By SIMON HENDERY
A group of the country's most talented film producers will be given the chance to sharpen their business skills at an industry training school which will feature top European producers as tutors.
The five-day Film Business School, being held next month at Martinborough in the Wairarapa, will be attended
by 23 New Zealand producers, all of whom have already made their mark on the industry.
The student roll includes Philippa Campbell, producer of Rain, Robin Scholes (Once Were Warriors), emerging Maori producer Rhonda Kite, and Chloe Smith (line producer on Xena and Hercules).
Two Australian producers will also attend.
The international tutors running the course will be led by Hugo Lasarte, director of the Spanish-based Media Business School, and New Zealander Margaret Nicoll, head of Madrid production company New Zeal.
Among international producers teaching on the course is Austrian-born Karl Baumgartner, whose German production company co-produced Whale Rider and who distributed An Angel at My Tableand The Piano in Germany.
The course, developed by Media Business School, has not been held in the Southern Hemisphere before.
Bringing it to New Zealand is the first major initiative supported by the recently established Screen Council.
It has been organised by the Film Commission in partnership with the council and the Screen Producers and Development Association (SPADA).
A Film Commission spokesman, Lindsay Shelton, said as well offering advanced training for already experienced producers ready to move up to the next level of their careers, there was also a networking "x-factor" to the school.
"Apart from the formal training, because all the people participating are all quite high up in the international film business the hope is that some of the [local] producers will be able to do some networking and establish working relationships that will help get their films financed."
Penelope Borland, chief executive of SPADA, said the school represented a partnership which could be expected to lead to new international investment for New Zealand films, "at a time when everyone is interested in us thanks to Whale Rider and The Lord Of The Rings".
