Posts by Craig Ranapia
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That didn’t greatly mollify the critics.
To be fair Russell, I don’t think your fur would be easily unruffled if it was your signature on the invoices for the rather substantial reprint of The Luminaries arriving this week instead of VUP publisher Fergus Barrowman.
And for the record there’s a perfectly legit e-book available for a hair less than twenty bucks.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to BenWilson,
Because Washington spin doctors are such an unimpeachable source of moral guidance.
Up to a point, Lord Copper. Up to a point. :)
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
spare a thought for Hollywood too…
Well, of course "runaway production" isn't so bad when they're running towards you. (I'm pretty sure the local actors and crew who worked on Top of the Lake didn't particularly care they were working on a project mostly financed, indirectly, by Australian and British taxpayers; and the shareholders of AMC (who own Sundance).
The irony is that there's been some rumbles of discontent in Australia and the UK why the hell they're paying for a shoot in the colonies, written and directed by a couple of Australians with an American lead. The politics and economics of cultural nationalism are a funny beast. And very quietly, I'm pretty sure a good chunk of the Screen Actors Guild membership would really like it if Kiwis like Jay Ryan, Manu Bennett, Karl Urban and Daniel Gillies would stop stealing good honest American jobs and go back to Australia. :)
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to Russell Brown,
Hi Chloe – thanks for coming here. I was in no way trying to shortchange Rob Tapert’s extraordinary contribution.
And neither was I. I just think it's more than a little naive to pretend producers don't look very closely at things like exchange rates and what subsidies/tax credits are on offer. And if you think Joyce is a shitbag for pointing out the real opportunity costs involved, how about California Governor Jerry Brown?
A California Film Commission report bewailed the industry's "pronounced erosion". LA's new mayor, Eric Garcetti, has declared the phenomenon a "civic emergency". In a statement to the Observer, he added: "Entertainment is LA's signature industry, and we can't afford to lose it. It's about more than just Hollywood actors and stars – it's an industry of over 500,000 good-paying, middle-class jobs like electricians, carpenters and caterers, and I'm committed to doing everything I can to keep filming here in LA."
Garcetti says California must offer better tax breaks and credits to compete with rivals, including Canada and the UK. For a big production these inducements can mean tens of millions of dollars. Disney's Iron Man 3, which has grossed more than $1bn, paid no tax to its host, North Carolina, because it was deemed a "temporary business entity".
Legislators in California's state capital, Sacramento, including governor Jerry Brown, have rejected Hollywood's pleas. They say the state already grants about $100m of annual film credits, while schools are underfunded. Many think the studios have little interest in restoring LA's glory and prefer to play rival locations against each other to extract greater tax concessions.
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to Sacha,
It would be interesting to ask our govt just how they choose which industries to support – like gambling, mining, smelting, finance companies, residential housing speculation.
That would be a good question. Even with a Booker Prize under “our” belts, I rather doubt New Zealand publishers will be getting lavish tax breaks and production incentives thrown in their direction. I’m damn sure Eleanor Catton, Victoria University Press (which IIRC will be taking delivery of a substantial third printing of The Luminaries later this week to meet demand) and every bookstore will be paying their full whack to the IRD.
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to Phil Gregory,
This is about saving an industry that is bigger and earns more overseas money than the wine industry, and all for the want of the government giving back some money that they wouldn’t have got anyway. If you don’t attract the big overseas jobs there’s no money to give back.
Frankly, I think that's grossly simplistic. I'd respectfully suggest that the local actors and crew who worked on The Weight of Elephants and Top of the Lake weren't working for magic beans. I don't have a simple answer here (nobody really does), but thinking a little bit beyond Hobbit-fetishism can't hurt.
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And – let’s be honest here – the TV hits haven’t been coming. Audiences for local scripted drama, which costs NZ On Air a shitload to fund, haven’t really been turning up. The Almighty Johnsons, Go Girls, Nothing Trivial, Harry and The Blue Rose have all failed to reach expectations. It really does start to make commercial sense for TV3 to run The Block three nights a week, as depressing as that might be.
So, what kind of license fee has SyFy been paying to pick up The Almighty Johnsons, which rated well enough in the UK to be picked up by the corporate mothership for broadcast next year?
And if producing local drama makes no commercial sense, then you’ve got to wonder what kind of rationale there is for costly ‘content deals’ that seems to involve an awful lot of shows that not only aren’t particularly popular here, but have been cancelled long before before they end up being ‘burned off’ just before the early morning infomercials. Perhaps it’s time for The Block to go 24/7?
In 2013, Lucy Lawless is at loggerheads with Steven Joyce, angry that Joyce singled out Lawless’s husband Rob Tapert’s production shift to South Africa as a factor in the industry slump. In a serious of furious tweets she has accused Joyce (who, to be fair, has been even more publicly contemptuous than usual) of “killing” the New Zealand film industry by refusing to raise the rebate.
To be fair to Joyce, Lawless was being implausibly disingenuous. Of course Tappert's going to follow tax and production subsidies, and it strikes me as rather cute to pretend otherwise. Of course, Joyce is being a bit of a dick because that's not the whole of a rather complex picture, but I don't think trying to out bid the UK and South Africa is a magic bullet either.
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to David MacGregor,
Oh, and stop with the Top of the Lake/Piano/Boy daliances...make them out of profits. The world understands Ironman.
Could you translate that into English for me, because it really strikes my ears as enormously fucking condescending to call Top of the Lake a "dalliance". What makes me sad and a little angry, is that Jane Campion only works in the bloody country when those dirty foreigners pick up the tab: Sundance & BBC Worldwide in the case of Lake, and French and Australian indie producers for The Piano.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Ignorantia legis neminem excusat – even you, Mister Banks. (It certainly is a principle the IRD have applied with unfailing rigour on occasions I’ve unwittingly miscalculated my taxes and underpaid them. And if they had cause to suspect I was engaged in tax evasion, they have considerable powers to investigate and prosecute.)
BTW, if you happen to be a clueless political candidate who just signs anything your equally incompetent campaign chair puts before you, I understand the Electoral Commission is ready and waiting to offer you confidential, impartial and comprehensive advice on everything you need to do to comply with electoral law. Because that's their bloody job and they do it damn well.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Morgan Nichol,
Yegads, for once we're in perfect agreement. Don't do it again. :)
But seriously, if you can't fill in an accurate and complete election return (which hundreds of people do every electoral cycle) you should be trusted to run a country? And, yeah, it's a shame Banks couldn't benefit from the Police's "know nothing, care less" approach to prosecuting breeches of electoral laws -- as Labour and National have in the past -- but to paraphrase Chris Rock obeying the law is shit normal people should just do. Don't expect a frigging medal, or much sympathy when you're the one who finally gets caught out.
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