New director for Victoria's Miramar Creative Centre

Victoria's newly launched Miramar Creative Centre recently welcomed its inaugural director, Dr Paul Wolffram.

Dr Wolffram is a Senior Lecturer in Victoria’s Film programme and an award-winning film director and producer, known for his ethnographic documentaries What Lies That Way, Voices of the Land: Ngā Reo O Te Whenua and Stori Tumbuna: Ancestors' Tales.

Professor Jennifer Windsor, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Humanities and Social Sciences, says Dr Wolffram was an obvious choice to head up Victoria’s latest initiative in cultivating creativity within Wellington and beyond.

“Paul is one of New Zealand’s outstanding creative practitioners. His own and his students’ work speaks to multiple ways of imagining film, music, people and culture. He pushes us to see the world in different ways, and we’re delighted that his talents and collaborative energies will mentor the next generation of filmmakers at the Miramar Creative Centre.”

Professor Mike Wilson, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Science, Engineering, Architecture and Design, says that Paul’s background makes him ideally placed to lead the cross-faculty initiative and to manage both the educational and commercial aspects of the Centre. “The facility marks the start of an exciting new phase in Victoria’s engagement with the Miramar creative community.”

Dr Wolffram says he’s thrilled to begin his role as director of the Centre, with its unique location in the heart of Wellington’s film industry providing a huge advantage for students.  

“Most of the high-end film industry is based out at Miramar so the physical proximity is really advantageous. Students will benefit from members of the film and music industry visiting classes—it’s now easy for them to pop across the road and join us for a couple of hours.”

He says that he’s also excited by the potential for collaboration enabled by the mix of students and teaching staff from different disciplines, including Film, Music and Design.

“We’re actively working to interweave the courses. In the past it’s been harder for us to collaborate between our undergraduate courses—now with all of the students in the same place it’s very easy for a Film student to find a composer or designer to work with, or to creatively engage with Master of Design Technology students to do digital effects work on their film.

“We’re teaching students how to collaborate and communicate with people from different backgrounds and disciplines, because that’s going to be the reality for many students when they get out into the industry—you have to collaborate with people with completely different approaches to filmmaking and creativity.”

Dr Wolffram was also involved in the design and layout of the Centre’s facilities, which he says are world-class, with two studios, motion capture and green-screen facilities, two computer labs and three professional editing suites. He is also teaching in the Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) course, which includes Film, Music, Design and Theatre.

The Centre will initially house students from the Film and Music streams of the Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice), as well as Master of Design Technology students.

Dr Wolffram says he sees the Miramar Creative Centre as a unique facility which strengthens Victoria’s commitment to producing work-ready graduates in the creative industries.

“We have the opportunity to make the Miramar Creative Centre the ‘go-to’ postgraduate training facility in Australasia for film and digital creativity.

“What’s exciting is that there are real opportunities to get work in the creative arts as filmmakers, commercial makers, communicators, sound designers or digital effects artists—and this is now a viable option for Victoria students through the Miramar Creative Centre.”

www.victoria.ac.nz/miramar-creative-centre