The pod system has its critics like all the others but it's hard to argue with the statistics. As I've mentioned before the system works because of the amount the commission puts into the films. NZ short films stand out internationally because of their production values.
The decision to devolve the funding from the commission to three separate production companies on a rolling two year basis has been mostly positive. I've heard this decision goes back to the film Hinekaro Goes Up A Mountain And Blows Up Another Obelisk. Hinekaro stills holds the record for the most expensive NZ short ever made. NZ is a small place and it's too easy for a small bunch of people in Wellington to hand out the money to their mates. After Hinekaro I assume it was realised that the system could be too easily abused with what is of course tax payer money.
Personally I've been shortlisted once before. That was with Whenua Films. It was an interesting process and it taught me a lot. Looking back if I had really thought about some of the questions posed to me about the script I had submitted I could have figured out the answers and got the film to production. The answers didn't come to me until about two years later but I still hope to turn that particular project into a feature. My mistake then was to take an almost adversarial approach to the questions posed to me instead of stepping back and thinking them through. I'm a bit older and hopefully wiser now.
I've enjoyed adapting Bliss immensely. When I first read it I immediately thought "this is a film". That's a great feeling to have. I had some structural issues to deal with in the adaptation but once those were solved I found it a straight forward process. I made a decision early on to not change any of the dialogue if I could help it and that luckily held through most of the script. Much of the pleasure of the adaptation was coming to grips with the sheer depth and density of Mansfield's writing. Each rereading revealed something new to me. Hopefully I get the chance to do filmic justice to a fantastic story. If you would like to read Bliss it's here.
