Challenges for Auckland's Film Industry

It’s with much hair pulling that I sit down and try to write something positive about the state of work in Auckland. If I’m to be honest, from where I sit, it’s almost as bad as it gets for many freelance crew, and production companies in Auckland at the moment. Our dollar is still high against the greenback, which isn’t helping our situation much.

The last time the office at Filmcrews was this quiet was the winter of 1998 to 1999, but even then, we had good old Pacific Renaissance holding the backbone of the Auckland crew together. With the wrapping up of the most recent Power Rangers series in Auckland, there are only a few smaller productions to cling to, such as South Pacific Pictures’ Nothing Trivial and the Wellington pickups for The Hobbit. Most other stuff (commercial and features) are in holding patterns waiting for their clearance to take off, so to speak.

We sit and wait with baited breath.

I’ve advised many of the crew on my books now is a damn fine time to tune up their CVs or websites. Make the most of this quiet time by tidying up all those loose ends such as cleaning up your equipment, doing research, and networking. I know how disheartening it is when the phones are not ringing and the work just isn’t coming in, but you just have to weather the storm. Many crew have jumped ship this year and left the industry in favour of 9-to-5 jobs in other fields. Others have been lucky enough to use their skills in other areas while it’s quiet. I’d highly recommend looking around for a bit of part-time income for the foreseeable future, and I hope that come the next regional wrap article, it will be crammed with goodness and flowers and sparkly bits to make your eyes twinkle with excitement and anticipation of a cracker summer.

Sioux Macdonald,

Guild vice president and executive committee member