Global drone campaign expected to boost NZ screen sector

New Zealand’s international profile as a destination for global productions and development of new drone technology is expected to rise following filming of a new campaign for the world’s first 8K flying action camera in Canterbury.

So says HoverAir, adding the campaign required 70 scenes to be shot across mountain snow, forest and beach locations in two days.

New Zealand’s screen industry generates $3.5 billion revenue annually, Stats NZ data shows.

Attracting international productions to this market can also help promote tourism, boost employment, improve technology transfer to other industries and increase international recognition of the New Zealand brand, says HoverAir, which makes the X1 drone range and raised more than NZ$1.58 million (US$1 million) in just over two hours when the NZ shot commercial was posted on crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

 Diaries Downunder director and former professional snowboarder Nick Hyne says the new advert will continue to enhance Christchurch’s international reputation as a hub for campaign production.

“Due to the nature of our geography the visual impact you get from our vistas is pretty hard to replicate anywhere else, for example having our mountains dramatically fall into a lake and the scenery from our braided rivers, it is hard to find anything that comes close to what we have to offer,” he says.

“It also means we can create the appearance of any season in a single day – this flexibility is increasingly important to offshore clients – particularly during the Northern Hemisphere summer.”

HoverAir chief operating officer Emily Wang says tech entrepreneur Mengqiu (MQ) Wang founded the company having graduated from Otago University with a postgraduate degree in Computer Science before completing his doctorate at Stanford University.

She says in addition to enhancing ultra-high definition camera content productions New Zealand has significant potential as a destination for testing and development of new drone technologies.

Wang says the commercial has been seen by millions of viewers in more than 75 countries and it was their chief executive’s experience of New Zealand that saw him want to return and have the content shot here.

“We wanted to create an advertisement that introduced these new 8K flying action cameras to the market, we wanted to leverage New Zealand’s dynamic landscapes to bring these drones to life,” she says.

“Our technical research team believes the country has the potential to become an international hub for new product development in the drone space as well as content creation.”

About 14 people helped shot footage in areas including Mt Hutt, Bottle Lake Forest, Banks Peninsula, and New Brighton beach.

Professional skiers and snowboarders were also involved.

Special permits were required to fly the drones which are usually not allowed on the ski fields.

Meanwhile, drones are reportedly helping New Zealand farmers.

PGG Wrightson and Inde Technology have produced SkyCount to use drones and artificial intelligence (AI) to count livestock rapidly.