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Alan Nurthen On Working With Bugs

SCAN3 464x1024 Alan Nurthen On Working With Bugs

Animals are indeed great subjects for research because we want to be able to understand how they function and how they live in this planet of ours.

The prominent actor, director and producer knows a thing or two about bugs. This is his latest focal point in the new direction he is pursuing which is video and film production that he calls his own. I am talking about, no other than Mr. Alan Nurthen.

Alan Nurthen was the founder of the Film and TV Academy at Dee Why which has served 5000 men and women, both young and old. The academy teaches the art of acting, personality development which people can truly use not just for television but for their daily lives as well. He has been teaching for more than 2 decades now.

Nurthen was already pulling in 60 to 70 hours a week, teaching 15 classes to his students that come to learn how they can improve their acting chops. This proved to be a little bit much for the Nurthen. He was not having the time that he needs so that he can work on his interests on video and film production.

Funnel Webs was a documentary he made about spiders of the same kind. Another film about insects (a follow-up) which he named the Banzai Red Backs is in the works.

I‘ve come to be known as the bug-film maker. I really want to concentrate on these kinds of documentaries.”, the director said.

The man still wanted to be able to balance both teaching and his own interests so he designed The Screen Actor’s Workshop. In this workshop, there will only be 6 classes. Tutorials will be implemented in the session for more-experienced actors and actresses. A production of “higher-end showreels” will also be included, according to Nurthen.

“The classes are completely open, there is no auditioning process”, the director says.

These classes are not just only beneficial to an actor or actress’ acting skills. Many of the students have developed more confidence in themselves. Many can now speak in a public setting unlike before when they were shy to be speaking publicly.

“I train people from seven (7) years up. In the past, I’ve trained people who are painfully shy who go on to do public speaking,” The director happily concludes.

Many of Nurthen’s students have been featured in mainstream, commercial movies such as The Matrix which was a successful movie internationally.

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Alan Nurthen Closes The Academy To Focus On Own Career

SCAN1 965x1024 Alan Nurthen Closes The Academy To Focus On Own Career

The Dee Why Film and TV Academy began its journey in the year 1988. Since then, the academy has been able to help 5000 aspiring actors and students wanting to hone their skills.

Alan Nurthen, an actor, director and producer has decided to end the 10 year run of the academy.

“I always said I’d retire from teaching for a while around 10 years in and go into production,” the founder said. He was then able to build his very own film production company,  Aeon Independent Film and Television Productions.

While working as an actor Alan became fascinated with the camera and he was able to acquire experience behind the scenes when he joined the Australian Film Television and Radio School to complete the Advanced Screen Directors Certificate course under the Industry Program.  He also crewed on Lady Stay Dead before attending film school, a 1982 film by Terry Burke.

He started the Film and Television Acting Academy in Dee Why in 1988 after a two year teaching stint as an on-camera tutor at the Mona Vale Film and TV school.

At his academy, he was able to produce, write, direct, shoot, and edit numerous short films. Some of those short films were screened at film festivals internationally. Six months into operation, his classes were filled to capacity.

A broad demographic of people of all ages and backgrounds enrolled in his classes. Men and women,  young and old, children and teens joined the academy. Experienced and inexperienced, many found the school to be helpful in developing their skills and confidence in acting, and for many of the adult students, as a means to improve their everyday career prospects by learning how to act.

Nurthen was very proud to mention, “We had a young boy who was so painfully shy he’d lock himself in the closet when people came over. He had to be dragged into a room of people. After three months, he started winning public speaking competitions. We’ve had adults and kids who start to come out of themselves, doctors and lawyers who pick up important people skills.”

The founder of the academy is truly excited about this new venture and what the future holds for him as an independent film maker.

According to Alan, Aeon Production’s ultimate aim is to start production of a feature film within five year’s with a plot about the adventure and love story of a man which is based on his own travel adventures and his “love affair” with South Africa.

Nurthen also announced plans about a series of documentaries he hopes to produce. “The documentaries we’re interested in making are natural history, social tales. With Funnel-Webs, it’s a social tale, what it’s like to live in the deadliest country in the world and how we adapt to this with our laconic sense of humor.”

 

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Peter Phelps To Take Master Classes

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Peter Phelps is an Australian Film Institute (AFI) and Logie award winning actor. Peter has also directed 45 episodes of the popular Australian series Home and Away and 4 episodes of All saints.

Phelps is noted for his role of Peter Church in Stingers, a television drama which earned him his Logie Award in 2002 for Most Popular Actor. He also played Trevor Cole, an Aussie lifeguard, in the very popular US series Baywatch.

Baywatch has been released all over the world and is considered a very successful television series. Guinness Book of World Records reports that the television show is the most watched TV show in the world.

In the 1980s, Peter started his career in acting. He was cast in the soap opera for teens, The Restless Years. The series eventually ended and he commenced his starring role in Sons and Daughters, a Logie award winning soap opera.

Along with his current busy acting schedule on Rescue Special Ops, Peter is also teaching a Screen Acting Intensive master class at the Screen Actors Workshop.

Well known actor, producer, director, and former surfboard maker Alan Nurthen is the principal of the acting school that Phelps is a part of.  Alan has been in the business for three decades now since graduating from the New Theatre in 1981: and he has been running his own school since 1988.

Alan worked as an actor, director and producer, having been recognized as a creator of documentaries about insects. His documentary film Funnel Webs screened on the 7 Network’s World Around Us and has sold internationally to over fifty countries and territories.

At the Screen Actors Workshop, “It’s all about screen craft”, Nurthen said, “We teach the techniques that real actors use on a day-by-day basis. Our courses are about learning real acting and providing practical skills, like how to impress a casting agent. It will cover all you need to know to perform on television productions and in feature films”, the school principal said.

Nurthen said that Peter Phelps will have a more consistent and active participation in school. Nurthen said that the Screen Actors Workshop Studios located in Brookvale is a 120 square meter dedicated studio space, with numerous sets and props, a green screen and a broadcast edit suite.

“It is a dedicated space, very user-friendly for both students and teaching staff,” Nurthen mentions. The school principal teaches screen acting from Tuesday to Saturday, helping aspiring actors (and even experienced ones) hone their technical and performance skills in acting, passing on the experience he has gained over 30 years in the industry.

 

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Learning Is A Process

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When you decide to become an actor, director, or a producer, you will need to understand the theory (through classes) but also the practical application of those theories that you have learned. The problem in the business is that not all doors are open for everyone and as an actor, producer, or director, you need real-life experiences so that you can best understand the art and craft.

The good thing about some schools and programs out there is that they have the necessary tools, equipment and simulation that will help you fully understand the career path you have chosen.

Alan Nurthen is a known professional in the business. He is not only an actor, but a producer and director as well. If you are an aspiring actor, producer, or director, then you must enroll in one of Nurthen’s courses at the Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts in Surry Hills. AADA  is the oldest private acting school in Sydney.

Nurthen’s courses provide a comprehensive study of the art. You are given the chance to get to know the different equipment that you need to know about in the business. There is a real-life television studio installed at the school which will help students in their journey towards the acting, producing, and directing side of the industry.

Through the built-in studio at the school, students will experience how studios really function and how the different equipment is used to make television possible.

Nurthen was a Mona Vale young man who began his career as an actor. He also teaches at his own school (the Screen Actors Workshop) where student training is focused specifically on screen acting.

When the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art in Surry Hills offered him a teaching position, he thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to teach classes in the city as well as at his school on the Northern Beaches.

A number of his students have become professionals themselves and have already been given opportunities to work in film and television. Some have been given the opportunity to work in Hollywood. Two students were successful enough to receive the top prize at the Tropfest Short Film Festival.

Many have worked in advertisements, films, TV and also behind the scenes working as producers, directors, camera operators, editors and sound recordists. The course that is offered is being taken not just by actors but by different industry professionals as well.

“Acting classes are great for developing self-confidence and raising self-esteem”,  Nurthen said.

 

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Focus On Insect Documentarist

SCAN2 459x1024 Focus On Insect DocumentaristActor, producer and director Alan Nurthen knows a lot about the television and film industries.

He is not only known for his documentary and short film productions, but he is also one of Sydney’s most experienced screen acting tutors,  having taught acting and film/video production at the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art, Bradfield College, and the JMC Academy.

He started his own school, The Film and TV Academy in Dee Why, where he trained numerous actors and students from 1988 up to the year 1996. His students have received notable projects in films, television and commercials. Through his years and years of  experience in the business (both on camera and off camera), he is able to impart relevant and credible knowledge and skills in the craft of acting.

Students of his have had exposure with films such as The Matrix, Muriel’s Wedding, The Bangkok Hilton, Muriel’s Wedding and The Phantom, among others.

At New Theatre, he trained and worked as an actor, spending eight years performing in different productions in film and television, before he decided to focus more on behind-the-scenes. He has found great interest in the work that is being done behind the camera and now he is indulging himself in creating documentaries.

He has made noted documentaries about insects such as Funnel Webs which focuses on the deadly spider and their effect on the people of Sydney. The documentary has been sold and shown in more than fifty countries worldwide with the help of Beyond Distribution.

Different film festivals have featured the film. The documentary was shown on Seven Network’s The World Around Us. After screening twice on The World Around Us, it premiered on cable TV on the Odyssey channel in December 2003.

Funnel Webs also retails through The Australian Museum shops nationally and has also been included  for study in the curriculum of high schools all over the nation. It is through documentaries such as this (Funnel Webs) that many people, young and old, learn about nature, its inhabitants, and how humans interact or are affected by these animals or insects.

Alan Nurthen’s most recent documentary project is Red Backs. This is a follow-up of  to the very successful Funnel Webs.

Alan Nurthen speaks to Lorraine Parsell and Kevin Mason on Radio Northern Beaches to talk about his latest ventures, ideas for documentary subjects and his life as an actor, producer, and director.

 

 

 

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Alan Nurthen: Going Back To Being A Teacher

SCAN6 675x1024 Alan Nurthen: Going Back To Being A Teacher

Alan Nurthen has what it takes to teach because he has been in show business for a long time. He has worked as an actor, producer, writer and director.  In his youth, he was also a surfboard maker for 9 years, travelling the world and gaining valuable life experience.

After a successful film production stint, he now wants to return to doing what he finds most satisfying and fulfilling: training actors. When he closed his school, the Dee Why Film and Television Acting Academy in 1996, he focused on his video and film productions with his company Aeon Independent Film and Television Productions.

Alan’s new school, the Screen Actors Workshop, is the perfect creative outlet for his skills

“The film-making, along with my experience as a film and television actor, has given me a lot of new skills and I figure these classes are a good way to pass it on to my students,” Nurthen said.

“There really is a dearth of on-camera teachers in Sydney as theatre training is over catered for. It is a very specialised area and you have to be dedicated to teaching the craft rather than chasing the big bucks as an actor. You really need a wide variety of skills. You need to be able to relate to a wide range of people obviously, and you need a fairly warped sense of humour. You have to have knowledge in the craft of acting itself. You have to have production skills. You have to be a teacher, director, producer, and you have to be a shoulder to cry on. But to have all of these skills together took me years and years of experience”, he concluded.

 

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