I’ve been writing View from the Top almost every two weeks now for the last ten years. With AI such a topical issue, I thought I would task AI to write the blog for me this week to see what it came up with. I gave it one prompt, and here’s what it delivered: New […]
Producer John Barnett was at the heart of the NZ film and TV industry pretty much from its formative years through to today. He’s made multiple films, documentaries and TV series, employing thousands of above and below the line people along the way. Starting out as Endeavour Productions, through South Pacific Pictures and full circle […]
The Copyright Act Review is back on, with a proposed Stage 1 set of proposals being finessed for feedback. Although we lobbied long and hard on behalf of directors in the previous review started in 2017, the whole review was ultimately put in the too hard basket in 2020 by the government. COVID didn’t help. […]
The Cannes film festival is over for another year. And it’s another year where no New Zealand film got into Official Competition, Critics Week, Director’s Fortnight, or the short film competition. The last NZ feature in Cannes was Cristine Jeff’s Rain 24 years ago, in 2001. Zia Mandviwalla’s Night Shift was the last short film […]
Donald Trump’s tariff threats on film is causing considerable angst globally and extreme nervousness in New Zealand, even though detail is still entirely lacking, apart from Jon Voight’s plan, which seems to have triggered Trump’s reaction. In discussions with the Directors Guild of America two weeks ago, I was informed that production in the US […]