Wellington's Film Landscape

Hi all, she’s been a quiet start to the year, with only a few commercial shoots worth mentioning and a couple of television projects rolling over from 2012.

KH Media (Krafthaus) are back up and running with a new series of Girl vs Boy and the Gibson Group continue it’s long and proud tradition of continuing to pump content out of Wellington. The Hobbit pick-ups will be kicking off for all departments soon and running for 15 or so weeks, at this stage.

Lately I’ve been gathering opinions from workers, producers, and the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) on the future of the ‘Escalator’ scheme. As you probably know, these are the $250,000 feature films, funded by the NZFC, that employ crew for reduced rates in order to come in anywhere near budget. Broadly, we tend to support any initiative that get films made and us working, but it is worth asking questions about how the scheme can be improved. If you have something to say, or an experience to share, of working on an Escalator or a NZFC funded short. Or if you just want to share some opinions then email me directly at info@crewwellington.co.nz. All emails are treated in complete confidence, names and any info that would allow you or the job you worked on to be identified is kept off the record. I look forward to hearing from you.

On a similar rant… who has an opinion to share regarding the state of television drama in New Zealand? When did we last see a television drama set anywhere other than Auckland? The Poms and the Aussies love to share the stories around their different cities and areas, but at TVNZ it seems there’s no appetite for anything set more than five kilometres away from the TVNZ building. We know that TV3’s Hope and Wire is underway now in Christchurch, as it should be. But where’s the drama on our screens from the rest of the country? Opinions and theories are very welcome at the same address please.

One ray of hope down here is Avalon. On 1 April (no joke!) the new owners take over from TVNZ and just might have some good news to confirm shortly after.

Congratulations to Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland on the success of debut feature Shopping. A ‘best teen drama’ gong at the Berlin Film Festival is no small achievement. The film’s turned out grand. It will be released here in May. Get along to it!

Graeme Tuckett, Guild member