television Writer’s Film Festival Award, with James Griffin.

His other television credits include episodes of Greenstone, Roche, CoverStory, Betty’s Bunch and Gold.

Since it began in 1998, he has developed, story-edited, and written or co-written most of the 51 episodes of Street Legal. He was head writer on the new children’s series Hard Out and now has a feature film Under The Mountain in development.

 

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Chris Hampson, producer

Chris Hampson is one of the founders of ScreenWorks, the company formed to produce Street Legal.

Before that, he was involved in developing the New Zealand Film Commission’s low budget feature scheme, ScreenVisioNZ.  He was executive producer for three of the six films - Via Satellite, Savage Honeymoon and Scarfies.

In the late 1980s he produced, with Don Reynolds, the feature films Illustrious Energy and Arriving Tuesday, before becoming head of development at South Pacific Pictures in 1992.  He was executive producer on SPP’s broad production slate, including the first three years of the highly successful serial Shortland Street, two series of the prime time drama Marlin Bay, the family drama serial Deepwater Haven and the mini-series Fallout.

In 1994 Hampson began a two-year project as producer of 26 hours of the prime-time drama series Coverstory, with the Gibson Group, while developing a range of projects for that company.  He has also produced the Sunday Theatre drama Share the Dream and The Chosen, a four-hour mini-series, for Communicado.

Although ScreenWorks was originally formed to produce Street Legal, the company has recently produced Hard Out, a new children’s series for TV2 and is now developing many new projects. Hampson recently oversaw production of the short film Tick. ScreenWorks is currently in pre-production of Skin and Bone, a feature film adaptation of Greg McGee’s successful play Foreskin’s Lament, and has a feature film of the children’s classic, Under the Mountain and a prime-time drama series Liability in development.

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Jane Lindsay, line producer

Jane Lindsay has worked in television drama in New Zealand since arriving here in 1984, initially as continuity/director’s assistant, then production co-ordinator and now as line producer for Street Legal. She recently produced the new children’s series Hard Out.

She has a long association with the three ScreenWorks partners: Chris Bailey was the first director she worked with in New Zealand, on Country GP, and she met Chris Hampson and Greg McGee also in those early days.

She came full circle in 1998 when, after completing work as production co-ordinator on the feature film Jubilee, she came on board to set up the first series of Street Legal for the newly-formed ScreenWorks.

Before Jubilee, she worked for Pacific Renaissance Pictures, as cast co-ordinator for Hercules, The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess for four years followed by one year as production manager for Hercules. During her time as cast co-ordinator, she was also ADR supervisor, and was a winner (along with technical crew) of the US Golden Reel Award for ADR for Hercules, Xena and Young Hercules.

Born in England and raised in Australia, Lindsay started work as a clerk at Channel 7, straight from school in 1977, having earlier done her school “work experience” in the newsroom. She then moved into continuity on early Australian soaps Skyways, Holiday Island and Prisoner. She returned from New Zealand in 1985 to work on the very beginning of the extremely successful Neighbours.

Back in New Zealand from 1987, her work since has included New Zealand dramas Gloss, Gold, Star Runner and Plainclothes and international productions including The Other Side Of Paradise, The Ray Bradbury Theater, The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, The Further Adventures of The Black Stallion, White Fang and Soldier Soldier.

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