Three-tier structure of the New Zealand feature film industry

ABSTRACT This paper aims to apply the three-tier feature film structure to the contemporary New Zealand filmmaking context in order to add clarity to existing distinctions between the different types of film production occurring in Twenty-first Century New Zealand. Those are subject to, and emerge from, sometimes very different institutional and financing arrangements, and thus entail different expectations. The paper takes an institutional political economy perspective and is organised as follows. First, it provides an overview of how the feature film industry can be portrayed as segmented by various overlapping (three) tiers of production, which may differ between Hollywood and smaller film industries in countries around the world. Second, the paper applies the three-tier structure within the contemporary New Zealand filmmaking context. Third, the paper explains the characteristics of every feature film tier by acknowledging their distinctiveness and highlighting the benefits they deliver to the New Zealand filmmaking industry. Finally, it concludes that all three-tier of feature film production have been crucial for generating and sustaining a feature film industry in a small English-speaking country such as New Zealand.