Random Films announced plans recently for a new film investment initiative dedicated to boosting local Industry by extending much-needed financial investment and production support to New Zealand filmmakers.
The company also announced its recent purchase of Wellington icon, Westside Studios, and its plans to rebrand and reinvigorate the operation.
In the eleventh hour of the Westside Studios well-publicised tender process, Random Films has stepped up to keep the business intact, rather than see the props be sold off individually. The move acknowledges the need in Wellington for this service; a need for the access to props and theming in a city so well known for its wide variety of creative endeavours and its public and community events.
The funding portal will offer investment for up to three distinctly New Zealand projects in 2014. Random Films Company Director, and WIFT member Charlotte Larsen, says the vision for the fund has been a long time in the making, and Random Films Investments (RFI) has been working closely behind the scenes with New Zealand film producers over the past few years including Taika Waititi, Ainsley Gardiner and Cliff Curtis, to support the telling of stories from Aotearoa.
With offices in Wellington and Los Angeles, the film fund will also have a vested interest in select offshore projects, particularly those with co-production potential and the capacity to shoot in New Zealand, aiming to bring significant employment opportunities for the sector back to New Zealand shores.
Over the past five years, Random Films has lent support to New Zealand works including Boy, The P? Boys, Orphans & Kingdoms and The Last Saint - the latter two are set for release in 2014. The company is continuing efforts to seek out unique and extraordinary New Zealand projects that require that final push to get productions across the line.
Random Films are now taking submissions for investment funding.
For more information see: www.randomfilms.co.nz