NZ film history

As a visitor to these shore my knowledge of the local film industry in pretty much non-existent. I have seen Once Were Warriors, The Piano and Whale Rider, of course, and who hasn’t heard of Peter Jackson’s oeuvre? I won’t bore you with a rundown of NZ films (you can find those at the NZ Film Commission website), just a few Did You Know’s:

 ★ NZ has the highest per-capita cinema going in the World.
★ Broken Barrier was the first internationally distributed NZ film
★ Pacific Films, one of the first independent commercial film studios, used to shoot rugby games on saturdays and have 10 minute summaries in the cinemas by the following Tuesday.
★ TV transmission started in the 1960’s, in Auckland only at first, and only between 6 and 9 pm. Colour came in the early ’70, as did a second TV channel.
★ There was no network, film reels were shipped round the local TV stations by planes.
★ The 1977 premier of Sleeping Dogs sees the first commercial feature film made in NZ with a NZ theme (what if Vietnam happened in NZ).
★ 1980 saw the introduction of tax-deductible investment for films, which led to a rash of feature being made. Since many of them were not specifically NZ-themed, it was decided to end this kind of financing and to only finance films that had a NZ story and setting, and were directed, produced and written by NZ talent.

First week

At the end of the first week |(admittedly lasting only three days) I am dizzy and hopeful and raring to go. But first some facts. There are 19 people in our crew (Crew 14, that’s us). Mostly blokes, and 4 women. We are a mix of age groups from 18 to 43, from various parts of New Zealand, a couple of Yanks and other assorted foreigners.

Our day will be from 8.45 till 16.30 with a one hour break for lunch. First day was devoted to admin, handing out locker keys and pc passwords and filling forms. We learnt about unit and 1st AD duties, which involve keeping the kitchen clean and completing the attendance roster. We were also handed call sheets, a weekly page that shows all events, locations and other information for the coming week. That way everyone knows where they have to be when. And we were reminded of the importance of being punctual, since that is the first rule of all film work: be on time or this is your last job. Just like a real film set ;-)

 On day 2 we were introduced to first concepts of digital media, line resolution and video formats. Factoid of the day: did you know that cats can distinguish 130 frames per second to the human ability of 24 frames per second? Not surprising that my cat stared uncomprehending at the screen, all she sees are series of still frames.

 Highlight of the week for me was a trip to the film archive. First we got to watch old newsreel on the big screen and touch actual 2 inch video tape and then got to spend the rest of the afternoon with the DVD viewing library. Rows and rows of footage right there for the watching (see above photo)! 

Lastly we were introduced to the cute little Panasonic camcorders we get to use for our projects, watched Some Like it Hot as an introduction to the Friday screenings, where we will all present our own chosen feature one day, and met some people from the NZ film industry. A good first week.

About to Start

Only one more week till film school starts. I am spending my time cleaning out the Mac to make space for all the new footage that will inevitably be coming my way. Otherwise I am trying to keep my head as clear as possible, see what happens.