Sadly, Joyce wouldn't know an international market if it munched his arse. The perils…

DomPost: The-cost-of-piracy-to-New-Zealand

The cost of piracy to New Zealand

Followed by Bumfights: Paremoremo!

15% of nothing is nothing. The rebates apply to projects that would otherwise not be in NZ.

And yes Australia has a higher rebate…

http://www.3news.co.nz/NZs-film-industry-under-the-sword/tabid/817/articleID/320176/Default.aspx#.UnldhiTomgQ

safe as

Quite. Don't envy anyone unravelling that one – yet we must. Also means our banks are quite weak at understanding and valuing risks/opportunies that are not in real estate.

True that's the most common thing. And that's what makes it such a vicious circle. House prices need to drop but they can't as it would involve so much more than homeowners' precious equity; it could potentially lead to a chain of business…

Or against, you guessed it, a house.

Well I don't particularly think the government should do that either. An industry wide fund which provided relief when a region was suffering under some sort of weather would make sense to me.

But one-off drought…

Quite. Exchange rate engineered to prop up housing mortgage market can undermine that as we're seeing. Stoopid govt.

only if you are buying a house

When did that happen? The government was making drought payments last summer wasn't it?

I guess I'd like to see that comparison made. If the government feels it has X million dollars that it wants to throw into subsidising international investment, then it'd be nice to see that as a competitive exercise in which a national…

Only if you use the US city definitions which are particularly narrow. Much as ours where when Auckland's population was…

Yes, 20 or so. Population wise, it's only smaller than New York, though, and Auckland is big enough to be one of the top 8 largest US cities, pipping San Diego at the post.

But my point is that within NZ,…

Our country is smaller economically than many US cities.

Which isn't to say that they wouldn't, almost all NZ mayoral candidates giving prominence in their platform to plans to run a half-arsed, beggar-my-neigbour "industrial policy". Fortunately it isn't a core council function and they have no budget.

Sounds like the company towns of olden times. The infamous British Leyland conglomerate…

Industrial subsidies in the US have had an awful record. Cities and towns have paid enormous amounts to attract businesses to their location only to have the business move on as soon as the subsidy runs out. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of business it is…

Britain also have a sizable tradition of using film making for tax rorts. See here for an explanation, and here and here for examples.

I’ve read probably half-a-dozen news articles on this over the last 10-15 years. It’s a…

Maybe.

And Russell:

The idea of manufacturing as a substitute for screen production is mad, actually.

No argument from me. China is resource rich. And people rich. And peopleresource rich, although not especially rich in resources to people. In any case, a mad comparison. Whatever, an…

that is China's future

We should probably debunk the idea that a set0builder would work for a year on a LOTR-type production and only…

Not sure – working off the premise that the 40k worker has a 35k job. I didn't…

What would the import-substitution good be for a set builder? Assuming there is one, the net result would be a slightly smaller economy with lower imports and exports, and slightly increased unemployment right?

What about if the $35k is producing an income-substitution good/service?

This is the problem I have with the sole-focus being on exports. Goods or services that substitute an import are just as good in that…

That's only true if the $35k per…

Oh, of course. I was just thinking "Hey, that's cool. Pity the screen production industry isn't facing the same difficulties".

But I think you and several others here and in similar threads have made…

Fair question. But as…

Which is awesome. And that $36 million amounts to slightly over 1% of what the screen production industry was last year. There are about…

I wouldn't say it's subsidising exports. Because if the hobbit was never released and…

But isn't it time we grew up and started looking at using scarce government…

Yes I am. I'm actually convinced that if we must have corporate welfare, it ought to go to companies that at least do minimal harm.

how much tax would be paid on the 50% of of screen production costs that would go…

Also, if they do succeed, it's going to be because someone like Lockheed buys them. Good reward for their hard work, but will…

And that's fine, as far as it goes Simon. But all I'm suggesting is…

Ductedfanpack thing. #engineeringpedant

I don't think it holds up as a good example to support your argument. I don't know the specifics, but it appears to me that that company runs on, comparatively, the smell of an oily rag: 3-4 guys working out of a…

That’s a very poor analogy. Feel free to calculate for me how much tax the hundred lucky vendors would pay on their capital gains. Now,…

You're not really discussing…

That's the most convincing argument Russell – it's only $36 million, it keeps lots of people occupied and it doesn't fuck the planet up that much. So as corporate welfare goes, it has that advantage over Solid Energy's somewhat larger indents to employ somewhat fewer…

No more than if we gave 100 foreigners a subsidy to buy million dollar villas in Ponsonby. That'd be $100 million in "magic" foreign money.

The money isn't a gift. The studios get…

The argument that we should be developing and profiting from our own IP is…

Then again, it's not so illogical when…

And our private sector R&D spend has long trailed world levels. Expecting the government to prop them up seems a feature of our local Atlases.

Joyce, English, Key and co ignore how their own personal business 'success' has been supported by public infrastructure investment. Subsidies are for weaklings. Or finance companies. Or farmers. Or casinos.

That disgusts me, Bruce.

But even by Treasury's sceptical analysis, the net cost of the grants scheme was about $36 million over seven years — that is, about $3m less per year than…

That was more the case during the mad period of tax breaks that gave us Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and Queen City Rocker. Investors didn't even have to make good films to…

Yes, but not how it's meant to work, in the fictitious model where the market provides everything and we still somehow get large scale transformative projects.

Investors everywhere are generally unwilling to take a punt on anything they consider risky

Not sure. I think that…

What about that jetpack thing?

This is not how capitalism is meant to work

It's exactly how it works. Investors everywhere are generally unwilling to take a punt on anything they consider risky (they may be convinced that the risk is less than generally…

Not universal. But sometimes a disaster, certainly. I'm not sure why "this is picking winners" is considered such a knock down argument. Sometimes governments do, in fact, pick winners. Sometimes they pick losers. As does everyone, regardless of training. Indeed, if the classic…

Because subsidising exports is a universal disaster. Horrible stuff. All your local capital and…

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…

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…

And if these broadcasters refuse to come to the party, a new one à la TVNZ6&7 may have to be created. The burning issue is, how could it be future-proofed against it going the way of 6&7?

with some conditions imposed on broadcasters

Hi Chloe — thanks for coming here. I was in no…

we have failed you by electing a government with 1950s worldviews

Screen sector companies tend to cluster together to share services, staff, etc. And skilled creative workers tend to like living in interesting cities of scale – like Wellington,…

Because young folk are just queueing to work on production lines.

It's called the government in most civilised countries.

I'm sorry? That's exactly my point – so if you haven't got a subsidised film to work on, you won't be unemployed and you'll still be earning. So…

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/26/hollywood-struggles-to-halt-film-exodus

Why? If that's the case, you're implying that there a group of smart, talented people who can only work on big-budget movies and if they can't do that, they'll sit at home and draw the dole.…

It's a study from Oxford Economics, a commercial body, commissioned and paid for by film industry clients and not apparently peer reviewed (it doesn't even name its authors).

The whole "multiplier" theory of economic benefits is deeply dubious. It assumes that were there no government…

If you increase the opportunities for people to create and develop ideas to the pre-production stage, the likelihood is that more viable ideas will present themselves. It's not about picking winners, but about giving more…

That would be a good question. Even with a Booker Prize under “our” belts, I rather doubt New Zealand publishers will be getting lavish…

Also available to stream on Netflix.

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 Peoplemeter has indeed become a relic of the analogue TV age, but I…

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…

As far as Campbell goes, I think there’s a weird elision of the fact that you can be in a contract, project based industry and still be organised! Hollywood manages it significantly better than much of…

And that’s fair enough. But I can’t get behind Gordon Campbell’s scathing post on Power Rangers. Yes, the production and performance work…

If it was exclusively about cultural independence, then it can only ever be a continual public broadcasting subsidy…

http://www.med.govt.nz/about-us/publications/publications-by-topic/evaluation-of-government-programmes/Economic%20study%20of%20the%20NZ%20film%20industry.pdf

though Shelton only talks about film.

New Zealand’s screen industry has three halves. Two of them are in crisis, if you believe the media last week. The third half is Peter Jackson, which is in vigorous health.

The two crisis-prone halves are looked after by two state-supported Wellington…