Wellington's Film Future

Well, it is still quiet, and your chances of employing a landscape gardener or a casual truck driver have never been better. But, we think there’s a few glimmers of light down here.

Miramar will be hosting the Thunderbirds’ shoot for most of 2014. Not a lot of live action shooting, but still work for lighting and a grip or two. Meanwhile a few commercials have come through town in the last few months, and there are a few more to come before the year’s out. Hard not to notice that it’s the same faces on set job after job. I’m not complaining, since I am one of those faces, but one does get to wondering where the hell the bulk of The Hobbit crew have all got to.

We reacted swiftly and with a bit of anger down here when we read about the campaign to ‘Save the Auckland Film Industry’, and hopefully we’ve seen the last of that slogan. We’re not Canada or Australia, and we don’t have regional tax or economic policies in this country. Auckland may be 60% to 70% of the business, but the crisis is national, and it will only be fixed nationally. We all want to help the NZ film industry survive but there are no regional solutions, only national ones.

There’s been a lot of misinformation and bullshit talked, most of it by journalists and commentators who have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. We are the only ones who can get accurate information out there. If you hear or read bullshit, confront it, and correct it. Keep the campaign rolling! The momentum has slowed over the last few weeks. Now is not the time to quit.

Apart from that, try and have a great Christmas and New Year, and we’ll see you on a set, somewhere, in 2014.

Graeme Tuckett, Wellington branch member