Queenstown's Quiet Winter for Film Workers
The last three months in Queenstown have been a relatively sedate time for the majority of film workers based down south. The onset of winter has a cooling affect on the flow of international TVCs coming our way (pun intended) and the lack of any consistent snow falls has dented our usually robust northern hemisphere based snow shoots.
That said, we still had a few great jobs come through town, the latest Vodafone TVC featuring the young Maori actor** James Rolleston **(of Boy fame) being a standout.
On the name dropping roll, we also had Korean actor Woo Sung Jung star in a Korean TVC – he is number five in Korea for awesomeness and a really nice person to boot. There have been a few more Korean projects, a Japanese tyre job and an English-based four-day TVC from Robbers Dog.
So, overall winter was a matter of survival. Luckily many of us techos were involved on the bigger jobs at the end of summer – Walking with Dinosaurs 3D and Top of the Lake, which both wrapped in June.
On other fronts we had a good meeting in town last month organised by the New Zealand Film Commission. A great turn out of folks meeting, talking and drinking the free booze! It gave us tech types a chance to meet the office-bound individuals who have to do all the leg work before the first shoot day. It also gave me a chance to meet some** Southern Institute of Technology **students from way down south who managed to talk me into giving them a two-day introductory course on gripping. What a great time we had! Although some of the first years had never even heard of grips – imagine that!
Looking ahead to the next few months, we have a double-up at the end of August, one more Korean job and a four-day shoot from Revolver films but apart from that my calendar is pretty empty. A doco-style drama has made inquiries about shooting a piece on the Erebus crash but I am thinking the lack of snow could hinder the project – but fingers crossed.
On the work rumour mill, I have heard of some Great Wall of China project and Walking with Dinosaurs may come back to shoot for two more weeks in summer but rumours are just something to talk about at the coffee shop.
So that’s it from me in Queenstown. By the time this goes to print I should have a wee baby to look after with my wife Stacy – that will be work enough for me for a while. Cheers.
Joshua Dunn, Queenstown branch member
