ScreenSafe – Screen Industry Guidance – Easing of Restrictions 

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Friday 1st April 2022

The following changes were announced by the Prime Minister on 23rd March 2022. The Omicron outbreak has now peaked, or is about to peak, in most of the country. This, combined with high vaccination rates and reduced risk of reinfection for those who have recently recovered from COVID-19, means that the government is easing some COVID-19 restrictions over the next few weeks.

ScreenSafe anticipates a wider revision of the COVID-19 Protocols, with the next review of the traffic light settings scheduled for 4th April 2022.  However, for the time being, please note the below changes.

The key changes are:


No Requirement to Use QR Codes

From 11.59pm on Friday 25th March, the requirement to scan a QR Code before entering a business ended. From this time, businesses were freed of their obligation to display a QR Code poster (although businesses may still display a QR Code if they wish to do so). People are encouraged not to remove the COVID-19 tracer app from their phone just yet in case it’s needed in the future.

No Requirement to Use My Vaccine Pass

From 11.59pm on Monday 4th April, there will be no requirement to use My Vaccine Pass.

  • The Vaccination Passport sections of the Protocols will no longer be relevant. If any productions choose to use any sections of it, they must undertake a health and safety risk assessment, along with any other relevant legal assessment, to ensure they are not unlawfully discriminating against workers within the workplace.
  • A Production must undertake a Covid-19 health and safety risk assessment to ascertain if there are any roles within production that require vaccination.  A risk assessment might identify that some work can only be undertaken by a vaccinated employee for work health and safety purposes – for example, where the risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 at work is higher than it is in the community,  You should follow WorkSafe’s advice and guidance in respect of how to conduct a health and safety risk assessment, and may also wish to seek independent legal advice.

Worker Vaccine Mandates

From 11.59pm on Monday 4th April, vaccine mandates will be removed from the education sector, police and defence force. For the time being it will still be in place for health & disability workers, aged care workers, corrections workers and border/MIQ workers.

Note: After a robust health and safety risk assessment and worker consultation, businesses may be able to voluntarily introduce workforce vaccination requirements but it must be appropriate to the workforce. As above, for guidance on how to conduct a health and safety risk assessment, WorkSafe’s website is a good place to start.

Mask Wearing is Still Crucial

Although use of QR Codes and Vaccination Passports are being phased out, it is worth noting that proper use of face masks is one of our best tools for fighting this virus.

Overview of current Traffic Light Settings


Review of Traffic Light Settings

All of New Zealand is currently in the RED setting. The next review of the traffic light settings is on 4th April. It will review what ‘colour’ (or setting) each area of New Zealand sits in.

Changes to RED Traffic Light Settings

From 11.59pm on Friday 25th March the following changes came into effect:

  • No limit for outdoor gatherings (in terms of the amount of people that can attend).
  • 200-person limit for indoor gatherings and events (with such capacity limits excluding workers).
  • No requirement to wear face masks outdoors (although productions should make their own decision based on a health and safety risk assessment).
  • Other face mask rules remain unchanged — face masks are still required in most indoor settings.
  • No requirement to scan in or for a business to display a QR code poster or maintain some other form of attendance record-keeping.

Changes to ORANGE Traffic Light Settings

From 11.59pm on Friday 25th March the following changes came into effect (noting that all of New Zealand is currently at the Red setting, so these changes are simply indicative of what can be expected if and when there is a shift in settings):

  • No limit for outdoor or indoor gatherings (in terms of the amount of people that can attend).
  • No requirement to wear a face mask outdoors (although productions should make their own decision based on a risk assessment).
  • Other face mask rules remain unchanged.
  • No requirement to scan in or for a business to display a QR code poster or maintain some other form of attendance record-keeping.

Changes to GREEN Traffic Light Settings

No changes of note.

We anticipate many productions will choose not to use QR Codes and Vaccination Passports, but note that our key tools will still remain: good mask wearing, physical distancing, good hygiene and good ventilation. And as always – DO NOT come to work if you are unwell!

Thank you to NZ Film Commission and NZ on Air for funding the ScreenSafe COVID reviews.

Sincerely,
The ScreenSafe COVID-19 Group
Email: info@screensafe.co.nz

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Join us for Editing the Facts in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

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Factual content makes up a great deal of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Screen Industry — stories framed by real people, places, and events. What does it take for an editor to work on anything from a large scale factual series to a one off documentary?

Join us to hear from an experienced panel of factual editors. In this session, moderated by editor and composer Chris Anderton (NZ Wars, Georgie Girl, Salam Rugby), editors Huhana Ruri-Panapa, Phil Holt and Anthea Ede Smith will discuss their careers and the many aspects of their work.

It will be packed full of nuggets of wisdom,  sure to be useful for you, whether you’re an established editor or embarking on your own journey and looking to get a foot in the door.

WHEN: Wed 20 April, 7pm – 8:30pm. The panel will kick-off at 7:15pm
WHERE: Horse & Trap – Loft, 3 Enfield St, Mount Eden, Auckland

Cash bar

Face masks are required to be worn indoors by all attendees. We may shift the event to Zoom at the same date and time if COVID-19 cases are a concern and will notify all registrants.

Parking: Horse & Trap customer carpark and free on-street parking nearby.

DEGANZ members – Free
Non-members – $10
Please register below

Our Payment and Cancellation Policy

Panellists:

Huhana Ruri-Panapa has a long list of credits from feature documentary, television and short films, with short film Waiting screening at TIFF in 2017. Recently she has edited Waiata Anthems, The Walkers and Toa Hunter Gatherer.

Phil Holt has been editing for 20+ years and has edited a diverse range of shows from Motorway Patrol to MasterChef. Most recently, he has edited Moving Houses, hosted by Clarke Gayford, and the relaunch of Grand Designs with new host Tom Webster for TV1.

Anthea Ede Smith has worked in Television in various roles for over 20 years, primarily in post-production. She had the honour of working at Maori Television on staff for its first 6 years, before leaving to freelance as an editor. Recently she has edited First Responders and Lap of Luxury, which she worked on, in part or entirely, from home.

Registration Form

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Kirsty Hamilton Set to Direct Short Film Save Me

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Kirsty Hamilton, an alumna of the DEGANZ Women Filmmakers Incubator, is set to direct short film Save Me. 

Written by Suzanne Adamson, the short film follows a mother-daughter dynamic; when a teenage girl is blamed for her brother’s death by her grieving mother, she makes a sacrifice to win back her mother’s love.

Kirsty spoke about the project saying: “As a writer… I know that when a script fills my head with visceral, emotional images as Suzanne’s does, it’s a given I want to be on board and facilitate the screenplay to the best iteration on screen.”

Kirsty graduated from the inaugural intake of the Incubator in 2016. She has since gone on to direct various projects. 

Save Me is currently in pre-production. See the team’s Facebook page to follow their journey.

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Seven Directors Selected for the Incubator 2022

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Today, the Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand is thrilled to announce the seven female directors selected for the Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator 2022.

They are Mary-Lyn Chambers, Mīria George, Jolin Lee, Magnolia Lowe, Mia Maramara, Fiona McKenzie and Alison Titulaer.

Now in its sixth year and thanks to ongoing support from Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga New Zealand Film Commision and the Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collecting Society (ASDACS), the Incubator aims to support each talented participant to advance their careers and projects. The programme brings the directors together for five workshops across the year to connect with each other and hear from established screen industry practitioners working in New Zealand and abroad.

We look forward to seeing the participants at our first workshop in May, and extend our thanks to every director who applied.

About the Participants

MARY-LYN CHAMBERS was born in Fiji and raised in Nauru and Aotearoa. She has worked in Los Angeles, London and Doha and is known for narrative stories about inequality in mixed languages. She spent a decade working at the Spirit Awards and the LA Film Festival. She is a directing Fellow from the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directors Program, Film Independent, and the Alliance of Women Directors.

Prior projects include Karanga, a collaboration with choreographer Merenia Gray funded by CNZ and screened on Sky TV. Her Imagen Award-nominated pilot Tijuana screened at Slamdance, Bentonville, HollyShorts and Content London. Plural of Blood won Best TV Pilot at the 2018 Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival. Debris participated in the UN’s Refugee Voices in Film Conference at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Mary-Lyn is known for hiring women and minorities.

MĪRIA GEORGE (Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara; Tumutevarovaro, Enuamanu, Kuki ‘Āirani) is a playwright, screenwriter and a director and producer of theatre and film. The portmanteau feature film VAI (Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions) premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019, and marked Mīria’s debut as a writer and director of film.

Originally a live performance installation, Mīria wrote and directed the award-winning short film fire in the water, fire in the sky (Tawata Productions) that premiered at HIFF and screened at NZIFF in 2021. fire in the water, fire in the sky was awarded Special Recognition for Cinematography at the NZIFF. The film will continue to screen around the world in 2022.

Mīria has also created and directed digital content including Big Hair, Don’t Care, a web-series that documents conversations with Māori, Pasifika and Women of Colour artists of theatre and film; and is producing the 15-part series Ahi Kā for the online platform Moana Nui.

JOLIN LEE is an emerging writer/director of Singaporean-Chinese heritage based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has been working in Aotearoa’s screen industry for the past six years after pivoting from her journalism roots in 2015, directing a number of music videos and short films. Her short film Ur Dead To Me was selected for the Palm Springs Shortfest in 2018.

Jolin also works prolifically in Tāmaki’s commercial industry as a writer and editor, and has found success in this space, going on to work on some of Aotearoa’s best ad campaigns, from the viral Keep it Real Online campaign and educational web series The Eggplant for the Dept. of Internal Affairs, to the widely celebrated Proud to be Māori campaign for Te Whānau o Waipareira. Jolin is also a Creative and Head of Post Production at award-winning Auckland Agency Motion Sickness.

MAGNOLIA LOWE is an award-winning film-maker who is passionate about storytelling. She has a background in directing commercials and is the principal at Magpie Content Creation.

Magnolia’s Newsroom documentary series Water gained official selection in four international film festivals. The series was an award finalist for best direction in the NZ Web Fest, and was best documentary finalist in die Seriale, the Oregon short film festival and the Oregon documentary film festival. She is currently working on her first feature documentary, In the Subduction Zone.

Previous documentaries include Mapping the Messiness, which follows Australian graduate teachers and US and them, a short documentary about the other side of US-Mexico border migration, featuring stories of Americans who left the US to live in Mexico in 1999. Magnolia has also previously written for The Conversation and has co-authored an academic article about documentary film-making as a research method.

MIA MARAMARA is a Filipino-born filmmaker with work that has screened both locally and internationally. Her passion for authentic, trailblazing stories has led her to wear different hats in the industry, most notably as a writer, director, and producer.

In 2021, she wrote and directed Albularyo (Beyond the Veil) for TVNZ OnDemand and TV2, which earned the distinction of being the first Filipino-led drama on New Zealand TV. She also recently directed the short animated documentary Only Human as part of the Loading Docs initiative.

Mia has received funding from the New Zealand Film Commission, New Zealand On Air, Creative New Zealand, and the New Zealand Writers Guild Seed Fund. She has participated in the Fresh Shorts Lab and the Aotearoa Short Film Lab.

In the Philippines, she trained under award-winning producer Bianca Balbuena and worked as a production assistant on Pepe Diokno’s film Above the Clouds.

FIONA MCKENZIE, after gaining her degree, began work with TVNZ in Dunedin, writing and field directing for the children’s department. After her OE and time as a regional TV journalist, she moved to Auckland in 1995 and trained as a Drama Director with South Pacific Pictures. As a freelancer in the late 90’s she directed a variety of programmes and genres including documentary, drama, multi-cam and sketch comedy.

In 1998 her first child was born, with significant disabilities, so work took a back seat and she and her family moved back to rural South Island, from where she continued to make films for galleries, museums, disability groups and other clients.

In 2019/20 she wrote and directed her first narrative short film, Peninsula, which premiered at Tribeca (New York) in June 2021, won its section at Bengaluru and played at Aesthetica and NZIFF that same year.

ALISON TITULAER started in the film and TV industry in front of the camera, studying acting in Auckland, New York, and Vancouver, while gathering experience in the many facets of production by working a variety of crew roles. Learning what makes a great script and an honest performance, Alison naturally switched to the other side of the camera.

She has written and directed several short films, and received the Gaylene Preston WIFT Best Female Director award at the 2018 48 Hour National Finals. Her NZFC Fresh Short funded film, Stella, is embarking on its international festival run, and she is developing her first feature.

Alison freelances as a creative producer and director of commercial content and is one half of the production company Citizen Creative. She lives on the Coromandel Peninsula, is step-mum to 9-year-old Ophelia, and mum to 4-month-old Xavier.

Made possible with the financial support of

NZFC

ASDACS logo

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It’s a Crazy Time

I’ve been around on this planet for quite a while now and I’ve never experienced a crazier time.

Uncertainty seems to be the biggest challenge, at a personal, work and global level, whether it’s war, climate change, the future of the New Zealand screen industry, or just being able to connect with family and friends in person.

I have a hobby that keeps me sane, allows me to put worries aside and just focus on something that both fully occupies my mind and gives me joy… for a while.

There is one thing that seems pretty certain though, and that is that we are going to be living with COVID. Numerous friends and colleagues have come down with it. I fortunately have not so far. Nor has anybody else at the Guild.

After a long period of online engagement, we are shifting our strategy around workshops, just as the Government is also changing the boundaries around events and gatherings. We’ll be holding them more regularly in person. We’ll use RAT tests as one means to help minimise spread, and stay abreast of COVID developments so that we can readjust rapidly again if necessary.

The NZFC is also looking to re-engage with the world in a shift to a new normal. They will people an office at the Cannes Film Festival and Market this May following a three-year ban on international travel. As well, NZFC CEO David Strong and some staff will take a marketing mission to LA shortly to leverage off the success of Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, seeking to attract more international production to New Zealand.

The attractiveness of New Zealand to international productions relies in large part on the New Zealand Screen Production Grant incentive. And that incentive along with all other Government investment in the screen sector is up for review as I wrote about last newsletter. Please speak up when the times comes, so that Government hears your views.

Both international and domestic productions in New Zealand are now accustomed to living with COVID. Testing, crew replacement for illness, temporary shutdowns and other adaptive measures are all part of screen production life here. Thankfully, a new round of screen production recovery funding from MCH has become available, so that many NZ productions have a fallback or financial guarantee for production to go ahead—that nagging uncertainty at least for a time, in abeyance.

Many other things on our plate at the Guild remain in various states of flux, however. The interminable delay of the Copyright Act Review continues. The on-again off-again nature of the Screen Industry Workers Bill is… on-again for present. The Reform of Vocational Education on the industry side has slowed down while Toi Mai, the new Workforce Development Council whose responsibility includes the screen sector, finds its feet.

One thing we can be sure of, though, the TVNZ – RNZ merger will go ahead… maybe.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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