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Speaker 1: Bryan Bridge.

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Speaker 2: So James Cameron was down at this event in Wellington

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Speaker 2: last night. He was a guest speaker for the lobby

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Speaker 2: group Vision for Wellington. It was meant to be the

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Speaker 2: meeting focused on the city and all the issues they're

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Speaker 2: having and the fact they can't fix their pipes, etc.

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Speaker 2: But James Cameron took the opportunity to talk about how

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Speaker 2: important it is for all of us to support the

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Speaker 2: film subsidies that we have in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: International film and TV productions currently they can get about

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Speaker 2: twenty percent of cash rebate if they film right here.

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Speaker 2: Iren Gardner's the president of the Screen Producers New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: She's with me Hi Irene Hi there. Good to have

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Speaker 2: you on the show. Do you know when I saw this,

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Speaker 2: I thought, of course, James Cameron loves this. He just

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Speaker 2: wants more money out of the government.

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Speaker 1: Well yes and no. He does bring an awful lot

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Speaker 1: of money into New Zealand, so you know, I think

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Speaker 1: we have to give them credit for that. And that's

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Speaker 1: the thing with the rebate, And I think it's the

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Speaker 1: point James was trying to make is that people kind

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Speaker 1: of think, oh, it's just you know, free money. It's

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Speaker 1: a grant, it's a giveaway, it's a subsidy, whatever, But

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Speaker 1: it is in fact a centage rebate. It's what happens

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Speaker 1: in the screen industry all around the world, and really

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Speaker 1: for every dollar that goes back, we get about six

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Speaker 1: into the economy, back into the New Zealand economy and

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Speaker 1: so and in fact Avatar is probably at the higher

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Speaker 1: end of that. Their contribution to Wellington and New Zealand

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Speaker 1: is incredible. So I'm quite pleased that James was talking

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Speaker 1: up the rebate because he's right.

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Speaker 2: Would the industry survive without it?

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Speaker 1: No, No, it is absolutely the background backbone rather of

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Speaker 1: the New Zealand screen industry, and that goes for international

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Speaker 1: and domestic. For international, they just wouldn't come here without

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Speaker 1: it because they can get it in pretty much every

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Speaker 1: other territory. And so even though we have wonderful scene

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Speaker 1: or any wonderful landscape, great cruise, they would not come

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Speaker 1: here without it and we would lose all of that

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Speaker 1: international money. But also for the domestic industry now that

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Speaker 1: things are extremely tough for local production because of years

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Speaker 1: of the streamers hoovering up advertising dollar, well not advertising dollar,

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Speaker 1: but the eyes that we made advertising dollar off. A

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Speaker 1: lot of our producers are now having to work in

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Speaker 1: the co production area, you know, doing shows that screen

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Speaker 1: all around the world, and they tend to be the

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Speaker 1: rebate shows. So we would be really berefed without it

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Speaker 1: for domestic these days because you know, everything is just

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Speaker 1: so tough in that area.

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Speaker 2: There's a show on Netflix at the moment. I just

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Speaker 2: noticed it the other day actually, when I was flying

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Speaker 2: on that Jetstar flight that I was talking about, and

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Speaker 2: it's a New Zealand show on Netflix based in Cay Colder.

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Speaker 2: It's all based around it or after an earthquake. Do

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Speaker 2: you know the one that I'm talking about.

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Speaker 1: I do know the way, and it's called Friends Like Her. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it's a great little well. It's interesting actually because we've

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Speaker 1: had a bit of a beef with Netflix and that,

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Speaker 1: you know, they set up an office a while back

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Speaker 1: called you know, Netflix Australia New Zealand, but they actually

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Speaker 1: never commission anything out of New Zealand. But that's an acquisition.

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Speaker 1: It's not a commission. It's a show that was actually

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Speaker 1: made for three here, but they've now bought it and

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Speaker 1: it's screening on Netflix. So that's a little foot in

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Speaker 1: the door, which is good because Netflix has been using

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Speaker 1: New Zealand as a location for international productions and now

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Speaker 1: they're starting to buy a few existing shows. So we

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Speaker 1: really hope that the next step is that they would

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Speaker 1: actually commission some shows from New Zealand production houses. What

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Speaker 1: would they pass do?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: I don't know, because it'll be different from show to show,

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Speaker 1: But to be honest, it's not terribly much when they

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Speaker 1: just buy it late in the piece as an acquisition.

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Speaker 1: Where the real money is is when people invest in

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Speaker 1: the show at the front end. You know, they commission it,

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Speaker 1: they put money in it. It might be a bunch

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Speaker 1: of different production companies. All of that money comes into

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Speaker 1: New Zealand and it may have some New Zealand funding

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Speaker 1: as well, and then of course it gets the rebate

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Speaker 1: percentage taken out, which is hugely helpful.

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Speaker 2: I see this, you know, one that they've acquired it

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Speaker 2: does well on the streaming platform. I mean, is that

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Speaker 2: how you start to build a relationship with them to say, hey,

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Speaker 2: some of our content might actually do well on your platform.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you should start to go from the ground up here.

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Speaker 1: I think so, and I really hope so. And that's

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Speaker 1: a great show and we've had a few factual shows

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Speaker 1: on there as well, which have been good little shows

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Speaker 1: like Casketeers and Down for Love and things like that,

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Speaker 1: and then to see Friends like Her, which is a

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Speaker 1: really good drama. It can only be good, you know

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Speaker 1: that one thing leads to another because I think we

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Speaker 1: do still suffer a little bit because not so much

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Speaker 1: in factual because it's a bit more level playing foot field,

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Speaker 1: but in drama and comedy, where New Zealand's budgets haven't

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Speaker 1: quite been so high as the world, I think there

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Speaker 1: is perhaps a perception, oh, can they do it? And

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Speaker 1: of course now that we've got more into the co

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Speaker 1: production world which that show is, you know, you get

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Speaker 1: shows like After the Party going all around the world

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Speaker 1: and The Gone and you know North and things like that.

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Speaker 1: So I think we are proving that we can do it,

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Speaker 1: and it's just getting them to understand that and take

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Speaker 1: a punt.

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Speaker 2: Really interesting stuff. Iren, thank you very much for that,

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Speaker 2: Iron Gardner the Sparta Present. That's the present of these

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Speaker 2: screen producers in New Zealand. For more from Hither Duplessy

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Speaker 2: Allen Drive listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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