'We can shoot any world we want': New $95m film studio planned for Christchurch
A planned $95 million education and studio facility at the University of Canterbury’s Christchurch campus will create a screen hub for big budget commercial films, as well as indie productions and games, proponents say.
The Digital Screen Campus will be completed in phases until 2025 and include film studio space, editing and visual effect suites, recording spaces, a green screen facility, and a motion capture studio.
The plan comes as three Christchurch companies collaborated to create short films using a groundbreaking new visual effects technique on the university campus this week.
Campus programme director Andy Phelps said the new facility could attract major feature film productions to Canterbury.
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“It will have a pretty big impact on the region,’’ he said.
“The university is funding it and will make back the investment over time with tuition dollars and use of the commercial spaces.”
The university’s acting executive dean of arts, Kevin Watson, said the facility would be used for a new four-year Digital Screen Production degree that would take on about 60 students when it began in February 2023.
Christchurch has been identified as an ideal location for new studio space in New Zealand to meet the surge in demand for production facilities. Several investors have been looking into developing new film studios in the region.
A recent government report underlined the need for more studio space, but warned that investment in the screen sector could be risky.
Phelps said the risk of the screen campus was
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