Wellington Trip Highlights
Our Executive Director had a fantastic trip to Wellington, connecting with members and Wellington creative businesses, including: 37 Degrees Studios, Scale, Floating Rock, 808 Ltd, OhuFX, Fox & Co Animation, Lost Cosmonauts, and Kahu Road Studio. The plan was to gain insights especially into the animation and SFX parts of the membership.
We also attended Floating Rock’s Pitchfest and caught up with Admit One Entertainment and Screen Wellington. We met with screen educators and toured facilities from Miramar Creative and Yoobee to Massey’s National Academy of Screen Arts. It’s so great to see all the amazing spaces available for hire by screen professionals on the education campuses in Wellington!
We took the opportunity to gather feedback on the VFX Guild’s plans to conduct industry research and host events, including a post-production industry day in Wellington this November in partnership with the SMSG (funding dependent).
Meetings with Central Government
NZ Trade and Enterprise (NZTE): We discussed offshore promotion of Creative Tech industries, expressing our enthusiasm for NZTE's support of a game developers networking event at the GDC in San Francisco. We explored similar options for international VFX and animation conferences. We provided NZTE with a list of VFX, screen tech and animation businesses, industry data, and a list of conferences for potential collaboration.
Ministry of Culture and Heritage (MCH) & Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE): Our conversations focused on ‘below the line’ industry support and securing a seat at the table regarding screen policy. Key topics included a national screen attraction strategy, regular rebate review, challenges with the screen data, and the government’s plans to double tech exports in the 10 years. We also inquired about the PDV training levy for post-production talent development, but there are no plans yet due to the change in government.
New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC): We discussed their restructure, funding for guilds and talent development funding as well as the VFXG application for funding for a post-production event programme. This funding is crucial for VFXG to deliver webinars, in-person networking events, and a one-day post-production event in November in partnership with the Screen Music and Sound Guild (SMSG). Results will be announced on the 31st of May.
The trip was highly productive, and we’re excited about the potential collaborations and support for the VFX, SFX, screen tech and the animation industry.