Film Construction Directors

Perry has shot commercials all over the world and won dozens of craft awards.

An expert story teller, his directing skills stretch from heart piercing drama, to precisely timed comedy, to Special Effects. He’s a breeze to work with from the first brief to the final output. A collaborative and highly creative director. His love for the craft is infectious.

Perry has been a craft judge at advertising festivals. He is a mentor and lecturer in advertising industry courses and is in development on several drama and television projects.

Perry loves making ads, and brings all his years of experience to everything he works on. Trained as a film director at The NZ National Film Unit, shooting documentary, drama, and spectacular tourism films. After a stint at TVNZ, he joined Airdate Films, then established Film Construction with Producer Peter Hewitt.

25 years later he’s loves the cut and thrust of film-for-advertising as much as ever. 

I didn’t get a camera from my Dad when I was 7, or make Super 8 movies as a kid. I didn’t even pick up a camera until I was 24. Instead my teenage years disappeared in a cloud of smoke and squealing tires. I moved to London to explore the world but ended up in South Africa where I surfed and hung out. Then I moved to Sydney where I surfed and hung out. ​ I needed to get my self sorted so decided I wanted to be an architect, a pilot, or an adventure guide. I became a photographer instead. ​ I’ve shot in Prague, LA, Egypt and Sydney, from the deserts of Mali to down-town New York, and the local studio down the road. I’ve exhibited work in New York, San Diego and Auckland. In 2013 and 2015 my work was recog-nized by Lurzer’s Archive in their ‘Top 200 Advertising Photographers World-wide’. ​ Now I’ve discovered moving pictures – the collaboration, the planning, and the storytelling. I love it all. To use light, motion, movement, and character as a way to create story is wonderful. Being trained to tell a story compositionally in a single frame is a useful skill for a filmmaker. And having been in front of the camera myself a few times helps me when I work with actors, models, and performers. ​ I love my work. I love the variety, the fact that every day is different. That I get to work with so many different and amazing people, that it takes me to far flung corners of the world. That I get to work on projects that are visually rich, emotive, striking, fashion forward, or just plain sexy. What a job.

Ivan Barge is a director that enjoys connecting emotion with an audience. With humour or pathos. He has a strong handle on performance and visual aesthetics.

Winning over 40 awards, Ivan’s short film ‘Madam Black’ has cleaned up on the world festival circuit. It screened at over 150 festivals and won the world’s biggest Audience Award for short films: The Prix Du Public at Clermont-Ferrand International Festival. It also won Best Short at the 2017 New Zealand Film Awards.
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SHOTS New Directors section also featured Barge’s first short film ’Snooze Time’.
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He has produced over 70 music videos and dozens of TVC’s in New Zealand and Australia for local and international markets.
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“Definitely the festival hit of the year. Ivan’s wonderful story probably reached out to a wider audience on the festival circuit than a number of features in theatres this year”.
- Laurent Crouzeix, Director - Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. 

With a background in formal theatre training, Harriett has performed on the Globe Stage in London and starred in a web series before realising her true calling was on the other side of the camera. She graduated AUT as Television & Screen Production graduate of the year in 2015. Her first short film, ANNA, won the Jury Choice Award at the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase, and won Best Acting at the Women's Independent Film Festival in 2016. Her second short film, Lani’s Space, won the Special Category Award at a competition run by NASA, and judged by Richard Linklater. Harriett also works as a casting director, a 1st AD, and production coordinator. This breadth of experience gives her a holistic understanding of the film industry, and enables her to be a comprehensive and empathetic director. Harriett is represented by Film Construction. Her work is always informed by her passion for performance directing, and her desire to tell stories that centre around human connection.

In the early part of Daniel Pront’s directing career, his personal passion for action sports (surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding) saw him circumnavigating the globe filming for the likes of Fuel TV, Planet X and brands such as Globe, Lakai and Nokia. Since then Daniel has had the opportunity to greatly expand the scope of his work across an eclectic range of TVCs, short drama, short doco, education and branded content. Now with a keenness to uncover unique storytelling opportunities and angles, as well as a fascination with people (and all of their eccentricities), Daniel uses his distinctive, strong visual style to tell all manner of stories for all sorts of brands and loves it. He prides himself in his ability to find the visual beauty in even the ugliest of situations and also how confidently he can create an instant rapport with both actors and non-actors, resulting in a seamless on set directorial approach. Some would say he also has a pretty decent sense of humour.

Sandy Widyanata is a German/ Australian filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Sandy studied at the prestigious Australian Film Television and Radio School. Her short film 'Plastic' enjoyed great international success on the festival circuit. In 2009 Sandy received a Visual Effects Society Award in the student category, which was introduced by Steven Spielberg. She was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award and won an Australian Effects and Animation Award in 2010. Her film 'Project M.I.C.K.' was runner up at the Cannes Lions Young Director Award 2012. With a strong background in animation and visual effects Sandy loves to combine authentic and truthful performances with visually surreal images that help bring imagination and dreams to life. Sandy is attached to direct feature films "The Way Between", written by Jennifer Lee (writer/director of Frozen and A Wrinkle In Time) and “Monument 14," the film adaption of the first work in the sci-fi trilogy by Emmy Laybourne.