3.1 Demonstrate an understanding of a specific media industry (external 3 credits)
NEW ZEALAND FILM HISTORY
VERY BRIEFLY!!
(read in conjunction with viewing of 100 Years of Film in New Zealand)
Tuesday 13th October 1896 – using an Edison Kinematograph a programme of short films were shown at the Opera House on Queen Street, Auckland. The audience paid big money, four shillings, two shillings and sixpence or one shilling to see ‘the electric marvel of the century’. (At the time, a painter could earn eight shillings a day!)
1890s The Salvation Army creates the Limelight Brigade to spread the good word with ‘magic lanterns’. They toured NZ every year until 1908. Before 1907, it is estimated they had produced 60% of everything shot in NZ.
New Zealanders were recorded on film for the first time in 1897, when Premier Seddon and a group of ‘Maorilanders’ (as they were called) attended Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Procession in London on the 22nd June.
Films made by New Zealanders appeared on local screens in late 1898.
In 1901, the Limelight Brigade made Soldiers of the Cross. Sometimes called the world’s first feature film, it used 200 coloured slides, 900 metres of film, a choir and an orchestra, to tell the story of the Christian Martyrs.
By mid-1900, entrepreneur and producer A.H.Whitehouse had selected 10 topical films, each with a running time of less than a minute, to take to the Paris Exhibition in 1901. The Departure of the Second Contingent for the Boer War is the only known survivor. Filmed at Newtown Park, Wellington on 13 0r 14 January. 15 minutes of film, no more than 33 seconds.
1908 Permanent Picture Show houses were established.
The first was the Royal Pictures Syndicate at His Majesty’s Theatre in Wellington.
16 March 1910. King’s Theatre opens in Wellington. First purpose built cinema in NZ.
1914 New Zealand’s first feature film was made by George Tarr. Hinemoa was filmed over a week on a budget of fifty pounds (about $150). Nothing survives of the 2,500 feet of film.
1916 first censorship in NZ. The Cinematographer Film Censorship Act made it illegal to show any film not approved by the State Censor. Mr. W. Joliffe held this position until 1927.
1918 James McDonald commissioned by Dominion Museum, Wellington to film ‘images of traditional Maori life.’
1922 the NZ Cinema Enterprises syndicate produced the epic feature The Birth of New Zealand. 8000 feet of film, only one fragment remains.
1923 Regular government film making began. Cyril Morton, S. B. Taylor and M.H. Robinson made scenic films for local and overseas tourist promotion. Produced 240 films in next seven years.
1925 approx The New Zealand Moving Picture Company Ltd started by Laurie and Hilda Inkster in Otaki. Aimed to become the ‘Los Angeles of NZ’s moving picture industry.’ It did not last long.
1926 Edwin (Ted) Coubray forms NZ Radio Films and Moa Films. Pioneer film maker he shot Carbine’s Heritage in 1927, a romantic feature.
1929 8th March. The ‘talkie’ film arrives in NZ.
1929 20th December. The Civic Theatre opens in Auckland.
The Hollywood production epic Ben Hur (1925) was seen by 76,000 Aucklanders in 6 and a half weeks.
1935 Len Lye (1901-1980), internationally recognised experimental NZ film maker, makes A Colour Box.
1940 Rudall Hayward 1900-1972. Greatest triumph was Rewi’s Last Stand a remake with sound of his original 1925 feature.
1941 NZ Film Unit formed. Government run, recorded/recreated historic events and propaganda.
1943 NZ had 1.5 million people and 525 cinemas. Each Nzer went to the movies an average of 23 times a year at an average cost of $3.71 for each showing. Most films shown were made in the USA.
1950 Pacific Films formed. Founded by Roger Miriams and Alun Falconer and with John O’Shea (director) they produced Broken Barrier (1952), a controversial feature that explored a relationship between a Maori boy and a Pakeha girl.
John O’Shea went on to become one of NZ’s most significant film directors with the TV series Tangata Whenua: The People of the Land in 1974, Pictures 1981, Leave All Fair 1985, Ngati 1987 and Te Rua 1991.
1960 1st June. Television arrives in NZ and crushed movies. In 1966 a third of all picture theatres had closed leaving only 312 open. Fully nationally networked TV did not happen until 1970.
1970s the new Directors arrive. Geoff Murphy and Roger Donaldson create Tank Busters (1970), Sleeping Dogs (1977) and Goodbye Pork Pie (1981), competing directly with ‘the might of Hollywood.’
1980 Video players available in NZ.
1981 NZ Film Archive established.
1983 one of the first female Maori film makers, Merita Mita, creates Patu! followed by Mauri in 1988.
1983 Utu in also created by Geoff Murphy, KingPin by Mike Walker in 1985, and Ngati by Barry Barclay in 1987, creating a Maori perspective for the first time.
1985 Gaylene Preston makes Mr.Wrong, followed by Ruby and Rata 1990, Bread and Roses, 1993, War Stories Our Mother Never Told Us, 1995 and Perfect Strangers 2004.
1990 Sky TV arrives in NZ.
1990 first multiplex cinema opens in Palmerston North.
1993 Jane Campion wins the Cannes Film Festival Award for The Piano.
1994 Once Were Warriors (Tamahori) is released and is the most successful ever of New Zealand films to date.
Heavenly Creatures (Jackson) is released.