Film Industry Challenges

What a difference three months make. In my last update it was doom and gloom and the question on everyone’s lips: “What happened to the TVC industry?”

Three months later things are quite busy and the issue is how to deal with facilitating and delivering on the latest rush of jobs.

In addition to TVCs ramping up, we recently had Top of the Lake 2, as well as an offshore TV drama shoot here and the Kiwi feature film Stray shooting here at the moment. The trend of TVC shoots getting smaller seems real, but then again, we had a massive UK shoot recently with crew saying it’s just like the good-old days (however short-lived). You certainly can’t pigeon-hole this industry.

Being a film commissioner presents many challenges. How do you comply with new regulations while enabling activity in a way that allows us to stay competitive? Whether it is time, money, or both, new regulations generally come at a cost.

The change in Workplace Health and Safety regulations has been a major disrupter. The Regional Film Offices of New Zealand (RFONZ) are taking a collective approach in how to facilitate permits while ensuring the council or permitting body is complying.

To create a consistent approach throughout NZ, we are also collaborating on drone regulations, DoC, LINZ, LINZ Pastoral, Transit NZ, etc. We continually try to streamline processes but it is a complex web. The reality is that if we can’t access our locations we lose our main competitive advantage resulting in lost job opportunities.

Pressure ramps up on everyone when trying to facilitate productions with inadequate lead-in times. We’re all aware that for many jobs prep time is very short and seemingly getting shorter. This is likely caused by diminishing budgets from traditional markets, or productions from emerging markets that are not experienced shooting in NZ and may not hire key members of the production crew. The result of this is often permit applications coming in at the last minute, or substantial changes to a permit, often the day before the proposed shoot. The goal of a film office is to keep the industry flowing but it’s not as simple as just saying yes, we have to liaise internally with various departments to get sign off.

There would be no Film Office without a film industry. Therefore we (all of us) are mutually motivated to make things as client-focused and user-friendly as possible. We should also be motivated to ensure that each time we leave a location we will be welcomed back for the next shoot. Your next job may depend on it.

Kevin Jennings, Queenstown branch member