Hollywood execs head to NZ to scope out facilities
New Zealand Film Commission chief executive Annabelle Sheehan is delighted to see Auckland closing the gap on Wellington as the home of film production in New Zealand.
According to figures released by Stats NZ last week, Auckland’s share of New Zealand’s annual film production revenue increased to 43 per cent last year. Wellington still led the way with 55 per cent as New Zealand’s overall film production revenue increased by 15 per cent to $1.1 billion.
Describing the overall result as ‘‘fantastic’’ and ‘‘good news for the sector’’, Sheehan says it is very common in most countries to have two big film production centres (Australia has Sydney and the Gold Coast, Canada boasts Vancouver and Toronto).
Looking beyond the Wellington versus Auckland focus, Sheehan, who took over from Dave Gibson as NZFC CEO at the start of this year, said she was excited to see areas like Northland, Waikato and Otago record increased levels of screen production last year.
‘‘Expenditure in Otago increased by 67 per cent last year, up to $35 million, driven by Mission: Impossible, A Wrinkle in Time and a mix of other national and international projects.’’
While admitting that the use of locations and Kiwi creatives outside of Wellington and Auckland was ‘‘somewhat driven by the film-makers and the stories they are telling’’, Sheehan said she was aware of the talented content creators and crew that exist in places like Christchurch and keen to support them.
Sheehan says New Zealand is known for punching above its weight in terms of international film production. ‘‘There are many times when in absolute terms, not just proportionately, it has exceeded what’s been achieved in Australia.’’
And she said while New Zealand faces a lot of competition, a recent promotion in Los Angeles for the Auckland-shot action movie The Meg (due out here in mid-August) showed there was definitely a lot of interest in shooting on our shores, linking up with our creative talent, or using our world-renowned postproduction facilities.
‘‘[Hollywood] Studios know our country well and appreciate working here with our great crews, but one has to keep building and maintaining relationships to stay competitive.’’
While unable to disclose details of any upcoming international productions (although numerous sources have reported both Disney’s Mulan and James Cameron’s Avatar sequels are headed our way), Sheehan did confirm that the Commission will host numerous studio executive ‘‘familiarisation trips’’ in the next few weeks.
‘‘We let them know about shooting here, partnering with some of our terrific producing partners and film-makers and using our crews.’’
She played down concerns that New Zealand was in a quiet film production period after the 2017 highs of Wrinkle, Mission, Meg and Mortal Engines.
‘‘Daffodils is shooting right now and there are a number of projects currently happening in both islands. It feels very active. Typically, most countries go through different waves of activity and one of the things that you are always trying to seek is consistency of that activity.’’