Film-makers want flexibility

Kevin Jennings
Kevin Jennings
Concerns about conservation management plans locking film-makers out of national parks has led Film Otago Southland to appeal to the Otago Conservation Board for the industry and environmental organisations to "work together".

The film trust wanted to be able to sit down with the board and other non-governmental environmental groups to talk about the perceived and real issues of filming in national parks or protected areas, trust executive manager Kevin Jennings told a board meeting in Dunedin yesterday.

"We want to be given the opportunity to work together."

There was a possibility the film industry could contribute a fund to help sort out any issues, he said in the public forum.

The industry was a responsible user group that relied on the environment "as much, or more" than any other group.

"We're a very responsible user group."

Film-makers always sought to find an alternative to filming in a national park because of the problems, but that was not always possible.

It should be differentiated from tourism as it mainly involved one-off or a series of one-off events, Mr Jennings said.

There was a concern some management plans could prevent filming in areas where it had been historically allowed.

The industry had put cases to the Department of Conservation only to film in some places when no-one else was there, but the department was restricted by the management plans, he said.

Conservation board member Bruce Parker said many people in North Otago had been disappointed when film sets had ended up in their local landfill.

Mr Jennings said the trust had a zero-waste toolkit and strongly recommended film-makers managed the disposal of sets.

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