Our Mission:
A healthy, happy, diverse workforce with clear career pathways and support.
Increased awareness and connection amongst VFX practitioners nationwide.
Promoting world-class professional, technical, and creative standards across our sector.
A vibrant and sustainable industry for the long term by promoting the guild as a non-commercial, neutral, and trusted entity both locally and internationally.
The result of a series of informal industry get-togethers at random pubs and restaurants across Wellington, The Visual Effects Professionals Guild of New Zealand Incorporated was officially registered as a non-profit society in October 2021 and aims to be the go-to place for industry representation and information within all of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Our future goals are to begin supporting our members in the following ways:
Professional development and support in the form of workshops, events and seminars covering new technologies, workflows, creative practice and business.
Financial sustainability of the industry moving forward: Our strategy will be to encourage international productions to bring and complete VFX post-production in New Zealand, while also developing budgetary guidelines in conjunction with the Screen Industry Workers Act.
Supporting and advocating for the next generation: Film school graduates are generally not work-ready and require on-the-job training. With the limitations imposed by Covid-19, this sector urgently needs to develop a strategy to address this skills gap. The guild intends to work closely with the Tertiary Education Commission’s reform programme in turning the education focus from providers to being industry led. This means developing more active links with tertiary providers, potential work placement programmes, and exploring the feasibility of creating government-supported apprenticeships.
Representation in negotiation of Terms with respect to the Screen Industry Workers Act (SIWA), as well as the Review of Vocational Education (RoVE) and participation in the Consultation process reviewing Government Investment in the Screen Sector.
Professional directory: Our website will feature a directory of VFX professionals - the only dedicated directory for these services in New Zealand.
Industry standard agreements, contracts, and legal advice.
Health and safety guidelines and standards.
Retirement, tax, and financial planning support for members.
Connection and networking events.
Negotiating discounts and concessions for members.
Developing a library of short video guides and pearls of wisdom in the form of “The one minute guild”
Innovative outreach strategies, such as “Job Fair with Beer”
Te Rautaki Māori, Diversity and Inclusion
The Visual Effects industry is known to have a diversity problem, and as such our industry is missing out on a significant pool of talent, creativity and perspective. We are committed to capacity building and career growth for underrepresented communities and will work with partners both locally and internationally on how best to support this effort.
A large part of the solution lies in championing the next generation with building diversity as a fundamental principle. The guild intends to develop active links with not only tertiary providers, but also secondary schools whose students need to know that Visual Effects is a viable and exciting career that anyone can participate in.
We will explore potential work placement programmes and apprenticeships, specifically with respect to the lost time and education caused by the Covid-19 crisis, which has particularly impacted underrepresented groups.
We are committed to building diverse representation into our committee structure, and our ongoing consultation with existing and prospective members continues to actively engage with these issues.