Is the NZ film industry, NZ film education and research aligned to create the best work possible? To discuss this I will identify the film and TV landscape in NZ, the education landscape as well as the areas of research and innovation across both. There will be a bit to write so I will split my thoughts over the next few days. I begin with the Film landscape before moving on to Education, Research and opportunities of future work and innovation.
THE NZ FILM AND TELEVISION LANDSCAPE
The industry is currently strong in a number of areas and of course weak in others. Weekly low budget television drama which run for 5 plus seasons are strong. Think Go Girls, Nothing Trivial or Outrageous Fortune as examples. Any series running for less than 5 seasons in NZ is unlikely to return a profit. The result being little room for NZ made high concept television. High concepts are costly and high risk for audience attention. If they fail to be picked up beyond a second or third season they cannot recoup their costs. Our market isn't big enough to risk making HBO quality TV. High concept TV does exist though from American producers for the American cable networks in the form of 'Spartacus' or the likes of 'Legends of the Seeker'. A series called 'Noir' looked to be produced here last year.
We continue to generate low budget films through the NZ Film Commission rarely exceeding 10million in budget. Louis Sutherland and Mark Albiston's film 'Shopping' is a recent successful example and has been invited to screen at Sundance in 2013. There has been a noticeable trend in the low budget territory since 'Whale Rider' to make coming of age stories. It should be noted that NZ's first international successful film, Vincent Ward's 'Vigil', has placed the coming of age story as central to NZ's film making identity. This genre should be continually revisited as a way of national self reflection not though at the expense of all other forms of film.
Medium budget films above 10 million are likely to be American produced, American stories filmed in and around Auckland.
Large Budget films are strong out of Wellington with the likes of Peter Jackson and James Cameron leading the way. The recent films from these two men and those planned in the future follow a growing trend of large budget Hollywood films that follow a Myth, or Hero journey narrative. This form of narrative has a proven success that gives a level of security to the large investment these men and their films attract. It is in this territory of large budget filmmaking that the greatest contribution to innovation of film technology is happening. Digital film, 3D, digital effects, surround sound and higher frame rates are all being pushed into new territory by Jackson and Cameron to the benefit of filmmakers globally.
Where we in NZ are currently weak is character driven drama and genre films. A member of the Film Commission recently termed this territory 'Heightened Genre'. This term aims to describe genre films of art house quality. It is a territory that in the past we have been strong at but in recent times less film makers have been venturing.
In the past we have had success with Sci fi - Vincent Wards 'The Navigator - A Medieval Odyssey', Geoff Murphy's 'A quiet Earth' and Roger Donaldson's 'Seeping Dogs'. Horror was represented with Peter Jackson's 'Braindead' & 'Frighteners' and Gaylene Preston's 'Mr Wrong'. Character Drama's such as Lee Tamahori's 'Once were Warrior's' or Roger Donaldson's 'Smash Palace' or Jane Campion's Period Dramas 'An Angel at my Table' or 'The Piano'. Suspense Drama such as Peter Jackson's 'Heavenly Creatures' was a pinnacle of NZ film Making.
In the past 10 years though there has been a noticeable absence of films like these. A recent film of note to buck that trend and tackle this wide open territory is Mike Wallis' 'Good For Nothing'. Worth mention is also Toa Fraser's 'Dean Spanley' which stepped outside the norm to bring together wonderful character studies in the exploration of the nature of the soul in Edwardian England. I suspect we will see a bold return to this territory from NZ film makers very soon.
In a following blog I will discuss the film education landscape also. I hope that by discussing industry, education and research of film in relation to each other we can identify how each can better align itself to the other. Where one territory in this Field of work is lacking potentially the other can strengthen. The hope is greater work across the board.
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