Janine trained with TVNZ as a producer and director during the
1980s. Her career within TVNZ moved quickly and she was
appointed Executive Producer of TVNZ's Children's Unit - a position
she held for seven years. When the Children's Unit moved to
Wellington in 1998, Janine decided to stay in Christchurch to
further her own company, Whitebait Productions.
Whitebait Productions has produced: preschool series
Bumble, the Jessie.com series for WNTV, (which sold to
Disney Australia, and English programmes for Japan); the
interactive pop talent quest Wannabes for TV3; and the
series Tuhono, a youth hip-hop show for Maori Television.
In 2004 Whitebait Productions won the tender to relaunch What
Now?, New Zealand's longest running and most successful
children's programme. Whitebait-TV also produces corporate
and commercial work for companies such as NZ Cricket, Ian and Mary
Grant at Parents Inc., and The Heart Foundation and collaborates
with production houses throughout the country.
In 2009 Janine received the WIFT NZ Entrepreneurship Award,
after she and her partner Jason Gunn opened their new 2036m2
television production and post production facility in
Christchurch.