NZ closer to Hollywood

By PETER GRIFFIN

Broadband technology is making New Zealand a more attractive film location for Hollywood studios.

Production houses are now able to land footage on the desks of US movie executives hours after it is shot.

Auckland post-production house Digital Post has been working on Disney tele-movie You Wish! which wrapped up shooting in Auckland two weeks ago, "digitising" footage so it can be sent to the US for editing.

Telecom connected Digital Post to its under-utilised city fibre ring, giving it the capacity necessary to make large file transfers to Los Angeles broadband operator Media.net.

Media.net has made a business out of providing links to "runaway" film locations such as Canada, where post-production companies send footage back to Los Angeles-based editors.

Receiving the footage in digital form means US-based producers and directors can have the day's filming streamed to their desktop PCs, or straight to the computer systems of their editors.

Digital Post's chief technology officer, Matt Cunningham, said film shot on location around Auckland had been converted to digital files and sent to Los Angeles across Media.net's virtual private network (VPN). The files were then passed on to Disney for viewing.

Previously, Digital Post would have had to courier a video tape of footage to Los Angeles at a cost of at least $500 or use a web streaming service called ClipMail that had technical glitches when making transfers to North America.

An hour of footage can now be sent to Los Angeles in just six minutes - previously that would have taken up to 12 hours using a slower link.

The Herald understands Media.net plans to extend the service locally and has been scouting for customers in New Zealand and Australia with the aim of winning a collection of film industry customers. It is undertaking a year-long technology trial with Telecom.

In Wellington, film production company Weta Digital has also made use of broadband, sending high-resolution footage between its studios and London, where director Peter Jackson has been overseeing recording of the musical score for The Two Towers, the second instalment in his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson views special effects sequences for the film on his laptop.

Weta's long-distance production work was presented as a case study at a conference in Sydney last week titled Commercialising Broadband Technology.

Use of the technology meant film studios could break down sets quicker, as there would not be the traditional delay while they waited to see if scenes had to be reshot.

Media.net

Digital Post