ELLA & GREG STEHLE

Ella and Greg Stehle’s valued contributions to the film and arts industry was founded on their complimentary practices and collective ambition. Their breadth of experience includes feature film audio production, short films, award winning educational works, and other productions.

Ella Stehle completed a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at RMIT before commencing her career in sound postproduction for film. Through Soundfirm in Melbourne, she worked on many high profile Feature Films including Shine, Romeo and Juliet, and various Jackie Chan films. Following this experience, Ella went freelance and worked for a number of years on the TV series Farscape, which resulted in winning a Screen Sound Award for her sound work in 2002. Following travels and work in Canada, Ella furthered her studies, gaining a Graduate Diploma in Multimedia and Batchelor of Teaching degree. After teaching in various schools, Ella came to Darwin and worked on various Indigenous Educational productions through ARDS Inc. (Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Inc.) before forming EG productions in 2008. With EG productions, she has continued to create innovative work which utilises both her education and media experience to create engaging Indigenous educational media productions.

Greg Stehle completed a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at RMIT and following this did freelance video work on a number of small independent productions and short films. He began a career in IT, working as a Test Analyst for various major companies in Melbourne over a seven-year period. During this time, Greg also completed a Masters in Multimedia Design from Swinburne University. Greg also created a large number of short films in this period and received a number of awards for his short films. Greg relocated to Arnhem Land in 2004 and began working with ARDS (Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Inc.) and produced a large number of educational DVDs, print resources and Interactive Websites. Over this period, Greg has learnt Yolngu Matha languages and has established a wide array of indigenous contacts for working with. In 2009 one of the resources he produced through ARDS was awarded for Best Indigenous Resource at the Atom awards in Melbourne. With EG productions, he continues to produce educational resources of the highest caliber.

EG productions was established in 2008 by Ella and Greg Stehle to provide video production services with a particular focus on producing Indigenous Educational Resources. Since that time, they have created video projects for State and Federal Government departments, large-scale non-Government Organisations and Businesses, and local Government. In the last year, they produced 22 Educational DVDs, including the largest scale Aboriginal translation project ever undertaken into 13 different Aboriginal languages. They have also produced TV ads and created DVD productions of various events. They employ a wide variety of Indigenous contractors, as well as two video camera operators/editors.  Eg Productions is opened its Victorian office in 2011 and operates nationally.

The project notes for Safe Food is Everybody’s Business:
This educatioal video is based on a food safety project produced some years ago.  The NT Dept. of Environmental Health (Department of Health and Families) wished to revise the video, add new Food Law information and have the training DVD translated into 13 different languages across Australia.  ALPA Stores, crèches, meals on wheels etc. would use this video to train workers on how to serve and handle food safely.   We recorded many of the languages utilising the AIS (Aboriginal Interpreter Service) but also used our networks and relationships to record languages in Central Aust, WA, SA, NSW and from QLD. This is the largest translation / interpreting project of its kind and has interactive components / menus so that indigenous audiences are challenged to test their knowledge. We have captured the most comprehensive translation ever done in the Northern Territory and the Bundjalung, Wiradjuri and Gamilaraay languages of NSW.  In order to compensate for the differing lengths of each language, we enhanced the visual explanation with the use of drawings of each key food safety point made.  These drawings were video captured and sped up, slowed down to reinforce the messages and in turn added to the pedagogical strength of this resource.  Conservatively we would estimate that this resource is in the first language of in excess of 50,000 indigenous people. The logistics of such a project were phenomenal but we have managed to create a system of recording that works anywhere and with anyone.  We have have proven to the Commonwealth that there is no reason why resources cannot access every indigenous language group in Australia.

Ella and Greg live and work between Victoria and NT, Australia.
Image: Safe Food is Everybody’s Business, video still, 2008.