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Belinda Chayko is an award-winning writer and director of film and television. Belinda was the co-creator and showrunner on the series Fires, which won the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award (AACTA) for Best Miniseries and the TV Week Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Miniseries.
- Plotting Two Timeframes and Multiple Viewpoints
- Delegating The Episodes
- Personal Process
- Moving Into TV from Film
- Australian TV Becoming Shorter
- Advice For Writers
Over its four-episode arc, Safe Harbour cuts between present day and that fateful holiday five years earlier, revealing bit by bit the different perspectives of the Australians and asylum seekers to paint a full picture of what really happened at sea. Chayko says because of the complexity of the story, they plotted both a past and present storyline...
“In my position as kind of showrunner I took the first episode and last episode, because you’re setting up the show and you’re finishing the show,” Chayko says. “And Matt Cameron who I’ve worked with a lot I really wanted to be part of our team because he is such an incredible story brain. And so Matt was always doing episode two.” Then emerging wr...
Each writer is different in their approach to writing – some set a word limit, others give themselves an allocated amount of time to write each day. It took Chayko a while to find out what worked best for her. “For me, pages is the best thing. Every day I set myself a target for a certain number of pages. When things are relaxed, it’s about five pa...
Chayko credits the support of Tony Ayres and Debbie Leefrom Matchbox Pictures in helping her transition from film to TV. Back around 2008, Chayko was working on her first feature Lou. Ayres and Michael McMahon’s company Big and Little Films (their company before Matchbox) were trying to raise finance for it, even after securing John Hurt in the lea...
Television is becoming shorter and Chayko with her feature film background, says she feels these four-part style series, which are almost like extended feature films, are more of a natural fit for her as a storyteller. “They probably have more relation to a feature than a TV show of old.” What Chayko really thinks we’re seeing in Australian televis...
Chayko finds it difficult to pass on any specific advice to emerging writers, because everyone is different in their approach and will find their own way. But she can say what has worked for her: 1. “I had extraordinary supporters.” 2. “I didn’t give up – because there were lots of times when being an unpaid feature developer that I was tempted to,...
Belinda Chayko is an award-winning writer and director. She was the co-creator and showrunner on Fires (ABC), which won the AACTA for Best Miniseries or Telefeature and a Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Miniseries or Telemovie. Belinda was co-creator and showrunner on Safe Harbour (SBS), winner of the 2019 International Emmy for Best ...
May 8, 2024 · Screenwriter Belinda Chayko, known for her work across television series Stateless, Fires, and Prosper, is the 2024 recipient of the State Library of NSW Mona Brand Award for women stage and screenwriters. Awarded biennially, the $30,000 prize is named after the Australian poet, author, and playwright whose plays, which often addressed socially ...
- Sean Slatter
Belinda Chayko is a writer and director for film and television. Showrunner and head writer of the International Emmy Award-winning Safe Harbour (SBS), she was also co-writer and story producer for the ABC series Stateless. She co-created and co-wrote Foxtel’s Secret City (Series 1 and 2) with Matt Cameron and co-wrote the ABC award-winning ...
Writer - telemovie SAVED, starring Claudia Karvan. Director - feature film CITY LOOP, starring Sullivan Stapleton, Ryan Johnson, Hayley McElhinney and Brendan Cowell. Writer/director - short films including SWIMMING and SMALL CONFESSIONS, starring Geoffrey Rush. Specialties: Writing, directing, script editing, script assessment.
- Belinda Chayko
Apr 9, 2021 · Leading producers Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko have assembled an extraordinary Australian cast for Fires, a drama series that presents personal tales from the front lines of the country’s ...
