Tag Archive for: MCH

Where To Now?

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I’ve been away on holiday for ten days, so have had the opportunity to push anything work-related out of my mind for a time.

Arriving back at my desk and engaging in work once more, however, I’m reminded of the considerable challenges facing the screen sector right now.

One of the more significant shifts going on is the coming together of TVNZ and RNZ as Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media, destined to come into being on 1 March 2023.

The reallocation of $42 million in contestable funding from NZ on Air to ANZPM has already occurred, which has meant that from July 1 2022 NZ On Air had a reduced pool of cash to fund content with.

To adjust to this significant change, NZ On Air is having to chart a new direction for the organisation. It has put out a strategic think piece, which you can read here.

The document is simple, straightforward and shows a clarity of thinking that’s encouraging. Essentially, in determining their strategic direction from here on in they are going to develop a model based around Laser Focused and Ideas Factory thinking, while longer term looking at Critical Mass to achieve greater effectiveness through partnerships. (Please follow the link for more detail on this.)

This bodes well I believe, while it is still upsetting that NZ On Air have had their funding reduced, with no planned increase in sight for them.

Another key element they identified to enable this possible new direction is a need for changes to the Broadcasting Act. The Act has governed NZ On Air’s direction since 1989, and just like the NZ Film Commission Act 1978, is past its use-by date.

The screen industry has changed globally and New Zealand is well behind the eight ball when it comes to keeping up. Rather than being proactive and outward looking we have been reactive and inward looking. Just look at what’s happening across the ditch.

Screen Australia’s 32nd annual Drama Report released last week reports that overall, $2.29 billion was spent across 162 drama screen productions that commenced production or post production in Australia in 2021/22 compared to $1.94 billion spent across 163 productions in 2020/21. The increase was driven by a record spend on Australian theatrical features ($786 million up from $495 million last year), as well as a record spend on Australian subscription TV and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) – for which number of titles, hours and budgets have tripled from 2020/21.

Netflix, Paramount+, Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+ and local SVOD Stan are helping to drive this growth, with commissions flowing to local production companies, and not just for drama.

New Zealand? Not so.

Yes, Australia has got a larger market, a lot more bankable stars, and better writers. But still. We’re not helping ourselves.

Look at the mess that MCH and MBIE are proposing, for example, in their draft paper for the Screen Sector Investment Review. If that goes through we’ll be going backwards not forwards.

Back to NZ On Air. They’ve been a well-run and pretty effective organisation to now, most people would agree. Their thinking about their future direction is positive in a bad situation.

I’m hoping that the same king of sound thought exhibited by NZ On Air will guide the outcome of the legislation intended for ANZPM. But I’m not holding my breath. It’s a political football being rushed towards the election-year touchline.

It seems like New Zealand’s domestic production sector is under threat from multiple sides right now. And we don’t really have anybody to blame but ourselves.

I’m hoping that those shaping our destiny have a great Xmas break and come back refreshed, invigorated, and really take on board the feedback they are getting from us and everybody else.

We need pragmatic and positive changes that will grow our local talent and local IP, and increase local production, while keeping international productions coming here. Now that would be a late Xmas present worth waiting for.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

 

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It’s a Crazy Time

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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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Screen Investment Review

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At the end of 2021 the Government announced a review of government investment in the screen sector. The review will be led by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. There is a document outlining the terms of reference for the review here.

This review is one part of a strategic review of the New Zealand screen industry, primarily focused on the New Zealand Film Commission’s direction and activity, including the New Zealand Screen Production Grant (NZSPG) for both domestic and international productions. However, NZ On Air’s direction and activity obviously falls into this because of the changing nature of the shifts occurring worldwide, as well as the fact that some NZ On Air funded productions utilise the NZSPG.

Our screen industry falls into two camps: domestic production, and international production (and post-production) that takes place here.

International production as we all know provides wonderful opportunities for New Zealand crew, and brings foreign investment to New Zealand. From DEGANZ’s perspective, what it does not do is bring great opportunity for New Zealand directors and editors. Only a very select few Kiwis get to direct, and sometimes edit on these international productions, being the international drama or sometimes documentary series shot here.

While we continue to push for more Kiwi directors and editors to work on these international shows, our main focus has got be on what we can do with domestic production to tell our stories here and internationally, and employ our directors and editors—and our actors, writers, producer and crews—so that they all can have thriving and sustainable careers.

Over the next three months, MBIE and MCH will be conducting a wide consultation with the NZ public and those who make up the NZ screen sector as part of the review. DEGANZ is now formulating its thoughts to bring to MBIE and MCH.

But there is an opportunity for each of our DEGANZ members to share their own thoughts in the consultation process.

When the call comes for submissions, we will inform you. Your voice counts and we want as many of you as possible to have your voices heard. This is a really opportunity for us all to have some influence on the future direction of NZ screen.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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Much to Celebrate

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We are in the midst of election turmoil both here and in the United States.

Pork barrel politics are in full swing here with promises from all sides intended to sway voters.

We are fortunate, though, that the Arts has already received funding from Government due to COVID in the $8 million-dollar Cultural Capability allocation over two years ($2 million each) to New Zealand On Air, the NZFC, the NZ Music Commission and Creative New Zealand.

Additionally, from the total $150 million allocation it’s managing for the Government’s COVID 19 Sector Regeneration Fund for Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage (MCH) is sorting out now how to best spend the other $12 million in Cultural Capability funding. A number of us in the screen sector and from other Creative and Arts-related organisations have been in focus groups with MCH to discuss this.

Participating in these focus groups has made me very aware of how fortunate the screen sector is in comparison to other Arts sectors. There are many creative organisations and individual artists who are barely hanging on in the COVID environment. It was particularly poignant to hear of suicides in the music sector.

Another very clear reminder of the screen sector’s difference for me in these meetings was the fundamental blending of art and commerce that is central to our sector. Our art comes about as the result of tens or hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars in investment to generate a work. The annual budgets of NZ On Air at $150 million, NZFC at $26.4 million and with a New Zealand Screen Production Grant Budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars exhibit this.

In television, there’s no real tension between art and commerce. It’s a business. Everybody knows it. That’s not the case in film. Film still remains the domain of the auteur director, whether they are making an art house film or a Hollywood blockbuster.

Director Christopher Nolan has been given the authorial right by Warner Brothers to bet the bank on a cinema release with the $200 million film Tenet. Why?

Nolan exhibited his artistic talent with his first film Following. His second feature, Memento, on a $9 million-dollar budget grossed $40 million worldwide. His Batman trilogy, Man of Steel, and Interstellar have generated billions. That’s why. Nolan is now an established blockbuster auteur.

Nolan’s debut feature Following was made on a budget of £3,000. Most of the cast and crew were friends of the director, and shooting took place on weekends over the course of a year.

Of course, not everybody who’s a director has the talent or will take the path of Christopher Nolan. But we should celebrate every New Zealand film that gets made whether its self-funded or the beneficiary of NZFC financing.

Sam Kelly and Guy Pigden, two of the latest DEGNZ members to finish films, took different paths to the same result.

Sam’s NZFC funded Savage is knocking it out of the park at the moment, having taken over a million dollars at the box office in two weeks. Guy’s film Older, funded through Pledge Me, had its official premiere last weekend, and is available to stream on Prime Video. Streamer reviews are looking good too.

As well, we have DEGNZ member directors Armagan Ballantyne in production on her sophomore feature Nude Tuesday, Michelle Saville on debut feature Millie Lies Low restarting after a COVID shutdown, Linda Nicol wrapping up on her debut Poppy, and Leanne Pooley with feature documentary Girl On A Bridge, which has finished its cinema run and is now available online.

Even amidst these COVID-created tough times, we have much to celebrate with the success of our members in the feature film arena and the funding our sector’s received.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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