Wellington's Film Reboot

The last time I sat down to write this Wellington update, we were just heading into the full lockdown. I like that as we emerge from it and get the cameras running again, we are ready for another of these quarterly updates.

Also, I would like to make this my last of these Wellington diary updates. I will very much still continue as editor of this magazine, but I strongly feel that this column should be written by someone who spends more time on-set than I do. Let me know if you are interested in being that person?

Out in Miramar, Avatar is cranking back up to something near full speed, with the promise of more crew needed in the near future as other units are required. But, the fake controversy generated by the arrival of some of the US-based essential crew has left a bad taste, with reports of NZ crew being abused at the local supermarket for allegedly receiving ‘favourable treatment’ from our government.

That those few dozen arrivals – all safely in quarantine – immediately allowed several hundred locals to return to work wasn’t deemed worthy of a headline by our media.

As someone who writes for Stuff and The Dominion Post, I reckon that was disgraceful fear-mongering and tall-poppy syndrome at its worst. Hopefully, some more balanced coverage of the real contribution the film industry makes to Wellington’s culture and economy might turn up in the Dom’ Post soon. But don’t hold your breath.

Around the region, several smaller projects, indie features, and commercial jobs have sprung back up in the last few weeks, with plenty more to come. Content creators and small screen specialists, in particular, seem to be having a micro-boom time, with a huge backlog of content being commissioned by companies and agencies across the region.

And lastly, we shut down all invoicing and new memberships on Crew Wellington and Crew Auckland over the lockdown and used the enforced break to completely rebuild both sites from the ground up. We have changed platforms and are now able to offer a lot of functions and abilities that the old sites could not. Go and take a look!