Keeping New Zealand as the Filming Destination of Choice - Part I
The film industry in any country needs to watch carefully how it treats international guests. News spreads like wildfire. Large cities making it difficult for filmmakers with too many conditions and high costs end up being stung for years and years. TVC companies simply choose another country to film in next time. In a two-part NZTECHO series, sound recordist Ande Schurr talks to producers Anzak Tindall, Iris Weber and William Grieve about how to keep New Zealand as a top filming destination, and what we as an industry can do to help.
In New Zealand, we are fortunate to have strong awareness of our filming values by the many producers who maintain our image carefully. It helps the world to see who we are and to showcase our openness, flexibility and generosity of spirit towards all visitors wishing to film here.
These are the line producers whose production companies service the large number of television commercials brought to New Zealand. As **Batch Film’s **Iris Weber says, “the bread and butter of the industry that keep many of us entertained”. They are critical to keeping our crews and actors constantly working.
In the pursuit of learning what the reality of our film industry is versus the perceived image, I interviewed three line producers who each bring to our shores international commercials. The topics they raise would form an all-rounded education for anyone wanting to delve deeper into the business and considerations of line production, or simply to understand the larger forces that lie behind the workings of the New Zealand film industry.
We know that one’s image is a frail thing, it’s built over a long period of time and sometimes ruined in an instant – often thanks to the speed in which an inaccurate story can travel around the world.
I will let our panel of Anzak Tindall from Joyride Films, Iris Weber from Batch Film, and William Grieve from** Big Pictures **to take over and explain the issues that concern them and what we might do to help.
Summary
Anzak: Lately it’s just felt a lot harder than it used to be to secure work. I’ve seen what’s happened in Australia, it’s a disaster. Yet we appear to be heading in that direction and need to reconsider our strategy. There is no strategic outlook for the whole industry at our own peril. We need a forum where people can come together and look at some of the trends in the industry, where New Zealand is sitting in terms of the international service sector and re-evaluate.
Iris: ‘No’ is not something that exists in this industry. The more we can get the people involved on the outskirts of the industry to understand this, the better for all of us. The image of New Zealand is prestige locations and great crew. If any of that gets damaged the impact is huge. So we need to put more effort into preserving that. The image created in Sydney of not being a film-friendly city has spread world-wide and it’s very hard to undo, even if it’s no longer true.
William: We can’t be complacent about our locations. Other countries have some great locations too. Or crew or equipment – we used to think we had an edge over places like Argentina or Brazil in that regard, but I am not sure that is true anymore. But we do have the whole package here – wonderful and diverse locations, great talent, great art department and some really innovative crew, the sort of crew who can build things and solve problems. We speak English – which isn’t a bad thing – and we can give off-shore visitors a pretty good time. The hotels are good, restaurants are good and getting better all the time, the wine is great. We just have to keep working really hard to get that story across to the rest of the world, because you can bet every other country is.
What’s your background?
Anzak: I’ve been a musician and an aircraft engineer for 11 years, then I joined Silverscreen Productions as a director’s assistant because I wanted to further my career in the creative arts. At Silverscreen I went on to become a production manager and then a producer for eight years. I started Joyride, a small production service company, in 2003 about three years before the collapse of Silverscreen. I could see the signs coming that they didn’t have long. I got out in time and followed a dream that had been growing to set up my own company.
Iris: I’m Austrian and started off as a stills photographer, camera assistant then DoP. I’d seen a bit of the world and realised New Zealand was special. After being here for three to four weeks on a job I had an incredible urge to come back. I came in 1996 for a test year to see if the reality matched my image and it did. Brad Avery and I opened our first company in here in 2000 – which is now Batch Film.
William: After studying law and political science at university naturally I went straight into the film business. This was in the early 1980s. Initially I worked on feature films as a production manager. Then one day, about 20 years ago, I responded to a call from a Hong Kong production company who needed someone to assist them in New Zealand with a shoot for United Airlines. As it turned out the director, Louis Ng, was one of the most successful in Asia and it was the start of a very long relationship – his company still shoots here with us once or twice a year. From that initial job our contacts have spread around Asia, Europe and the United States so that line production work is mainly what I do now.
Do crew understand how important the international service sector is to New Zealand?
Anzak: I think the average crew member is looking to many different places to earn their living. However, I think this particular sector is becoming more important to New Zealand and for crew and suppliers to survive and prosper they are increasingly looking to the sector.
Iris: I think they do, although overall they have no appreciation of what we do and how much work there is before and after the bringing in a job, and the aftermath and issues like immigration, the Department of Conservation, Actor’s Equity or Film New Zealand. That is a never-ending battle and has quite an impact on what kind and what quantity of jobs we are going to attract to New Zealand in the next five to 10 years.
William: Yes, I think crew do. I think most actors and agents also get it – with one or two notable exceptions. Sometimes the only reason overseas companies come here is because of the reasonable rates and residuals they can get for talent here. We should be grateful for that – and careful not to lose that competitive advantage. It is not just the volume of work but also the type of jobs. Recently we shot a job for the Audi A8L for China in 3D – at the same time another service company was shooting a car job using a Russian Arm (stabilised remote arm) and someone else had brought in a Stab C Super Gyro heli mount – local commercial makers just don’t get to play with those sorts of toys that often. It is important that our crews get the chance to work with this sort of equipment and with some great overseas directors, DoPs and so on, of course who, all come with their own perspective. It’s interesting.
Who are our competitors and where do your clients come from?
Anzak: Our work comes from all over the world. Our real competitors in the service sector are the likes of South Africa, South America and Australia. Australia has somewhat dropped out of the game because it’s already gone down a ruinous path and so my biggest concern is that we don’t become like them. Thailand, Malaysia, Eastern Europe and even India now are also strong players in our sector and we’re losing work to all these regions.
Since The Lord of the Rings came out, New Zealand was seen as being the place to come and shoot. We did very well off the back of those movies – it was The Lord of the Rings’ effect. So now we have to get a new string to our bow and find new ways to ensure that we still impress our overseas clients with our capability. Not just that but since the global recession it’s becoming increasingly about value. Thailand, Malaysia, Eastern Europe and India are strong players in our sector and I’m losing work to them. It is not bad though. The United Kingdom guys come here every second year and they know what they’re going to get when they get here. But it’s not just the regulars that we need to keep happy, it’s the new business we need. I just feel that there are certain factors that are influencing people to look elsewhere.
Iris: Our work mainly comes from Europe and the United States. We’re not overly keen on a Chinese or Korean market. Other companies have figured out dealing with them much better. It is good to know your strength. Places like Argentina do have beautiful landscapes but at the end of the day ours are more outstanding. It comes down to how far the particular location needed is away from the crew. In Argentina, in order to travel your crew down to Bariloche, it ends up being more expensive than being able to shoot it here. So overall it may be more expensive, but because the location is just an hour outside of Queenstown, New Zealand can compete. The savings come in the execution and distance to location.
William: Most of my work seems to come from the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, particularly China. For European and United Kingdom jobs we have a hard time getting them to travel past South Africa as it is closer, apparently cheaper and in the same time zone as the United Kingdom. South America is also a big competitor for jobs from Europe and the United States – not just Argentina but also Brazil and Chile as well. Companies from Europe or the United States have to have a pretty good reason to fly twice the distance and pay more. South America has most of the same locations we have, as well as older more European looking cities and some truly stunning modern architecture. Eastern Europe has also been a favourite location for commercial makers from all around the world for a long time, but I hear that it isn’t as popular now as it once was because costs have increased so much. We should learn from that.
How many jobs do you quote per year? Are crew and supplier rates in New Zealand reasonable?
Anzak: I have had, and strive for, a success rate of about one in seven. When the success rate starts going up to one in 20, or something crazy like that, then it’s time to get real.
I know of one crew member who hadn’t been getting much work so he raised his rate. He needed to make more money to survive. I feel for that person but the problem is, if everyone does this, the entire cost of doing a production goes up. When I look at the figures I was quoting in 2004 not long after I started Joyride Films they were about 20% lower than now. I guess that is not an outrageous increase but when you factor in the exchange rate (back then the British Pound was about 36 cents to the New Zealand dollar and the United States dollar was around 60 cents, now we’re over 50 cents and 80 cents respectively) it’s a big jump in overall costs. Crew and suppliers are not thinking as a collective. We all have our own survival to think of, but we are getting less work because it’s more expensive now than it used to be, so crew are not going to get as much work because we’re not as competitive as we used to be. It’s a simple equation but it’s not being understood.
Iris: Batch Film alone quotes up to 300 jobs per year – we get 10 to 15. Five years ago there would have been 50 job enquiries and I would still have had 10 to 15 jobs out of that. The rate has increased so dramatically. Obviously the growth of a company is a factor and the awareness overseas but the other is also that the amount of random ‘gun fire’ quoting has increased. Before, a project would have looked into two different countries; now they look at it and go “let’s ask six countries”. So if three different production companies/three different directors in Paris, quote let’s say five different countries, therefore 15 service production companies have been involved but only one is going to get it. So chances are slim.
But what I’m talking about is an opportunity – in theory 300 projects that want to come to New Zealand – they might not come to us, they may be quoting with someone else, but they are potential. I take it that New Zealand could easily double the amount of jobs we do – for the good of the industry. It’s a bit of a catching your own tail scenario. The industry needs to step up one in order to still be strong in the next few years, the fact that we can’t keep a Gyron or a Wescam, because we just don’t have the amount of jobs. We’re not South Africa, we’re probably not even doing a fifth of the jobs they do. I think it is a concern when crew keep raising their rates. Although it’s the way it is done that gets me more started. They don’t seem to understand that we’re quoting on a daily basis and they just keep shifting their rates randomly. The protocol is if someone raises their rate they should send out an email informing production companies (also a good way to remind people of their qualities and why they should be on the job). I’m not good at dealing and wheeling with crew over daily rates. For me personally it’s the last place to save money. Those people have to pay mortgages and have families. The opportunity is there as we can see from the amount of jobs that get bided to come to New Zealand so we have to ask “how can we get those jobs here”.
William: A couple of summers ago when the New Zealand dollar was around United States 50 cents, every second or third bid was successful. Now it seems to have reverted to the longer term average of around one in 10. It can be a lot of work endlessly bidding jobs that don’t happen – not just for me. For example, I will frequently ask an art director to help me bid the art department costs, casting people for talent and casting estimates and location scouts to help by sending file photos of possible locations. Generally, yes, I think rates for crew are fair. The exchange rate has most influence on our affordability and there isn’t much we can do about that unfortunately. The ratio of successful quotes to unsuccessful ones seems to reflect the exchange rate.
How much of your business is repeat business?
Anzak: We have a number of repeat clients including a Polish company that comes here every year. They are less concerned about the fiscal side once they have worked with you the first time. My clients know that I will give them the best value I can and work with them on their budgets. A real bond of trust grows and the win to quote ratio is in a much better place with repeat clients. However, the trick is to entice new clients to shoot here that first time and usually at that point money is one of their most important considerations.
William: Yes, almost all of our business is repeat business. Once they have shot with us they invariably return and shoot with us again. The occasional exception may be where the producer at a particular production company changes and the new person may have their own loyalties.
In the next NZTECHO, we hear from the trio about how New Zealand crew should approach the issue, turn-offs for filming in New Zealand and ways to increase work.
This article was first published in 2011. All three producers agree the issues remain very current, especially following a distinctly quiet summer and the high New Zealand dollar. Keeping up with the equipment available overseas is an ongoing issue also. The author of this article is Ande Schurr, a freelance sound recordist based in Auckland.
