OUR HISTORY
OUR HISTORY
We first met in 2014 in Wellington City whilst working together for the New Zealand central Government. In September 2019, the idea of doing a podcast about movies & TV shows first came up in a chat over lunch.
"These were conversations we were having anyway, so we figured why not record and share them." - Dan
One of the first decisions we made was the name of our podcast. The final choice of 'Half Measures' was inspired by a quote from an episode of the TV series, Breaking Bad. The scene takes place between Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Walter White (Bryan Cranston).
The name Half Measures is very fitting with the nature of our podcast too; planning is minimal, there are no scripts and there is very little preparation ahead of recording - we like to keep it very 'live'.
Now that we had a name, we needed a look. We were really lucky to have our logo and branding designed by one of New Zealand's best Graphic Designer's, Ethan Amundsen.
In the really early days of the podcast, our format was totally unstructured and we actually recorded the first five episodes in person. When New Zealand went in to lockdown in March 2020, we switched to a remote, online format for our sixth episode. Remote recording has remained this way ever since.
In August 2020, we reviewed the Netflix animated series Transformers: War for Cybertron. Our review was listened to and commented on by several of the cast and crew, including actor Frank Todaro, who plays the part of the Decepticon, Starscream.
To our surprise, Frank sent us a special audio recording: a personalised Half Measures Podcast introduction, in the voice of Starscream. The clip has subsequently appeared as the introduction to every podcast since episode 29.
For us, this represents a life highlight, one that our 9-year old selves could have only dreamed of. And we look forward to having a drink with Frank in person when he next visits New Zealand!
In September 2020, we interviewed the hosts of popular Irish Doctor Who podcast Time Travelling TeamP. We then appeared on their podcast in January 2021 in a joint review of Dr Who: An Adventure in Space and Time.
In May 2021, we were invited to join the NZ media to a special screening of the Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League ahead of it's global release.
In August 2021, we interviewed Jessica Lynn Verdi, host of Roddenberry Podcast official Mission Log podcast for The Orville.
In September 2021, Half Measures was officially announced as a nominee for the New Zealand Podcast Awards.
In October 2021, Paul was asked by Roddenberry.com to write and host an episode of Sci-Fi 5 podcast. The episode focused on the New Zealand sci-fi movie, The Quiet Earth (1985).
In April 2022, Dan married Half Measures Podcast Executive producer, Samara Whiting-King. Paul was a part of Dan's Groom Squad.