Janice Finn: from acting on Close to Home to producing Gloss...

Interview – 2010

Writer/producer Janice Finn has also spent time in front of the camera. Her acting roles have included Close to Home and The Strip. Finn produced high camp 1980s soap Gloss and 90s drama Marlin Bay, and has written extensively for Shortland Street. She also produced reality series like Changing Rooms for Touchdown Productions, and documentary show I Survived... for Natural History New Zealand.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Finn talks about:

Playing 'mad Jane' in the first season of soap Close to Home
How the first episode was shot as though it was live, and any mistakes required a major reshoot
How her love of fashion and humour lead to the creation of Gloss
Storylining a whole season on a large piece of paper with James Griffin
Being shocked by how male media commentators hatred Gloss
Making reality TV with Julie Christie of Touchdown Productions
How the first episode of Changing Rooms was a complete shambles
Having fun playing a loony character on The Strip, despite feeling self-conscious

This video was first uploaded on 2 November 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

I've always felt in television that everything that you do is grist for the mill . . . And you pick up something in eveything that you do — doesn't matter whether you like it or not.
– Janice Finn on learning from every project

Janice's Full Profile