Renewed Hope for NZ Film Industry

Positive vibes for 2014

Kia ora and a Happy New Year to all. Reflecting on the year just past, in March 2013 the NZ film industry looked bleak. As the year progressed the vision sadly became a reality with the worst year many have known for a very long time. Although not completely healed, the industry definitely appears to have a new positive and hopeful vibe.

Probably one of the most significant reasons for the turnabout in positivity was the Government’s U-turn on the NZ screen incentive grants, with the announcement made in December. This news was better than big presents under the Christmas tree for many and the relief overflowed into joyous industry Christmas celebrations and renewed hope for 2014, in this industry that so many of us are passionate about.

The release itself was made with true political spin doctoring (clouding the issue of the Government’s U-turn). It was jointly announced that three Avatar movies were to be shot in NZ, as though this was always the status quo. Not wanting to focus on the negative but the hit taken between the announcement earlier in 2013 that screen incentives were not rising and the December news was too hard for some and unfortunately some have left the industry completely. Sadly this leaves me with a certain amount of irritation as the media announcements set out to glorify Prime Minister John Key along with ministers Stephen Joyce (Minister of Business, Innovation and Employment) and Chris Finlayson (Minister of Culture and Heritage) as heroes having negotiated and secured Avatar movies to shoot in NZ and then “oh and by the way we’re going to raise the screen incentives”. I have to wonder if the media reporting was once again askew. As mentioned in the last NZTECHO magazine, I received a letter from Joyce last year stating “emphatically” that incentives would not rise. The long and the short of it is that NZ was not an option for James Cameron to shoot the Avatar movies (although he is now a resident here) while the incentive sat at 15%. There is something to be said about our various ministers who display rather pitiful star struck fantasies, selective out-takes and memory loss which appear to cloud the business of governing in the interest of self-praise and promotion.

The positive flipside (apart from a rise in incentives) was that the Guild (along with other major industry players) was invited to attend workshops to help nut out how the new process was to be implemented. With changes scheduled to take effect on April 1st the window is small. Brendon Durey, Richard Bluck and I attended workshop meetings in Wellington and Auckland that were organised by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in conjunction with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage (MCH). The meetings covered a great deal around the implementation of the incentive scheme but the main threads discussed were:

• The proposed new baseline grant of 20% qualifying NZ production expenditure, which is to replace the current baseline of 15%, and how that is established.
• Note this generated strong discussion in the workshops as to whether the mandatory minimum Qualifying New Zealand Production Expenditure (QNZPE) needs to be re-evaluated with a general consensus from those who attended that it may be too high at both the top end ($200 million) and the bottom end ($30 million).
• How to qualify for the grant and proposed methods for productions to be eligible for the additional 5% grant (bringing total grant to 25%).
• Note this produced healthy debate with a fairly unanimous agreement from the attendees that the bar may be too high beckoning the question whether large studios would be prepared to go through or bother with the lengths proposed.

We, as participating contributors, however will not be given the opportunity to view the outcomes of the workshops as the window to roll out these papers is April. We must now rely on the Ministry’s employees to get it right. So we hope, wait and see whether they do in fact get it right. I asked one of the authors of the draft proposal whether what he had heard over the past days had changed the structure and he said “there is lots to consider”.

Overall there was a fairly positive and productive atmosphere at the workshops. A sense of accord of an industry working together and a willingness from the MBIE that Government would be entering this new phase with a willingness to negotiate on behalf of productions that can show true economic benefit to NZ and this offers encouragement and confidence.

The past has not been a great gauge so let’s hope this ‘truly’ is a new phase, it is after-all election year.

If any members would like to know more detail about the screen incentive workshop, please phone Karla Rodgers on 09 8899522.