DEGNZ Receives NZ On Air Support for Director Attachments

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For Immediate Release

4 August 2015

The Directors and Editors Guild of NZ (DEGNZ) has received NZ On Air Industry Development Fund support for its DEGNZ Drama Director Attachment Initiative, which will see up to three paid director attachments to New Zealand drama productions in 2015/2016.

The initiative is designed to develop and up-skill new television drama directors, contribute to the ongoing production of quality future drama, and provide another training pathway to those currently available by placing emerging directors as attachments on local drama one-offs or series.

“We are focused on maximizing the work opportunities for established and emerging DEGNZ member directors in drama,” said DEGNZ Executive Director Tui Ruwhiu.

“We are extremely pleased that NZ On Air has come behind this training initiative at a time when the environment is buoyant for both local drama and international drama shooting here.”

“This domestic scheme enhances the already successful director attachment programmes DEGNZ has run on international productions Spartacus and Ash vs. Evil Dead thanks to producer Rob Tapert and the New Zealand Film Commission,” he added.

The cost for the attachments will be split between NZ On Air (60%) and the production company (40%), with DEGNZ administering the scheme and monitoring the directors through the attachments.

Working together with local production companies, DEGNZ will identify upcoming drama productions that could take director attachments. Calls for applications will be made with DEGNZ and NZ On Air feeding into the final selection, with the successful candidate ultimately being chosen by the production company.

While the attachment is primarily a director shadowing opportunity through preproduction, production and post-production across a maximum 12-week period, the attachment will get to direct on the production if he or she proves herself.

DEGNZ has already had initial discussions with some local production companies regarding the initiative and expects to make a call for the first attachment opportunity in the near future.

The criteria and calls for applications will be made available on the DEGNZ website when attachment opportunities become available.

Ends

For further information, please contact:

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director
Directors & Editors Guild of NZ
tui@deganz.co.nz
021-659-950

Last updated on 10 April 2018

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Open Night for Directors and Editors: August 20

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Calling all past, present and potential DEGNZ members! Join as at our Open Night for Directors, where you can network with fellow film-makers, chat to current members and ask any nagging questions you have about DEGNZ membership in an informal setting. We provide the delicious nibbles – just bring yourself!

Please indicate your attendance on our Facebook event page.

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Last updated on 12 March 2018

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Art or Commerce—A Moot Question?

24 July 2015

This week I attended three film-related events that highlighted the polar differences between art and commerce in film.

On Wednesday morning I went to the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) briefing on the review of the New Zealand Screen Production Grant (NZSPG), driven by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage (MCH).

The outcomes of the review are positive, particularly in the international production arena, with the NZSPG seen as delivering on its promise. Tweaks have been made, some with the intention of improving opportunities for small post-production and visual effects companies and in the area of children’s drama production to stimulate growth.

From a DEGNZ perspective, the NZSPG increases work opportunities for editors on higher-budget productions intended for international markets. For directors, over time we are hopeful that more international TV productions will look to New Zealand directors to work on their shows, and that more internationally focused New Zealand productions are made with Kiwi directors employed. One of the intentions of the DEGNZ director attachments on the Ash vs. Evil Dead series (hopefully franchise) of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi is to expose NZ directors to their view with hopefully one or more getting picked up in future. We have the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) in part to thank for this. Shortly, we will be announcing another initiative intended to further improve DEGNZ director member opportunities in drama.

The more significant news out of the briefing in some respects, however, was the demise of Film New Zealand (FNZ), the international marketing entity promoting New Zealand and its screen industry to international producers, with NZFC taking on its responsibilities and staff. This could be seen as the clearest indicator yet of the ‘business-fication’ of NZFC, which up until recent times has really been seen as a cultural institution with a cultural mandate in film. It’s not hard to imagine that there will be commercially focused Key Results Areas (KRAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) driving this new area of operation for NZFC, which is increasingly taking on responsibility for both film and television, reinstituting the chatter of an eventual merging of New Zealand on Air and NZFC.

In outlining the changes to the NZSPG, it was interesting to note NZFC CEO Dave Gibson’s emphasis on the cultural aspect of the incentive, perhaps indicative of some disquiet or at least sensitivity around the overtly commercial nature of everything that’s occurring.

The other events I wish to make mention of were two indigenous films I attended at the New Zealand International Film Festival: Embrace of the Serpent and Balikbayan#1. These two films would sit smack bang in the centre of the Culturally Significant planet of NZFC’s five planet strategic model if they were Māori, but it’s difficult to imagine that they would get funding from NZFC in the current environment even if they were. They eschew the Hollywood model for filmmaking, instead expressing the singularly artistic vision of the auteur directors behind them—something that’s almost entirely out of vogue in filmmaking with NZFC now. It’s more likely such projects would have to find favour with Creative New Zealand or other Arts funding streams in the same manner as do the projects of multi-disciplinary artist Lisa Reihana.

As part of the hosting DEGNZ volunteers are engaging in with the international directors who have come in for the festival, giving them a friendly local face to connect and communicate with, I went out last night with Balikbayan#1 director Kidlat Tahimik after his film and performance at the Academy.

Kidlat is the father of independent Philippine cinema, has multiple awards from the Berlin Film Festival, a Masters from the business school at Wharton, and he took up film under the tutelage of Warner Hertzog after becoming uninspired by his work with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

Listening to Kidlat talk about his filmmaking, it was refreshing and invigorating to hear what lay behind this film 35 years in its journey from start to finish. No script, obviously long interruptions in forward progress, and absolutely no mention of the imperatives of box office, eyeballs on screen, and return on investment. He had something to say through film and said it.

As we transition from the arthouse focus of the past for which we established an enviable international reputation to the emulation of the Hollywood model, which our cousins across the ditch have according to some failed spectacularly at, is “Art or Commerce?” a moot question? Or is there a middle ground where the culturally significant planet shines as brightly as the others, not overshadowed by commercial imperatives, and on which artistic auteurs can still find a home alongside the planet of the next Peter Jackson?

We shall see. And let’s hope so. As much as we all need increased box office and other revenue to make sustainable careers in film and television, there is still a place for the artistic freedom of expression through film that inspired many of our accomplished filmmakers to go on to commercial and critical success.

 
Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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Digital Kapow!

10 July 2015

We are being assaulted by digital technology and the digital realm and its effects on our chosen careers and our livelihoods are irrevocable.

I have written about this previously, but recent events bring it once again to the fore.

Digital editing has been around for a long time and for editors it has been a relatively slow and measured transition to the new paradigm. With the decline in the quality of footage shot in the field for a lot of TV shows, it really does often boil down to “We’ll fix it in post.” A good producer and editor is what save many a TV show these days. And this has helped maintain their value.

For directors, a couple of now institutional advents heralded real change and devaluing of their skill. The first was one person camera (OPC), which really had its place in TV news. Doing away with the soundperson and putting the responsibility for everything on the camera operator, who in many cases was already directing for the reporter, laid the groundwork for what is now an everyday occurrence in reality TV.

The arrival of the PD150 and other such cameras made opc a reality mainstay in non-news programming, and cemented the position of opc as director on many shows, which continues to this day. This helped give jobs to the increasing number of graduates being pumped out of film and television schools.

Digital production and post equipment and film school graduates also wrought havoc on the corporate video market, where unsophisticated clients chose low cost over quality approach and hastened the growth of low-priced content marketing. In this arena, one-person film graduate outfits compete with TV commercials production companies who lament the loss of the big budget commercials of yesteryear.

Much information, marketing, and educational video content and a good proportion of reality, light entertainment and documentary programming today is made without a dedicated director at the helm, and it’s common for the same person to shoot, direct and edit projects, particularly in the content marketing arena.

A look at the lay of some of the land will help to show what is going on:

  • In the 2013/14 year, the Department of Statistics identified 12,500 people working in producing, contracting and broadcasting in the screen industry in 23,700 jobs—2.9 jobs/person.
  • 2,130 students with diplomas or bachelors degree graduated in Communications and Media Studies in New Zealand in 2013.
  • YouTube statistics state 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute—from video selfies to web series and everything in between.
  • In a Brightcove sponsored survey of Business 2 Business Content Marketers in Nth America by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 76% are using video in content marketing, with YouTube the platform of choice for 72% of them.
  • The shift with the funding bodies, who have been stuck on the same level of funding for years with no real increases in sight, is a further clear indicator of digital ramifications.

Last night saw the launch of the second round of Loading Docs, an online initiative for 10 x 3 minute documentaries. This project receives both New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) and New Zealand On Air (NZOA) support. Each of the successful applicants was required to generate $2k in crowdfunding and received 2k in matched funding and other non-financial support.

NZOA has a Request For Proposal (RFP) out for web series of around 6 episodes of approximately 5 – 7 minutes for a $100k budget, down from the heady times of Auckland Daze ($357k for 6) and The Factory ($600k for 20). The web series strand is just one of five separate digital funding streams for content at NZOA now.

Te Māngai Pāho is on the digital bandwagon, too, following a joint initiative with NZOA last year. Hahana ($40k for 10) was the first webseries to receive funding.

On the up side, the democratization of video production has brought down the barriers to entry and allowed new talent to come to the fore. Creators can now take risks, experiment and develop their skills free from the interference of funders, investors and others seeking control, often in the hope of being recognised and given mainstream opportunities. This of course also means there are yottabytes of crappy content out there that you have to wade through to find something good.

On the downside, because so much content is being produced for free or next to nothing, professional cast and crew are regularly being asked to work for nix or close to for content for digital and increasingly broadcast.

In short—more content, more content creators, and less or no money for budgets.

The latest bastion to be assailed in New Zealand by digital is drama—short films and low or no budget feature films have been round long enough already.

I have mentioned before the ridiculous, maximum $45k per half hour of broadcast drama that Māori Television has issued an RFP for. Producers are falling into line for this, self- and cast and crew- flagellating whip in hand. At DEGNZ we have taken a strong stance against this development because directors, editors and others will not be fairly compensated for their work. This particular issue has become so contentious that the other guilds and associations are making noises, too.

It’s not hard to imagine that the generally fair and equitable pay rates for traditional NZ TV drama is going to come under digital threat at some point, particularly as NZ web series become more prolific.

With NZOA’s latest web series RFP, producers are running around town seeking cast and crew to make pilot samples for free on the promise that if they get commissioned they will be paid for their services retrospectively.

Our role at DEGNZ as we often reiterate is to enhance the cultural, creative and financial wellbeing of New Zealand directors and editors.

Our fight for fair pay rates is made the more difficult by individuals agreeing to working conditions that are not only patently unfair, but sometimes raise serious occupational health and safety concerns.

We ask that you give careful consideration to the overall ramifications of your agreeing to work on drama projects where you are not adequately compensated. Otherwise, you could end up knocking yourselves out.

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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Measuring Success

26 June 2015

With the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) just around the corner, I thought it interesting to look at what parts festivals and box office play in the working lives of directors and editors.

While television does find a place in some festivals, it’s more usually accorded accolades at awards ceremonies such as the Emmys and the New York Festivals Awards. And in a way that’s understandable. The programme has already found its audience in being broadcast. Audience success in TV is measured in NZ by a little black box that sits in 400 or so living rooms. Rate well and you’re in. Rate poorly, you’re out.

Film, whether short or feature, needs critical acclaim and to find an audience, and festivals are an important way to do both.

I produced a short film in 2013 directed by Poata Eruera and edited by DEGNZ president Peter Roberts. It had its world premiere at imagineNative in Toronto, and has been seen at festivals including in France, Greece, Hawaii, Florida and Tahiti. It secured a slot in Ngā Whanaunga in the NZIFF, which saw it screen in the main centres, and then do the NZIFF regional tour. It’s recently been selected for a festival in Montreal, is up for consideration for a tour of Australia and will be broadcast on Maori Television this year. I don’t write this to blow my own trumpet. Rather, to highlight the point of how festivals are finding audiences for the film and getting it in front of them in theatres, for which it was made. And perhaps more importantly, pointed out how the selection in Toronto triggered a post production grant from the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) that allowed us to do a Dolby 5.1 sound mix and deliver as a Digital Cinema Package, enhancing the theatre experience. Without this festival exposure, I would be left to putting it online and trying to drum up eyeballs in competition with the billions of other videos in that space. Even worse, a film made for the big screen would be viewed on a computer screen or smaller. Fortunately, imagineNATIVE was one of the 28 A List Festivals that NZFC currently recognizes and will provide support to filmmakers for.

For directors and editors, this A list is what separates the wheat from the chaff for your film, and for directors particularly, for your career.

With more than 5000 festivals listed on the largest film submission website Withoutabox, only about 100 have any real cachet, and within that number, a shifting combination of 30 or so rate in the NZFC’s eyes.

For features, Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Venice and Berlin are primarily where you need to go, although a small number of others count, particularly for documentary and genre. Otherwise, you’d better have box office success. Around $1 million in domestic box office puts you in a good place, and if you can do $1 million in local currency in Australia, the UK, and or the US, you’ve got an indie hit on your hands.

Some examples of relatively recent New Zealand successes:

  • Mt Zion, directed by Te Arepa Kahi and edited by Kahi and Paul Maxwell earned $1.3 million in NZ. Its festival success sat outside the majors for features, and included Mill Valley, Hawaii, ImagineNATIVE and Hofer Filtage.
  • The Orator, directed by DEGNZ member Tusi Tamasese and edited by Simon Price did a respectable $767,000 at the NZ$ box office, but more importantly gained acceptance into Venice and Sundance, an indicator of the vitally important “critical acclaim.”
  • The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, the documentary feature directed by DEGNZ member Leeane Pooley and edited by DEGNZ member Tim Woodhouse, racked up $1.8 million at the NZ box office, got into Toronto and a number of other good festivals and won multiple awards.

Without this kind of success—critical acclaim and or good box office returns—particularly for the two narrative drama directors, they could have become roadside casualties on the NZFC highway of first time feature film directors who never made another film. Each of these three talents, deservedly, has gone on to make further films with NZFC funding.

While international success is very important, local festivals like NZIFF, Show Me Shorts and Doc Edge are good for you and your film, too. They are highly credible internationally, put New Zealand stories in front of New Zealand audiences, and allow your film to be seen with some of the best of international offerings.

DEGNZ celebrates the success of its member directors and editors who this year have found a place on the highly competitive NZIFF film roster:

Documentary features: directors Costa Botes with Act of Kindness, Rebecca Tansley with Crossing Rachmaninoff, Shirley Horrocks with Tom Who? The Enigma of Tom Kriesler, and editors Prisca Bouchet with Ever the Land, Cushla Dillon with The Price of Peace, and Costa Botes with his film.

Narrative features: director Jason Lei Howden and editor Jeff Hurrell with Deathgasm.

Shorts: directors Rowena Baines with Dancing in the Dark, Hamish Bennett with Tihei, Ivan Barge with Madam Black, Alyx Duncan with The Tide Keeper, Giacomo Martelli with Coral, and Jackie Van Beek with The Lawnmower Bandit. (Apologies to those we didn’t pick up or receive notifications for.

For all of them, we wish success in the future as well.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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