Industry Feedback
Pathways to Features Industry Consultation Update
Thanks to everyone who called, visited us or provided constructive written feedback on our Pathways to Features Industry Consultation paper. Four collectives/organisations and 17 individuals took the opportunity to write and you’ll find their collated feedback in full at the bottom of the page.
In response to detailed feedback, and to provide adequate time to consider the many ideas raised, we’ve decided to extend the Pathways to Features feedback review period. We now plan to hold focus groups during June 2014 with those who supplied written feedback, to discuss in more detail the headline considerations raised and outline our proposed approach for short film support.
In the interim, we have elected to proceed with the following:
Fresh Shorts (Fresh 10 and Fresh 30)
This structure will remain as is for the coming financial year (June 2014 – July 2015) with further consultation on the Plus component to occur in June 2014. The Fresh Shorts 2014 application round opens as advertised on 12 May 2014 and closes on 28 June 2014. Click here for an application form.
In late May 2014, Whetu Fala (Short Film Manager) will lead the Fresh Shorts information and application roadshow, joined by Tim Hope (Film Festival Coordinator) and Tracey Brown (Film Materials Manager). You can read more here.
Fresh Shorts Festivals Funding
One aspect to emerge from feedback was the idea of a fund to assist with the cost of short film festival submissions. With this in mind, we’ve decided to trial the following structure:
All successful Fresh Shorts applicants from the October 2014 round that deliver fully and on time will automatically qualify for a grant of $800 (+ GST if relevant) towards festival submission-related costs. This is a one-off payment and will be paid retrospectively i.e. applicants will need to supply copies of all festival submission-related receipts in order to be eligible. Please contact Whetu Fala (Short Film Manager) via whetu@nzfilm.co.nz for further information.
Premiere Pathways
At this stage (and before the further consultation in June) we haven’t committed to Premiere Shorts funding for 2014/15. However, we do remain committed to funding short films with high production values that gain strong international profile and position filmmakers well to capitalise on their feature filmmaking aspirations. We will continue to shape Premiere Pathways, informed by your written feedback and what is discussed during the forthcoming focus group sessions.
The NZFC recently announced changes to the Early Development Fund (EDF) structure and changes to the Advanced Development Fund (ADF) are also being considered currently. One change we’re looking at implementing in relation to Premiere Pathways is the idea of including project-specific visual materials costs (e.g. mood reel, trailer, etc.) as part of ADF rather than via Premiere Pathways as was suggested in the consultation paper. This and other considerations are still under discussion by staff and we look forward to focus group input.
Thanks again for your valuable feedback and we look forward to further input as we shape the NZFC’s short film support to be as effective as possible in identifying and enabling filmmaking talent.