Written by on Mar 24, 2010. Posted in On Location

Wide appetite for New Zealand as global double

New Zealand is earning a reputation as a double for locations all over the world, with its towns and cities being used alongside its natural scenery. A 2.5% increase in the country’s Large Budget Screen Production Grant (LBSPG) in the summer of 2007 resulted in nearly NZD50 million in grants being paid out to productions between July 2008 and June 2009, according to figures from Film New Zealand. In addition, this now includes a post, digital and visual effects grant.

Film New Zealand says Queenstown in south-west Otago in the South Island is one of the country’s most popular filming locations. As well as the exposure delivered by three Lord of the Rings films and two Narnia features, the area has also doubled for real-world locations. X-Men Origins: Wolverine doubled areas around Glenorchy and Paradise for Canada, while a recent commercial for Yili Milk used the area to double for farms in Mongolia and China.

New Zealand’s climate is inverted from the northern hemisphere, which is a strong selling point. Patty Tsai, an Executive Producer with Cheers Films in Beijing, which produced the Yili Milk commercial, said: “We could have shot in Inner Mongolia, but the winter season did not allow filming at this time. Therefore, the possibility aims to the southern side of the world. For a dairy commercial, New Zealand is the best spot with her well-known locations and dairy farms.”

Just 75 miles away from Queenstown is Wanaka and Snow Farm, which has proven a popular double for colder parts of the world. Vampire horror 30 Days of Night doubled the area for Alaska in 2007 and more recently it was used for ancient frozen lands in 10,000 BC.

Natalie Crane of Film New Zealand explained that the country’s cities are under-used: “The city councils are generally supportive of filming and the regional film offices Film Auckland and Film Wellington do a great job of cutting through the red tape to make it easy for inner-city shoots.”

Use of the country’s cities tends to be more subtle. Production services company New Zealand Film Connection recently worked on a Burger King commercial that tells a story of the fast-food brand travelling through Miami, China, the Pacific Islands and Australia to New Zealand, all of which was filmed in and around Auckland. Treza Gallogly, an Executive Producer with New Zealand Film Connection, said: “Britomart train station in Auckland was dressed to look like Miami Airport, a street in Auckand city was dressed to look like Chinatown and a beach was made to look like a Pacific Island.”

In a separate project, New Zealand Film Connection doubled Whale Bay near Auckland as a Pacific Island for a Carlsberg commercial.

Ms Gallogly concluded: “Auckland city is very versatile. The beaches here, with their white sand and pristine clear blue water, do look very like the Pacific Islands. All we have to do is dress in a few art department palm trees.”