Producer International Travel Assistance (PITA)
Travel assistance is available for producers with feature film projects in advanced development to attend key international markets to advance the packaging and financing of these projects.
Cannes Marché du Film Market
The NZFC called for applications from committed New Zealand producers with a compelling slate and very strong market objectives to apply via PITA for their travel costs (up to $7,500) for the Cannes Marché du Film Market. 14 Producers were supported to attend: Alex Behse; Andrew Beattie; Catherine Fitzgerald; Karl Zohrab; Leanne Saunders; Matthew Horrocks; Robin Laing; Steven O'Meagher; Tom Hern; Victoria Spackman all received $7,500. Carthew Neal requested $5,075; Emma Slade requested $5,500; Pietra Brettkelly requested $6,525 and Tara Riddell requested $3,000 and each was provided with this lesser amount. The total PITA spend for Cannes 2014 is $102,600 (excluding staff travel). This is a significant budget overspend, but the NZFC feel confident that all candidates and slates were worthy of support and that each applicant’s market objectives were compelling and would move projects forward in a significant way. There are very strong reporting obligations attached to this funding.
Due to the increasing number of PITA applications the NZFC is receiving each year, we are making sure that no one receives further travel support unless full reporting requirements for previous travel support have been met. We are also making it clear that if producers have received PITA twice within the past two years without any significant progress or outcomes, we will not be supporting them again without an extremely compelling reason.
NZFC Initiatives
AnimfxNZ Scholarships
AnimfxNZ is an animation, games and visual effects conference held annually in Wellington. It brings together some of the biggest and brightest names in the global digital entertainment industry for three days of learning, sharing and networking. In its eighth year, AnimfxNZ 2014 attracted a diverse range of digital entertainment talent and expertise. Industry professionals at the top of their game congregated alongside students at the very beginning of their careers. Creative, technical and entrepreneurial minds gather to share ideas, discover new talent, network, brainstorm, invent, inspire, plan and ponder.
NZFC offered AnimfxNZ attendance scholarships to the following filmmakers: Catherine Fitzgerald, Tusi Tamasese, Glen Real, Riwia Brown and Ned Wenlock. Scholarships were also offered to the team behind the short film, Queenie but they were unable to attend due to work commitments. The total cost of the AnimfxNZ scholarships and travel grants provided was $2,050.
Business Development Scheme (BDS) Information Workshop
The NZFC ran a one-day information session in February in Auckland for the shortlisted BDS teams. 19 producers attended the day. The key speakers were Australians Chris Oliver, Michael Tear and Helen Bowden. Richard Fletcher and Paul Davis also presented a short case study on the Libertine application process. Chris Hampson, Dave Gibson, Mladen Ivancic, Naomi Wallwork and Lisa Chatfield attended on behalf of the NZFC.
The cost for the session (excluding NZFC staff travel) was $8,730.
Visiting Filmmaker: Milford Earl Thomas
Atlanta filmmaker Milford Earl Thomas’ Claire is a 53-minute black and white silent film shot on an antique hand-cranked 35mm camera. The film toured internationally, opening festivals in Milan, Brussels, Montreal and the U.S., initially accompanied by a live 11-piece chamber orchestra.
Milford was visiting Australia to present his films so the NZFC asked him to continue to New Zealand to meet a number of filmmakers working in the less-traditional storytelling space. Milford presented a screening of Claire and a Q + A session in both Auckland and Wellington. He also made himself available to filmmakers for one-on-one sessions during the time he was here. The NZFC contribution to his costs and the workshops was $2,274.
Professional Development Awards
This award is to help cover the costs of a professional development opportunity either in NZ or overseas. Applicants who have feature film credits can apply for up to $5,000 to help cover the costs of a significant professional development opportunity in their area of expertise.
Emerging Director, Allan George received an award of $2,500 towards the costs of attending a two-day workshop in Wan Chai, Hong Kong in August with Oscar-nominated Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti. Allan has been officially invited and the workshop is presented by the FILM FEST LAB (FFL) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. The FFL was created to identify, develop, and support new filmmaking methods, in order to achieve cinematic excellence. While Allan didn’t meet the formal criteria for the award, he has shown talent and commitment in the area of directing via his Best Māori Director 2013 and 2014 awards at Tropfest New Zealand. Allan’s work was also officially selected to play at two prestigious international film festivals, ImagineNATIVE in Toronto and the Academy Award-qualifying Austin Film Festival in 2013.
Editor, Samantha Sperlich received a PDA of $4,600 to attend an editing workshop in Portugal with Tariq Anwar (editor of such film as The Kings Speech, American Beauty, Revolutionary Road and Sylvia) in April. It was a practical-based workshop where the participants were given footage to work on with the help of Tariq Anwar as an adviser providing insight on problems throughout the process.
Director, Leanne Pooley received a PDA of $5,000 to travel to London to undertake an Introduction to Directing for Performance Capture (or ‘motion capture’) Masterclass. This opportunity involved consultation with Captivate Action Ltd and The Imaginarium (Andy Serkis’s performance capture studio) regarding pre-production and production considerations for directing Performance Capture.
Producer, Desray Armstrong received an award of $3,050 to travel to Cannes to undertake an additional opportunity following on from her producer internship with See-Saw Films on the production of Slow West in New Zealand. This opportunity will involve attending meetings with Rachel Gardner and Iain Canning in an observational capacity around Slow West. She also provided some assistance to NZFC staff around the Cannes events as well as participating in the Producers Workshop at Cannes.
Producer, Virginia Wright received an award of $5,000 to travel to Cannes. Virginia has nearly thirty years’ experience directing and producing television, but is now making a transition into producing features. She felt that one way to assist in this transition was to attend the Cannes Film Festival and Market and immerse herself in the environment to get a full perspective of the global film industry.
Producer, Zoe Cho received an award of $3,350 to travel to Cannes. Zoe is a New Zealand filmmaker currently living in the US finishing her graduate studies and working as an independent producer. Recently Zoe produced a short film, Needle, which was awarded the first prize award in the Cinefondation Section at Cannes Film Festival in 2013 with writer/director, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh. Zoe felt attendance at Cannes this year was an excellent follow and would allow her to build on the experience and contacts she had previously gained. While Zoe didn’t meet the formal criteria for this award, she has shown talent and commitment in the area of producing via award at Cannes last year.
Joint Initiatives
Carthew Neale and David White Workshops: SPADA
Upon returning from the Entrepreneurial Producing for Creative Industries Course (EPCRI)
in London, Carthew and David were asked to deliver a workshop/ masterclass to share what they had learnt with other New Zealand producers. SPADA coordinated the session. The half-day workshops were delivered in Auckland and Wellington in February at a total cost of $2,351.
Māoriland Film Festival Filmmaker BBQ
The inaugural year of the Māoriland Film Festival took place in Otaki in March. Short films and feature length Māori and indigenous films, as well as movies made in Ōtaki from 1910-1960, were all screened and accompanied by presentations from Himona Grace, Te Arepa Kahi, Quinton Hita, Louis Sutherland, Mark Albiston, Dave Whitehead, Taika Waititi and Tusi Tamasese. The NZFC was asked to host an event and contributed $1,200 to the Māoriland Film Festival Filmmaker BBQ, which concluded the film festival. NZFC staff also attended throughout the five-day event including the opening pōwhiri.