Busy Summer for Film

The summer season has kicked in, and in Otago, Southland we are enjoying beautiful weather and a busy workload. This seems to be echoed around the country, with large projects setting up base in Auckland and Wellington, the correlation between the raise in incentives and a busy industry is obvious.

The TVC industry is going strong, after a somewhat sluggish start to the year things are humming along with our traditional summer burst. It appears this year is somewhat different than recent years as it coincides with the bigger projects in the North absorbing crew and therefore creating challenges to crew jobs locally.

The tourism industry is absolutely humming in Queenstown, and while this is great for the local economy it is putting a strain on finding accommodation for visiting film crews as well. There always seems to be challenges in our industry, however, we (production) seem to find a solution.

In the last update I mentioned another thing that was humming: drones. They are still one of the hottest topics of discussion among my peers. The number of operators and units hovering about is growing exponentially. Sensible, safe and usable management of this new technology is crucial if we are to fully realize their capability. In the meantime, be careful out there.

Kevin Jennings, Queenstown branch member