New Zealand
Film Locations. New Zealand offers a world of location looks within a close proximity to each other. To name a few:
• Otherworldly looks - deep forests, glacial waters, towering mountains, magnificent fjords.
• Stunning car roads. New Zealand is a car commercial paradise.
• Modern cities, contemporary architecture and some old European looks.
• Snow-capped mountain ranges - Central North Island and the length of the South Island. The snow rarely falls to sea level, so even during winter, all of the other beautiful locations are available too. There are modern ski resorts in both the North and South Islands.
• Beaches - black, brown or white sand, surf or calm water, small intimate beaches, or beaches that go for miles.
• An international winter car-testing track on top of a mountain – one of few places worldwide where cars are tested on snow during the months of June to September.
• Wheat and barley fields - these are harvested between December and March.
• Luscious green farming fields of various crops.
• Lakes, rivers and streams - large and small, white-water rapids.
• Extensive picturesque vineyards.
• Sports - many sport and recreation facilities - world-class golf courses, stadiums, velodrome, etc.
New Zealand has no vast desert but some significant coastal sand dunes and large inland areas of sparsely vegetated plains.
Auckland is the main filming city, followed closely by Wellington, Queenstown and Christchurch.
Permits. The permitting process is generally quick, easy and streamlined. It is possible to close city streets for filming, as well as rural highways and country roads but not motorways. Aerial filming is permitted over most locations, including cities. A 500 ft minimum height limit applies to cities but there is usually no minimum height restriction otherwise.
When to shoot? Subtropical in the north and temperate in the south. The north has no extremes of heat or cold but winter can be quite cool in the south, with snow in the mountains. The eastern areas often experience drought conditions in summer; the west, particularly in South Island, has more rain. Summer is the busiest time for production offering long sunny shoot days with impressive light. Winter offers snow fall on the mountain ranges but the rest of the country rarely sees snow, so you can still shoot at all the other beautiful locations all year round.
For monthly weather statistics please see here.
Please contact us for more specific weather and sun path information.
Costs. For a high quality production service centre, New Zealand is one of the most cost competitive filming centres in the Western world. New Zealand is approximately 30% cheaper than Australia due to the difference in exchange rate, less distance to locations, and more flexible crew and talent rules.
Talent. New Zealand is a multicultural country offering international talent looks, with the majority of looks being Caucasian, Maori / Polynesian and Asian.
New Zealand has a great depth of actors and models. Featured talent and extras of any look are not a problem. However, if you need principal dialogue actors with a particular accent/language, we recommend that you cast in your own country, as well as do a casting session in New Zealand. It is sometimes required to do a casting session in New Zealand in order to obtain work visas for visiting talent, unless the talent is key to the campaign and not generally available locally (Eg: Foreign language speaking), in which case no New Zealand casting is required.
Most actors are non-union, but in general we do work to industry guidelines (known as the Pink Book). There are no strict guidelines for rates here. Fees are determined on country, media and duration of broadcast. Buy-outs are available.
There is an actor's guild in New Zealand. They are connected with the Australian union, MEAA, but do not have strict rules and regulations like the Australians do and only about 50% of actors are members. See here for more information.
To view an example of the local talent looks please visit:
Robert Bruce
Auckland Actors
Katherine Rawlings
Human Garden
Kam Talent Management (Offer many ethnic looks)
Odd Management
Talento
Nova Models
Visage Model Management
Creative talent. New Zealand has a good pool of local directors, directors of photography, production designers and stills photographers with extensive international experience.
Please contact us for recommended directors, DoP's, production designers and photographers for your project.
Crews. Auckland is the main filming city, followed closely by Wellington, Queenstown and Christchurch. Crew may be located in all these areas, and can travel easily to any locations. Crews are non-union. New Zealand has a great depth of professional, technical crews. They are quick, hard working and have a great deal of experience servicing international productions.
Premiums. Crew work a 10 hour day, then charge overtime in ¼ hourly increments thereafter. 10 hours is usual turnaround, breaking that incurs an hourly penalty. There are no penalties for working weekends, holiday or nights. Double-time is charged for the 7th consecutive day of filming or the 13th prep/filming day. We usually work around this by giving crew a well-earned day off. However, we do work to Screen Industry guidelines to ensure high expectation levels are met on both sides. For more information on these guidelines please visit:
NZ Film and Video Technicians Guild
Equipment. New Zealand has most of the equipment you would expect from an established service centre: 35mm, HD and Red / Alexa cameras. Technocranes, Libra head, Scorpio and others. steadicams, underwater camera equipment, motion control, various gyro stabilized heli mounts, a flying camera rig, tracking vehicles, low loaders and vehicle camera arms for car shoots.
There are several camera and equipment hire companies, keeping costs competitive.
Panavision (Film and HD cameras and kits)
Metro Film (Film and Alexa cameras and kits)
Queenstown Cameras (Arri 435 cameras, 2 x Alexa cameras)
Dolly Shop (Grip equipment)
Tony Monk Films (HD and Helicopter cameras)
Art department, set construction, costumes and SFX are world class. To give you an example of the standard, New Zealand has hosted films such as Lord of the Rings, Narnia - The Lion Witch and Wardrobe, Xena - Warrior Princess, World’s Fastest Indian, and The Last Samurai.
Studios. Although most people come to New Zealand for the spectacular scenery, many projects are also shot in studio. See here for examples of local studios:
Stone Street Studios, Wellington
Henderson Valley Studios, Auckland
Studio West, Auckland
Tax Incentives. There are incentives for feature films. GST is not charged on foreign TV commercials and other short format work as the negative is considered an export.
Film New Zealand is an independent body that provides a variety of information about filming in New Zealand including information on feature film incentives. See:
Film New Zealand
There are also local film offices in each centre, who focus primarily on their region and its specific filming opportunities:
Auckland
Queenstown
Wellington
Film Stock. Both Fuji and Kodak are available locally.
Post Production. There are many post-production, animation, 3D and sound facilities to choose from. See here for examples:
Digital Post
Weta Digital
Park Road Post
Oktobor
Visas and Work Permits. Clients and agency do not require work permits while visiting to supervise shoots in New Zealand, but may require a visitors visa depending on nationality - for a list of visa free countries see here under Visa-Free Countries.
Work permits are required for cast and crew from all countries except Australia. These can generally be obtained quickly. We can provide the required documents and advice to secure work permits prior to arrival, or in some circumstances after arriving in New Zealand.
Importing product - It is easy to bring product (including cars) into NZ for filming. As long as we have all the details in advance, these can be cleared of customs and be available within 24 hours. Goods can be brought in on a temporary import permit (and taken out of the country again), or on a carnet. Goods left in NZ may incur a Goods and Services Tax.
Transportation Infrastructure is all up to known and expected world standards. Many international airlines fly directly to Auckland and sometimes to Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.
Accommodation. Recommended hotels include:
Auckland:
Sebel Suites
Westin
Hilton
Wellington:
Museum Hotel
Ohtel
Terrace Villas Apartments
The Bolton
Queenstown:
Heritage
San Moritz
Milbrook Resort
Sofitel
Please contact us for corporate rates.
For longer stays we can also organize serviced apartments.
Communication. Web posted casting, scouting and video conferencing.
Safety. New Zealand is a very safe and reliable filming centre.
Projects. For an example of TV commercials, online advertising, corporate videos, stills campaigns, feature films, TV series and documentaries shot in New Zealand, please see below:
Our production service companies, line producers and fixers have serviced TV commercials, online advertising, corporate videos, stills campaigns, feature films, TV series and documentaries for:
AXA Belgium, BBC UK, Canon Singapore, Coca Cola Indonesia, Concord Canada, Dove Malaysia, Deutche Bank Germany, Dressman Sweden, Evian France, HBO USA, Heineken Ireland, Hyundai Korea, Intercontinental Hotels Global, ITC India, Kirin Japan, Kraft USA, Landrover UK, LG Korea, Meunil China, McDonalds Australia, MUFG Japan, Nikon Hong Kong, Nokia China, Orange Moblie Slovakia, Philips Netherlands, Proctor & Gamble USA, Chery Riich China, Rimowa Germany, Samsung Korea, Sinoland Hong Kong, Skipper Italy, Smirnoff USA, Sony United Arab Emirates, Stella Russia, Telefonica Spain, Vidal Sassoon China, Virgin Media UK, and much more.
If you are looking for a film or photographic production service company, line producer or fixer in New Zealand, please contact us.
We are able to provide you with answers, references and bids quickly.
