On The Up: Kiwi actor and producer Peter Winkelmann’s low-budget film projects are challenging the titans of cinema

LA-based Kiwi actor Peter Winkelmann is part of a new breed of creatives whose shoestring budgets are beating the titans at their own game. Mitchell Hageman finds out how - and why they could be saving the cinema experience by carving a new path out of the bones of old Hollywood.

With coyotes howling in the distance, Peter Winkelmann and his crew traversed the rugged Hollywood hills with less than $1000 worth of filmmaking gear in tow and a vision to make magic.

There were no fancy service trucks or big budget trailers, nor famous celebrities or studio backing, just a Kiwi and his crew looking to make something out of nothing.

You can imagine it was quite a shock when their shoestring film noir project The Viridian Jewel caught the eye of none other than Golden Globe-winning Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail.

“[Esmail] was like, I made a noir film once. This one’s better,” Winkelmann tells me, recalling the high praise.

He’s zooming from his Los Angeles apartment, a place he didn’t expect to be real when he moved there during the Covid pandemic.

“On that Uber ride over, I was sort of like, I hope this place I took a lease on exists. I didn’t know anyone on the continent or any friends in America at all, let alone LA.”

The Viridian Jewel was filmed in the Hollywood hills on a shoestring budget.

Having now lived in the United States for five years, Winkelmann knows a fair bit about how the brutal commercial studio system works.

In a world full of failures, he’s found success through the unlikely avenue of low-budget film-making and takes pride in challenging the status quo.

“One of the films I produced for $400 has been included in the official selection for LA Shorts, next to short films with budgets in excess of $100,000,” he says.

“It’s a serious festival too: it’s Oscar-qualifying and has previously hosted the work of people such as Gary Oldman, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola. A similar no-budget film I acted in won Best Picture at the San Pedro International Film Festival.”

Winkelmann is a long way from his hometown of Taupō.

His love of acting took him to the University of Auckland, then through two of the prestigious Stella Adler Studio and Academy of Acting outlets in the US, which boast alumni such as Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.

“There’s a really awesome film industry in New Zealand, but for me, I’m someone who believes if you want to try master something, you go to the source.”

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, particularly in his first few months trying to figure out the lay of the land.

“Naturally, everything was shut, so those first few months were extremely isolating. I also got Covid within those first few months, which was quite scary because there was so much uncertainty about it,” Winkelmann recalls.

But a chance foray into low-budget filmmaking during strict pandemic conditions made Winkelmann realise the future looked bright for independent film-makers.

“The nature of the opportunities were pretty bizarre. It didn’t look like what we perceived the film industry to be, because the situation had shifted so radically,” he says.

His film Trolled, with a crew of about five and a budget of less than $20,000, won a bunch of awards and got distribution in the US.

“We constructed this spooky horror film where we were doing it like a live stream, meant to look like it was all filmed on different GoPros positioned around the room.

“There was a bunch of us tied to chairs being attacked by this scary guy, and we filmed it all in this experimental one-take where we were all improvising.”

Peter Winkelmann's low-budget films have found success up against revered film-makers.

Winkelmann credits the ad-hoc format to putting him out of his comfort zone, something that he believes helps creatives thrive and form a sense of community.

“The film industry was going through this massive radical shift from all of the pressure coming from all these external factors.

“I think putting myself in a position where there was external pressure motivated me to go the extra step and sort of lit a fire on my bum to really put myself out there.”

It’s also helped fuel a new fire for low-budget film-makers who want to buck the trend.

“Over the last five years, the whole industry has really started to shift. I think it started with Covid, but then we went from Covid straight into the strikes, AI being a big factor in those strikes,” Winkelmann says.

“This changed people’s consumption habits. Movie theatres still haven’t returned to the same, and there has been a massive contraction around streaming. But the streaming bubble has kind of popped.

“There’s essentially been this arms race between all of these different streaming studios, and with all these different strategies, a big company ends up like swallowing all the other ones.”

Curious about the trends, he did some research and theorised that there may be a link between the consumption of social media and the success of low-budget film-making.

“You can see it in the younger demographics already. I saw a stat that was like less than 20% of people under 20 even watch streaming channels anymore in America. It’s all like social media content, TikTok and Instagram and so on.

“This probably gets into my opinion here, but I think the reason for this is because people relate to authenticity.

“Connecting to an individual and the abundance of hyper niche content that’s specifically targeted at your interest, as opposed to these big mass appeal, outdated media styles, right?

“With smaller budget films, there’s an opportunity for a new model of film-making to come around where there’s like a more niche audience and more targeted films.”

But success isn’t the only thing Winkelmann and his team gain from their low-budget endeavours - there’s also the personal gain.

“The most important thing in film-making is spirit, and we’ve got that in buckets in the independent scene,” he says.

“I think that there needs to be a push for community building around cinemas. I think every area of life at the moment, we need to push towards community.”

Peter Winkelmann moved to Los Angeles during the height of the Covid pandemic.

For Kiwis looking to enter the weird and wonderful world of independent film-making, Winkelmann says NZ’s number eight wire mentality will bode well.

“Do it. Do it yourself and figure it out yourself. Give yourself like grace and explore because filmmaking is a trade. It’s a skill, and it’s something you just have to do, and every single time you do it you’ll get better and better and better,” he says.

“There’s no point trying to write the perfect project or set out to make the next Scorsese film on your first go. Ask questions, be curious, explore and just have fun making stuff.”

Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.