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The (Really) Big Picture
28 March, 2007
The (Really) Big Picture
Waitakere's movie studios are already bustling with world famous productions and a massive new state-of-the-art studio sound stage will soon boost our capacity further.
Mayor Bob Harvey, a former deputy chairman of the New Zealand Film Commission, believes there is something tremendously special and exciting about the film industry in Waitakere.
More and more large scale productions are heading out west - Narnia, In My Father's Den, 30 Days of Night to name a few.
Currently there are more than 300 people are working at the Henderson Valley Road movie studios in the new Narnia film - Prince Caspian.
The Henderson Valley Road site will soon house a new 20,000 sq foot studio will make it the second biggest in New Zealand and the technology it habours will make Waitakere even more sought after by large productions.
"In a strategic sense the sound studio diversifies the film product capacity in that it provides facilities that would be suited to large film productions but it also increases capacity for television and commercial products," Mayor Harvey says.
The studio - due to be opened in September - "is as gigantic as the impact the film industry has had in Waitakere," he says.
"Film is incredibly important to this city and this city's economy and I am delighted the new studio is underway because it's a real, commercial and tangible economic package with the Tay Group."
After extensive liaising with the local industry Mayor Harvey says that film's financial contribution to Waitakere could be in the vicinity of $100 million annually - rivaling the tourism and wine industries.
Mayor Harvey says there are also companies like Studio West in Glen Eden.
"The privately owned Studio West in Glen Eden has been fully booked with Power Rangers for the past five years and turns away two requests a week which, if the requests pertained to 'movies of the week' would be worth approximately $40,000 to $50,000," the Mayor says.
"Studio West says Glen Eden township has never been busier."
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