I've worked on some "villas" in Ponsonby for some foreigners and thought " Jeeze I wouldn't put the bathroom there, and your not really going to paint it that colour!"
But he's paying in green backs so what the hell, and it means I can go and work on a cottage in Glen Eden for mates rates. We all win.

But Rich, that's exactly the beauty of the international production, unlike the 100 million worth of villas, all he owns when he leaves is a hard drive full of movie, good or bad and at no risk to us.
A better analogy would be Johnny Foreigner coming over doing up 100 million worth of villas, paying us to do the work and leaving with some photographs of them.
And next week another foreigner come over and pays us to tart up them up all over again.
I think the economic term for this is " money for old rope".

But Rich, that's not new money that's the same old worn out kiwi dollars that's already in our economy, these rebates attract huge money from overseas, loverly new shiny green backs.

Hey Rich, sure film workers can all get jobs in other areas, but why let an industry die that earns large overseas income? and why take other people's jobs when we are trying to create more employment?
Remember the rebate is only paid when the money comes in.

Well I don't know about jet planes or super yachts, but unemployment is exactly what happens when our government doesn't match rebates of other countries. That's the whole point, it's all or nothing, the productions either come or they don't. Do you know anyone in New Zealand who's got a spare hundred million or two to risk on a movie or TV series. The rebate is only paid if they bring their money.

All this talk of New Zealand getting it's own stories up so we can control the IP is all well and good, but it's also good to make other people's stuff here.
They turn up with a big bag of cash, we make the show and they bugger off with their movie.
We get paid, they take the risk, our economy benefits, and then all that knowledge, skill and technology can be applied to our local shows. This is what Australia is doing, this is what Ireland is doing, this is what South Africa is doing, this is what UK is doing, even Louisiana is getting in on the game, but our government knows better.

Sorry Craig, I ment to say film industry jobs are 70k per year on average as compared with the country's average of all other work.
And I'm not talking about the Wellington industry, I'm talking about the much bigger but unsung Auckland industry.

and in that case it might not always need to be shot in New Zealand to be beneficial to us anyway.

The latest Buzzy Bee TV series was produced in Malaysia, but the IP is owned by New Zealanders.

Great for the people who own the IP, really sweet for the Malaysian animators, not much use to the unemployed Kiwi film worker and for the NZ tax payer who now has to pay his dole and doesn't collect his tax.
This is not about IP, that is a different conversation. 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.

Hmmm, movie ideas aren't hard eh, I'm glad you think so, perhaps you could knock off a couple of scripts over the labour weekend and single handedly save the New Zealand film industry. And I love how you drop the names of the two largest grossing movies of all time as examples.
This is not about IP, it's about losing a huge over seas earner that's taken 30 years to grow, because this government uses a different calculator to all the other film making countries in the world, who are now cashing in.

This study from Oxford University in 2010 found that every £1 brought into the country was worth £13 to the economy. Other countries are doing what they can to get in the game. Does this government know something that they don't?
And these jobs that we are losing are good jobs, the average film job is 70 k per year when the countries average is 50k. Remember when this mob got in they talked about getting wages up there with Australia, well this isn't helping.
http://industry.bfi.org.uk/media/pdf/i/r/The_Economic_Impact_of_the_UK_Film_Industry_-_June_2010.pdf