Global Campaign For World-First Drone Set To Boost NZ’s Screen Sector

New Zealand’s international profile as a destination for global productions and development of new drone technology is set to rise following the filming of a new campaign for the world's first 8K flying action camera in Canterbury.

Industry experts say the campaign which required 70 scenes to be shot across mountain snow, forest and beach locations in two days could not have been made elsewhere in the world in the same time frame and with the level of scenic diversity found here.

Latest data from Stats NZ shows the country’s screen industry, which includes the production of films and TV series, generates $3.5 billion in annual revenue. Attracting international productions to this market can also help promote tourism, boost employment, improve technology transfer to other industries and increase international recognition of the New Zealand brand.

The new campaign for HoverAir, makers of the X1 drone range, raised more than US$1 million in just over two hours when the NZ shot commercial was posted on crowdfunding site Indiegogo - one of the fastest ever to reach this milestone.

Nick Hyne, Diaries Downunder director and former professional snowboarder, says New Zealand’s dramatic landscape provided the perfect backdrop for the commercial with the ability to go from snow to surf in less than two hours.

He says the new advert will continue to enhance Christchurch’s international reputation as a hub for campaign production, with the city already enjoying growing interest from global brands wanting to film here.

“Due to the nature of our geography the visual impact you get from our vistas is pretty hard to replicate anywhere else, for example having our mountains dramatically fall into a lake and the scenery from our braided rivers, it is hard to find anything that comes close to what we have to offer.

“It also means we can create the appearance of any season in a single day - this flexibility is increasingly important to offshore clients - particularly during the Northern Hemisphere summer,” he says.

HoverAir’s COO Emily Wang says tech entrepreneur Mengqiu (MQ) Wang founded the company having graduated from Otago University with a postgraduate degree in Computer Science before completing his PhD at Stanford University.

She says in addition to enhancing ultra high-definition camera content productions New Zealand has significant potential as a destination for testing and development of new drone technologies.

Wang says the commercial has already been seen by millions of viewers in more than 75 countries as diverse as Andorra, Brunei, Cambodia, Liechtenstein, and French Guiana and it was their CEO’s experience of New Zealand that saw him want to return and have the content shot here.

“We wanted to create an advertisement that introduced these new 8K flying action cameras to the market, we wanted to leverage New Zealand’s dynamic landscapes to bring these drones to life.

“The quality of the content created here was well beyond what we had hoped for and we were able to generate millions of dollars in financial backing from around the world within hours of posting the video. This would not have been achievable without New Zealand’s scenic range and the experience of the local production team.

“The diverse environments here also gave our technical team the perfect conditions to test new features and refinements at altitude, in high winds and through forest and coastal locations. This field data was relayed back to our developers in our head office in real time who will utilise it in creating new modes and future product innovations.

“Our technical research team believes the country has the potential to become an international hub for new product development in the drone space as well as content creation,” she says.

Hyne says mountain specialists were part of the crew of 14 who shot footage in locations including; Mt Hutt, Bottle Lake Forest, Banks Peninsula, and New Brighton beach.

“We also used professional skiers and snowboarders as the talent so that we could really showcase awesome action combined with the product.

“One of the things that was really unique about this shoot is that we were able to have the product in an environment from both a first and third-person viewpoint. This was really important for the client as they wanted to show real footage plus what the product also looks like as it's very small and fits into your pocket. We were also able to get some unique angles and a couple of the flight modes on the drone, which was really fun to capture.

“Our content illustrates how the product would work in an authentic winter environment at the same time capturing the diversity of our beautiful New Zealand landscapes which will be seen by millions around the globe,” he says.

Hyne says special permits were required to fly the drones which are usually not allowed on the ski fields.

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