Resilience in the NZ Film Industry
What a strange old time we find ourselves living in.
As I write this article, Auckland has been in Level 4 lockdown status for over a month, and several big projects (Evil Dead, One of Us is Lying, Mystic, Shortland Street, Brokenwood Mysteries to name a few) have had to shut down. One of these projects has taken their final weeks of filming offshore because our MIQ system makes shooting here near impossible.
With the news of the Amazon project leaving New Zealand just before this latest lockdown period, many crew and businesses were left reeling at the thought, even though they were settling in for what was going to be a predicted 6–9-month hiatus regardless. Many businesses in Auckland had invested a lot of time and money developing and creating systems and equipment designed to handle a production of this size and are now wondering what they might do with it all. I’d like to encourage everyone to perhaps look at the silver linings where there are some.
We now know that Amazon must have been in bed with their contacts in the UK for a lengthy period, as you don’t just move a production of such a scale after a cup of tea and a little flirting with your mistress. Unfortunately, we may feel blindsided, but our whole industry is built on uncertainty, peaks, and troughs. Let’s be honest, we can never really count on the next job, even when we are in the middle of shooting it, especially in the world climate of Covid.
That aside, our situation is not helped by another branch of our own. The media. You will always find ‘media’ reports by ill-informed, uneducated journalists who continue to wah on about how taxpayers are ‘paying tax of XXX million’ to these big corporations in the form of rebates and the Screen Production Grant system. They berate us, scream from the rooftops how the film industry gets special treatment, and how the government whipped by the glamour etc. (I’m not quite sure why anyone sane thinks this industry is glamourous) so be aware, tax payers are NOT paying anyone any actual money.
The whole incentive system is a form of ‘tax relief’ to the company who are spending their money in New Zealand. No actual money gets ‘given’ to them. (They just don’t have to pay so much tax on a certain amount once they have spent XX dollars in our country). Without this incentive, we would find it very hard to attract international spend in NZ. Simple. No incentive, no money coming in, and no international jobs shooting here. This was not the only the reason for the UAP’s departure.
Back to the silver lining… us little kiwis should be proud. Proud that we proved we could shoot not only a mammoth production as the Untitled Amazon Project, but we could also furnish other international and local work simultaneously. Yes, we struggled to find crew of particular experience for some departments on some jobs, but all in all, our can do attitude let us punch well above out weight in my opinion. We will have taught new crew new skills, old crew different skills and management ideas which will help us all in the future.
Wellington has benefited from our lockdown, and several jobs have gone south to shoot, which has been lovely to see for our Wellington friends. As Auckland starts to climb back up the Covid Levels ladder, I have been inundated with bookings for crew being held on television commercial work, so even though our MIQ system is, lets face it, a shambles, I am quietly confident that our local industry may just survive the next wee period with only a few scars and bruises. We need to do all we can to support our fellow crew, those that work mainly on film or in drama, and perhaps throw a job their way if you are able to do so. I am a firm believer that if everyone gets a little piece of the pie, we can all survive the rough times. There is no better time to reach out and check on our work mates, to see exactly how they are doing, and offering them some support if they are in a worse position than you.
