Riv on the Record – John Teague (local film-maker)

THIS week I had the great pleasure of being joined by local film-maker and all-round good guy John Teague. Spin it!

Tell us how you got into the entertainment industry. Where did it all start for you?

Well I wasn’t very good at school, and in primary school I got a part in a small film and was taken out of school for a week. It was so fun and in my mind I was like ‘I want more of this!’

 

Film-making followed and you went to the US. What was that like?

The US was so great to me, it was tough at times but I learned so much about the industry, myself and making films.

Before the US I only knew about acting in a limited sense and yeah it pulled back the curtain on all the pieces to the creative pie.

How did Belly of the Beast come along? Tell us of that experience interviewing all the heavy hitters.

Belly of the Beast came along when I was fresh off the back of doing a film in the US and keen to stay at home. I was looking for a story that would keep me at home, and after a conversation with Gareth Haeberle about his Watercooled surfboard top of Bird Rock stairs it dawned on me that the story was surfing in Torquay.

It kinda hadn’t been put to screen before, however I thought it should.

I was super honoured to interview all the hitters, I really love the process, so when you’re actually shooting or interviewing that’s the fun stuff.

 

Tell us about Horses Mouth, your podcast.

Horses Mouth was conceived about 14 years ago, I was in a dark place after a fresh Type 1 diagnosis and struggling with my own life and creative life.

It was a podcast I started listening to that inspired me and I was blown away at how uncontrived the space was, and just how much listening to other people just talk helped my own struggles at the time.

I was desperate to connect and have something I could work on that didn’t require large capital or a film crew, and I love to talk to people and I knew this was a space for me.

Some of my favorite guests, geez that’s so hard. Seriously just everyone, it’s a hard thing to do for some people so I just really am stoked for everyone that’s come and sat in front of me for an hour or so, so thank you to all my guests.

What do you like to get to outside of your day to day work?

These days I keep it all pretty simple, just try and keep the body and mind in a good space, drink heaps of coffee and surf as much as possible·

What’s good about where we live?

Really, when you look around, we are so lucky to live here. So so many amazing people, so many surf options and there’s so many people doing rad things with their lives – it’s pretty inspiring in so many ways.

But it really all boils down to Winki!

 

RAPID RIV:

I’m coming over for dinner, what are you cooking? Can’t wait; more than likely steak and potatoes and salad.

Favourite movie? True Romance.

Pump up song? Thirty four by Karma to Burn.

$1 million, what are you doing with it? Probably bank it and conjure up my next surf trip.

What’s your next big goal? Kinda of waiting to be struck with the obvious next mission at the moment, but I do have a script I’m thinking about tipping some energy into, so yeah, we’ll see.