Small Country, Big Films: An Analysis of the New Zealand Feature Film Industry (2002-2012)

Abstract

This thesis explores the contextual, institutional, and economic characteristics that influence contemporary feature filmmaking in New Zealand. It identifies and analyses the conditions and circumstances that have made it possible for New Zealand, as a country whose relatively small market size combines with its geographical remoteness, to not only create and sustain a feature film production industry, but also achieve unusual success for the resulting films, in critical and/or commercial terms. Applying an institutional political economy perspective to its research and analyses, this study draws on archival material, policy analysis and expert interviews with key personnel in industry and state agencies, in its undertaking of a ‘value chain’ examination of New Zealand feature film productions. Seven case studies are used to examine the distinguishing factors of the three kinds of productions – ‘tiers’ – that constitute the New Zealand feature film industry, with an emphasis on the connections between these tiers, as well as their individual significance for feature filmmaking in New Zealand.

The study’s successful application of the three-tier feature film production ecology to the contemporary New Zealand filmmaking context is valuable for its capacity to add clarity to existing distinctions between the different types of film production occurring in Twenty-first Century New Zealand. Those are subject to, and emerge from, sometimes very different institutional and financing arrangements, and thus entail different expectations. Important in determining these differences is the question of whether a film’s contribution to a country is primarily cultural or economic, or, is situated somewhere between these functions and expectations. Central to the study’s ‘value chain’ structure and mode of analysis is the investigation of the priorities and motivations of the main institutions and agents involved, in recognition of their capacity to profoundly shape the possibilities for feature film production in New Zealand.

This thesis argues that New Zealand is best advised to maintain and nurture all three-tiers of feature productions, because they depend on and complement each other. Together, they have contributed significantly to the success of the New Zealand feature film industry. To sustain this competitive position and to develop the country’s filmmaking potential further, it will be crucial for New Zealand’s public institutions to ensure continued support for bottom- and middle-tier films in particular, both in terms of favourable policies and funding allocations. Continued support is justified not just in recognition of the important cultural contributions of bottom- and middle-tier films, but also to help these film productions overcome the financial hurdles imposed by a small domestic market and limited economies of scale.