Positively Wellington Business Applauded

30 September 2005

Positively Wellington Business Applauded For Boosting The Wellington Region’s Film Industry

Last night Positively Wellington Business received an award for its work in building film industry infrastructure from the Economic Development Agencies of New Zealand (EDANZ.)

Positively Wellington Business (PWB) won the New Zealand Regional Development Practitioner Incentive Award for its contribution to developing a sound stage studio facility for the Wellington region in partnership with Camperdown Studios Ltd. PWB’s Film and Creative Sector Manager Chris Lipscombe received the award at the EDANZ national conference in Auckland. EDANZ is a professional body with a membership of over 70 agencies around New Zealand.

“As the capital region’s economic development arm, it’s great that Positively Wellington Business has won this benchmark award for the sound stage project. This is right in keeping with our aim to be New Zealand’s region of choice for creative business,” says PWB’s CEO Philip Lewin. “PWB is now working on an exciting project around ‘creative manufacturing’ as our next major regional initiative.”

It is estimated that between $250 and $650 million will be injected into the Wellington region’s economy over the next ten years from films shot in the sound stage. The 24,500 sq. ft., 40 ft. high sound stage is on a par with the biggest and best in Hollywood and London and provides a studio space in which filming can take place uninterrupted by weather and other noise. It joins the suite of screen production resources developed by Camperdown Studios Ltd, co-owned by Oscar winners Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk. Principally funded by Camperdown Studios, PWB secured $2 million under New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Regional Partnership Programme to go towards development of the facility.

Camperdown Studios’ managing director Jamie Selkirk says: “As our production work in Wellington got bigger and more complex, we needed to expand our facilities to include a very large sound stage. We wanted to make the investment, but the project scale was massive so we were also considering other alternatives. Positively Wellington Business’ help made the expansion work in Miramar possible.”

“Stone Street was already a large studio complex, but the addition of the new stage not only gave us the facility to create Kong here, but also to entice other productions from overseas to use our facilities and the amazing skill base that we have in Wellington and New Zealand”.

ENDS

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