Time to harness Hamilton’s potential for film-making

I am kind of shocked by how difficult it is to convince Hamiltonians of how well suited their home is to being used for film and TV production – I mentioned it last week online and the reaction was resoundingly negative. People not only questioned the value of someone fulfilling a role that would promote the region, but also said they thought the region was in general ill-suited for production.

Now I realise not everyone is a film person. I’ve got a vested interest here and have been a long-time lover of films. And like our own Academy Award winning film-maker Sir Peter Jackson, I grew up reading books and seeing the locations around me as the places these books were set – in the same way Sir Peter saw New Zealand from a train and saw Middleearth as a teenager.

It’s a mechanism our brains put in place to help us interpret the worlds being created for us. It’s actually a pretty cool feature in the human machine, when you think about it. For me, it means I can see the world around me as potential film locations and having a couple of degrees from various well-thought-of tertiary education facilities on the topic has given me the knowledge, skill and expertise to be able to say Hamilton has potential here to be unlocked.

I don’t want to get into too much of the promotion of the region, though. You live here, after all. You know how great a place it is and The ability to think differently, which defines the greatest minds the world has produced, is seemingly lacking from the loudest speakers in the region – the ones who are always first to offer their two cents. I’m sure you’ve all got secret favourite spots. I shouldn’t need to convince you the area is some kind of magical place.

There are weird technical things you may not know about the quality of Waikato light, or the ability of Mystery Creek to play host to bigbudget studio productions or the grove of Californian Redwoods in Tokoroa that look like the middle of America because it’s the largest collection of these trees outside the United States – but that’s not important right now! What is important is the attitude of the naysayers who don’t want to even consider looking at the key to unlock the potential.

There’s an attitude of almost drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘‘no – we will not look at what else we can do’’ or more commonly, ‘‘why should we bother?’’ It’s sad to see and disappointing to know that for so many the world is full of black and white answers. That the ability to think differently, which defines the greatest minds the world has produced, is seemingly lacking from the loudest speakers in the region – the ones who are always first to offer their two cents. Only their opinion is worth so much more than two cents.

Of course, this may also seem like a disgruntled columnist getting all worked up about people disagreeing with my obvious brilliance – but I was shocked to learn I wasn’t the only one thinking this. A call from a Taranaki-based reporter showed me that the commentators from Hamilton are seen nationally as, for want of a better term, stickin-the-muds.

Following up on another column I wrote about his region, he noted Hamilton’s parochial attitude came out in its commentators. Their back handed, snide comments about banishing me to other regions showed just how quickly Hamiltonians refuse to want things to change, and how they don’t want outside influences to alter their world.

The reason for the interview, though, highlighted just how much we have in common with other regions. After a low voter turnout at the last local body elections, New Plymouth District Council has been taken over by penny-pinching, Right-wing councillors who want to strip back council’s work to the bare basics – water, roads and sewage. Not unlike our Garry Mallett and a few other councillors in Hamilton. The Taranaki Daily News wanted to show how a vibrant arts scene, a community with a passion and support for creativity was a great way to attract people and build communities, not just places people live together.

We run the risk of creating a strange dual image – one where we’re so proud of our place and consider others to be a punishment, but so much so that we refuse to find ways to share it with the world. Then everyone loses out.