All About the Creator of "Once Upon a Wish"

Helen Griffiths, born and raised in New Zealand, always lived up to her Horoscope sign, Taurus.

No-one could convince her that she couldn't do anything she'd set her mind on. After a compound fracture in her right arm as a child, the doctors informed her that she would probably never use that arm again. No-one says "never" to a Taurus! By 14 Helen was a concert pianist; at 17 she was playing in National tennis semi-finals and in her 20's, as a Band and Choral Director in the High Schools, she became the first woman in her city of Auckland to conduct a symphony orchestra along with 500 voices!

In 1970, she moved to the USA with her children Peter and Kirstin, to marry a New Jersey electrical engineer who just happened to work down in the Antarctic, 3 months each year.

Life now took a different jog, and after 17 years of teaching every age group from 5 - 18. Helen switched to the new career of medical technologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where her husband was now working on the U.T. geophysical research boats. It was at this time, interest in acting and writing evolved.

Another move to Austin, Texas, 10 years later, opened up the doors to acting in movies, commercials and 6 years of assistant casting with Third Coast Casting.

The active music scene in Austin soon caught Helen's eye, and, at 48, she formed her first rock band, "Facet", and played keyboards for many gigs at night on the famed 6th Street while still acting and casting during the day. During this time she was either acting in bit parts or Set-coordinating extras on over 21 movies. Probably the most challenging role was herding thousands of polyester-clad extras (70's style) as the audience in Elvis Presley concert scenes for "Heartbreak Hotel"

Never-the-less Helen still had time for a special scene with Robert Urich in "Stranger at My Door" and other scenes in "Days of Our Lives"

Still, something was niggling at her to become more creative and, from that niggle "Once Upon a Wish" was born, and all the previous skills and observations out on the Sets were being tested to the fullest degree.

Lack of financial backing to put this series together was no problem. "I'll just wear all the hats myself until we can afford to hire a crew!" And she still does:- writing, directing, composing and performing the music, making costumes, finding locations, casting, running camera, creating sets, craft service, editing and now marketing. Actors she had helped cast in movies previously, were only too happy to lend their skills. Six hours after sitting down at the computer, the screenplay for "Old King Cole" was ready to go.

Having just invested in the Hi-8 3-chip Sony VX3 (the hottest camera on the market at the time) Helen found two other VX3 owners and shot the Episodes with three cameras, a la Soap style. This saved a great deal of time, catching all three angles at once. As the editing progressed, so too did the editing suite. As soon as digital cameras hit the market, top quality video was both achieveable and cost-effective.

With six episodes in the "can" , #1 "Old King Cole" was re-edited and released December, 1996. Each quarter, another episode will be edited and released while new episodes are being written and shot. (See What's Next? page 3)

Now with a new lake studio, Final Cut Pro takes care of the editing.