The Living Moment
Shortland Street was going off air for five weeks. For most shows, that’s a problem. I saw it as a massive storytelling and engagement opportunity.
PROJECT NOTE
Organisation: TVNZ
Role: Creative Director + Director + Editor
ContributionL Creative concept · interactive narrative system · audience journey · film direction + editing · visual language
Evidence: 410,026 interactions · 2+ min average engagement time · 526,900 viewers when Shortland Street returned · 45.8% share among 18–49s · Top 10 WIREWAX experience globally · multiple PromaxBDA ANZ Golds · PromaxBDA global finalist · Best Design Awards NZ Interactive finalist
A pause is part of the experience whether you design it or not.
Shortland Street faced five weeks off air after a cliffhanger. I didn’t fill the pause - I gave it a role.
The hiatus became story space: suspended-time filmmaking shot on Phantom cameras, an interactive narrative with branching clues, and new story fragments released throughout the break — giving fans ongoing reasons to return, investigate and speculate.
Five weeks off air. Five weeks still in the story. The technology was only the mechanism. The audience became part of the narrative.
PROJECT PROFILE
Shortland Street was going off air for five weeks. The season finale ended on a brutal cliffhanger: Who would live? Who would die? The show stopped. Time stopped for the characters too.
But what if the hiatus itself became part of the story?
That became The Living Moment - a story suspended between the final scene and the moment Shortland Street returned, picking up immediately where it had left off. Five weeks off air. Five weeks still in the story.
ThE SEASON ENDED.
TIME STOPPED.
THE ENGAGEMENT DIDN’T.
I directed the hero 60-second film that suspended the physical moment of the finale. Shot on Phantom cameras at extreme slow motion, actors moved through smoke, dust and falling tinsel while camera and subject moved at different parallax - creating a strange, heightened sense of moving through time standing still.
Utilising WIREWAX technology, I turned a promo into an interactive portal. Viewers could explore hotspots and unlock new story fragments, clues and character content throughout the five-week hiatus.
Nothing explicitly revealed who would survive. YET Everything contained clues.
I directed and edited five additional short films, each revealing another piece of the mystery in a different way - from intimate home-video messages and dreamlike fragments to entirely new scenes that felt lifted directly from the show.
One recreated the second shooting from the finale, flashing between multiple possible suspects with a hidden clue pointing towards the truth. Another compressed a character’s entire life into flashes - from birth and childhood, through their dream of becoming a doctor, to the moment their fate was left hanging.
The technology was only the mechanism.
The real idea was to change what a television story could do while The television was off.
The engagement continued through social: character emails, emergency calls to police, photographs, voice messages and updates gave fans more fragments to pour over. They weren’t just watching for answers. They were investigating.
I even brought back a fan-favourite character who’d died earlier in the season. It became part clue, part goodbye - and one of the most emotional moments in the entire experience. Thomasin McKenzie later asked to use the footage as a showreel for her Hollywood auditions.
The result was a parallel narrative that kept audiences inside the world of Shortland Street for five weeks - investigating, speculating and sharing clues until the show returned.
410,026 interactions
62.7% of Shortland Street viewers engaged
3.25+ interactions per engaged view
2+ min average engagement time
When Shortland Street returned, 526,900 people tuned in, with a 45.8% share among 18–49s.
PromaxBDA Australia / ANZ
Multiple Gold Awards
PromaxBDA Global
Global Finalist
Best Design Awards NZ
Interactive - Finalist
The campaign became a Top 10 WIREWAX experience globally and won multiple PromaxBDA ANZ Golds, including Best Drama Campaign and Best Drama Promo, before reaching the global PromaxBDA finals.
