Marlborough filmmaker and creator Tyler Redmond already has over 100 film projects under his belt, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Beginning at an early age, Tyler’s passion for film has been single-minded and unrelenting, to the point where, at 22, he’s now producing and directing his first feature film. He talks to Justin Eade about his life being documented in his ongoing filmmaking journey.
Being raised initially in Christchurch, Tyler first became fascinated with filmmaking when he was eight, due to his mum recording home videos on a Canon 2000 camcorder. “I grew up with a camera in my face a lot.” In terms of shows that inspired him… it was The Wiggles, due to their song Lights, Camera, Action, and Steve Irwin: The Crocodile Hunter.
Tyler’s mum sent him on a film course when she saw how interested he was, and the first film he made was called Iron Man versus Whiplash. “It was not good. I chose to act in it. I also directed, wrote it and edited it. I almost did every job myself, which has been a consistent thing in my career, trying to do every job myself.”
When Tyler was nine, his father passed away in an accident and his mother wanted to take him and his sister away from everything that happened, so the family shifted up to Blenheim, where they had relatives. “Going through a loss at that age really started to mature me quickly in the stories I wanted to tell… it propelled me into filmmaking and trying to find true human emotions in stories,” says Tyler.
Filmmaking really took off for Tyler when he discovered the Top of the South Film Festival in 2017. He made a film called The Controller with the help of local filmmakers Dan Wye, Aaron Falvey, and Chris Lippiatt, and was surprised they gave up their time and expertise to help him, ‘a very full-on child’. Tyler was in charge of editing the film, it got into the festival, and seeing it on the big screen really gave him a confidence boost.
Tyler says every single film he’s worked on changes him. “I think I’ve worked on over 100 different projects, but I’d say local feature film Northspur at age 16 was the most formative moment. At the time I wasn’t grateful for the experience I had, but now looking back on it I can see how much those three weeks up the Waihopai Valley and in Essons Valley meant to me going forward.” To be able to be on that set and watch everything around him gave Tyler many skills and a lot of key contacts, many of whom he still works with today.
Rise Up was another huge film in Tyler’s journey. “It was an anti-bullying film I made when I was about 15. I tried really hard to get it out to the New Zealand education system, that was a big goal. No-one really took me seriously because of my age, which was quite frustrating as I did want to make a difference.”
On Rise Up, Tyler was producer, director, editor, and 2nd unit cinematographer. “It was a story about standing up for yourself, and I keep on saying I’m going to do that, but I still don’t think I’m very good at it. I can make all the movies in the world about something, but it’s still hard to do yourself what you keep on telling people to do. By making films I’m learning about myself and how I want to be.”
But Rise Up was the start of Tyler producing films – handling all the logistics of making a movie happen. There were over 300 people involved, and Tyler says it definitely taught him a lot about collaborating and working with others, but also not letting others take over your project, thinking that you aren’t capable due to your age.
Tyler has been intentional about helping other young people – running workshops and upskilling youngsters on his sets – because he often felt marginalised or under-estimated himself, due to his age. “Filmmaking can be a really lonely experience, sitting in a room writing, producing, editing. I got really lonely early on due to my age, I was the youngest by a mile doing it in the region. So I decided I wanted to try and start involving more youth in Marlborough, to show them there’s others out there with the same passion. I’ve always felt like sometimes filmmaking is a way for me to try and make friends, and it can be like that for others too.”
Tyler’s favourite film is La La Land, and another is Whiplash. The latter inspired his short film Dive, which was shot in Marlborough in 2023. It was a family drama revolving around a young girl who’d lost her mother, and it showed how an adult and child each deal with grief and process it in different ways. “In some ways it relates back to my father passing and the different ways my mother and I dealt with the grief.”
The film starred Lily Roebeck and Fred Pokai, and was about a stern father driving his daughter too hard to win a swimming competition. The pressure of chasing success builds until a traumatic event reveals the father’s true love and emotions. For Tyler, Dive was another huge leap forward in directing, and in learning how to produce and pull a big project together.
Some key supporters in Tyler’s life include his mother Joanna, and his brother Steve. Mentors include people like Aaron Falvey, Justin Eade, Francesca Cox, Scott Boswell, Cathasaigh O Fiannacta, Keelan Walker, Fred Pokai, Ruth Gill, Phil McKinnon, Juliearna Kavanagh, and many others. Inspire Foundation have been massive in terms of funding support, and there have been so many other supporters and funders, who he thanks. Currently Paipera Hayes is a huge collaborator and supporter as an actress, co-producer, and friend on his feature film Second Nature.
Second Nature is about nature vs nurture, and about how no matter what background you come from, we all share the same problems. It’s being co-produced by Tyler and Promise Akindeju, and is shooting in various blocks, mostly in Auckland, but also Kaikōura, Blenheim, Picton, Ōpunake and Wellington.
The project came about after Tyler saw a Reddit article about two men switched at birth. He noticed actress Paipera Hayes in a TV show Testify and really wanted to work with her, so asked if she’d be interested in a switched-at-birth film. She said yes, so they went into battle. “I got funding from different sources, including Inspire Foundation, some exec producers from Auckland, some from Marlborough, I put in some money, and we found lots of collaborators who wanted to come on board for this story.”
Tyler did the first block of shooting in Auckland during January 2026, but for block two he really wanted to bring it home. It was a really big thing to make Kaikōura a huge character in the film and include that landscape and the community, and also Blenheim. “The reason I love making films here is because of the community… they always come out and support, and you have the most amazing interactions with people. It was pretty cool being able to take my lead actress from Auckland and just see the hospitality and friendliness, and how people treat each other. I think she really enjoyed the change in scenery, vibe and atmosphere.”
Tyler most wants be a cinematographer working professionally in the industry, getting to create worlds, colour palettes, and figuring out a visual style for the stories that people want to tell. Outside of that, for his journey as a director, it’s the feature version of Dive. The short film had about 10,000 views online and won accolades, so that gives Tyler confidence to think the feature version will do well. He hopes to shoot it between Auckland, Blenheim and Hawaii, with the same young actress Lily Roebeck as one lead, and Jason Momoa as the other, so he’s thinking big.
For Tyler, filmmaking is about legacy. Leaving something behind even after you’ve gone, something for people to watch and be affected by. This young Marlborough filmmaker has many more years ahead of him to create that legacy but has made a great start.
