Before you film in Wellington
Find everything you need to know about filming in the Wellington region and how to streamline the production process.
As a UNESCO Creative City of Film, Wellington is a global hub for digital content and post-production. Screen Wellington’s showreel ‘Make It Here’ highlights the region’s vibrant animation, games, VFX, and creative technology community.
‘Make It Here’ was created in collaboration with established and emerging screen companies. Showcasing the screen sector’s impressive diversity and scale, it reinforces the city’s status as a leader in digital content, post-production, and IP development. The showreel features the work of a variety of production companies from across the region.
These include 37Degrees Studio, 808 Ltd., A44, Beyond Fun, Big Adventure, Dinosaur Polo Club, Floating Rock, Fox & Co, Lost Cosmonauts, Mohawk Media, Niantic Aotearoa NZ, PikPok, Rascal Kids, Resn, RiffRaff Games, Stormcloak Games, Storybox, Wētā FX, Wētā Workshop, Wildboy Studios, and Wrestler.
Screen Wellington showreel ‘Make It Here’
The ‘Make It Here’ showreel, celebrates the creative technology community in Wellington.
3:48
Screen Wellington’s showreel ‘Make it Here’ features many clips from various Wellington businesses. There is music playing.
The opening frames show the words ‘Screen Wellington presents’ and ‘Made in Wellington’.
‘Wellington Animation’ appears on screen. Clips from Wellington animation businesses play.
‘Wellington Games’ appears on screen. Clips from Wellington game businesses play.
‘Wellington VFX’ appears on screen. Clips from Wellington VFX businesses play.
‘Wellington Digital’ appears on screen. Clips from Wellington digital businesses play.
The words ‘Make it here’ appear on the screen. The visuals fade to black.
‘Wellington UNESCO Creative City of Film’ fades into the screen in yellow text on a black background.
Logos for all businesses featured in the video appear on a black background. These include: 37Degrees Studio, 808 Ltd., A44, Beyond Fun, Big Adventure, Dinosaur Polo Club, Floating Rock, Fox & Co, Lost Cosmonauts, Mohawk Media, Niantic Aotearoa NZ, PikPok, Rascal Kids, Resn, RiffRaff Games, Stormcloak Games, Storybox, Wētā FX, Wētā Workshop, Wildboy Studios, Wrestler.
Logos for Screen Wellington and Wellington City of Film Te Upoko o te Ika appear on the screen.
Wellington’s creative ecosystem
Wellington offers world-leading education in creative technology. Its reputation for innovation attracts students from across the globe. Educational institutions provide access to state-of-the-art equipment. The city’s film industry means there are opportunities to learn from acclaimed practitioners. Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington’s high-tech Miramar Creative Centre was recently included in the Hollywood Reporter’s list of the 15 Best Global Film Schools.
The region is known for connecting screen graduates with thriving careers. Roles span VFX, gaming, animation, and digital sectors. These opportunities expand the talent base to support New Zealand’s export growth in creative industries.
Wellington also hosts many major industry events, providing opportunities for New Zealanders to share their love of storytelling. Experience the latest content, test games in development, and engage with stories from around the world.
“The crew’s passion and talent brought us back for the Avatar sequels.”
UNESCO City of Film
UNESCO recognises New Zealand’s creative capital as a City of Film for its rich and diverse screen activity. Wellington offers a convenient and comprehensive film-making experience. The city has accessible and unique locations, abundant local expertise, and award-winning production facilities.
Ideally situated in the middle of New Zealand, Wellington provides a variety of locations. Surrounded by harbour and hills, Wellington has urban, historic, coastal, and rural settings all within an hour’s drive from the airport. It’s a one-stop shop for productions of every size, featuring award-winning crews and talented locals. Notable locations include Rivendell in Upper Hutt and 1920s New York in the central city.
The city has a long-established reputation as a hub of film. Many film and television projects have featured on the international stage. Award-winning projects such as ‘Avatar’, ‘King Kong’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, and ‘Wellington Paranormal’ were all made here.
With a mix of culture, history, nature, and cuisine, work and play are both taken care of. From large, international productions to local series, Wellington makes for an easy film-making experience.
It’s all here in Wellington
Discover the diverse range of unique locations and local expertise, all within easy reach of purpose-built studios and award-winning post-production facilities.
2:08
Visual: A black screen. A small word appears in the centre. It says “Rome”.
In quick succession, the word changes and gets bigger each time.
Lodz, Sofia, Busan, Bitola, Gdynia, Galway, Mumbai, Santos, Sydney, Cannes, Bristol, Potsdam, Qingdao, Bradford, Sarajevo, Terrassa, Yamagata, Valladolid, Cluj-Napoca.
Wellington New Zealand appears in big metallic-looking letters, as a shimmer goes across the words.
“City of Film” appears in the same text. The UNESCO logo appears on the screen with “Member of the Creative Cities Network”.
A black screen. Then “Ext. Wellington — Night” is typed out in typewriter font. The word “night” deletes and is replaced with “day”.
An aerial shot of Wellington city and harbour takes over the screen.
The shot turns to a sketch. Zooming out, hands pick up the sketch on a piece of paper. A person gets up from his office seat and pins the paper to a wall.
We zoom in on another piece of paper pinned to the wall. And the shot changes to a sword being hammered and ground.
Sir Richard Taylor of Wētā Workshop appears on screen in a workshop and slices the air with the sword.
Audio: Sir Richard Taylor says, “Fantastic!”
Visual: He walks down the hall of Wētā workshop, sword in hand.
Cuts to people adding a sword to a person wearing a suit of armour. A wide shot of a person in a suit of armour, grinning and slicing with the sword, while photos are taken. She turns, and holds the sword high in the air, yelling, as flames appear in the background and playback monitor information surrounds the frame.
The camera cuts to an outside film set, zooming in on a truck as the rear doors close. We follow the truck into Stone Street Studios. It cuts to follow the truck at Lane Street Studios. Avalon Film & Television Studios sign appears on the screen, and we pan to the truck driving through the studio.
The camera zooms into a truck headlight and cuts to a film set light, zooming out, as we see the person in a suit of armour slice the sword through the air.
Cut to a colour panel in front of a green screen, zooming in. The colour panel merges into concrete pavers and pans up on Park Road Post Production.
The camera zooms in through the doors of Park Road and goes to white.
In a hallway, Sir Peter Jackson is walking towards the camera with a coffee cup in hand. He turns to the left.
Audio: Sir Peter Jackson says, “Let me get that for you.”
Visual: He opens the door to an editing studio of Avatar. James Cameron turns around.
Audio: James Cameron says, “I’m making all my films here now.”
Visual: Cuts to black and the words “Wellington City of Film It’s all here” appear on screen in the metallic font.
Quickly cuts to a succession of clapboards snapping:
- “Paranormal Unit”.
- “Mortal Engines”.
- “Millie Lies Low”.
- “Not Even”.
A black screen again with the words “Wellington is a city where creativity flowers with surprising tenacity.” Dame Jane Campion.
A quick succession of shots:
- Aerial shot of outdoor film set surrounded by trees.
- Classic cars skidding on a snowy street.
- Fire burning in a studio.
- A director giving instructions.
- Film crew.
- Orchestra recording.
- A scene from Mr Gorman.
A black screen with the words “An astonishingly great place to live and work.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
A quick succession of shots:
- A person in a motion capture suit.
- Police crew from Wellington Paranormal.
- Film set screens and crew.
- A film crew running.
- Filming a car.
A black screen with the words “The crew’s passion and talent brought us back for the Avatar sequels.” Jon Landau
A quick succession of shots:
- A person holding a boom mic behind a person running to a car.
- People testing the light.
- Makeup person putting make-up on an actor.
- A camera dolly panning across water.
- A conductor and orchestra.
A black screen with the words: “Wellington is mean as.” Taika Waititi
A quick succession of shots:
- A green screen in a studio with people handling a camera.
- A miniature set with “LAPD” on it.
- People in an editing suite.
- A person recording sounds.
- Peter Jackson filming on set.
- A camera dolly in a studio with a green screen.
A black screen with the words: “Make it here. ScreenWelington.com” in yellow. Cuts to the Screen Wellington logo. Fade to black.
Looking for more?
At start of items
Wellington UNESCO City of Film
Wellington takes immense pride in being a UNESCO City of Film. This title acknowledges Wellington as the best place in Aotearoa to learn about, create, and engage with film and the screen industry.
Diverse Voices
‘Diverse Voices’ is a project developed by Wellington UNESCO City of Film to uncover some of the region’s diverse storytelling talent.
Get in touch
Screen Wellington is the Wellington region’s film office. We can help you with all things screen if you’re interested in filming in Wellington.