By IRENE CHAPPLE
John Barnett is striding around the set of drama series Mercy Peak.
He is brusque. "How is this?" He is posing for the photographer, leaning on the bar. A grin is hard to cajole from the head of South Pacific Pictures, but he appears mildly amused. Eventually a wry smile is offered.
Snap, snap, then his compact frame negotiates the way to the Shortland St set, into Nick and Waverley's bright living room.
Snap, snap, the smile remains unwilling, but there are crinkles of humour around his eyes.
This is a film industry player whose longevity ensures his often-contentious views attract headlines, if not always support.
Already this year, he is in the news, but this time for an impressive collection of achievements.
Last year, his strident criticisms of tax treatment enjoyed by The Lord of the Rings captured column inches.
Barnett isn't totally opposed to tax incentives - indeed, he was a beneficiary of those available in the 1980s. However, he remains irritated by the trilogy's tax breaks, arguing they were not justified by financial returns for New Zealand.
But good news has overtaken the controversial in the past few months.
On a personal level, Barnett took the Screen Development and Production Association (Spada) Industry Champion Award for 2003.
On a business level, his company, which he nominates as the most prolific drama producer in Australasia, last year produced a crop of winners.
Shortland St's cliffhanger show enjoyed its highest ratings since 1993, kooky kids' series Being Eve won international awards, and Maori mythology series Mataku is enjoying critical and commercial success.
But Barnett's most precious achievement of the year - indeed, he admits later, his career highlight - was the acclaim for Whale Rider.
Talking about that makes him smile. More than that, when musing on its selection as People's Choice in the Toronto Film Festival (and later audience choice at the Sundance Festival), he chuckles, fidgets, smiles, then bursts into another chuckle.
He leans back with a skyward grin, clasps his hands behind his head and recalls the moment he found out. He had returned home from Toronto when director Niki Caro called at 5am with the good news. She was in Los Angeles with the young star, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who had been promised a trip to Magic Mountain.
After hearing from Caro, he searched the web, wondering what had won previously. Winners included Amelie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life is Beautiful.
Even after a career which has had its fair share of triumphs, including Middle Age Spread, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Race for the Yankee Zephyr, Footrot Flats and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? it was stunning to be in such exalted company.
Barnett was so excited he immediately rang Caro back. There was no one else he could call: It was 6am. He went for a walk around his Ponsonby neighbourhood, but by 7 he was back, calling friends and colleagues to tell them of the win.
"I wanted to call everybody who had been associated with the picture, everybody who had personally backed me."
He is not referring to financial backing but the personal support that pulled him through 10 years of trying to get the story to film.
When Barnett first read the Witi Ihimaera novella, he was convinced that its underlying themes would capture audiences around the world.
Eventually he was proved right, but 10 years ago "I don't think there was the belief you could make a film like that here".
"You needed special effects and it required a young Maori girl ... You'd have been hard pressed to find any Maori actor then apart from Tem Morrison."
There was also a problem because "the central character is a 12-year-old Maori girl and it's set in a Maori village" which led many in the industry to think "it was going to be a kids' film and that a girl who rides a whale is going to be Free Willy".
But he was not prepared to give away the universal values of the story and take the kiddie-film route.
In addition, in those days, "the money wasn't coming [because] investors didn't believe in New Zealand".
Eventually the $10 million film was financed by $2.5 million from the Film Fund, $500,000 from the Film Commission, $500,000 from NZ On Air and the rest from overseas investors.
Once the film was made, Barnett says, it spoke for itself loudly enough for other problems to melt away.
After the triumph of the New Zealand premiere, Barnett was so moved he said: "In many ways it makes me think about the pictures I will do in the future ... There are a whole lot of pictures that I don't want to make now. When you make a picture like this which has an enormous impact, and which has got so much to say, you think, 'Do I need to make run-of-the-mill pictures? No, I would rather not'."
Experiences like that mean there is confidence in the New Zealand film industry, and Barnett says it will last well beyond the Rings hype.
He is a member of the taskforce charged with building the industry into a viable pillar of the so-called knowledge economy.
The Screen Production Industry Taskforce, set up by the Government last year, has given itself an aim of increasing international sales from about $200 million a year to $400 million, excluding The Lord of the Rings revenue, in the next five years.
"It is utterly do-able," says Barnett, who won't go into details before the group's report to the Government is released. "It has been broken down bit by bit."
He does say the group - it includes such industry figures as Touchdown's Julie Christie and Weta's Richard Taylor and is co-chaired by Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton - have found common ground.
"What we found on the first day is that we've all got the same problems. How can we build this industry outside the Government funding, how can we make ourselves better known to the finance community and how we can make ourselves better known internationally?"
Barnett says training centres are churning out too many hopefuls who haven't been taught properly. He wants to rationalise that.
He supports a voluntary quota system for television, but is sceptical of the TVNZ charter, saying it may create a perception the state broadcaster will have a smaller audience, reducing its clout with advertisers.
He wants the film industry weaned off its dependence on public money. New Zealanders must produce film and television that is commercially successful locally, he argues, otherwise there is no justification for clutching at the public purse.
"We have to have more local programming because overall we feel better when we see New Zealand programming. Most of it is a validation of ourselves - documentary, drama, reality television - it makes us feel better about ourselves."
Computer-generated images and special effects are two areas where New Zealand can excel internationally, says Barnett.
"They are not dependent on weather, location, or where the picture is shot. They are about the knowledge economy."
He reckons grassroots New Zealand film and television production is beginning to breed winners.
South Pacific Pictures recently received its fifth script from the same person.
The previous four had been rejected, but, after receiving advice, the writer finally produced a gem.
Will it find its way to screen? "Who knows ... it has been optioned." Barnett smiles. "But you know, it is good."
additional reporting: Russell Baillie
Herald feature: Whale Rider
Riding a wave of acclaim
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