Creative Business Programme

Associate Professor & Associate Dean of Research at Victoria University of Wellington - School of Design, NZ

Leon Gurevitch is an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design where he researches global creative industries, transformative technologies and complex systems design. Leon has previously been a Marsden Fund recipient for “The Digital Workshops of the World” Research Project, a visiting scholar at multiple institutions across the United States including Yale University. He is a founding member of the UCLA Cultural Analytics group and has presented invited lectures about his research at Dreamworks, Blizzard Game Studios, Weta Digital, The Universities of California Los Angeles, Berkeley and Santa Barbra, Yale, Beida Beijing, Shanghai University and many more. Leon has published research and exhibited design work in over 40 international locations and presented over 80 peer reviewed conference papers, keynotes and invited talks around the world in the last ten years. Leon teaches photography and computational culture and is based in the Media Lab at Victoria University.

Producer & Co-Founder, Court Five Productions, LA

Mark Ordesky is an American film and television producer and former Hollywood studio executive. He’s best known for executive producing the Oscar-winning THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy –during which Mark spent the better part of five years in New Zealand supporting his friend Peter Jackson’s historic vision. Mark has acquired or executive produced over 60 films, collectively grossing nearly $4 billion at the worldwide box office, earning 38 Academy Award nominations with 18 wins. Currently, Mark owns/operates Court Five with fellow New Line veteran Jane Fleming –fashioning independent film and TV content for Hollywood studios and broadcasters as well as global streamers such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon.

Mark is a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Television Academy, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additionally, he is a board member of the American Cinematheque.

Textures Head of Department/Creative Art Director, Wētā Digital, NZ

In 1998, Makeup and Creature Effects Art Director Gino Acevedo was asked by Richard Taylor to join Wētā Workshop to supervise the special makeup effects and color designs of the creatures for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Prior to this, Gino had been working in the Los Angeles film industry for more than 10 years.

During the filming of The Two Towers, Gino was approached by Wētā Digital’s Visual Effects Supervisor, Joe Letteri, who was intrigued by the way Gino had made the skin colouration of a physical silicone puppet of the dead Boromir so believable. Joe then asked if Gino would be interested in texture painting on Gollum.

Although he saw himself as computer illiterate, Gino grasped the new digital challenges, becoming the Art Director for the digital creatures and the liaison between Wētā Workshop and Wētā Digital. Thus, allowing for a continuous design vision from initial illustrative designs through to the final digital effects shots shown onscreen.

Gino’s work at Wētā Digital includes HOD of the textures department and creative art director. On King Kong and The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Gino along with Richard Taylor supervised the sculpting of the maquettes for digital scanning, and making the physical silicone puppets used for environment and actor interaction. These were later replaced with the digital creature that is seen onscreen.

As Creature Art Director on Avatar, Gino oversaw 52 Wētā Digital texture artists. They used innovative techniques of life casting, to achieve details such as minute skin pores which were cast in silicone and scanned. They were then applied to the digital models breathing life and colour into the world of Pandora.

Gino has recently finished work on Pete’s Dragon . Before that he was focused on the critically acclaimed summer blockbuster Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the final film in Peter Jackson’s epic Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Film Producer, Netflix, LA

Jorge Garcia Castro currently runs Altered.la’s feature film and TV department were he is currently in post-production for the horror franchise Zone Of Silence, among several other projects. Prior to joining Altered.la, Mr. Garcia was an executive for The Walt Disney Studios, were he managed Disney’s Mexican local productions label. At Disney, he developed and oversaw several local language production films and also produced the critically acclaimed Latin American film Sin Ella Directed by Jorge Colon and Starring Luis Roberto Guzman, Zuria Vega, and Lola Duenas.

Jorge also worked as a consultant in several tent-pole films including; Tron: Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, John Carter, OZ: The Great and Powerful, and Alice in Wonderland, among others.

For TV, Jorge produced the Teleton (USA) for Televisa and Univision in 2011, which got more than 80 million viewers. He has consulted for several networks including Fox, Disney Channel, and Univision, among other. Currently, Jorge also advises on US Hispanic audience for Studio films and TV series. Jorge has a Master’s Degree in Finance from Harvard University.

Commissioner, Drama and Scripted Comedy, TVNZ, Auckland

Steve Barr moved to New Zealand in 2010 after working for 16 years in the Hollywood industry. He has been a studio suit for Universal Studios, a feature screenwriter for Walt Disney Pictures, and the vice president of development for indie production company SMASHfilms. Steve has been hired to write a dozen or so screenplays in the New Zealand, American, and Chinese industries, two of which have been produced - Timeslow and Born To Dance. He has produced nearly 20 short films and two features - Chronesthesia and Hang Time.

Steve has a BFA in Theatre from the University of Southern California, and has taught screenwriting for the New Zealand Film and Television School, the New Zealand Writers Guild, Massey University, and Victoria University. He is a member of the WGA, WIFT, SPADA and served as president of the New Zealand Writers Guild. He is currently the commissioner for drama and scripted comedy for Television New Zealand.

Writer & Producer for Film, TV & Documentaries, LA

As a writer/producer for film, tv, and documentaries, Brooks brings a unique and diverse perspective to his work. In 2018 he was the Creator and Executive Producer of the Netflix summer hit HOW IT ENDS. His most recent scripts include the RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD reboot for Millennium Films, and the original FIGHT OR FLIGHT, voted to the 2020 Hollywood Blacklist, and set up with Thunder Road, the producers of Sicario and John Wick. Currently Brooks is working with director Espen Sandberg (Kon-Tiki) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way on a radical ecological thriller about saving the Amazon Rainforest. The story is personal for Brooks as prior to his career as a storyteller, he worked in the alternative energy sector fighting climate change.

Chief Strategic Officer, Lane Street Studios, Wellington

Melissa brings over 25 years experience in film/television production, education and extensive arts project management to her role as Chief Strategic Officer. She is an experienced project and people leader who is skilled in organisational infrastructure development, moving image production, programming and education, large scale project management, building partnerships and multi team management.

Mel’s previous roles have included Head of Programming & Partnerships within a leading children’s creativity centre. Mel has extensive experience in producing projects and productions from the design, development and delivery right through to the completion.

Mel’s focus is on future proofing the screen industry through creating innovative training experiences, alongside our infrastructure, to build pathways for success and resilience in the sector.

Interactive Experiences Designer, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, Imagineering & Studios, Orlando

Over the past 30 years as an experience designer, creative innovator and veteran producer, Jason’s career has always been at the heart of The Walt Disney Company. Through “Pocahontas”, “Tarzan”, “Bolt”, “Princess and the Frog”, “Tangled” and many other films, Jason produced and pushed the envelope of computer graphics at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was then invited to Walt Disney Imagineering R&D where he developed theme park innovations for Disneyland in California & Shanghai Disneyland and implemented new technologies on a number of films including “Disney’s The Jungle Book,” Marvel’s “Avengers: End Game” and Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Rogue One.”

Today, Jason lives in Florida with his husband Noel and creates new digital attraction experiences for Disney’s Parks, Resorts, and Cruise Line. His family is hosting their 18th and 19th high school exchange students from Bosnia Herzegovina and Brazil. Past students have come from New Zealand, Argentina, Japan, and across Europe. Their daughter recently graduated with a degree in design at the University of California at San Diego.

Chief Executive Officer, Lane Street Studios, Wellington

Kristy is a highly innovative and experienced business woman who has a wealth of knowledge in the establishment of organisations to build the future sustainability of the New Zealand creative sector through the development of infrastructure.

Kristy brings 20 years of business management experience and has a background in international marketing and trade development.

As part of Kristy’s role as CEO of Lane Street Studios, she works alongside the Chief Strategic Officer and Director of Operations who are collectively responsible for the overall design and delivery of a range of screen production facilities, development of the business that operates the studios, with an additional focus on industry training and education to support the wider national screen sector. Kristy and the team are working with production companies both in NZ and Internationally that will come and reside at Lane Street throughout their production.