Dunedin In The Spotlight As The Power Of The Dog Films In The City

Dunedin’s varied locations are a key draw card for attracting productions such as director Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, filming in the city now, with the DCC-owned Parry Street studio facility enabling ease of production within the city.

The Jane Campion directed “The Power of the Dog” is a NZ/US/UK co-production for NETFLIX and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Thomasin McKenzie. On Thursday 5 March, filming took place on the city side of the Dunedin Railway Station and on the platform.

Film Dunedin Coordinator, Antony Deaker says, “We’re excited about the The Power of the Dog shoot because it demonstrates the city can host large-crew projects. Since January, we have made offices, yards and warehouse space in Council-owned Parry Street buildings available for short term, high value projects like film. It’s a great step forward and we are dealing with more and more enquiries of varying scale as a result.

“The Power of the Dog team used the Parry Street offices in February for casting and wardrobe and they are back now with the full crew using the space as a logistics base. It’s made it easy for the crew and meant the impact on the city is minimal as they’re able to ferry crew and extra’s to locations and not book out parking in the inner city.

DCC Enterprise Dunedin Director, John Christie, says, “Our locations – heritage and modern architecture, wilderness, accessible beaches, rural and urban settings lead us into these opportunities. We work to ensure interested productions know it is feasible to work here by having infrastructure and crew available. Local skilled crew – such as set builders, wardrobe, casting and assistant producers – are getting more and more work, smoothing out the peaks and troughs of employment.”

The wider region has benefitted from projects such as The Power of the Dog, Black Christmas, Only Cloud Knows and Mulan over the last 18 months, which have all filmed in multiple locations across Otago and Waitaki, creating new work for crew and businesses.

Mr Deaker adds, “We’ve also got a crew from Japanese Public Broadcaster, NHK, here for 50 days filming a documentary about wildlife and conservation efforts on the Otago Peninsula. Location scouts for a feature film are bringing international directors and executives to view locations and buildings around the city later this month. Added to that, a Warner Brothers TV series will be filming at Dunedin locations in April.”

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