I have been a Counsellor since 2008. I moved to New Zealand in 2009 and much of my career has been about the pursuit of becoming a better Counsellor and growing my business through that medium. As part of Counselling and being a Counsellor, there is always an emphasis on personal growth. Something that I always found somewhat attractive about the career is fair to say.
I’ve had lots of personal therapy over the years and also got involved with different Coaching. I’ve been on retreats designed to stretch oneself and been part of different performance groups to find out what the next level is. It was actually at the start of 2025 when I was in a block of Coaching sessions, and we were discussing business and Counselling and where everything was at and the percentage, I felt like I was functioning at. I think it was agreed it was around 40%and my Coach asked me what the thing would be I would do if it was 100% and just to say what came to mind. The thing that came to mind was ‘I’d make a film’.
That became the start of writing a script for what became Dream End. Since that time a script came to life through me and then there were various learning by doing steps to make the film come alive. I originally attempted to learn the software ‘Blender’ to create a totally animated movie by myself. I did actually get as far as constructing some good-looking scenes and could just about make characters move.
It then seemed that the best step was to actually make the film come alive with real actors. It’s fair to say that this is a much better fit for a film of this sort. People who were brought together were interested through networking online. The film was originally scheduled last year but unfortunately the team was just not right and the project wasn’t completed.
A few more months of Counselling business building and moving totally away from all my employee work to be totally self-sustaining in business it felt like now was the time to bring a team together to work with and complete Dream End. The greater spaciousness and autonomy I’d been able to create for myself made me see more clearly how with Dream End being the first project that film was very much the dream for me and expansion to what is the next level for me. Hence, the birth of New Beginnings Productions.
I’ve always loved films and felt so inspired by them over the years. I have a very eclectic taste in films and certainly have my own quirks in terms of films I enjoy and do certainly have different opinions at points on what the masses think of certain films. Although certainly sometimes it can be the same.
I think film is a great medium to be able to feel and identify and also in the case here to be able to create. I want to be able to create work through New Beginnings Productions which can give experiences for people to resonate with and enjoy.