Rising film-maker Hollywood dreaming
Getting into the industry of your dreams can be hard for anyone, let alone an industry known to be as merciless as Hollywood. But that’s not stopping Kapiti’s Mason Cade Packer, who is embarking on his third feature film at just 20.
After attending Raumati Beach School and Kapiti College, Packer pursued a Bachelor of Film and Television Production degree at the New Zealand Broadcasting School.
Making films since he was 13, Packer has finished more than 25 short film projects, music videos, documentaries, podcasts and is now focusing on feature films.
After being accepted in the film programme at Columbia College Chicago, Packer is aiming to break into the Hollywood film industry.
“You need to spend significant time in the US before you can join their film workers’ unions and begin to direct at studio film level in Hollywood,” he said.
“I’m very much here for the long run.”
Under the umbrella of their Free Chicken company, Packer and partner Micah Winiata, also from New Zealand, are embarking on Parker’s biggest project yet — a two-hour feature
thriller called Hades.
It follows a family of four, led by an overbearing father, during the modern return of the bubonic plague.
“Born from my twisted mind, Hades is not your traditional end-ofthe-world story,” said Packer.
He said the move to crafting feature-length work was surprisingly smooth. I’ve found it a lot more natural to write and direct feature films as it’s what we all watch. I like to think of shorts as the training ground.”
Packer started his partnership with Winiata when they were studying together at broadcasting school.
Entering the HP48 Hour Film Festival and taking out five major awards in Christchurch for Split Sibling Decision in 2017, they made their first feature Faint of Heart as co-directors.
Packer hopes to raise $10,000 on crowdfunding site Boosted to get Hades off the ground.
“It’s going to be challenging to shoot it for such little money,” he said. “Micah and I are in the micro-budget industry where we’re spending $2000-$10,000 on projects that would usually cost upwards of $100,000 over here in the US.”
“We’re achieving the same level of production value as our US counterparts . . . but for Hades we’re really looking for help.”