Wellington Council Loan $300k For Film / TV School

The Wellington City Council has approved $300,000 for a loan to set up a Film and TV school in the city, but it will face some stiff international competition via the Internet. John Howard reports.

As the Wellington City Council announced the loan to build upon the city's film production successes, a consortium of film schools in the US, Australia and Britain have joined to establish online teaching starting with screenwriting, production, and video training. The training will be to the professional standards required by the motion picture industry.

Planners of the Global Film School said they would begin teaching students online from next year. As the program develops, courses in editing, directing, cinematography, music composition and camera use will be added.

Students are expected to range from those interested in full-time work in movies and television to business employees who need training in video and digital production for corporate use.

"Our social goal is to democratise access to media tools," said Stephen Bayly, director of the National Film and Television School in Britian.

"Traditional schools accept relatively few students while production skills are increasingly needed," he said.

The other partners in the consortium are the University of California, Los Angeles Film School, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

"The Australian school has already run 170 travelling courses around the continent, including outback areas. The online school will allow many more students in distant regions to gain film and video training," said Rob Bishop, director of the Australian school.

Courses will range from straight lectures that can be viewed by thousands to interactive programs with fairly small online classes.

"Our quality will be high, we already have a track record, and we have a high reputation to maintain," said Robert Rosen of UCLA's film school.

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