Full Steam Ahead

With a 35-year career in film and television production under his belt, Dave Gibson took the helm at the New Zealand Film Commission in January. While his chief executive role will no doubt have its challenges, he is armed with hands-on industry knowledge and experience along with motivation to support the industry. Dave takes some time out for a Q&A with NZTECHO.

Dave Gibson is an experienced producer with a vast depth of knowledge of and experience in the NZ film and television industry. He replaced Graeme Mason as the New Zealand Film Commissions’ executive officer in January. Dave is the founder of Wellington production company The Gibson Group, a company that has made film, television and visitor attractions in NZ and internationally for 35 years. In 2012 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the film and television industry and he served as a board member of the Film Commission during the mid 1990s. His contract with the NZFC is for five years.

How much does your inside knowledge and experience in the TV and film industry help you in the New Zealand Film Commission executive officer role?

It certainly helps a reasonable amount. In my speech to the industry earlier this year, I spoke about ‘the five planets’ on gauging a successful industry and I guess it’s fair to say that I have some skills around the actual making of films. I feel I have a sense of how people can actually have a career as I’ve been lucky enough to have one myself. I’ve run a business, so economic growth is another area where I have ideas to contribute. But, in the areas of eyeballs [the number of views something gets] and marketing I think, like many people in the industry, I could be more knowledgeable.

(Listen to Dave’s speech at www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/dave-gibsons-speech-to-the-industry).

As a former producer, what strengths do you bring to the role?

The ability to motivate people and provide a bit of leadership hopefully – I know how to organize a team of people to work. There are quite a few people who work at the Film Commission and if we can all be working efficiently and at 100 percent capacity then we can be the best use to the industry.

What attracted you to the role?

It was the challenge. I’ve always had a few opinions about what I thought the Film Commission should be like and how it should operate. So rather than talking about it in the pub I thought it could be an idea to actually give it a go.

What importance do you place on industry collaboration?

Oh I think it’s really important. We are working hard at the moment on getting some good relationships with the regional film offices because I think we could do more in the regions including Auckland, as it’s a key part of the industry. We are keen to grow our relationships with people at the likes of ATEED and Film Auckland, Grow Wellington here in Wellington and of course those in Otago/Southland.

We also support the guilds and have devolved funds for them to run professional development programmes through the contested Professional Development Services Programme. It’s great because we are all in this together working to ensure we are getting ahead.

In recent years, the Techos’ Guild has noted (and is grateful for) a shift in the NZFC’s focus of not only above the line personnel (directors, producers, actors etc) but an inclusion and acknowledgement to below the line personnel (technicians). We hope this will continue?

I’m very happy to continue with that policy because one of the five planets that we talk about relates to having a career. We are talking about everyone there, so not just above the line.

Up until last year the Techos’ Guild had received only a small amount of money from the NZFC. But last year we raised that commitment considerably and allocated core industry funding just as we do for many of the other guilds. We have granted 15 Professional Development Awards to technicians over the past three years and the list has included sending a DOP to Cannes for a film in competition, another to a steadycam workshop in Canada, a cinematographer to New York and a film archivist to LA.

We are also supporting opportunities for composers, editors, a music editor, a camera operator, a post-producer and an interpreter working in sound post-production. We are committed to technicians as an integral part of the industry and we are always keen to hear from those who have found a great opportunity and want some help in making it happen (providing they have a feature film credit).

(You can read more about the Professional Development Awards at www.nzfilm.co.nz/funding/career-development/professional-development-awards).

Also, with the new incentives we want to internationalize the industry to a degree and by that I don’t mean walking away from the important culturally significant films. We want to bring in some other money into what is essentially a very small country, one where most of the money comes from the Government.

We want to try and encourage some private investment, but in the short term it’s probably easier to try to find international money. In order to do that we need to make sure we have the skill base and capacity, and this means the number and size of crews and their abilities is really important.

I don’t think that’s much of an issue because I already think NZ crews are probably more highly regarded perhaps than some other areas of the business. For example, I think we have some great actors here, but what we don’t have is people saying we have stars here, so there are some other areas where we need to make more of an emphasis than the crews and the technicians.

As a former producer how important do you think The

Blue Book and Safety Code of Practice are?

The Blue Book is really important and we expect producers to abide by it. We’ve just added a clause into our contracts suggesting producers abide by it and the new standard Individual Performance Agreement that SPADA has done with Actors Equity.

Is there anything in particular that you see coming for technicians in the year ahead – opportunities?

Well we have these new incentives and we’re looking at lots of ways to help make the industry stronger and that’s good for technicians, as well as other parts of the industry. I’m keen to meetup with the all the guilds to talk about what I learnt in Cannes this year and what we might do together here.