Kiwi Talkz

Elik Alvarez is a composer who got his start in the industry composing for 4Kids Entertainment on series like TMNT, Yu Gi-Oh, Kirby, F-Zero and more. He has composed for a number of David Attenborough documentaries and has been composing for films as of late. #tmnt #yugioh #davidattenborough SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE - www.elikalvarez.com FACEBOOK - Elik Alvarez INSTAGRAM - @elikalvarezcomposer TWITTER - @elikalvarez   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:51 - Working At 4Kids Entertainment 02:44 - Composing For Cartoons Is Like Bootcamp 06:07 - The Process Of Scoring At 4Kids Entertainment 08:39 - Writing Music Using Themes Others Have Written for TMNT 2003 10:00 - Gratification Of Being A Composer/Never Getting Bored 11:09 - Elik Got Allocated A Lot Of Action Cues For TMNT 2003 12:26 - Elik Having To Research Various Genres For Composing TMNT/Collaboration 15:00 - Elik Isn’t An Audio Engineer/Mixes While He Composes/Deadlines 19:07 - Elik Didn’t Take Music References From Japanese Score Of Yu-Gi-Oh 20:09 - Temp Tracks/Referencing Other Composers 22:07 - Applying Degree In Business Administration To Music 23:34 - Freelancing/Negotiating Contracts/PR Agents 25:25 - Soundtrack Releases Of 4Kids Entertainment Shows Could Be On The Horizon 28:58 - Collaboration With Freddy Sheinfield & Joel Douek 31:22 - Friendship With Freddy & Joel/Competitiveness 33:53 - Elik Wants To Meet David Attenborough 35:31 - Composing For Documentaries 39:05 - Direction From Project Director 41:00 - Chasing Projects 43:41 - Royalties Are How Composers Survive Between Projects 45:06 - Kingdom Of Plants Gave Elik Credibility/You Need Validation To Get Work In California 48:00 - You Have To Be Competitive In California 50:00 - Elik Isnt A Networking & Party Guy    51:30 - Elik Hates Composing For Commercials/Concert Music 53:22 - Action Cues In Yu-Gi-Oh Would Make it Easy To Do Superhero Film 55:22 - Where To Follow Elik Alvarez/What Elik Is Working On

Vanessa Goodson is the winner of The Apprentice Aotearoa and runs the party business OMGNess. SOCIAL MEDIA Website - OMGNESS.co.nz Instagram - @_vanessagood, @omgness.co.nz   #theapprentice #mikepero #omgness   TIMESTAMPS   00:00 - Intro 00:40 - How Vanessa Maintains Her Energy/Not Shutting Off 02:50 - No Phones Were Allowed On The Apprentice 06:33 - The Reason Vanessa Auditioned For The Apprentice/Audition Process 08:08 - Watching Herself Back On The Apprentice 09:36 - 16 Hour Days On The Apprentice/How A Lifestyle Tagline Came About 10:43 - The Apprentice Was Real And Not Misdirected With Edited/Living At The Apprentice House 11:48 - Building A Camaraderie With The Other Contestants  13:02 - Duration Of The Board Room Meetings 15:00 - Getting Mentored By Mike Pero 17:34 - Applying Her Business Plan 18:48 - Brand Exposure/Covid Affecting OMGNess 20:25 - Favourite Challenge On The Show 22:15 - Business Pitch/Presentation To Panel 24:47 - Apprentice Being An Emotional Roller Coaster 26:14 - Lawnmowing Challenge 29:36 - Getting Used To Cameras Always Being Around/Micd Up All The Time 31:03 - Vanessa Having Her Small Cry 32:44 - Best Prizes 33:52 - Hamilton Challenge 35:57 - Getting Breakfast & Lunch Everyday  37:10 - Driving Around To Challenges/Camera Guys In The Car 39:12 - No Forewarning At All 40:43 - Mike Pero Was Physically There To Give Out Challenges 41:15 - Vanessa’s Plan Going Forward 43:46 - How Big OMGNess Team Is 45:57 - West Auckland 47:05 - Going National With OMGNess 48:25 - Talking Fast/Bad Storytelling 49:47 - Where To Follow Vanessa Goodson

Gareth Coker is a video game game composer who came into prominence for composing Ori And The Blind Forest and Ori Will Of The Wisps. He has also scored for ARK, Immortals Fenyx Rising and he is currently scoring Halo Infinite. He is well known for his catchy melodies. SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE -  @Gareth Coker  TWITTER - @garethcoker   #ark #oriandthewillofthewisps #haloinfinite   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Gareth Being A Veteran/What Constitutes Being A Veteran 01:35 - Smoke & Mirrors Of Game Design 02:30 - Game Scores Vs Film/TV Scores 04:05 - VST Ethnic Instruments Vs Live Ethnic Instruments 07:33 - Underworld Track On Immortals Fenyx Rising 09:44 - Gareth Reasons For Using Orchestras 11:20 - Differentiating Yourself In Gaming Music 13:27 - Memorable Melodies Is A Lost Art 15:24 - Ginzo Tree Escape Sequence Music 17:05 - Implementing Music In A Game Correctly/ 18:29 - Gareth Debating With Developers Over Music Implementation In Ori Game Sequence 21:27 - Gareth Prefers To Implement Music In The Game Himself/Implementation Of Music 24:20 - Sackboy Music Implementation 25:09 - Scoring Halo Infinite/Living Up To Expectations  30:26 - You Cant Please Everyone/Referencing Older Halo Music 31:50 - Halo Infinite Composers Working Together/Collaboration 33:00 - Music Supervisors Role 36:17 - Being In Japan And How It Affected Gareths Approach To Composing 39:50 - Don’t Get Comfortable With Success/Communicating Your Ideas 41:20 - Japan Made Gareth Less Shy 42:15 - Gareth Is Unlikely To Return To Japan/Teaching Rugby In Japan 43:15 - Speaking Japanese/Japanese Game Companies 45:05 - Ori Putting Gareth On The Map/Working On Minecraft 46:54 - Working On ARK 50:00 - How Gareth Writes A Melody 56:02 - Doing Melody For TV/Film 59:08 - Composing To Game Visuals/Writing Process 1:02:05 - How Gareth Finds Time To Play Games/Gareth Doesn’t Play Multiplayer Games 1:05:29 - Gareth Watched Streams Of Will Of The Wisps After Release 1:07:28 - Monitoring Gamers To Gather Data To Make A Game Better 1:09:25 - Gareth Excited For Next Generation 1:10:06 - Possibly Scoring Assassins Creed/Dream Project 1:11:11 - Where To Follow Gareth Coker

John Callen is a NZ Actor who has been acting for over 40 years. He is most well known for playing Oin in the Hobbit. #thehobbit #oin #peterjackson   SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook - John Callen   TIMESTAMPS   00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Feeling Old Well Shooting The Hobbit/Weight Of Dwarf Suits 03:23 - Getting A Hernia While Shooting The Hobbit 06:19 - Scottish Accent For Audition/Auditioning For Smaug 07:26 - John Redoes His Smaug Audition Voice 08:15 - Voice Acting Got John Into The Industry/Time As A Journalist 11:44 - What Peter Jackson Is Like/LOTR’s Affect On NZ Film/TV Industry 16:28 - John Is For A Union In NZ/Hobbit Law 21:51 - Different Views On Hobbit Law/Camaraderie Of Actors On Set 23:42 - Debate Over The Hobbit Law/John’s Secret Spy/ 27:20 - John’s Experience On Set/Jed Brophy 29:58 - Having To Wait Around On Set/Getting Free Wine 31:59 - What John Would Do While Waiting Around To Be Used 34:23 - Adam Brown/How John Prevented Rashes From Dwarvf Beards 35:39 - Hair For Dwarves Was From Yaks/Food Getting Stuck In The Beard 37:58 - John’s Arthritis/Dwarf Hands 40:34 - Beorn’s House Set/Set Design 42:54 - Bag End Shoot Between The Dwarves And Gandalf/Ian McKellen Story 45:34 - John Talks Working With Martin Freeman, Billy Connolly and Ian McKellen 48:57 - John Dealing With An Unprofessional Actor While Directing Shortland Street 51:03 - Difference Between Stage Vs Film/TV 53:16 - John’s Directing Style/Shortland Street Actor Requirements 55:20 - Time Constraints 57:10 - Comparing Directing Style To Peter Jackson’s 58:39 - Peter Jackson’s Plans Sometimes Not Coming To Fruition/Lake Town Set Change 1:00:00 - Producing/Story Of Producer Losing Everything 1:04:25 - Unions Vs Non Unions 1:05:26 - Working On The Hobbit Was An Amazing Experience 1:06:41 - Voice Acting On A Star Wars Game 1:09:18 - John Took A Drama School To Voice Acting Sessions 1:10:14 - Doing Audio Books For The Blind 1:11:10 - Where To Follow John Callen

Tiffany Cook is a boxer, businesswoman, fitness coach and host of the Roll With The Punches Podcast. She was featherweight victorian champion in 2019 and has certificates in Fitness, Conscious Hypnosis and Neuro Linguistic Programming. SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE - https://www.tiffaneeandco.com.au FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/TiffaneeAndCo/ LINKEDIN - Tiffany Cook TWITTER - @TiffaneeCook INSTAGRAM - @tiffaneeandco YOUTUBE - @Tiffanee Cook   #rollwiththepunches #pootransplants #neurolinguistics   TIMESTAMPS   00:00 - Intro 00:30 - Australia/NZ Relationship 01:05 - How Tiffanee Got Into Boxing 02:36 - Tiffanee’s First Boxing Training/Sparring & Fight 05:35 - Psychology Of Boxing 08:14 - Dealing With Physical Pain/Performance/Inner Critic 13:38 -  Self Reflection/Having A Wall Up 16:49 - Not Being Self Aware Of Issues 19:25 - Self Diagnosis/Tiffanee’s Psychologist Mate/Getting Therapy 22:00 - Worry About Changing And It Affecting Her Boxing   23:51 - Tiffanee’s Workshop 25:01 - Tiffanee’s Podcast With A Psychologist 26:24 - Hypnosis/Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) 28:50 - Suppressing Emotions/Getting Angry For No Reason 31:08 - Colour Black Being Directly Connected To Anger 32:40 - Fun Anger/Having The Looks 34:30 - Seeking Attention/Not Being Real 35:31 - How Tiffanee’s Podcast Came About/Podcasting 40:36 - Reece Talking About His Podcast 42:15 - NZ/Australia Being Isolated 43:15 - Learning So Much From Podcasting/Editing Podcasts 44:23 - Hating Courses/Ways Of Learning/Audio Books 46:17 - Tiffanee’s Fitness & Nutrition Regime 48:30 - Food Is Connected To Mental Health/Neuro Chemistry 50:29 - Tiffanee’s Diet/Sweet Tooth 51:18 - Epigenetic’s/Health Types 53:02 - Your Body Is A Filtering System/Self Awareness Of Your Body Talking To You 55:35 - Enema Kits 56:22 - Poo Transplants 1:00:32 - Neural Networks 1:01:49 - Where To Follow Tiffany

Jason Graves is a video game composer who is known for composing a number of high profile video games from Dead Space, Until Dawn, Tomb Raider, Far Cry and more....he has also won a number of academy awards for his composing. #tombraider #farcry #untildawn   SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE - jasongraves.com TWITTER - jgmusic FACEBOOK - Jason Graves Music INSTAGRAM - jasongravesmusic YOUTUBE - @Jason Graves Music   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:39 - How Jason Formed His Style/Creating Scary Music/How Jason Got Into Music 05:38 - Working Under Jerry Goldsmith/Elma Bernstein/Christopher Young 07:57 - Order 1886 Score/Strings Ensemble 10:18 - Coming Up With New & Unique Music  11:35 - Aftermath Of Deadspace Success/Developers Contact Jason Far Before Development 13:20 - Having To Be Secretive About Composing New Projects 15:28 - Implementing Music For A Jump Scare 17:35 - Creating Music For Dead Space 21:30 - Implementation Of The Music In The Game 24:23 - Collaborative Process Of Game Design 25:58 - Working On Music For Television 28:10 - Working On Music For Far Cry: Primal 31:37 - Being Brought On Late In Far Cry: Primal Development/Jason’s Assistant For Far Cry:Primal 33:35 - Being A Drummer Influenced Far Cry: Primal Music 35:00 - Vocals Of Tribes Were Based On Jason’s Music 35:39 - Working On Tomb Raider/Not Referencing The Older Tomb Raider Games 38:04 - Gameplay Capture Is Imperative To Composing/Finding Time To Play Games 39:53 - Being A Good Listener In Meetings 41:21 - Initial Tomb Raider Demo/Discussions With Directors 42:30 - What Game Director’s Style Doesn’t Gel With James 44:21 - AAA Games & Indie Games Comparison 45:07 - Working On Until Dawn & The Dark Anthologies   47:30 - Being Typecast To Do Scary Games/Graves Being Jason’s Real Surname 49:53 - Working On Moss/Breaking Through Scary Composer Stereotype 52:29 - Staying Grounded Despite Success 54:24 - Jason’s Drama Background/Award Speeches/Presentations 55:44 - Composers In L.A./University Of Southern California 57:39 - Library Tracks Used For Television 59:08 - Royalties 1:00:36 - Jason’s Work Was Never Affected By Covid  1:01:45 - Jason Would Love To Work On Fantasy And Work On Naughty Dog 1:03:27 - Jason Wouldn’t Want To Compose Middle Earth Games Due To Howard Shore’s Music Being iconic 1:04:30 - Where To Follow Jason On Social Media

Louise Wallace is an actress, tv presenter and director. She is most well known for being in The Real Housewives Of Auckland and being the cold emotionless host of The Weakest Link. #realhousewives #weakestlink #treasureisland   SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram - @louisewallacenz Facebook - Louise Wallace Website - tadpoleproductions.co.nz   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Real Housewives Of Auckland Shooting Duration 01:27 - Setup Of Shooting Real Housewives Of Auckland 02:41 - Real Housewives Is Planned In Advance/Reality TV Is Unethical 04:08 - Louise Has Thick Skin/Young People Don’t Have Resiliance 05:13 - Louise Isn’t That Engaged With Social Media/Louise Blocks Trolls 06:16 - Social Influencers Are Bullshit 06:52 - Louise Was Involved In Casting Real Housewives/Louise Originally Didn’t Want To Be On It 07:59 - Producers Of Real Housewives Were Trying To Catch Louise Out 09:16 - Starting Controversy At The Beginning Due To The Show Being Boring 10:01 - Season 2 Was Never On The Cards 10:24 - The Boat Incident Had No Affect On A Potential Season 2 11:33 - Louise’s Family Largely Not Involved/Julia’s Family Being Affected From Real Housewives 13:12 - Louise Is On Good Terms With The Cast 13:55 - How Louise Ended Up In Journalism/TV Presenting 15:01 - News Readers Follow Teleprompters/Presenting Gigs 16:01 - The Weakest Link 18:00 - How Louise Got Weakest Link Gig 18:38 - Shows Being Affected By Where They Were Placed On TV 19:10 - Weakest Link Protocol Was Very Strict 19:30 - Shooting Weakest Link/Celebrity Shows 20:52 - Louise Said Everything Off The Cuff 21:23 - Experience On Celebrity Treasure Island 23:42 - Directing Celebrity Treasure Island 25:35 - Louise Loves Doing Theatre/Tadpole Productions 27:13 - Theatre Requires A Lot Of Work/Tadpole Doesn’t Get Funding 28:14 - Making Mistakes During A Show 30:15 - Learning Lines 31:02 - How Tadpole Productions Was Setup/Actors Having To Chase Work 32:25 - Covid Affecting Tadpole Productions/Doing Theatre Outside Of Auckland/Campervan 35:09 - Drama School In London/How Drama School Breaks You Down 38:28 - Most Actors Louise Knows Are Down To Earth/Snobby Actors Never Make It 39:40 - Louise Doesn’t Audition People For Theatre, She Goes Off There Work Ethic 40:46 - How Louise Stays Relaxed 42:00 - Louise Wants To See Her Son In UK But Cant Due To Covid/Living With Covid 43:30 - Travelling 44:14 - Audition Process For Real Housewives 46:00 - Anne Helped Louise Get Through Real Housewives 47:12 - Master Interviews After The Day Of Shooting/Speaking In Present Tense 48:05 - Louise Thinks The Show Wasn’t Edited To Change Things/ 48:38 - The Apprentice New Zealand Is Tame/Contestants On Apprentice Will Be Careful Due To Work Prospects 50:08 - Most People Enter Those Reality Shows For Fame 50:42 - Louise Thinks If Season 2 Of Real Housewives Happened It Would Of Blown Up 51:17 - Being Noticed In California 51:54 - Louise Doesn’t Care About Fame & Being Noticed 54:36 - Dont Take Yourself To Seriously

Nathan Grigg is a video game composer for Monolith Productions and has worked on franchises like F.E.A.R and Shadow Of Mordor. He has also assisted on various other games under the Warner Bros. umbrella such as the recently released Mortal Kombat 11 #fear #mortalkombat11 #shadowofwar   TIMESTAMPS   00:00 - Intro 00:43 - Previous Work/How Nathan Ended Up Working On F.E.A.R Series 02:50 - Direction Taken With F.E.A.R/How Music Was Created 06:39 - Sustaining Tension/Blurring Music & Sound Design 08:07 - Field Recordings/Sample Libraries/Convolution 10:59 - Nathan’s Mum Painting Technique/Composing Techniques 12:48 - Music On The Cutting Room Floor/Emotional Music 15:49 - Creating Music And Evolving As Time Goes On 17:33 - How Nathan Expands On An Idea/Idea Process 20:00 - Nathan Doesn’t Think He Is A Lord Of The Rings Nerd 20:30 - Collaborating With Garry Schyman/Not Copying Howard Shore’s Score 24:00 - Nathan & Garry Were Only Ever In The Same During Recording/Orchestra & Choir 26:15 - Garry & Nathan’s Scores Blending/Collaboration Process 28:54 - Nathan’s Work With Inon Zur 30:56 - How Nathan Ended Up Working On Mortal Kombat 11 33:35 - Differences Between Working On Mortal Kombat 11 And Shadow Of Mordor 35:08 - Lore Of Mortal Kombat 11 35:58 - Opportunities Working Under The Warner Bros. Umbrella/Interaction Cues For MK11 39:25 - Energy Of Mortal Kombat 11 Music Cues/Atmosphere To MK11 42:50 - Nathan Is Open To Working On Film Scores/Game Cinematics Are Different To Film 47:19 - Warner Bros Film & Gaming Don’t Have Much Crossover 48:30 - Evolution Of Music In Video Games 50:15 - Getting Into The Game Industry Back In The Early Days/Ambiguity Of Music 53:45 - Nathan Doesn’t Use Social Media/How To Contact Nathan 55:31 - Where To Listen To Nathan Grigg’s Game OST

Tom Salta is a recording artist, producer and composer for film/television and video games with the latter being his most known arena. He has composed for PUBG, Killer Instinct, Halo, Prince Of Persia and more.... He hosts his own Masterclass series in teaching about composing for video games. SOCIAL MEDIA Website - www.tomsalta.com Twitter - @TomSalta Instagram - @TomSalta   #masterclass #pubg #princeofpersia   TIMESTAMPS   00:00 - Intro 00:43 - How Tom Got The Name Atlas Plug 04:21 - Tom’s Original Plan Before The Video Game Industry/Record Industry 07:38 - Learning How To Composer For Video Games/Working On Need For Speed 2 08:40 - Submitted Music Getting Rejected 10:16 - Trying To Followup Music From Marty’s & Michael’s Halo Score 12:53 - Trying To Follow Up Mick Gordons OST For Killer Instinct 15:10 - Mick Gordon’s Mixing/Avoiding Copying Him 16:32 - Tom Salta’s Mixing Process 18:45 - Removing Instruments & Layers While Mixing/80’s Mixing 20:32 - The More Fatiguing The Mix The More Breaks You Need 23:18 - Difference Between Deadlines On Television/Film Vs Video Games 25:28 - Tom Salta Absolutely Loves Video Games 26:14 - Playing Video Games While Exercising 27:43 - Writers Block/Creative Process 30:50 - Meditation/Tom Doesn’t Meditate To Music 34:15 - Tom’s Masterclass Course 38:41 - Consolidating Masterclass Information Into A 3 Hour Course 39:32 - Other Courses Are In The Pipeline 40:53 - Working On PUBG Main Theme 45:35 - Building Relationships In The Age Of Covid/Networking 48:50 - Tom’s Story On Working Of Prince Of Persia/Collaborating On Prince Of Persia 52:44 - Prince Of Persia The Forgotten Sands Being 2 Games 56:00 - Type Of Games Tom Would Like To Work 58:00 - Where To Follow Tom Salta/Signing Up For Tom’s Masterclass Course

Prof. Jan Lindsay is a volcanologist and a professor at the University Of Auckland and her expertise is the in research of volcanic hazards VOLCANOLOGY RESEARCH PAPER - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S03770273210011 16 AUCKLAND UNI PROFILE - https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/j-lindsay TWITTER - @GeoJanUoA   Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - What A Volcanologist Does 05:12 - Working In The Field/Past Activity Of A Volcano 07:24 - Volcano’s Have Small Activity Before A Big Eruption 08:28 - If Taupo Were To Erupt It Would Be A Small Eruption In Our Lifetime/Super Eruption 11:20 - You’d Have A Warning Before A Super Eruption 11:51 - Warning Of Taupo Erupted 13:25 - Speaking With The Government & Civil Defence About An Eruption 14:41 - Auckland’s Volcanic Field 17:07 - Evacuating Auckland If An Eruption Happens/Immediate Effects 21:09 - Uncertainty Of Knowing When Eruptions Being Over 23:13 - The Probability Of An Auckland Eruption Is Extremely Low 25:27 - Earthquakes Triggering A Volcano 27:43 - Why Mudpools Randomly Appear In Rotorua 30:46 - White Island Tragedy Eruption 34:10 - Debriefing Since The White Island Tragedy/Investigation 37:05 - Reasons GNS Want To Revisit White Island 37:46 - Tongariro Crossing Eruption/Why It Wont Be Like White Island 39:52 - Jan Lindsay Remembering Mt Ruapehu’s Eruption 40:50 - Mt Taranaki’s Inevitable Eruption/Taranaki’s Effect On Auckland 44:08 - Ash Entering The Stratosphere 45:13 - Parts Of Zealandia Rising To The Surface From A Volcanic Eruption 48:25 - Ring Of Fire And How It Works 51:48 - Where To Find Prof’ Jan Lindsay’s Work 52:50 - Volcano Films Are Not Realistic/Walking On Lava In Goma